The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 148

At this point B novrl revolution of thought nor Ezekiel e.t the river of Chobe.r, have is commenced, chBracterizcd by more intense ever seen, in the sense in which Jesus sBw, brillie.ncy e.nd effice.city, bet'&use revee.led in the face of the Father. The only begotten o. ne.rrower range of fact. He touches the Son who was with God and we.s God, and in 'l"ery focus and oentre of Divine manifesta- the bosom of the Fe.ther, he he.th revealed tion, when he says, "And the Word was him. The entire proem does not oease till it made flesh, and tabeme.cled e.mong us." reaches this triumphe.nt peroration. Detailed "The ·word" did not become "nil things," exegesis of the passage can alone justify thia nor was he identified with life, still less estimate of the significance of the prologue. with light. The wide radiance and glorious Different commentators have divided it some- glancing of the light we.s not identified with what differently, e.nd many have drawn too the objects on which through prophetic sha.rp a distinction between the pre-incarna- agencies it e.lighted. The .-cz l'li,.., the specie.I tion life of the Logos, and the historice.l, race of light-bearers, were not, even in their theocratic, or ecclesiastioal manifestation. I.J..ighest form of recipiency, incarnations of Surely that which the eternal Logos was the Word. Neither conscience, nor prophecy, before his mauifesto.ticn and before the nor Shechinah-glory was of the substance or humiliation of the infinite love, he was e.nd essenoe of "the Word," although all the must havo been during the human life of energy of each of these was and is e.nd ever Jesus, he must he now, and he must ever will be the shining of the primal light on be. In other words: The Word, who was in humanity. the beginning with God, is still" with God." This is the theory of the writer of this All life is continually the effluence of one of prologue, but his chief contribution to the bis infinite energies; all light is the efful- sum of huma.n thought is that "this Word gence of that bright essence uncreate. He is became flesh." Having announced this still coming" to his own," and'' they receive stupendous fact, the e.uthor rele.tee the evi- him not." The processes described in vers. dence of his own personal, living e::::peri- 6-13 have never ceased; nay, they are indeed ence; and he records his invincible assent more conspicuoue than they ever were before to this unique and central glory of Divine in the ministry of the Word, but they have manifestation. This a.t once lea.de to a few not exhausted nor diminished one iota of the oompreheneive antitheses drawn between the stupendoue n.ctivity of the eternal, creative, Incarnation 8.l.ld all the most illustrious and revealing Logos. luminous of previous revelations. Just as The first pa.rt of the Gospel, consisting of vers. 6, 7 revealed the di1ference between eh. i-iv., we have already described as prophecy o.nd the "light of men," so, having come to this focal point of splendour, L THE REVELATION 01!' THE Looos TO prophecy again spee.ks in the person of the THE WOBLD. Baptist ; and ver. 15 cites the highest testi- Vers.1-18.-1. The hypothesis framed by mony to the supreme :rank of the incarnate the evangelist to account for I.he series of God above the greatest of the teachers of facu which he is a.bout to narrate 'is seen especially in ver. 14; but before asserting men. In ver. 16 the apostle refers to the this greot feet that the Word we.s me.de Incarnate Word as the Source of all apostolic flesh, he proceeds to show (I) 171e pre-ezid-. emotions and life. Through him, and not ence, pei·sonality, and Divinity.of the Logos. I from the mere teachings of prophecy or Ver. 1.-In the beginning was the Word. c!lnscience, have we all received grace and From early times expositors have perceived 1 that the evangelist essayed here a com- \ truth. Then, sweeping back to the grandest pa.risen with the lv a.pxff (" in the begin- epoch-ma.king man and moment of all past ning") of the first verse of the Book ot history, Moses himself appears to shine only Genesis. This ce.n hardly be doubted; but like the light of a waning moon in the advent the resemblance immediately cee.ses or is of the dawn. More than that; neither Adam transformed into e.n antithesis; for whereBB the Mosaic narrative proceeds to indicate in Paradise, nor Noah gazing on the averted the beginning of the oree.tion and of time bow, nor Abrliham at Moriah, nor Je.cob at by saying, "In the beginning God c1eated. Peniel, nor Moses in the cleft of the rock, nor the heavens and the earth," this passage I Elijah &t Horeb, nor 18a.ia.h ill the temple, asserts that the Word then 10,11. He wu: CIT. I. 1-5] .] THE GOSPEL AOCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 5