Fragments on John · §4 · Theophilus of Alexandria

Christ answers the question and destroys the error

The author has just described the unlawful doctrine that souls are sent into bodies for punishment, and now quotes Christ's answer to the question about whose sin caused the condition.

When Christ was asked about this error, he was saying: "Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but this happened so that the works of God might be revealed" (John 9:3).

Greek

πλάνην ἐρωτηθεὶς ὁ Χριστὸς ἔλεγεν· οὔτε οὗτος ἥμαρτεν οὔτε οἱ γονεῖς αὐτοῦ, ἀλλ' ἵνα φανερωθῇ τὰ ἔργα θεοῦ. 1

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About this text

Theophilus says Christ's words on the man born blind refute the idea that souls live before the body and are sent into bodies for their sins.

Theophilus of Alexandria (c. 345–412) is the author of these fragments on John. They are not his fragments on Matthew.

He says the Savior overturns an unlawful teaching: that a soul sometimes exists before the body, and is joined to a body because of its own sins, so that a woman conceives only when some soul sins.

Christ answers, "Neither this man sinned nor his parents, but this happened so that the works of God might be revealed." The words are John 9:3; the manuscript's margin marks them "John 3", and the translation keeps that mark.

Printed text used

Translated from PG 65 (Greek)

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