Tractates on the Gospel of John
80 ST. AUGUSTINE world [are] the world.^' For has not creation acknowledged its creator? The firmament gave witness from a star.^^ The sea gave witness; it carried the Lord when he walked. The winds gave witness; they quieted at his command. The earth gave witness; it trembled when he was crucified. If all these gave witness, how did the world know him not, except that the world is the lovers of the world, those who dwell in the world with their heart? And the world is wicked because the inhabitants of the world are wicked, just as a house is wicked, not its walls, but its inhabitants.
6. "He came unto his own," that is, he came to those things which belong to him.-^ "And his own received him not." What hope is there then, except that "as many as received him he gave them power to be made the sons of God"? If they are made sons, they are born. If they are born, how are they born? Not of flesh, "not of bloods,^' nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man; but they were born of God."^^ Let them rejoice then, that they were born of God. Let them have confidence that they belong to God. Let them receive proof that they were born of God.
(2) "And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us."^^ If the Word was not ashamed to be born of man, are men ashamed to be born of God? Now because he did this, he guage is less precise in designating different aspects of love. In De Civitate Dei
14.7, Augustine clearly indicates that in their use in scripture the Latin words, amor, dilectio, and caritas are synonyms, having both ameliorative and pejorative (from a Christian point of view) connotations, although he does not discuss caritas except to identify it with dilectio. See CCL 48.42 1 - 423; and FOTC 14.359-361. Even in secular Latin amor may carry a neutral or nonsexual connotation. Throughout the translation I shall translate all the words as simply "love"; any deviations will be footnoted. Here I follow the procedure set down by D. Mosher, Saint Augustine Eighty-Three Questions, FOTC 70.66-67, note 6 to Question 35. This identification of the three Latin words is supported by Gilson, 311-312; see also Agaesse, 31-36.
21. Cf. Tractate 2.11. 22. Cf. Mt 2.2-10. 23. Cf. Mt 14.25-26. 24. Cf. Mt 8.26-27. 25. Cf. Mt 27.51 (NAB, 27.52). 26. The distinction lies in the Latin words. The text quoted reads in propria venit; Augustine explains propria as sua. See Tractate 2.12, note 29.
27. Cf. Tractate 2.14^. 28. Cf. Jn 1.11-13. 29. Cf.Jn 1.14.