The Coming Of The Forerunner

Adveniens ergo praecursor describitur a quator conditionibus, scilicet a natura, ab auctoritate, a nomine, ab officio. A natura, cum dicitur: Fuit homo; Glossa: Homo, non Angelus, ut volunt haeretici. Hoc dicebant haeretici propter illud Malachiae tertio: Ecce, ego mitto Angelum meum ante faciem tuam, quia praeparabit viam ante me. Sed Angelus est ibi nomen officii, non naturae. Ab auctoritate describitur, cum subditur: Missus a Deo, non ab homine, non a se; ad Romanos decimo: Quomodo praedicabunt, nisi mittantur? Quocontra dicitur de malis prophetis Ieremiae vigesimo tertio: Currebant, et ego non mittebam eos. A nomine describitur, cum dicitur: Cui nomen erat Ioannes. Hoc nomen fuit authenticum, quia non ab homine impositum, sed a Deo; Lucae primo dictum est Zachariae: Elisabeth, uxor tua, pariet tibi filium, et vocabis Ioannem. Ab officio describitur, cum subinfertur: Hic venit in testinmonium. Officium enim suum fuit testificari de lumine, non propter defectum luminis, sed credentium; ideo dicitur: Hic venit in testimonium, ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine, ut omnes crederent per illum; Actuum decimo nono: Ioannes baptizavit baptismo poenitentie populum, dicens, in eum, qui venturus erat post ipsum, ut crederent; crederent, inquam, per illum, non illum, uqia: Non erat ille lux, in quam credendum; sed ut testimonium perhiberet de lumine; quod et fecit; infra quinto: Vos misistis ad Ionanem, et ille testimonium perhibuit veritati. Sanctus Bonaventura, Commentarius In Evangelium Ioannem, Caput I Source: Here, p449

Therefore the coming of the forerunner will be described by four conditions, that is, by nature, by authority, by name, by office. By nature, when it is said 'There was a man'. 1 The Gloss: 'A man and not an angel, as some heretics say.' Heretics would say this on account of the third chapter of Malachi: 'Behold, I send an angel before my face, who shall prepare my way before me.' 2 But 'angel' is the name of the office not of the nature. The authority is given, when it is written after: 'Sent by God,' 1 not by man, nor from himself. As the tenth chapter of Romans says: 'How shall they preach, unless they are sent?' 3 Against which wicked prophets the twenty third chapter of Jeremiah speaks: 'They rush about, and I did not send them.' 4 By name is described when it is said, 'the name of whom was John.' 1 And this name was true, because it was not given by man, but by God. In the first chapter of Luke it is said to Zachariah: 'Elizabeth, your wife, shall bear a son to you, and you shall call him John.' 5 The office is described when it is written after: 'He came for testimony.' 6 For his office was to testify concerning the light, not because of a defect of the light, but of believers, therefore it is said: 'He came for testimony, to bear witness to the light, that all believe through him.' 6 In the nineteenth chapter of Acts: John baptised the people with a baptisim of repentance, telling them to believe in the one who was to come after him.' 7 He was not the light, in which one must believe, but one who was to give witness to the light, which he did. As it says in the fifth chapter: 'You sent to John, and he gave testimony to the truth.' 8 Saint Bonaventura, Commentary On The Gospel Of Saint John, Chapter 1 1 Jn 1.6 2 Malac 3.1 3 Rom 10.15 4 Jerem 23.21 5 Lk 1.13 6 Jn 1.7 7 Acts 19.4 8 Jn 5.33