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1. The Lord Jesus, in the now close proximity of His passion,
after praying for His disciples, whom He also named apostles, with
whom He had partaken of that last supper from which His betrayer had
taken his departure on being revealed by the sop of bread, and with
whom, after the latter's departure, and before beginning His prayer
in their behalf, He had already spoken at length, conjoined all
others also who were yet to believe on Him, and said to the Father,
"Neither pray I for these alone," that is, for the disciples who
were with Him at the time, "but for them also," He adds, "who
shall believe on me through their word." Whereby He wished all His
own to be understood: not only such as were then in the flesh, but
those also who were yet to come. For all that have since believed on
Him have doubtless believed, and shall yet believe till He come,
through the word of the apostles; for to themselves He had said,
"And ye also shall bear witness, because ye have been with me from
the beginning;" and by them was the gospel ministered even before it
was written, and every one assuredly who believeth on Christ believeth
the gospel. Accordingly, those who He says should believe on Him
through their word, are not to be understood as referring only to such
as heard the apostles themselves while they lived in the flesh; but
others also after their decease, and we, too, born long afterwards,
have believed on Christ through their word. For they that were then
with Him preached to the others what they had heard from Him; and so
their word, that we too might believe, has found its way to us, and
wherever His Church exists, and shall yet reach down to posterity,
whoever and wherever they be who shall hereafter believe on Him.
2. In this prayer, therefore, Jesus may seem to have omitted
praying for some of His own, unless we carefully examine His words in
the prayer itself. For if He prayed first for those, as we have
already shown, who were then with Him, and afterwards for those also
who should believe on Him through their word, it may be said that He
prayed not for those who were neither with Him when He so spoke, nor
afterwards believed through their word, but had done so at some
previous time either of themselves, or in some other supposable
manner. For was Nathanael with Him at that time? Was Joseph of
Arimathea, who begged His body from Pilate, and of whom this same
evangelist John testifies that he was already His disciple? Were
His mother, Mary, and other women who, we know from the Gospel,
had been prior to that time His disciples? Were those with Him
then, of whom this evangelist John frequently says, "Many believed
on Him"? For whence came the multitude of those who, with branches
of trees, partly preceded and partly followed Him as He sat on the
ass, saying, "Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord
;" and along with them the children of whom He Himself declared that
the prophecy had been uttered, "Out of the mouth of babes and of
sucklings Thou hast perfected praise"? Whence the five hundred
brethren, to all of whom at once He would not have appeared after His
resurrection had they not previously believed on Him? Whence that
hundred and nine who, with the eleven, were a hundred and twenty,
when, being assembled together after His ascension, they waited and
received the promise of the Holy Spirit? Whence came all these,
save from those of Whom it was said, "Many believed on Him"? For
them, therefore, the Saviour did not at this time pray, seeing it
was for those He prayed who were then with Him, and for others not
who had already, but who were yet to believe on Him through their
word. But these were certainly not with Him on that occasion, and
had already believed on Him at some previous period. I say nothing of
the aged Simeon, who believed on Him when an infant; of Anna the
prophetess; of Zachariah and Elisabeth, who prophesied of Him
before He was born of the Virgin; of their son John, His
forerunner, the friend of the Bridegroom, who both recognized Him in
the Holy Spirit, and preached Him in His absence, and pointed Him
out when He was present to the recognition of others; I say nothing
of these, as it might be replied that He ought not to have prayed for
such when dead, who had gone hence with their great merits, and having
met with a welcome reception were now at rest; for a similar answer is
also given in connection with the righteous of olden time.
For which of them could have been saved from the damnation awaiting the
whole mass of perdition, which has been caused by one man, had he not
believed, through the revelation of the Spirit, in the one Mediator
between God and men as yet to come in the flesh? But behoved He to
pray for the apostles, and not to pray for so many who were still
alive, but were not then with Him, and had already at some previous
period been brought to the faith? Who is there that would say so?
