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 earth; which may well be, although the word does ‘not necessarily imply this; for in Apoc. xxi. 3, it is said of the heavenly Jerusalem “the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will set up his tabernacle (exnvécer) with them.”
Dante alludes to the incarnation in the seventh canto of the “‘ Paradiso: ”
——*‘‘ the human species down below Lay sick for many centuries in great error, Till to descend it pleased the Word of God To where the nature, which from its own Maker Estranged itself, He joined to Him in person By the sole act of His eternal love.”
Among us (év juiv). In the midst of us. Compare Gen. xxiv. 3, Sept., “the Canaanites, with whom I dwell (ue¥ av éyw oix® év avrois).” The reference is to the eye-witnesses of our Lord’s life. ‘ According as the spectacle presents itself to the mind of the Evangelist, and in the words among us takes the character of the most personal recollection, it becomes in him the object of a delightful contemplation ” (Godet).
The following words, as far as and including Father, are parenthetical. The unbroken sentence is: “The Word be- came flesh, and dwelt among us, full of grace and truth.”
We beheld (€9eacdueda). Compare Luke ix. 32; 2 Pet. ii. 16; 1 Johni.1; iv. 14. See on Matt. xi. 7; xxiii. 5. The word denotes calm, continuous contemplation of an object which remains before the spectator.
Glory (dd€av). Not the absolute glory of the Eternal Word, which could belong only to His pre-existent state, and to the conditions subsequent to his exaltation; but His glory revealed under human limitations both in Himself and in those who be- held Him. The reference is again to the Old Testament man‘