Tractates on the Gospel of John (continued)
TRACTATE 2 61 ginning was the Word, and the Word was with God"?^ And that the noun "word" may not lose its worth in your eyes in the usual practice of everyday words, "And the Word was God." This Word is the self-sameness "^ about which we spoke at great length yesterday. And may God grant that by speaking, even at such length, we may have brought something to your hearts.
"In the beginning was the Word." He * is the self-sameness; he is in the same manner. As he is, so he always is. He cannot be changed; that is, he is.^ And he said this, his name, to his servant Moses: "I am who am" and "He who is, sent me."^ (2) Who then will grasp this since you see that all mortal things are changeable, since you see that not only are bodies varied in their characteristics,^ by birth, by growth, by decline, and by death, but also souls themselves are stretched and torn asunder by the influence of diverse inclinations, since you see
2Jn 1.1. 3. The Latin has idipsum, but in this Tractate Augustine gives it a very special meaning as I have tried to indicate by my translation. His explanation here is very brief and obscure to the reader who has not seen En in Ps
121.5-6; this is the homily which he delivered "yesterday" and it is the only place in his writings where he explains this idipsum. Since his congregation had already heard the enarratio, there was no need to repeat the lengthy discussion which is given therein. There he explains this idea, in part, as follows: "What is 'the self-sameness'? That which is always in the same manner; that which is not now one thing, now another. What then is 'the self-sameness' except that which is? What is that which is? That which is eternal. For what is always now in one way, and now in another way, is not, because it does not abide; it does* not wholly not exist, but it does not exist in the highest degree. And what is that which is except he who, when he was sending Moses, said to him, 'I am who am'? What is this except he who, when his servant said, 'Lo, you are sending me. If the people should say to me, "Who has sent you?" what shall I say to them?' He did not want his name said other than '1 am who am,' and he went on and said, 'Thus shall you say to the children of Israel, "He who is has sent me to you."' See, 'the self-sameness': '1 am who am. He who is has sent me to you.'" {En in Ps 121.5.11-22, quoting Ex 3.13—14, (CCL 40.1805).) See Berrouard, Homelies i-xvi, 845-848. J. Sweetnam, in "A Note on In Idipsum in St. Augustine," Modern Schoolman 30 (1952-53) 328— 331, shows the Neo-Platonic concept that Augustine gives this word but does not suggest an English equivalent.
4. Cf. Tractate 1 .8, note 25.
5. Some manuscripts and some editions read, "that is, he is God." 6. Cf. Ex 3.14. CCD and NAB both read: "1 am sent me." 7. The Latin word qun,litates may have a philosophic sense here, "qualities" or "properties."