Ammonius of Alexandria

In his own words on John

• John 1:14

  How did we behold his glory? We beheld it through the star of the magi, the angels, the shepherds, Anna, Simeon, Gabriel, the miraculous birth of the Virgin, the voice of the Father who witnessed to him, the Spirit descending upon him and many other divine signs and healings.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 25

• John 1:50-51

  Sometimes our Savior said "amen" once, at other times twice, when he wished to confirm what he was saying. This is a Hebrew manner of speaking, revealing that which was taking place, such as that "you have been found trustworthy" so as to see "the heavens opened," and so on. He says that it is possible to see the heavens opened not in a manner open to the senses but only by a mind observing the angels coming to serve Jesus. The word amen is used instead of "really and truthfully" and is more fitting here.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 53

• John 2:4

  He chides his mother for having importunely reminded God, who has no need to be reminded of anything. It is as if he had said, "Do not regard me only as a man but also as God. Not yet has the time of my manifestation come. Not as yet is it known who I am."

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 57

• John 3:6

  As God the Father is Spirit and as God the Son is Spirit, therefore our God and Father begets by the Spirit the one who is Son and God. Therefore Christ is of one substance with the Father according to his divine nature and of one substance with his mother according to his flesh. The one and the same Christ is from both, unchangeably and without confusion [of the two natures]. But according to what is now canonically held concerning the Logos of the Lord, our minds too are then to be transformed by Christ to be completely conformed to that which is spiritual.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 75

• John 3:8

  One hears the voice of the Spirit through the prophets.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 77

• John 3:34

  As the fount of the Spirit, [Christ] imparts him. He is speaking of the working of the Spirit, which people receive in some measure. For the Son himself has the full working of the Spirit in its entirety. Truly, the Son has the entire Spirit in essence and not in some measure, as a created being might have. Therefore, he himself imparts the Spirit, and by their petitions the saints make Christ supply the Spirit.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 105

• John 3:35

  The Father loves the world too, but not in the same way as he loves the Son, whom he loves exceedingly because of his incarnation as his own Word and Wisdom and Holiness. [His giving all things over to his Son] will be fulfilled at the time of his second coming when "every knee will bow to him," as everyone rejects the evil to which they are now clinging. Here he calls his power his "hand." The Son has this power by nature and not just to a certain degree. That is because every good thing really belongs to the Father and the Son is perceived to have this full power. And he will also receive as a man the authority which he had also had before his incarnation.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 105

• John 5:27

  Some think that it should read, "He gave him authority also to execute judgment because he is the Son of man." But this connection makes no sense, for he is not our judge "because he is the Son of man," but rather because he is the Son of God. That is why he is our judge.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 167

• John 8:12

  He called himself "the light," not because "the light is in me"—lest someone split the one Christ into a duality of Sons. Christ, the Son, is one, both before the flesh and after the flesh. He is in truth the one and only Son of God the Father even when he became man since he did not partially embrace the human nature. For his body is his own, and it is blasphemy to divide Christ after his incarnation into two sons or into two beings.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 266

• John 8:55

  For the Son not only knows the Father fully and by nature but indeed even knows the Trinity.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 309

• John 9:6

  He spat on the ground and made mud out of the saliva and he daubed the mud onto the eyes of the blind man. He wanted to show with the mud that he himself is the one who made Adam from the earth. His statement that "I am the one doing this" seemed to make his hearer hostile to him. But have shown himself to be the one through this work that he did—this, finally, did not give offense. Therefore, he fashioned eyes in that way rather than simply healing them. And he did not only make the eyes or open them but also graced them with the ability to see. This is positive proof that he had also breathed a soul into Adam. For he would never have seen, even if the eye had been completed, unless that life-giving spirit that breathed into Adam was at work.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 317

• John 12:31

  As if in a court of law, it is said to the devil, "Granted, you have killed everyone else in the human race because they were sinners. But why did you kill the Lord?" The time of sojourning on earth is the "judgment of the world," since Christ is about to justify humanity and to remove the arrogance of the devil. The judgment he speaks of here then is not the condemnation of the human race. Rather, Christ's death justifies all humanity against the devil, who is the one who is under judgment because he had wronged the world.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 419

• John 13:27

  Since Satan saw Judas wishing to betray the Lord and hastening to do this, then "he entered him." It is one thing for the devil to assail someone and quite another for the devil to enter him, just as it is one thing to strike someone outwardly and quite a different matter to hit someone's vital organ or thrust a sword into him.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 457

• John 16:8

  This is the power of the descent of the Holy Spirit, that "then the sin of those who have erred against me will be revealed." Whoever after the descent of the Holy Spirit did not believe in the Christ remained in their sins. Whoever did not believe in the sinless One will be condemned as a sinner.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 538

• John 20:25

  Thomas was charged with being a real curiosity seeker because he thought the resurrection was impossible. Thus, he not only said "unless I see" but also "unless I touch," lest somehow what he saw turned out to be an illusion. Therefore, when Thomas had heard from the disciples that Christ had been injured by a spear, Thomas believed them, even though he had not seen it. However, he did not believe their report of the resurrection, as if it were beyond reason. He did not say this so much out of unbelief but out of grief, because he himself had not been deemed worthy of seeing the risen Christ. It fit God's purpose that Thomas did not believe, so that we all might know through him that the body that had been crucified had been raised. Since Thomas wanted to see the wounds all around Christ's flesh, as well as his flesh itself, to see if he had risen, Thomas was searching for him.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 633

• John 21:3-4

  This is the whole import of this passage: Those who had completed their work in the darkness, before the disciples, had not caught anyone in their nets and snatched them from demonic deceit. They may have caught a very few people, which is almost the same thing as nobody. Not even those who served the types and shadows had been caught, since they also despised the divine law and obeyed instead human commandments. Even worse, the multitude of the Gentiles had also not been caught by the nets, since they did not receive the teachings of God. But when "the sun of righteousness" came, that is, the one who hungered after the salvation of the human race, he did not find anything edible among them. He told them to cast forth the word of the gospel, which is the teaching, on the right side of the boat. One can understand that the law and the prophets had been casting forth their words on the left side. By the grace of the one who gave the order, the disciples drew in many. For the marvel on this matter surpasses the fish of the apostles.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 636

• John 21:11

  Peter drags the dragnet with the others, bringing the catch to Christ. The hundred can be understood to mean the fullness of the Gentiles. The fifty refers to the elect of Israel who have been saved. And the three set one's mind on the revelation of the holy Trinity, to whose glory the life of the believers who were caught in the dragnet is naturally connected.

  FRAGMENTS ON JOHN 637