The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 147

children or God, o.nd ho.d been generated as one bath seen God at any time ; the only euoh by the will of God, and, if children, begotten Son who is in the bosom of the tho.t they were heirs of God through Jesus Father, he bath declared him." From the Obrist (Rom. viii. 16, 17: Gal. iii. 26). first verse to the eighteenth the evangelist re- "Grace and truth" wero lighting up broken volves a.round the fundamental idea of " the and bewildered hearts when they accepted Word which was with God and was God." the reality of the Divine manhood of Jesus, Bot his aim is to show how the Word came and something better than the mere specu- into relations with man, and h0w man may lations of the schools of Palestine, Alex- come into relations with the Godhead through andria., or Ephesus wo.e needed in order to him who was manifested in the flesh in all explain (as he, the beloved disciple saw it) the fulness of grace and truth. the mystery of the life of Christ. That An obvious method of this author in the 'which he laid down as the solution of the Gospel, Epistles, and Apocalypse shows ~hat problem of "the beginning of the Goepel" he was wont to return upon thoughts which is called the prologue of this Goepel. Even he had previously uttered, yet at the same ape.rt from the inspiration which breathes time doing so in fresh cycles and with added through it, no passage in literature can be meanings (see Introduction). The large _cited which has exercised a more powerful spiral of his meditations sweeps at first influence upon the thought of the last round the entire region of "all things " .eighteen hundred years than that which which have their centre in the "Word o( sets forth John's fundamental ideas con- God: " "All things came into being through cerning the essence and character, the him." Then he formally discriminates be- idiosyncrasy and the energy, of the Divine tween "things" and "forces," and especi- fulnese which dwelt in Jesus. ally indicates the relation of '' the Word" The question has been a.eked- Where to the energies and blessedness of the ·/foes the prologue end? M; Renee strongly entire universe of sentient and responsible _presses the view that the proem terminated beings whieh derive o.11 their "life" from with the ·fifth verse, and that with the sixth the "life that is in him," and their "light " .the apostle commenced his historical recital. from that "life," indicating, as he pro- He urges that there is no break from the ceeds, the presence of the antagonism to the sixth to the eighteenth verse; that in this light and life displayed by our imperfect po.re.graph the author sets forth the general and damaged humanity (vers. 1-5). Here effect of the testimony of the historical the entire testimony of prophecy-gathered Baptist to Jesus; and that, in consequence up in the person of an historic man, John of it, a limited number of individuals were Baptist-ii! broadly characterized, and some led to recognize (1) the Divine nature of the conception of the aid which revelation and Word manifested in the flesh, (2) the truth of inspiration have given to men to recognize the . the 11Ssertions of the Baptist, (8) the radical light when they see it, and to hear the voice distinction between Moses and Christ, (4) of the Lord God while it speaks. The entire the faot that the true knowledge of God can function of prophecy is discriminated from only be obtained by the mediation of the the light-force at work in every living man. latter. Some preliminary advantage is thus The special aid given to the holy, prepared, secured by the critic who seeks to ally this and selected race, by the manner of his self- pare.graph with the rest of the history, and revelations brings the spiral thought round to impute to the whole Gospel, as well as to into the region of the intensified darkness ol the passage in question, the character of a those who refuse the brightest light (vers. theological . cilae.otio romance. The enor- 9-11), so the.tver.11 corresponds with ver. 5. mous majority of all scholars, while recog- Vera. 12, 13 pause in the region of light. nizing new points of departure at ver. 6, and Some souls a.re e.t least transformed into the age.in at vers. H-18, do not admit that the light, become conscious of a Divine genera- evangelist's preliminary representations or tion, a.re born:(through faith), independently presuppositions have come to a pa.use until of all earthly, national, or sacramental means, he reached the sublime utterance which into the same kind of relation to God that points so obviously be.ck to ver. I, "No has from eternity been enjoyed by the Wora  THE GOSPEL AOOORDING TO ST. JOHN. [os. 1. 1-61,