Tractates on the Gospel of John
TRACTATE
(2) Dust, mucus, smoke, [these] are sins and iniquities. Remove all these from there and you will see the wisdom which is present because God is this very wisdom, and it has been said, "Blessed are the clean of heart, for they shall see God.'"*^
45. i.e., from your heart. 46. Mt 5.8.
On John 1.6— 14
IS A GOOD THING for US, brothers, to discuss' the ij text of the divine Scriptures, especially the holy gosi pel, as far as possible, without omitting any passage, and to be nourished according to our capacity, and then to minister to you from that source from which we ourselves also are nourished. We remember that on the last Lord's day we discussed the first chapter, that is, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All thirgs were made through him, and without him was made nothing. That which was made, in him is life, and the life was the light of men. And the hght shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it." I believe the discussion had gotten to this point; let all of you who were present recall. And those of you who were not present, believe us and these who wanted to be present.
(2) Now then, because we cannot always go back over everything for the sake of those who want to hear what follows, and because to repeat earlier matters is both a burden to them and shortchanges what follows, let those who were not present favor us and not demand the past, but let them, together with those who were there, listen now to the present discussion.
2. [The gospel] continues: "There was a man sent by God whose name was John." Now, dearest brothers, the things which were said before were said about the ineffable divinity of Christ, and nearly ineffably. For who will grasp, "In the be- 1 . Pertractemus. On the meaning of the verb tractare and its derivatives see the Introduction (49).