Tractates on the Gospel of John

¹⁶ Now hear concerning the resurrection of bodies, not me, but the Lord about to speak, on account of those who have risen again by a resurrection from death, by cleaving to life. To what life? To a life which knows not death. Why knows not death? Because it knows not mutability. Why knows not mutability? Because it is life in itself. “And has given Him authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man.” What judgment, what kind of judgment? “Marvel not at this” which I have said—gave Him authority to execute judgment,— “for the hour is coming.”

He does not adds “and now is:” therefore He means to make known to us a certain hour in the end of the world. The hour is now that the dead rise, the hour will be in the end of the world that the dead rise: but that they rise now in the mind, then in the flesh; that they rise now in the mind by the Word of God, the Son of God; then in the flesh by the Word of God made flesh, the Son of man. For it will not be the Father Himself that will come to judgment, notwithstanding the Father does not withdraw Himself from the Son.

How, then, is it that the Father Himself will not come? In that He will not be seen in the judgment. “They shall look on Him whom they pierced.” That form which stood before the judge, will be Judge: that form will judge which was judged; for it was judged unjustly, it will judge justly. There will come the form of a servant, and that same will be apparent. For how could the form of God be made apparent to the just and to the unjust? If the judgment were to be only among the just, then the form of God might appear as to the just.

But because the judgment is to be of the just and of the unjust, and that it is not permitted to the wicked to see God—for “blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God,” — such a Judge will appear as may be seen by those whom He is about to crown, and by those whom He is about to condemn. Hence the form of a servant will be seen, the form of God will be hid. The Son of God will be hid in the servant, and the Son of man will be manifest, because to Him “has He given authority to execute judgment, because He is the Son of man.”

And because He alone will appear in the form of a servant, but the Father not, since He has not taken upon Him the form of a servant; for that reason He says above: “The Father judges not any man, but has given all judgment to the Son.” Rightly then had it been deferred, that the propounder might Himself be the interpreter. For before it was hidden; now, as I think, it is already manifest, that “He gave Him authority to execute judgment,” that “the Father judges not any man, but has given all judgment to the Son:” because the judgment is to be by that form which the Father has not. And what kind of judgment? “Marvel not at this, for the hour is coming:” not that which now is, for the souls to rise; but that which is to be, for the bodies to rise.