"Peter and John both run to the tomb. Christ's tomb is the Holy Scripture, in which the most hidden mysteries of his divinity and of his humanity are defended - if I am allowed to say, -by a wall of rock. But John runs faster than Peter, for the power of contemplation, which has been totally purified, penetrates the secrets of the divine works with a more piercing and sharper eye than the power of action, that still needs to be purified.
Nevertheless Peter is the first to enter; John follows. Both run and both enter. Here Peter is the image of faith and John represents intelligence...Faith then is the first one who must enter the tomb, that is the image of the Holy Scripture, and intelligence must follow...
Peter, who also represents the practice of virtues, sees with the power of faith and of action the Son of God enclosed, in a marvelous and ineffable way, in the limits of flesh. John who represents the highest contemplation of truth, admires the Word of God, perfect in himself and unlimited in his origin, meaning in his Father. Peter, led by the divine revelation, looks at once at the eternal things and at the things of this world, united in Christ. John contemplates and announces the eternity of the Word to make it known to the faithful.
This is why I say that John is a spiritual eagle who sees God; I call him the theologian. He is above the whole creation, visible and invisible; he goes beyond all intellectual faculties and he enters deified in God who shares with him his own divine life."
-Jean Scot Erigene
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