João 12
Origen of Alexandria · Comentário Patrístico (catena)
João 12:3
There seems then much likeness and some connection about the woman in the four Evangelists. Yet I would say to those who think that all wrote of the same woman, "Do you think that the very same woman who poured precious ointment on Jesus' head, as Matthew and Mark have related, also anointed his feet with ointment (or "myrrh," "myrrha") as Luke and John have related?But it is not possible that the Evangelists should have contradicted one another in relating about the same woman, since they were perfected in the same understanding and the same spirit and the same mind, and they had been seeking to minister to the welfare of the church. But if anyone thinks it is the same woman in Luke and John, let him tell us if Mary was the woman who is said in Luke to have been a sinner in a city who, learning that Jesus had sat down to meet in a Pharisee's house, brought an alabaster box of ointment and stood behind his feet weeping, washing his feet with her tears. It is incredible that Mary, whom Jesus loved, the sister of Martha, who had chosen the better portion, should be said to have been a sinner in the city. And the woman who, according to Matthew and Mark, poured precious ointment on Jesus' head is not actually written to have been a sinner. But she who according to Luke is described as a sinner did not dare to reach to Christ's head but washed his feet with her tears—as if scarcely worthy of his very feet—from sorrow that brought about sincere repentance with salvation. The woman in Luke wails and weeps much so that she may wash Jesus' feet. But she, who according to John is Mary, is introduced neither as a sinner nor as weeping. Perhaps then one will say that four different women are recorded by the Evangelists. But I rather agree that there were three. There was the one of whom Matthew and Mark wrote in complete agreement. There was also the woman of whom Luke wrote, while John wrote of yet another, differing from the other woman not only in what is written about the ointment but also because Jesus loved Mary and Martha—although she also is related to have been at Bethany like the woman in Matthew and Mark. — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 77
João 12:3
Everything by which anyone is anointed is called oil. Ointment is one form of oil. So one form of ointment is costly; another is not. And so, every righteous action is called a good work. But one kind of good work is what we do for our fellow human beings or according to their [expectations]. Another kind of good work is something we do because of God and according to [his expectations]. Of the latter, one form is profitable to humanity; another serves only to the glory of God. For example, a person does something well under the influence of natural justice, not because of God, as sometimes even heathen or a lot of other people do. This kind of work is common oil, not of great fragrance, and yet it is duly accepted by God.…Peter says [in the Clementines] that good works done by unbelievers profit them in this world but not also in the other to the attainment of eternal life. This is only right, since they are not done because of God but because of human nature itself. But those who do them because of God, that is, believers, profit not only in this world but more especially in the one to come. What believers do because of God is a kind of ointment that has a pleasing fragrance. But part of this very work that believers do because of God … is done for the welfare of humanity, such as the giving of alms, visitations of the sick, entertainments of strangers, humility, kindness.… Those who do these things to Christians anoint the Lord's feet with ointment because they are the Lord's feet with which he always walks—something that penitents are especially accustomed to do in the remission of their sins. This is a work called a fragrant ointment, but it is not the best. Rather, those who pursue charity, continue in fasting and prayer, have patience in adversities like Job, in temptations, those who are not afraid to confess the truth of God—all of which are things that are of no benefit to other people but only promote the glory of God—this is the ointment that anoints the head of the Lord Christ and from there runs down through his whole body, that is, the whole church. And this is very costly ointment whose fragrance fills the whole house, that is, the church of Christ. — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 77
João 12:8
So powerful is the praise of a good work of this kind that it exhorts all of us to fill the Lord's head with fragrant and rich works so that it may be said also of us that we have done a good work on his head. Because as long as we are in this life we will always have the poor with us, and those who have advanced in word and have become rich in the wisdom of God need to care for them, but [this] cannot be equal to having always with them, by night and day, the Son of God, the Word and Wisdom of God, and whatever also the Lord our Savior is. — COMMENTARY ON MATTHEW 77
João 12:36
Let us see what idea we are to form from the language of Paul regarding Christ where he says that he is the "brightness of the glory of God and the representation of his being." According to John, "God is light." The only-begotten Son, therefore, is the glory of this light, proceeding inseparably from God himself, just as brightness proceeds from light and illuminates the whole creation.… Through this brightness, human beings understand and experience what light itself is. And this splendor presents itself gently and softly to the frail and weak eyes of mortals and gradually trains and accustoms them, as it were, to bear the brightness of the light. It removes from them every hindrance and obstruction to their vision, according to the Lord's own command to cast out the beam from your own eye. In this way, it renders them capable of enduring the splendor of the light and becomes, in this respect, also a kind of mediator between human beings and the light. — ON FIRST PRINCIPLES 1.2.7
João 12:46
When the Savior of the world came, he made the true light shine. But they did not want to gaze on it, nor were they willing to walk by the radiance of his teaching. Consequently, darkness overtook them and demanded a penalty for the wickedness that had preoccupied them. And this [darkness] might be said to have reasonably blinded and hardened them. And, just as it follows that the one who has chosen to walk in the light also knows where he is going, so it follows that the one who has not chosen to walk in the light walks in darkness and travels wretchedly along the road of the blind.… For just as the visible sun shoots out its bright beams in order to enlighten those who have ailing eyes, so also does the spiritual Sun, the Light that has no setting or evening, come to the world and through his divine and ineffable miracles cast the brilliant gleam of his deity far and wide. — Fragment 94 on the Gospel of John