3. St. John started with Jesus of Nazareth, and he has reached this : " In the beginning was the Word." But he cannot rest in that. Jesus was the Word in Old Testament times and earlier, because He uttered God's will. He came into the world to utter it. But He did not separate Himself from God by coming into the world. You must not say that the Word is here and God is yonder. If He could thus be separated from God, He could not perfectly reveal God. He must be in closest proximity, in proximity of heart and will. He must rather he God to men than represent God to men. And so the Old Testament writers speak of the Angel of the I>ord, and next moment let the Angel of the Lord say, " I am the God of Abraham." And in like manner St. John says that all the while Jesus was the Word and was coming into the world to reveal God's will to men, He was "with God." St. John caught the thought from Jesus, "As thou, Father, art in me and I in thee." Indeed,
ST. JOHN I. I 5
St. John caught all these thoughts from Jesus, and we may trace them all from words of Christ he himself has reported.
4. Starting from Jesus of Nazareth, St. John has now reached two thoughts: Jesus is the pre-existent Word, and though He was continually revealing God's will to the world, He never left the Father's presence. He was more than in constant communi- cation with God. He did more than come and go between the earth and heaven. He was always with God. He was always, not only doing God's will, but willing it. And that leads in- evitably to a third thought. If the will of the Word and of God is one, then the Word and God are themselves one. There is God the Father, whom no man hath seen or can see. There is also God the Son, who constantly made Himself seen and known from the beginning, and in St. John's own day had flesh and dwelt among men, so that St. John and the rest could say of Him: "We have heard, we have seen with our eyes, we have looked upon, and our hands have handled." And these two are one God. It is a long way to go from Jesus of Nazareth, " whose father and mother we know"; but the way was open and un- obstructed, and Jesus Himself showed it. St. John, who saw Jesus nailed to the cross on Calvary by rough Eoman soldiers, says at last, "In the beginning was (Jesus) the Word, and (Jesus) the Word was with God, and (Jesus) the Word was God." And he writes these things " that believing ye may have life in his name."
The Word,
1. Let lis look in at this writer's workshop, and watch him choosing his themes and even at times his very language: or rather let us listen to the religious teacher as, with disciples around him, he proceeds to recall, and probably dictate to one of them, his reminiscences of his Lord, and, before doing so, tries to show the central importance of the life which he is going to illustrate.
That life, he has come to see more and more, was no accident in history ; each saying, each action had grown in meaning as he
6 THE WORD
had watched each prophecy fulfilled, and seen the power of each act repeated in the experience of the Christian Church ; the life was of eternal significance ; it came from God and told of God in every detail; it was the act of that God who had ever been revealing Himself : it was a link, the most important link, in a chain of continuous revelation. Now Jewish and Greek and Christian thought alike had long been feeling after some means of expressing this method of revelation, some Being who could mediate between the infinite God and the finite creature, who could act as God's organ in creation and in providence. And the writer had seen Jesus Christ control creation, he had known His care for himself and for the Church ; of this, at least, he is sure, that, however that Being is to be defined, He is one with Jesus Christ.
What title then shall he choose out of the many descriptions and definitions which had been given of Him? Among these many he has practically a choice of two alternatives, which stood out prominently from among all other titles. Shall he call Him " The Wisdom of God " or shall he call Him " The Word of God " ? ' There was much to be said for either. "The Wisdom" would recall at once the whole Wisdom literature of the Old Testament ; and it would have support in our Lord's own words (Matt. xi. 19 ; Luke vii. 35, xi. 49). But it would have this drawback ; it would suggest primarily the thought of a quality immanent in the mind of God, the wisdom of the Divine architect, the plan in His mind on which all material things were modelled. But our writer's aim is rather to show how God has been revealed^ interpreted to man ; his thought is not primarily that the world had been the perfect work of a wise Creator and Jesus Christ the climax of His work, but that ever since creation there had been a revealing of God to man, and that Jesus Christ had been the fullest organ of that Eevelation. The Word, then, will be the better title for his purpose.