Incidentally In the course of making clear the greatness of His Messianic dignity. In John, on the contrary, it is the deity of our Lord which takes the first place, and His Messlahship is treated subsidiarily as the ap- propriate Instrumentality through which this divine Being works in bringing life to the dead world. The differences in point of view between them receive a fair illustration in the Introductions which the evangel- ists have severally prefixed to their narratives. Luke begins his Gospel with a short paragraph designed to establish confidence In the trustworthiness of his ac- count of the life and work of the world's Redeemer. Mark opens his with a few words which connect Jesus' career with the subsequent expansion of the religion He founded. Matthew's commences with a reference to the previous development of the people of God, and presents the apparition of Jesus as the culminating act of the God of Israel in establishing His Kingdom in the world. All these take their starting-point In the phenomenal, and busy themselves with exhibiting the superhuman majesty of this man of God's ap- pointment, the Christ of God. John, on the other hand, takes his readers back at once into the noumenal; and Invites them to observe how this divine Being came into the world to save the world, and how His saving work was wrought In the capacity of the Messiah of Israel. It Is in his pro- logue, therefore, that John sets forth the platform of his Gospel, which is written with the distinct purpose that its readers may be led to believe that Jesus Is not merely the 'Christ,' but the 'Son of God' (20^*); for, that the term ' Son of God ' here has a metaphys-
The Designations in John 177
leal significance is scarcely open to question. In this sense John's Gospel is the Gospel of the deity of Christ; although it is clear that we can call it such In contrast with the Synoptists only relatively, not abso- lutely. In a sense not so fully true of them, however, it was written to manifest the deity of Christ.
In his prologue, then, John tells us with clear and even crisp distinctness what in His essential Being he
conceives the Jesus to be whose life and of John ^ teaching in the world he is to give an
account of in his Gospel. And what he tells us is, in one word, that this Jesus is God. In tell- ing this he makes use of a phraseology not only not found in the other evangelists, but absolutely peculiar to himself. The person of whom he is speaking he identifies at the close of the prologue (i") by the solemn compound name of ' Jesus Christ,' as Mark and Matthew also at the opening of their Gospels had made use of the same great name to identify the sub- ject of their discourse; and, like them, John also makes no further use of this full name in his Gospel (cf., however, 17^). The particular designation he applies to this person in order to describe His essential nature is 'the Word' (o Uyo^) . Of this 'Word' he de- clares that He was in the beginning, that Is, that He Is of eternal subsistence; that He was eternally "with God," that is, that He is in some high sense distinct from God; and yet that He was eternally Himself God, that Is, that He Is In some deep sense identical with God (i*'^'^); and nevertheless that in due time He became flesh, that is, that He took upon Himself a human nature (i"), and so came under the observa-
lyS The Designations of Our Lord
tion of men and was pointed out by John the Baptist as the ' Coming One,' that is, the Messiah. In further elucidation of His essential nature, He is described as the 'only begotten from the Father' (i^^) or even more poignantly as 'God only-begotten' (i^^).
!A11 this phraseology is unique in the New Testa- ment. Nowhere else except Rev 19^^ is Jesus Christ called the 'Word' (ji-i'i-i^ only, with the possible exceptions of i Jno i\ Heb 4^^). Nowhere else, ex- cept Jno 3^^'^^ I Jno 4*^, Is He called the ' Only Be- gotten.' Yet the general sense intended to be conveyed is perfectly clear. John wishes to declare Jesus Christ God; but not God in such a sense that there Is no other God but He. Therefore he calls Him ' the Word,' — ' the Word ' who Is indeed God but also alongside of God, that Is to say, God as Revealer: and he adds that He Is ' God only begotten,' the Idea conveyed by which Is not derivation of essence, but uniqueness of relation, so that what is declared is that beside Jesus Christ there is no other, — He is the sole complete representation of God on earth.^ In harmony with these designations he calls Him also in this pro- logue the 'Light' ( it-*'5].7.s,9^ — ^ designation more fully developed by our Lord Himself In His discourses. The effect of the whole is to emphasize In the strongest manner at the inception of the Gospel the divine nature of the 'Jesus Christ' who Is to be the subject of Its