That eternal life (tiv Soiv Tiv aidmov). A particularly faulty translation, since it utterly fails to express the develop- ment of the idea of life, which is distinctly contemplated by the original. Render, as Rev., the life, the eternal life; or the life, even the eternal life. For a similar repetition of the art- icle compare 1 John ii. 8; iv. 9; 2 John 11. This particular phrase occurs only here and ii. 25. John uses a7) ai@vios eternal life, and % at@vios fw the eternal life, the former ex- pressing the general conception of life eternal, and the latter eternal life as the special gift of Christ. Aidvios eternal, de- scribes the life in its quality of not being measured by time, a larger idea than that of mere duration.
Which (iris). Not the simple relative 4 which, but defin- ing the quality of the life, and having at the same time a kind of confirmatory and explanatory force of the word eternal: see- ing that it was a life divine in its nature—“ with the Father”— and therefore independent of temporal conditions.
With the Father (spds tov ratépa). See on with God (John j.1). In living, active relation and communion with the Father. “The preposition of motion with the verb of repose involves eternity of relation with activity and life” (Coleridge). The life eternally tended to the Father, even as it emanated from Him. It came forth from Him and was manifested to men, but to the end that it might take men into itself and unite them with the Father. The manifestation of life to men was a reve- lation of life, as, first of all and beyond all, centring in God. Hence, though life, abstractly, returns to God, as it proceeds from God, it returns bearing the redeemed world in its bosom. The complete divine ideal of life includes impartation, but im- partation with a view to the practical development of all that receives it with reference to God as its vivifying, impelling, regulating, and inspiring centre.
The Father. See on John xii. 26. The title “¢he Father” occurs rarely in the Synoptists, and always with reference to the Son. In Paul only thrice (Rom. vi.4; 1 Cor. viii. 6; Eph.