PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
Word Studies in the New Testament — Volume 2
Vincent, Marvin R., 1834-1922 · 194,770 words · 521 reading sections
In Addition To Those Cited In Volume L
Theology Library SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY = Sais AT CLAREMONT E a ae ; California = B4 4o 5 LIBRARY SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA SCHOOL OF THEOLOGY 817 West 34th Street Los Angeles 7, Calif. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2021 with funding from Kahle/Austin Foundation https://archive.org/details/wordstudiesinnew…
652 wordsSECTION 2Introduction.
Vaughan, Robert Alfred: Hours with the Mystics. London. 2vols. 8d edition. 1879. Westcott, Brooke Foss: Commentary on the Gospel of John. Speaker’s Commentary. New York, 1880. Wetstein, John J.: Novum Testamentum Greecum, with various readings and commentary. 2 vols. Amsterdam, 1751. A.V. Authorized Version. Apo…
417 wordsSECTION 39 Introduction.
marked by the phrase “the disciple whom Jesus loved,” and also by the fact that he was one of the three chosen to be with Him at certain special and momentous crises. He was admitted to the death-chamber of the ruler’s daughter (Mark v. 37) and witnessed her restoration to life ; he was present at the Trans- figur…
399 wordsSECTION 4Introduction. 3
sus. Definite notices as to his abode in the interval are wholly wanting. It is a noteworthy fact that the lives of so many of the world’s leaders include spaces which remain a blank to the most careful biographer, and into which the world’s curiosity can never penetrate. Such is the period of Paul’s retirement in…
391 wordsSECTION 54 Introduction.
more deft than John. John broods over his thought; Paul thrusts and parries with it. Yet John is no sentimentalist. He is not the lovely, effem- inate youth of picture. His mental and moral fibre is strong. He received the title “ Son of Thunder ” from One who never misread character. Not irascible, as some have t…
389 wordsSECTION 6The Gospel.
tion and the secret of the inward union of the believer with Christ ; to purge the Church from speculative error, and to hold up, over against the Gnostic caricature, the true image of the Son of Man. The writings ascribed to John are the Gospel, three Epis- tles, and the Apocalypse or Revelation. The nearly unan…
352 wordsSECTION 76 Introduction.
it forth in its positive aspects, and not with special reference to the errors of his time. The third theory, known as the “irenic” or conciliatory, maintains that the Gospel was intended to reconcile divergent religious views, and to bring into their right relation truths which heresy perverted. The Gospel is con…
395 wordsSECTION 8INTRODUCTION. i
cussions with them have their root and material in this same antagonism. The historical material is carefully selected with a view to its bearing on the particular conception of Christ’s person and work which is announced in the Prologue. The history is the practical exhibition of the Logos-doctrine in the person …
381 wordsSECTION 98 Introduction.
cal: the Serpent in the wilderness prefigures Christ’s “ lifting up,” and the Passover His own sacrifice as the Lamb of God. The fourth Gospel is the only one of the four which is de- veloped according to a prearranged and systematic plan. This plan may be generally described as the exhibition of “ the par- allel …
395 wordsSECTION 10Relation To The Synoptic Gospels.
ent opposition of the Jews to Jesus. He came to them and they received Him not. Then the other aspect is presented—the blessing of those who did receive Him, the impartation of son- ship and the consequent privilege of communion with the di- vine nature. From the thirteenth to the end of the seven- teenth chapter …
347 wordsSECTION 1110 Introduction.
vant, the vine. The same sayings occur, and verbal and other coincidences are frequent.* The inner coincidences are still more striking. John’s por- trait of Jesus, for instance, is, in many particulars, unique. It is fuller, more subtile, and indicates a closer intimacy. John deals with His person, where Matthew …
367 wordsSECTION 12Introduction. 11
John does not narrate, is presupposed in the sixth and seventh chapters. The anointing at Bethany is assumed to be known, as is the hearing of Jesus before Caiaphas. With these coincidences marked differences appear. Setting aside the omission by Mark of the Gospel of the infancy, the Synoptic narrative falls into…
406 wordsSECTION 1312 Introduction.
