Tractates on the Gospel of John (continued)
170 ST. AUGUSTINE be first among the Apostles, but Nathanael is neither in the middle nor last among the Twelve, Nathanael, to whom the Son of God bore such great witness, saying, "Behold, truly an Israelite in whom there is no guile." (2) Is the reason asked? As far as the Lord makes known, we find a probable answer. For we ought to understand that Nathanael himself was educated and skilled in the Law; therefore the Lord did not wish to place him among the disciples because he chose unlearned men whereby he might confound the world. Hear the Apostle saying this, "For see," he says, "your own call, brethren, that there were not many mighty, not many noble. But the weak things of the world has God chosen that he may confound the strong, and the base things of the world and the despised has God chosen, and the things that are not, as though they were things that are, that he may bring to naught the things that are."^^ (3) If a learned man were chosen, perhaps he would say that he has been chosen for the very reason that his learning deserved to be chosen. Our Lord, Jesus Christ, wishing to break the necks of the proud, sought not a fisherman through an orator, but from a fisherman he won an emperor. The great
Cyprian was an orator, but before him Peter was a fisherman through whom later not only the orator but also the emperor would believe. No one noble was chosen at first, no one learned, because God chose the weak things of the world that he might confound the strong. Therefore that man was great and without guile; and he was not chosen for this reason alone, namely, so that the Lord might not seem to anyone to have chosen the learned.
(4) And he was coming because of that very knowledge of the Law, because when he heard "of Nazareth" (for he had examined the Scriptures thoroughly, and he knew that the Savior was to be expected from there, a thing which the other scribes and Pharisees found it hard to learn) — therefore this man, most learned in the Law, when he heard Philip saying, "We found him, of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets
48. Cf. 1 Cor 1.26-28.