Tractates on the Gospel of John
TRACTATE 4 101 out against them, against whom he now shouts out from the gospel.
(2) Jesus comes, and what does he say? "behold, the Lamb of God." If a lamb is innocent, John, too, is a lamb. Or is it that not even he is innocent? But who is innocent? Innocent to what extent? All come from that scion and from that shoot about which David sings with a deep sigh, "I was conceived in iniquity, and in sins did my mother nourish me in her womb."^^ Therefore that one alone is the Lamb who has not come in this way. For he was not conceived in iniquity, because he was not conceived of mortality. Nor did his mother nourish him in her womb in sins, that one whom a virgin conceived, and [to whom] a virgin gave birth; for she conceived him in faith and received him in faith.
(3) Therefore, "Behold, the Lamb of God." He is not a scion stemming from Adam;^' he took only the flesh from Adam, he did not assume his sin. He who has not assumed the sin from our clayey mass^^ is the one who takes away our sin. "Behold, the Lamb of God; behold, he who takes away the sin of the world."
11. You know that certain men^^ sometimes say, "We, who are holy, take away men's sins; for if he who baptizes is not holy, how does he take away another's sin, since he is himself a man full of sin?" Against these arguments let us not utter our own words, let us read this [Evangelist]: "Behold, the Lamb of
30. Cf. Ps 50.7. Some texts have this as verse 5. Augustine's reading "nourished" (aluit) differs from the "conceived" of both the Septuagint and the Vulgate; he has the same reading in En in Ps 50.10.29 (CCL 38.607). 31. Another allusion to Traducianism; see Tractate 3.12, note 44. Here the special problem of the orgin of Jesus' soul is addressed since his soul could not carry with it the original sin as it would if it were generated in a normal way from the soul of his human parent. Augustine's view is that the only begotten either derived for himself a soul without sin (a generationist position) or he created a new soul for his human body (a creationist position); see Epistula 190.24 (PL 33.866; CSEL 57.160; and FOTC 30.287-288).
32. The Latin word massa, always difficult to translate into English, here represents the Greek phyrama from Rom 9.21. Phyrama is that which is kneaded, dough or paste, and in Paul means a lump of potter's clay, hence my translation. See Berrouard, Homelies I-XVI, 865-866.
33. See section 9 and note 29.