(1964) 317-330-
30 ST. AUGUSTINE
(46) D. F. Wright^^ challenges the dating for Tractates 19 through 23. In Tractate 19 Augustine deals briefly with Jn 5.19 and promises to treat it more extensively at another time. In
Tractate 20 he discusses this verse but makes no reference to
Tractate 19 and its promise. Then Tractates 2 1 and 22 continue to expound Jn 5.20-30. Tractate 23, after briefly deahng with Jn 5.31-40, returns at length to Jn 5.19 and quickly resumes
20-30; it also mentions a previous discussion of 5. 19 as if that in Tractate 19 were meant rather than Tractate 20. This suggests that Tractates 20, 21, and 22 do not belong to this sequence of sermons but were somehow placed in the collection at a later date. Later references, for example, by Bede and Alcuin, and manuscript irregularities, support this conclusion. Wright does not presume to guess how these three sermons got into the text.
(47) M.-F. Berrouard^^ agrees with La Bonnardiere on the dating of Tractates 1 to 16, but for different reasons. He also supports Wright in separating Tractates 20, 21, and 22 from the series. Because of the lack of references to Pelagianism and the sameness of argumentation with the Contra Sermonem
Arianorum, he dates the three in 418-419. He then maintains that Tractates 17, 18, 19, and 23 through 54 constitute a group of sermons delivered sequentially. In these thirty-five sermons there are numerous references to Arianism and other Trinitarian heresies and frequent discussions of grace and sin, an anti-Pelagian exegesis. Augustine's anti-Arianism, however, is a nonpolemical and theoretical controversy; the Trinitarian heresies are used to clarify his exegesis and to strengthen his people's faith. In fact, Berrouard declares, Augustine has a somewhat cursory knowledge of Arianism. A detailed examination of his argumentation in both the Arian and the Pelagian controversies in comparison with other writings indicates the years 413 to 416 for the thirty-five sermons. Since
86. D. Wright, "Tractatus 20—22 of St. Augustine's In lohannem," yVhS 15 (1964) 317-330-
87. M.-F. Berrouard, "La date des Tractatus I—LIV in lohannis Evangelium de saint Augustin," RAug 7 (1971), 105-168.
88. " . . . un Arianisme de manuel de theologie," Ibid., 144.