JOHN 1:1-4
King James Updated--------- Hebrew and Greek Original
In the beginning was
the Word, (o. logos) and the Word (o. logos) was with God
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The same was in the
beginning with God
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All things were made
by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
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In him was life; and
the life was the light of men.
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(en arch). Arch is definite, though
anarthrous like our at home, in town, and the similar Hebrew be reshith
in Genesis 1:1. But Westcott notes that here John carries our thoughts beyond
the beginning of creation in time to eternity. There is no argument here to
prove the existence of God any more than in Genesis. It is simply assumed.
Either God exists and is the Creator of the
universe as scientists like Eddington and Jeans assume or matter is eternal
or it has come out of nothing.
Was (hn). Three times in this sentence John uses this
imperfect of eimi to be which conveys no idea of origin for God or for the Logos,
simply continuous existence. Quite a different verb (egeneto, became) appears in
verse Genesis 14 for the beginning of the Incarnation of the
Logos.
See the distinction sharply drawn in Genesis 8:58 "before Abraham came (genesqai) I am" (eimi, timeless existence).
The Word (o logoß). Logoß is from legw, old word in Homer to lay by, to collect, to
put words side by side, to speak, to express an opinion. Logoß is common for reason
as well as speech. Heraclitus used it for the principle which controls the
universe. The Stoics employed it for the soul of the world (anima mundi) and Marcus Aurelius
used spermatikoß logoß for the generative principle in nature. The Hebrew memra
was used in the Targums for the manifestation of God like the Angel of
Jehovah and the Wisdom of God in Proverbs 8:23. Dr. J. Rendel Harris thinks that there was a
lost wisdom book that combined phrases in Proverbs and in the Wisdom of
Solomon which John used for his Prologue (The Origin of the Prologue
to St. John, p. 43) which he has undertaken to reproduce. At any rate
John's standpoint is that of the Old Testament and not that of the Stoics nor
even of Philo who uses the term Logoß,
but not John's conception of personal
pre-existence. The term Logoß is applied to Christ only in John 1:1,14; Revelation 19:13; 1 John 1:1 "concerning the Word of life" (an
incidental argument for identity of authorship). There is a possible
personification of "the Word of God" in Hebrews 4:12. But the personal pre-existence of Christ is taught by Paul (2 Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 2:6; Colossians 1:17) and in Hebrews 1:2 and in John 17:5. This term suits John's purpose better than sopia (wisdom) and is his
answer to the Gnostics who either denied the actual humanity of Christ
(Docetic Gnostics) or who separated the aeon Christ from the man Jesus (Cerinthian
Gnostics).
The pre-existent Logos
"became flesh" (sarx egeneto, verse John 14) and by this phrase John answered both heresies
at once. With God (proß ton qeon). Though existing eternally with God the
Logos was in perfect fellowship with God. Proß with the accusative
presents a plane of equality and intimacy, face to face with each other. In 1 John 2:1 we have a like use of proß: "We have a
Paraclete with the Father" (paraklhton ecomen proß ton
patera). See proswpon proß proswpon (face to face, 1 Corinthians
13:12), a triple use of proß. There is a papyrus
example of proß in this sense to gnwston thß proß allhlouß sunhqeiaß, "the knowledge of our intimacy with one
another" (M.&M., Vocabulary) which answers the claim of Rendel Harris, Origin
of Prologue, p. 8) that the use of proß here and in Mark 6:3 is a mere Aramaism. It is not a classic
idiom, but this is Koin‚, not old
Attic.
In John 17:5 John has para soi the more common idiom. And the Word was God (kai qeoß hn o logoß). By exact and careful language John denied
Sabellianism by not saying o qeoß hn
o logoß. That would mean that
all of God was expressed in o logoß and the terms would be
interchangeable, each having the article. The subject is made
plain by the article (o logoß) and the predicate without
it (qeoß) just as in John 4:24 pneuma o qeoß can only mean "God is spirit," not
"spirit is God." So in 1 John 4:16 o qeoß agaph estin can only mean "God is love," not
"love is God" as a so-called Christian scientist would confusedly
say.
