John bore witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spoke, He that comes after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.
All Commentaries on John 1:15 Go To John 1
Cornelius a Lapide
AD 1637
John bears witness, &c. He proves what he had said concerning the Word Incarnate, and that He was full of grace and truth, by the irrefragable testimony of John the Baptist. For him the Jews accounted as a prophet and divine. It is as if he said, "Not only have we seen Jesus Christ full of grace and truth, but John , who was sent from God, openly and plainly has testified the same concerning Him."
And crieth: the Greek Isaiah , Îκζαγε, i.e, cried out. For he himself was the voice of one crying in the wilderness ( Isaiah 40:23). "Whom not I myself alone have heard," says S. Cyril, "but far and wide among all hath his cry come. For it was not in secret, nor with low and stammering accents, but louder than a trumpet." As S. Chrysostom says, "Freely and confidently, casting away fear, he preached the advent of God."
This was He of whom I spake: see verses27,30. It means, "Before John had seen and known Christ, he said, that He was about to come to save man. And when he had seen Him, he repeated and confirmed it." As Theophylact says, "Lest he should seem to please merely the person of Jesus, in speaking in too much praise of Him, he saith, of whom I spake, that Isaiah , even before I had seen Him."
He who cometh, i.e, who is about to preach, says S. Chrysostom, after me, was before me. That Isaiah , He is preferred in honour before me, because He was the destined Redeemer of the world. As Bede says, "not in order of time, but of dignity." And S. Augustine, "He was not made before I was made" (for John was born six months before Christ), but He was placed before me."
For He was before me: for since Jesus is true God, He was from eternity. So SS. Augustine and Chrysostom. Again, before means, greater by nature, more worthy in majesty. S. Chrysostom remarks, "John does not say, Christ, by making advance in grace and virtue, hath surpassed me; but He was before me, i.e, "He was always my superior, always more glorious than I,"" as Cyril adds, because He was very God."
And of His fulness, &c. He follows up and unfolds what he had said in the fourteenth verse that the Word Incarnate was full of grace and truth: for of this plenitude of grace and truth have all we, apostles and Christians, yea, all the faithful before Christ, received. For Enoch, Noab, Moses, and all the rest of the prophets and patriarchs, have been sanctified and saved by the aforeseen merits of Christ. Origen and Theophylact think that these are a continuation of the words of John the Baptist; but SS. Chrysostom, Cyril, and others better take them as the words of S. John the Evangelist, confirming the preceding words of the Baptist.
Of His fulness: i.e, of Him who is most full. For Christ as the Head of the Church sheds abroad upon all the faithful, who are His members, not the whole fulness of His grace, but a portion thereof according to His will. "The saints," says Bede, "receive not the fulness of His Spirit, but of His fulness what He giveth." "For from the fulness of the Song of Solomon ," says S. Cyril, "as a perpetual fountain, the gifts of grace flow out abroad to each soul that is worthy of them." This is what the Apostle says, "He hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places," i.e, by "Christ," ( Ephesians 1:3) "For He is the fountain and the root of all good," says S. Chrysostom; "He is life, He is light, He is truth, not keeping in Himself the riches of His goodness, but diffusing them to all, and when He bath diffused them remaining full. Neither is there any diminution in Him of that which He supplies to others, but He ever bestows His riches yet more abundantly; and when He has imparted to all He still abides in the same perfectness."
And grace for grace: Greek, χάζιν α̉ντὶ χάζιτος, where α̉ντὶ, for, is the same as instead of. First some expound thus, grace for grace, i.e, grace upon grace, or, all grace have we received from Christ. As it might be said in Hebrew, chen al chen. But this would require ε̉πί instead of α̉ντὶ in the Greek. Johannes Alba, however, defends this interpretation. Grace for grace, he says, means copious and superabundant grace. He quotes the Hebrew expressions in the Prophets, stroke upon stroke, for a very great stroke, or plague: and Job"s skin for skin, i.e, skin upon skin, meaning all a man"s flocks and herds, skin after skin, will he give for his life. Suarez takes the same view: Grace for grace, i.e, second grace instead of first grace. That is to say, we all, not men only, but angels, have received increasing grace.
