Tractates on the Gospel of John (continued)
72 ST. AUGUSTINE and not fear the rods^^ of the grammar teachers, provided, nevertheless, that we reach a solid and more certain truth. He who understands^*^ finds fault, ungrateful because he has understood.
(3) "Not of bloods, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man." He put "flesh" for "female" because, when she had been made from his rib, Adam said, "This now is bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh,"^^ and the Apostle says, "he who loves his wife loves himself. For no one ever hates his own flesh."^^ Therefore "flesh" is put for "wife," just as also sometimes "spirit" is put for "husband."^^ Why? Because the latter governs, the former is governed; the latter ought to rule, the former to serve. For when the flesh commands and the spirit serves, the house is awry. What is worse than a house where the woman has absolute authority over the man? But upright is the house where the man commands, the woman obeys.
Upright, therefore, is mankind itself when the spirit commands, the flesh serves.
15. These, then, "were born not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." But that men might be born of God, God was first born from among them. For Ghrist is God, and Christ was born from among men. Indeed, he sought on earth only a mother since he already had a father in heaven.
He was born of God, that we might be made through him; and he was born of a woman, that we might be remade through
35. The Roman magister and the grammaticus often inflicted corporal punishment upon remiss students; the plagosus Orbilius who taught Horace {Ep. 2.1.70) is the most famous example. See also Quintilian, 1.3.16-17. Augustine had firsthand experience with such teachers; see Confessions
1.14.23.18 and ig. 30.21 (CXL 27.13 and 17).
36. The CCL text has the future, "will understand." The Migne text, PL 35.1395, which duplicates the famous Maurist text, has the present tense as I have translated. Since CCL offers no alternative reading and there are frequent misprints in the CCL edition, I have chosen to keep the present tense here.
37. Cf. On 2.23. 38. Cf. Eph 5.28-29. 39. See, e.g.. Tractate 15. 19: " . . . you are thinking about the flesh ... I am speaking to the spirit. Your understanding is absent. 'Call your husband.'" (Jn 416.)