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Joh 4:42. Οὐκ ἔτι, now no longer) The true progress of faith is here evinced.-αὐτοί, ourselves) Augustine admirably remarks on this passage: At first it was by the report of others, afterwards by His own presence [the men were led to believe]. This is the way in which those who are abroad, and are not yet Christians, are dealt with in the present day. Christ is announced as having come, through Christian friends; that woman as it were, that is, the Church, announcing the tidings. Men come to Christ, and believe, through that report. He remains with them two days, i.e. He gives them the two precepts of charity:[88] and far more persons, and more firmly too, believe in Him, that He is indeed Himself the Saviour of the world. Hence it is evident in what sense that hackneyed quotation ought to be understood: I indeed would not believe the Gospel, did not the authority of the Catholic Church admonish (others read, move) me to do so: Contra Ep. fundamenti, Chap. v.[89] Inasmuch as in this passage Augustine is not teaching, but is opposing the Manicheans.[90]-τοῦ κόσμου, of the world) not merely of the Jews. Faith frees from party zeal: they believe in Jesus, since He is the Saviour of the world, having laid aside their boasting of their fathers,[91] Joh 4:12, “Art Thou greater than owe father Jacob,” etc.
[88] To love Christ, and to love one another.-E. and T.
[89] “The authority of the Church” is here not her infallibility, but her faithful testimony.-E. and T.
[90] The Edition of E. B. and Steudel caused me great difficulty by a misprint, “Non docet Augustinus, sed Manichæus adversum tenet.” The large Ed. of 1759 solved it by the true reading, ‘Manichæis.’ Calvin, Inst., lib. i., ch. Joh 7:3, answers the argument drawn by Romanists from the words of Augustine, here quoted, by saying, that Augustine, in the passage referred to, speaks of himself as a Manichean; viz. that he means that, when a Manichean, he was moved by the authority of the Church to believe the Scriptures. So also Musculus, who considers ‘crederem’ and ‘commoveret’ to be equivalent to ‘credidissem’ and ‘commovisset.’ Augustine, in the words immediately following, says, “Those whom I obeyed when they said to me, Believe the Gospel, why should I not obey when they tell me, ‘Believe not Mani?’ ” Whence it is plain, he is speaking of himself as an unbeliever, and is informing us how he was first converted from being a Manichean to be a Catholic Christian, namely, by listening to the voice of the Church. But that voice is the voice of testimony, not the voice of infallible authority.-E. and T.
[91] The Vers. Germ. is more clearly in accordance with this observation, as omitting along with the larger edition, New Testament, the reading ὁ Χριστός; than the Ed. 2, Gr., which leaves the addition ὁ Χριστός to the reader to decide upon.-E. B.