The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 153

ond Hort have introdaced into the text; atoms and living energies nod individualities. but R.T. l.uLe coincided with T.R. Dr. The a.ssertion now is that life, (""1, with a.ll Weel.cott !me an olo.bore.te note affirming its manifestations and in a.II its regions; that the deep thought involved in the "ancient the life of plant, tree, a.ad anima.l, the life of punotue.tion," to the effect tho.t the 8 -.,l-.,o- ma.n, of society, and of worlrls as such ; that """ refers, not merely to the origine.l creation, the life of the body, soul, and spirit, the life l-ylv.-ro, but to the continued existence of transitory and the life eternal ((.,iJ aldivio<), that which"he.e come into being. Of this, it waa in the Logos, "who wae God and in the is ea.id, it derives ite life, he.a ite life in thebeginning with God." Elsewhere in the Logos, e.nd that this ideo. is expressed in e. Gospel Jesus said that" as the Father had profounder we.y the.n by ee.ying tx .. (w¾v; life in himself, so he gave to the Son to ha.ve tho.t it was life (before it we.a called into life in himself" (eh. v. 26); i.e. he communi- being, or became) in him. This profound cated to the Son his own Di vine self-depend- e.nd mysterious ete.tement is affirmed by Dr. ence. The Gospel, however, la.ye the greatest Moulton e.ncl Dr. Westcott to find different emphe.sis on the life-giving powers of the but clee.r expression in Rev. iv. 11, "Thon Christ e.s incarnate Logos. The healing of the a.rt worthy, our Lord and our God. to receive impotentma.n (eh. v.), the raising of the dead glory, etc. ; for thou didst create e.ll things, Laze.ms (eh. xi.), a.re chosen proofs of his e.nd for thy plea.sure they were [~11<1v, the life-giving energy. His claim (eh. x.) to reading preferred by Tischendorf (8th edit.) rete.ke the life that he wonld voluntarily e.nd Westcott e.nd Hort, instead of •fo·., 'they relinquish, a.nd the august majesty with e.re'Jund werecree.ted." Dr. Westcottthiuks which, in his resurrection-life (eh. xx., x.xi.), the.t "life" here represents "the Divine he proclaimed his absolute and final victory element in cree.tion, that in virtue of which over death, constitute the reasons which iu- things 'a.re' each o.ccording to the falness of dnced the evangelist to la.y down a.t the very its being." What has been created repre- outset that in the Logns was life. Lifo, in sents the eternal thought, the Jite that it had all its energies, past, present, and future, is in the Logos before tlle world was. U nles3 an outcome, an effluence, of the Eternal Word. one were compelled to take this thought by And the life wa.s (and is) the light of men. the exigencies of the textual criticism, we Observe, it is not said here tha.t physical life should hesitate to affirm the.t this can be the is a. consequence or issue of the solar beam, author's intention. To us the common punc- or of the Word which in the beginning called tuation is fo.r more satisfactory m meo.ning: light out of darknesa. All the religious .Apart from him there came into existence systems of the East and all modern sciences not one thing which has come into existence. agree to extol and all hut worship the light- This, in its grand comprehensiveness and force, with o.11 that seems so inseparably a.sso- individualizing of every molecule and every ciated with it. The evangelist was reaching force, brings the mind of the reader down after something far more momentous even from eternity to time, from the creation to than that dogma of o.nciel!t faith and modern the preservation and providence of the science. He is not speaking of "the light of world, and it prepares the way for the great the sun," hut of" the light of men." What- assertion of the following verse. ever this illumination may include, John Ver. 4,-(a) The Life, and therefore inclu- does not refer it directly to the Logos, but to sive of the fact that the Logos always hus the life which is" in him." "The light of been and now is (b) the Light of men. In men" has been differently conceived by ex- him was I life. " Life " in all its fulness positors. Calvin supposed that the •• under- of meaning-that grand addition to things ~tanding" was intended-" that the life of which confers upon them all their signifi- men was not of a.n ordinary description, hut cance for men. There is one impasso.ble wus united t-0 the light of understanding," chasm which neither history, nor science, nor and is that by which mo.n is differentiateu philosophy can span, viz. that between from animals. Hengstenberg regards it, in nothing nnd something. The evangelist consequence of numerous associations of has found the only possible method of facing ''light" with "salvation" inHolyScripture, it-by the conception of One who from eter- a.s equivalent to salvation; Lutha.rdt with nity has within himself the potency of the " holiness ; " and many with the "eternal transition. There is another impassable life," which would introduce great tautology. chusm in thought-that between non-living The context is our best l?llide. This ligh, is said to he the veritable light which lighteth 1 The reading lu-rf11 is o. very ancient inter- every man, and to be shining into darkness. pretative gloss, introduced by Tischendorf Consequently, to make it the comple.x of all (8th edit.) into the toxt, on the authoritv of the gracious processes which bee.utify the tt, D, a codex known to Origen, a, b, c, but not renewed soul is to hurry on faster than the adopted by Tregelles, Westcott and Hort, or aposile, and to anticipate the evolutiou of R.T. his thought. "The light of men" seem.s t.J 1() THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOIIN. [cu. 1. 1-IH.