3. We are therefore to understand that their faith in Him was not
yet such as He wished it to be, inasmuch as even Peter himself, to
whom, on making the confession, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of
the living God," He had borne so excellent a testimony, was
disposed rather to hinder Him from dying than to believe in His
resurrection when dead, and hence was called immediately thereafter by
the same of Satan. Those, accordingly, are found to be the greater
in faith who were long since deceased, and yet, through the revelation
of the Spirit, had no manner of doubt that Christ would rise again,
than those who, after attaining to the belief that He should redeem
Israel, at the sight of His death lost all the hope they previously
possessed regarding Him. The best thing for us, therefore, to
believe is, that after His resurrection, when the Holy Spirit was
bestowed, and the apostles taught and confirmed, and from its outset
constituted teachers in the Church, others, through their word,
attained the proper faith in Christ, or, in other words, that they
then got firm hold of the faith of His resurrection. And in this way
also, that all those who seemed to have already believed on Him really
belonged to the number of those for whom He prayed, when He said,
"Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also who shall believe
on me through their word."
4. But we have still in reserve for the further solution of this
question the blessed apostle, and that robber who was a villain in
wickedness, but a believer on the cross. For the Apostle Paul tells
us that he was made an apostle not of men, nor by man, but by Jesus
Christ: and speaking of his own gospel, he says, "For I neither
received it of man, neither did I learn it, but by the revelation of
Jesus Christ." How then was he among those of whom it is said,
"They shall believe on me through their word"? On the other hand,
the robber believed at the very time when in the case of the teachers
themselves such faith as they previously possessed had utterly failed.
Not even he, therefore, believed on Christ through their word, and
yet his faith was such that he confessed that He whom he saw nailed to
the cross would not only rise again, but would also reign, when he
said, "Remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom."
5. Accordingly it remains that if we are to believe that the Lord
Jesus, in this prayer, prayed for all of His own who either then
were or should thereafter be in this life, which is a state of trial
upon earth, we must so understand the expression, "through their
word," as to believe that it here signified the word of faith itself
which they preached in the world, and that it was called their word
because it was primarily and principally preached by them. For it was
already in the course of being preached by them in the earth when Paul
received that same word of theirs by the revelation of Jesus Christ.
Whence also it came about that he compared the Gospel with them, lest
by any means he had run, or should run, in vain; and they gave him
their right hand because in him also they found, although not given him
by them, their own word which they were already preaching, and in
which they were now established. And in regard to this word of the
resurrection of Christ, it is said by the same apostle, "Whether it
were I, or they, so we preach, and so ye believed;" and again,
"This is the word of faith," he says, "which we preach, that if
thou shalt confess with thy mouth that Jesus is the Lord, and shalt
believe in thine heart that God hath raised Him from the dead, thou
shalt be saved." And in the Acts of the Apostles we read that in
Christ, God hath marked out [the ground of] faith unto all men, in
that He hath raised Him from the dead. Accordingly, this word of
faith, because principally and primarily preached by the apostles who
adhered to Him, was called their word. Not, however, on that
account does it cease to be the word of God because it is called their
word; for the same apostle says that the Thessalonians received it
from him "not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word
of God." "Of God," for the very reason that it was freely given
by God; but called "their word," because primarily and principally
committed to them by God to be preached. In the same way also the
thief mentioned above had in the matter of his own faith their word,
which was called theirs precisely because the preaching of it primarily
and principally pertained to the office they filled. And once more,
when murmuring arose among the Grecian widows in reference to the
serving of the tables, previous to the time when Paul was brought to
the faith of Christ, the reply given by the apostles, who before then
had adhered to the Lord, was: "It is not good that we should leave
the word of God, and serve tables." Then it was that they provided
for the ordination of deacons, that they themselves might not be drawn
aside from the duty of preaching the word. Hence that was properly
enough called their word which is the word of faith, whereby all, from
whatever quarter they had heard it, believed on Christ, or, as yet
to hear it, should thereafter believe. In this prayer, therefore,
all whom He redeemed, whether then alive or thereafter to live in the
flesh, were prayed for by our Redeemer when, praying for the apostles
who were then with Him, He also conjoined those who were yet to
believe on Him through their word. But what, after such
conjunction, He then proceeds to say, must be reserved for discussion
in another discourse.
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