2. Maldonatus, grace for grace; i.e, one man has received one grace or favour; another, instead of it, another grace. But this does not suit the meaning of the Greek α̉ντὶ, which signifies succession, not distribution.
3. S. Austin says, we receive the grace of life eternal, that Isaiah , beatific glory, here in hope, and after death in reality, instead of the grace of this life. For, on the one hand, grace is the seed of glory; and on the other hand, glory is the consummation of grace.
4. Others say, we have received from Christ the evangelical instead of the ancient Law. For each is grace, because given gratis by God. So S. Cyril, Chrysostom, Jansen, &c.
5. Others expound, In the grace of Christ we have all received grace, and by Him have been made pleasing to God. Wherefore Paul declares constantly that we are justified and sanctified in Christ. This is a useful, but not an exact meaning, for the Greek άντὶ means instead of, not in.
6. And exactly: The Greek άντὶ has two meanings; chiefly and precisely it denotes vicarious succession, answering to the Hebrew tachath, in the place, or room of. "For the grace of Christ we, as it were, His sons and successors, have received like grace with Him. For as the grace of Christ made Him well-pleasing unto God, so likewise does the same grace make us pleasing unto God, and sons of God by adoption." So SS. Chrysostom, Cyril, and others. Secondly, άντὶ is often used, though improperly, for on account of: "on account of, or, through the grace of Christ as a fountain, we have received grace." It is explanatory of what precedes—and of His fulness have all we received—by means of what follows, even grace for grace. For grace flows down from God through Christ as our Head unto us, who are, as it were, His members, as the Apostle teaches (Eph. i.) For God has willed to appoint Christ to be, as it were, the universal fountain of grace, from whence every grace should flow down to the faithful, that we may owe everything to Christ, and render unto Him endless and infinite thanks. For the sake of Christ, who is well-pleasing and most beloved in His sight, who is also the Mediator, God has reconciled us unto Himself, and enriched us with His grace and friendship, according to the words in S. Matthew 3:7, "This is My beloved Song of Solomon , in whom I am well pleased;" and no man pleases Me except through Him. From hence it is plain that we receive from Christ the same grace which He has in Himself—the same, I say, in kind, not in degree, which would be, ordinarily speaking, unbecoming and impossible, though some have even maintained this. Thirdly, the word "for" (άντὶ) might denote a certain equality. For this is the meaning of the Greek compound άντίθεος, that is to say, the equal of God, or he who makes himself a god, as Lucifer did, and Antichrist will do. So also antitype (ὶντίτυπος), is that which is set over against and corresponds, that which is equal, and of the same form. And the antipodes are properly those who walk with their feet planted exactly opposite to our own. The meaning then would be—Through Christ we have received grace as it were equal to the grace of Christ, because by it we have been lifted up, and made to belong to the Divine order of things, that is to say, sons of God, and "partakers of the Divine nature" ( 2 Peter 1:4). Thus the Apostles were in some sense the fellows and peers of Christ, for He calls them His brethren. Thus the Pope calls the cardinals brethren, and Song of Solomon , in some sort, equals them to himself. Let a believer then, more especially a priest, or a religious, think with himself how he ought to live like Christ and lead the heavenly life which Christ led, that whosoever shall see him, or hear him, may say he has seen and heard Christ in his lively image.
Under the word grace here include truth also. For Christ is spoken of as full of grace and truth. And of His fulness of both have we all received. For through Christ have we received truth, that Isaiah , knowledge of God, faith, Wisdom of Solomon , understanding of salvation and things Divine: also remission of sins, reconciliation with God, the adoption of sons, charity, humility and all other virtues and gifts. All are here comprehended under the word grace.
