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João 5

Athanasius of Alexandria · Comentário Patrístico (catena)

João 5:17

The word still shows [the Son's] eternal existence in the Father as the Word. For it is proper to the Word to do the Father's works and not to be external to him.… He is either seen to be the efficient cause of things that he himself has brought about, or he has no power to cause anything at all.… For none of the things that are brought to be is an efficient cause, but all things were made through the Word who would not have brought anything into being if he himself were numbered among the creatures.… For by the Word, the things that were not have come into existence. And if through him [i.e., the Son] the [Father] creates and makes, [the Son] is not himself of things created and made. Rather, he is the Word of the Creator God and is known, from the Father's works which he himself works, to be "in the Father and the Father in him" … because the Son's essence is proper to the Father, and he is in all points like his Father. — Discourses Against the Arians 2.16.20-22

João 5:38

It is most appropriate that he joins the "Word" to the "form" here to show that the Word of God is himself the image and expression and form of his Father. The Jews who did not receive the one who spoke to them thus did not receive the Word, which is the form of God. This too was who the patriarch Jacob saw when he received a blessing from him and the name of Israel instead of Jacob. … And this is he who said, "He who has seen me has seen the Father," and "I in the Father and the Father in me" and "I and the Father are one." For in this way God is one and so is the faith in the Father and the Son. For even though the Word is God, the Lord our God is one Lord. — Discourses Against the Arians 3.25.16