João 1
Jerome · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
João 1:1
John, the apostle whom Jesus most loved, the son of Zebedee and brother of James, the apostle whom Herod, after our Lord's passion, beheaded, most recently of all the evangelists wrote a Gospel, at the request of the bishops of Asia, against Cerinthus and other heretics and especially against the then growing dogma of the Ebionites, who assert that Christ did not exist before Mary. On this account he was compelled to maintain His divine nativity. But there is said to be yet another reason for this work, in that when he had read Matthew, Mark, and Luke, he approved indeed the substance of the history and declared that the things they said were true, but that they had given the history of only one year, the one, that is, which follows the imprisonment of John and in which he was put to death. So passing by this year the events of which had been set forth by these, he related the events of the earlier period before John was shut up in prison, so that it might be manifest to those who should diligently read the volumes of the four Evangelists. This also takes away the discrepancy which there seems to be between John and the others... In the fourteenth year then after Nero Domitian having raised a second persecution he was banished to the island of Patmos, and wrote the Apocalypse, on which Justin Martyr and Irenæus afterwards wrote commentaries. But Domitian having been put to death and his acts, on account of his excessive cruelty, having been annulled by the senate, he returned to Ephesus under Pertinax and continuing there until the time of the Emperor Trajan, founded and built churches throughout all Asia, and, worn out by old age, died in the sixty-eighth year after our Lord's passion and was buried near the same city. — De Viris Illustribus (On Illustrious Men), Section 9
João 1:4
Many read this inaccurately because they add without any punctuation, "that which has been made in him was life." The correct statement is "All things were made through him, and without him was made nothing that has been made," meaning that that which has been made without him has not been made. … Now, if all things were made through him, is the Father, on that account, excluded from creation, or Holy Spirit, and has the Son alone worked? Because the Evangelist had said, "All things were made through him," lest he take away creation from the Holy Spirit and the Father, he added, "And without him was made nothing that has been made." When he says, "without him was made nothing," he reveals that another has made but has made nothing without him. — HOMILY 87, ON JOHN 1.1-14
João 1:6
Where we say "sent," the Hebrew says, "one sent forth"; in Greek apostolos, in Hebrew siloas. You see, therefore, that this John, the prophet, is not only a prophet but also an apostle. Isaiah is sent; he was an apostle. "Here I am, send me!" "Sent" is a term well said.… Those who have come on their own authority and have not been sent are the thieves and robbers. But this man has been sent from God, "whose name was John" and whose name corresponds to his calling. The name "Ioannes" is interpreted as the grace of the Lord, for io means Lord, and anna means grace. And so John is called the grace of the Lord. His mission as messenger he receives from the Lord. — HOMILY 87, ON JOHN 1.1-14
João 1:17
For [in place of] the grace of the law, which has passed away, we have received the abiding grace of the gospel, and, instead of the shadows and figures of the ancient covenant, truth has come by Jesus Christ. — LETTER 75