that He had previously remained continuously in Galilee or in the neighborhood, having taken up His abode there at the be- ginning of His public ministry. In the Synoptists the scene of Christ’s work is almost exclu- sively Galilee, while John mentions only five events connected with the Galilean ministry. On the …
391 wordsSECTION 14The Epistles.
were also toned and shaped by the peculiar conditions of the Church and of the religious thought of his time. The conflict of Christianity was no longer with Judaistic error ; no longer between the Gospel and the Law; between circumcision and uncireumcision ; but with an essentially heathen Gnosticism which appeal…
410 wordsSECTION 1514 Introduction.
men. There is no trace of persecution: “the world was peril- ous by its seductions rather than by its hostility ;” the dangers were within rather than without. These facts give character to the Epistle in two ways: First, the missionary work of the Church falls into the background in the Apostle’s thought. The wor…
398 wordsSECTION 16Introduction. 15
construction ; the same rarity of particles; the employment of the simple connective (ai, and) instead of a particle of logical sequence (iii. 3, 16); the succession of sentences and clauses without particles (ii. 22-24; iv. 4-6; 7-10; 11-18; ii. 5, 6, 9, 10), and the bringing of sentences into parallelism by the r…
297 wordsSECTION 1716 Introduction.
manifesting His glory. In the Epistle the manifestation of the glory is assumed as the basis of the exhortation to believ- ers to manifest it in their life. The doctrine of propitiation, which is unfolded to Nicodemus, is applied in 1 John iii. 1. The promise of the Paraclete in the Gospel is assumed in the Epistl…
259 wordsSECTION 18Introduction. Wa
This document has given rise to voluminous controversy as to its author, its origin, its purpose, and its interpretation. It has been held to be a forgery in the name of John; to have been composed by another writer in the apostle’s name, not in order to deceive, but in order to record an oral revelation of John; …
510 wordsSECTION 1918 Introduction.
the case that it may be doubted whether it contains a single figure not drawn from the Old Testament, or a single complete sentence not more or less built up of materials brought from the same source. . . . It is a perfect mosaic of passages from the Old Testament, at one time quoted verbally, at an- other referre…
430 wordsSECTION 20Introduction. 19
impending judgment as external, the Gospel as spiritual. The Apocalypse describes the triumph of Christianity under the imagery of Judaism; the consummation being an ideal Jer- usalem and an ideal worship; while in the Gospel, Judaism appears in opposition to Christ, “standing without, isolated and petrified, and …
351 wordsSECTION 21Style And Diction Of John.
of solecisms arises from the avoidance of idiomatic expres- sions.” * John’s style in the Gospel and Epistles is marked by simplic- ity and ease. It is plain without elegance, and the diction is comparatively pure so far as words and grammar are con- cerned, but animated with a Hebrew genius. Godet describes the …
345 wordsSECTION 22Introduction. 91
Him not; but he states the fact in two distinct and indepen- f snt propositions: “ He was in the world, and the world knew Jim not.” So in viii. 20. Jesus spake in the treasury, teach- ing in the temple, and yet, though He appeared and taught thus publicly, no one laid hands on Him. John writes: “These words spake…
431 wordsSECTION 2322 Introduction.
xviii. 20; 1 John 1, 6; ii. 4, 27). The detachment, however, is only superficial. The inner connection is closely held in the writer’s mind, and is impressed upon the reader by that con- stant iteration which, upon a hasty view, savors of monotony, but which serves to represent the central thought in its many- sid…
344 wordsSECTION 24Prologue .*
Vy. 1-18. “The Prologue is summed up in three thoughts, which also determine its plan: Tae Locos: the Logos disowned ; the Logos acknowledged and regained. These three fundamen- tal aspects correspond with the three principal aspects of the history as related in this gospel: the revelation of the Logos; the unbeli…
269 wordsSECTION 25First Division Of The Prologue. The Word (1-5).
restored to that communion with the Word, and that living re- lation with God, of which man had been deprived by sin.” 1. In the beginning was (€v apy jv). With evident allu- sion to the first word of Genesis. But John elevates the phrase from its reference to a point of time, the beginning of creation, to the tim…
760 wordsSECTION 26Old Testament Usage Of The Term.
