3. Cf. Tractates 1.7 and 36.1; Jn 13.23 and 21.20.
38 ST. AUGUSTINE (2) The other evangelists, indeed, who adequately relate the temporal birth of Christ and the temporal deeds which he performed as man, also said a few words about his divinity; like animals that are able to go about on foot, they walk with the Lord on earth. This man, however, tells a little about his temporal deeds, but rather concentrates his attention more sublimely upon the power of his divinity; and so he flies with the Lord to heaven. For he, who reclined upon the breast of the Lord at the Supper, more perfectly than the others drank the draught of heavenly wisdom from the very fount of the Lord's bosom. ^ (3) Now John had certainly read the Gospels of the three Evangelists, and he approved their faith and truth. He saw that in their versions certain historical facts were missing, especially the deeds which the Lord had done at the very beginning of his preaching, at the time, that is, before John the Baptist was shut up in prison. John, therefore, as though these were omissions on the part of the oth .*rs, writes about the things which Jesus did before John was imprisoned. But it was his special concern to demonstrate the divinity of Christ and the mystery of the Trinity. Now the three other Evangelists certainly described in considerable detail the Lord's temporal words and deeds which are especially effective for teaching morality in this life; they were concerned with the active life in which one labors to cleanse his heart for seeing God.
John does, in fact, tell a few of the Lord's deeds; but certainly he gathers together in his Scripture with greater diligence those words of the Lord which reveal the unity of the Trinity and the happiness of eternal life.
(4) And so, by showing the value of the virtue of contemplation, he has accomplished the purpose of his preaching. For it is in contemplation that one is emptied that he may see God. This is, indeed, the John whom the Lord called away from the hazardous storm of marriage and to whom, a virgin, he entrusted his virgin mother.
3. Cf. Tractates 1.7 and 36.1; Jn 13.23 and 21.20.