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| On John VIII. 12.
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V.—On John VIII.
12.1020
| 1020 A
fragment. Edited from the Vatican Codex 1996, f. 78, belonging to
a date somewhere about the tenth century. |
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Now this word “I am” expresses His
eternal subsistence. For if He is the reflection of the eternal
light, He must also be eternal Himself. For if the light subsists
for ever, it is evident that the reflection also subsists for
ever. And that this light subsists, is known only by its shining;
neither can there be a light that does not give light. We come
back, therefore, to our illustrations. If there is day, there is
light; and if there is no such thing, the sun certainly cannot be
present.1021
| 1021 Reading
πολλοῦ
γε δεῖ. The text gives
πόλυ γε
δεῖ. | If,
therefore, the sun had been eternal, there would also have been endless
day. Now, however, as it is not so, the day begins when the sun
rises, and it ends when the sun sets. But God is eternal light,
having neither beginning nor end. And along with Him there is the
reflection, also without beginning, and everlasting. The Father,
then, being eternal, the Son is also eternal, being light of light; and
if God is the light, Christ is the reflection; and if God is also a
Spirit, as it is written, “God is a Spirit,” Christ, again,
is called analogously Spirit.1022
| 1022
ἀτμίς. If this strange reading
ἀτμίς is correct, there is apparently
a play intended on the two words πνεῦμα and ἀτμίς, = if God is a πνεῦμα, which word
literally signifies Wind or Air, Christ, on that analogy, may be called
ἀτμίς that is to say, the Vapour or
Breath of that Wind. | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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