As signifying the inward thought, it denotes the faculty of thinking and reasoning (Heb. iv. 12); regard or consideration (Acts xx. 24); reckoning, account (Philip. iv. 15, 17; Heb. iv. 13); cause or reason (Acts x. 29). John uses the word in a peculiar sense, here, and in ver. 14 ; and, in this sense, in these tw…
455 wordsSECTION 27Apocryphal Usage.
jective, so that He beheld it” (Job xxviii. 27) and embodied it in His creative work. This personification, therefore, is based on the thought that wisdom is not shut up at rest in God, but is active and manifest in the world. “She standeth in the top of high places, by the way in the places of the paths. She crie…
384 wordsSECTION 28Later Jewish Usage.
the knowledge of God, and a lover of His works. Moreover, by the means of her I shall obtain immortality, and leave be- hind me an everlasting memorial to them that come after me” (ch. ix.). In ch. xvi. 12, it is said, “Thy word, O Lord, heal- eth all things” (compare Ps. cvii. 20); and in ch. xviii. 15, 16, “Thin…
268 wordsSECTION 29Prologue. 29
From the time of Ptolemy I. (823-285 .o.), there were Jews in great numbers in Egypt. Philo (a.p. 50) estimates them at a million in his time. Alexandria was their headquarters. They had their own senate and magistrates, and possessed the same privileges as the Greeks. The Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scri…
464 wordsSECTION 3030 Word Studies In The New Testament.
king by his servants. These powers are, in Platonic language, ideas ; in Jewish, angels ; but all are essentially one, and their unity, as they exist in God, as they emanate from him, as they are disseminated in the world, is expressed by Zogos. Hence the Logos appears under a twofold aspect: (1) As the immanent r…
401 wordsSECTION 31Prologue. 31
those Hellenists and Hellenistic Jews, on the one hand, who were vainly philosophizing on the relations of the finite and in- finite; to those investigators of the letter of the Scriptures, on the other, who speculated about the theocratic revelations, John said, by giving this name Logos to Jesus: ‘The unknown Me-…
380 wordsSECTION 32The Meaning Of Logos In John.
The two notions differ as to origin. The impersonal God of Philo cannot pass to the finite creation without contamination of his divine essence. Hence an inferior agent must be inter- posed. John’s God, on the other hand, is personal, and a loving personality. He is a Father (i. 18); His essence is love (iii. 16 ; …
387 wordsSECTION 33Prologue. 33
Therefore St. John, when he names the Person in the Trinity (1 John v. 7),* chooses rather to call Him Word than Son ; for word is a phrase more communicable than son. Son hath only reference to the Father that begot Him; but word may refer to him that conceives it; to him that speaks it; to that which is spoken b…
424 wordsSECTION 3434 Word Studies In The New Testament.
meaning, but there is no single English word which will give it better. The preposition pds, which, with the accusative case, denotes motion towards, or direction, is also often used in the New Testament in the sense of with ; and that not merely as being near or beside, but as a living union and communion 5 imply…
402 wordsSECTION 35Prologue. 35
nature to follow the distinction of person, and ascribes to the Word all the attributes of the divine essence. ‘‘ There is some- thing majestic in the way in which the description of the Logos, in the three brief but great propositions of ver. 1, is un- folded with increasing fulness ” (Meyer). 2. The same (odros)…
360 wordsSECTION 3636 Word Studies In The New Testament.
His own image, He would restore him to that image. Because (god made man, He loves him, educates him, bears with him carries on the race on the line of His infinite patience, is bur dened with its perverseness and blindness, and expresses and effectuates all this in the incarnation and redemptive work of Jesus Chr…
650 wordsSECTION 3736 Word Studies In The New Testament.