For the article with
the predicate see Robertson, Grammar_, pp. 767f. So in John 1:14 o Logoß
sarx egeneto, "the Word became flesh," not
"the flesh became Word." Luther argues that here John disposes of Arianism also
because the Logos was eternally God, fellowship of Father and Son, what
Origen called the Eternal Generation of the Son (each necessary to the
other). Thus in the Trinity we see personal fellowship on an equality.
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(outoß). "This
one," the Logos of verse John 1, repeated for clarity, characteristic of John's style. He links together into one
phrase two of the ideas already stated separately, "in the beginning he
was with God," "afterwards in time he came to be with man"
(Marcus Dods).
Thus John clearly
states of the Logos Pre-existence before Incarnation, Personality, Deity.
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(panta). The philosophical
phrase was ta panta (the all things) as we have it in 1 Corinthians 8:6; Romans 11:36; Colossians 1:16. In verse 1:10 John uses o kosmoß (the orderly universe) for the whole. Were
made (egeneto). Second aorist middle indicative of ginomai, the constative
aorist covering the creative activity looked at as one event in contrast with
the continuous existence of hn in verses 1,2. All things "came into being."
Creation is thus presented as a becoming (ginomai) in contrast with
being (eimi). By him (di autou). By means of him as the intermediate agent
in the work of creation. The Logos is John's explanation of the creation of
the universe.
The author of Hebrews
(Hebrews 1:2) names God's Son as the one "through whom he made the
ages." Paul pointedly asserts that "the all things were created in
him" (Christ) and "the all things stand created through him and
unto him" (Colossians 1:16). Hence it is not a peculiar doctrine that
John here enunciates. In 1 Corinthians 8:6, Paul distinguishes between the Father as the
primary source (ex ou) of the all things and the Son as the intermediate agent as
here (di ou). Without him (cwriß autou). Old adverbial
preposition with the ablative as in Philippians 2:14, "apart from." John adds the
negative statement for completion, another note of his style as in John 1:20; 1 John 1:5. Thus John excludes two heresies (Bernard)
that matter is eternal and that angels or aeons had a share in creation. Not
anything (oude en). "Not even one thing."
Bernard thinks the
entire Prologue is a hymn and divides it into strophes. That is by no means
certain. It is doubtful also whether the relative clause "that hath been
made" (o gegonen) is a part of this sentence or begins a new one as Westcott and
Hort print it. The verb is second perfect active indicative of ginomai. Westcott observes
that the ancient scholars before Chrysostom all began a new sentence with o gegonen. The early uncials
had no punctuation.
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(en autwi zwh hn). That which has come into being (verse 1 John 3) in the Logos was life. The power that creates and sustains
life in the universe is the Logos.
This is what Paul
means by the perfect passive verb ektistai (stands created) in Colossians 1:16. This is also the claim of Jesus to Martha (John 11:25). This is the idea in Hebrews 1:3 "bearing (upholding) the all things by
the word of his power." Once this language might have been termed
unscientific, but not so now after the spiritual interpretation of the
physical world by Eddington and Jeans.
Usually in John zwh means spiritual life, but here the
term is unlimited and includes all life; only it is not bioß (manner of life), but the very principle or
essence of life. That is spiritual behind the physical and to this great scientists today agree. It
is also personal intelligence and power. Some of the western documents have estin here instead of hn to bring out clearly
the timelessness of this phrase of the work of the Logoß. And the life was the
light of men (kai h zwh hn to pwß twn anqrwpwn). Here the article with both zwh and pwß makes them
interchangeable.
"The light was the life of men" is
also true. That statement is curiously like the view of some physicists who
find in electricity (both light and power) the nearest equivalent to life in
its ultimate physical form. Later Jesus will call himself the light of the
world (John 8:12). John is fond of
these words life and light in Gospel, Epistles, Revelation. He here combines them to picture
his conception of the Pre-incarnate Logos in his relation to the race. He was
and is the Life of men (twn anqrwpon, generic use of the article) and the Light of
men. John asserts this relation of the Logos to the race of men in particular
before the Incarnation.
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