It must have been in February of 416 that Augustine, bishop of Hippo, began his famous 124 tractates on John’s Gospel.1 We might commence our own study of the same subject by a brief consideration of the thoughts with which the church father opens his treatment. In relation to John 1:1–5 he asks how his hearers are to understand, and how he is to state and explain what is written, when over both of them stands the judgment that the natural man does not understand the things of the Spirit