Without (yepis). Lit., apart from. Compare xv. 5. Was not anything made that was made (éyévero ovde év, 6 yéyovev). Many authorities place the period after év, and join 6 yévovev with what follows, rendering, “ without Him was not anything made. That which hath been made was life in Hanis * So the Rev., but not c…
521 wordsSECTION 38Prologue. 39
nobler word, seeming to have changed places with Bios. It ex- presses the sum of mortal and eternal blessedness (Matt. xxv. 46; Luke xviii. 80; John xi. 25; Acts ii. 28; Rom. v. 17; vi. 4), and that not only in respect of men, but also of God and Christ. So here. Compare John v. 26; xiv. 6; 1 John i. 2. This chang…
390 wordsSECTION 3940 Word Studies In The New Testament.
THE SECOND DIVISION OF THE PROLOGUE. THE WORD DISOWNED. Against the eternal being, light and life of the divine Word, a contrary principle emerges in the world —darkness. The purpose and work of God in creation having been set forth, we are now shown man’s attitude toward these. 5. Shineth (¢aivec). Note the pres…
362 wordsSECTION 40Prologue. 41
in the sense of the A. V., wnderstood, is inadmissible. This meaning would require the middle voice of the verb (see Acts iv. 13; x. 34; xxv. 25). The Rev., apprehended, i.e., grasped or seized, gives the correct idea, which appears in John xii. 35, “lest darkness come upon you,” i.e., overtake and seize. The word…
388 wordsSECTION 4142 Word Studies In The New Testament.
ance and the mission of John. There came a man, and that man was sent from God. From God (arapa @c0d). The preposition means from beside. It invests the messenger with more dignity and significance than if the writer had said, “sent by God.” It is used of the Holy Spirit, sent, from the Father (xv. 26). j Whose …
381 wordsSECTION 42Prologue. 43
All. The Baptist took up the work of the prophets, as re- spects their preparation for the universal extension of the divine call (Isa. xlix. 6). His message was to men, without regard to nation, sect, descent, or other considerations. Through him. John the Baptist. 8. He (éxeivos). Emphatic, “It was not he who wa…
349 wordsSECTION 4344 Word Studies In The New Testament.
paratory revelations” (Westcott). Render therefore as Rev., ‘¢ There was the true light, even the light which lighteth every man, coming into the world.” True (ddnIuwev). Wyc., very light (compare the Nicene ereed, “very God of very God”). This epithet is applied to light only here and 1 John ii. 8, and is almost …
318 wordsSECTION 44Prologue. 45
yi, land, ground, territory, the earth, as distinguished from the heavens. The sense is purely physical. (2) olcovyeévy, which is a participle, meaning inhabited, with yh, earth, understood, and signifies the earth as the abode of men; the whole inhab- ited world. See on Matt. xxiv. 14; Luke ii. 1. Also in a phys- …
412 wordsSECTION 4546 Word Studies In The New Testament.
and sinful man; between the divine order and the moral dis- order introduced and maintained by sin. 10. He was inthe world. Not merely at His advent, but before His incarnation no less than after it. See on vy. 4, 5. Was made (éyévero). Came into being. See on ver. 3. By Him. Or through Him (6:4). See on ver. 3. …
363 wordsSECTION 46Prologue. At
seasons and years, and the guardian of all that is in the visible world. ‘ When the eye of the soul is turned round, the whole soul must be turned round from the world of becoming into that of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or, in other words, of the good.” Notice also the appropriateness of the tw…
375 wordsSECTION 4748 Word Studies In The New Testament.
Wette’s explanation seems to agree best with his own home. Here again compare the nice choice of verbs: apprehended (xatédaev) the Light as a principle, and received (mapédaBov) the Light as a person and the Master of the house. THIRD DIVISION OF THE PROLOGUE. THE WORD RE- CEIVED (12-18). 12. As many as (éc01). D…
363 wordsSECTION 48Prologue. 49
Mark ii. 10; Luke xx. 20). Here, therefore, éfoveia is not merely possibility or ability, but legitimate rzght derived from a competent source—the Word. To become (yevéoSar). As those who are born (ver. 13. Compare iii. 3, and Matt. v. 45). Sons (réxva). Rev., more correctly, children. Son is vios. Téxvov, child …
397 wordsSECTION 4950 Word Studies In The New Testament.
future salvation, and to accept and adopt His precepts and ex- ample as binding upon the life. Name (dvoya). See on Matt. xxviii. 19. Expressing the sum of the qualities which mark the nature or character of a person. To believe in the name of Jesus Christ the Son of God, is to accept as true the revelation contai…
332 wordsSECTION 50Prologue. 51
Retaining all the essential properties of the Word, He entered into anew mode of being, not a new being. The word cap&, jlesh, describes this new mode of being. It signifies human nature in and according to its corporeal mani- Jestation. Here, as opposed to the purely divine, and to the purely immaterial nature of…
396 wordsSECTION 5152 Word Studies In The New Testament.
