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 unbelief of the Jewish people; the faith of the disciples. Between the first part (vv. 1-5) and the second (vv. 6-11), ver. 5 forms a transition, as vv. 12, 18 connect the second part with the third (vv. 12-18), which, in its turn, is in close connection with the first. The relation of this last part to the first, indi- cated by the similarity of thought and expression which may be observed between ver. 18 and ver. 1, may be expressed thus : The Person whom the Apostles beheld, who was proclaimed by John the Baptist, and in whom the Church believed (vv. 12-18), is none other than He whose existence and supreme greatness have been indicated by the title Logos. The Church possesses, therefore, in its Redeemer the Creator of all things, the Essen- tial Light, the Principle of Life, God himself. The original link between man and God, which sin had impaired (ver. 5), and which unbelief completely broke (ver. 11), is for the believer perfectly restored ; and, by means of faith, the law of Paradise (ver. 4) becomes once more the law of human history (vv. 16-18). Thus the Prologue forms a compact, organic whole, of which the germinal thought is this: by the Incarnation believers are
*T give the arrangement of the Prologue according to Godet.