Our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ” (1 John i. 1-3. Compare Philip. ii. 7, 8). Some find in the word tabernacle, a temporary structure (see the contrast between oxfvos, tabernacle, and oixodoun, building, in 2 Cor. v. 1), a suggestion of the transitoriness of our Lord’s stay upon eart…
347 wordsSECTION 52Prologue. 53
festations of the divine glory, in the wilderness (Exod. xvi. 10; xxiy. 16, ete.) ; in the temple (1 Kings viii. 11); to the proph- ets (Isa. vi. 3; Ezek. i. 28). The divine glory flashed out in Christ from time to time, in His transfiguration (Luke ix. 31; compare 2 Pet. i. 16, 17) and His miracles (John ii. 11; x…
375 wordsSECTION 5354 Word Studies In The New Testament.
by receiving power, by adoption, or by moral generation, but was (jv) such in the beginning with God. The fact set forth does not belong to the sphere of His incarnation, but of His eternal being. The statement is anthropomorphic,* and there- fore cannot fully express the metaphysical relation. Of the Father is pr…
376 wordsSECTION 54Prologue. 55
Baptist as abiding. The fact of the Word’s becoming flesh is permanently established by his testimony. Cried (xéxpayev). See on Mark v.5; ix. 24; Luke xviii. 39. The verb denotes an inarticulate utterance as distinguished from words. When used in connection with articulate speech, it is joined with Néyew or eizrei…
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meaning is, then, that Christ, in His human manifestation, ap- peared after John, but, as the Eternal Word, preceded him, because He existed before him. Compare viii. 58.* 16. And (xai). But the correct reading is 671, because, thus connecting the following sentence with “full of grace and truth ” in ver. 14. We k…
710 wordsSECTION 5658 Word Studies In The New Testament.
*It is hardly necessary to refer the critical student to the admirable note of Bishop Lightfoot, in his Commentary on Colossians, p. 328 sq. different graces in eachange for (dvi) those, and a third supply for the second, and ever new ones in exchange for the older.” 17. For (rs). Because. Giving the ground of the …
358 wordsSECTION 57Prologue. 59
tial and approximate (Exod. xxxiii. 23). The seeing intended here is seeing of the divine essence rather than of the divine per- son, which also is indicated by the absence of the article from @cov, God. In this sense even Christ was not seen as God. The verb dpda, to see, denotes a physical act, but emphasizes th…
391 wordsSECTION 5860 Word Studies In The New Testament.
Who is in the bosom (6 v eis Tov KdATrov). The expression 6 dv, who és, or the one being, is explained in two ways: 1. Asa timeless present, expressing the inherent and eternal relation of the Son to the Father. 2. As interpreted by the preposition eis, in, lit., into, and expressing the fact of Christ’s return to …
409 wordsSECTION 59Prologue. 61
He (éxefvos). Strongly emphatic, and pointing to the eternal Son. This pronoun is used by John more frequently than by any other writer. It occurs seventy-two times, and not only as denoting the more distant subject, but as denoting and laying special stress on the person or thing immediately at hand, or possessin…
332 wordsSECTION 6062 Word Studies In The New Testament,
I. THE SELF-REVELATION OF CHRIST TO THE WORLD (i. 19-xii. 50). II. THE SELF-REVELATION OF CHRIST TO THE DISCIPLES (xiii. 1-xxi. 23).* 19. This (airn). The following. This use of the pronoun, calling the reader’s attention to what follows, and preparing him for it, is frequent in John. Sometimes the pronoun carrie…
305 wordsSource & rights
Public domain historical edition (1887); scan/OCR from Internet Archive.
Project Gutenberg source record →
Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.