The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 159

origino.tion within them of filio.l feeling. Logos by the peculiar possession 11nd people Thus o. new life is be!(otten o.ncl supervenes of his love, there were from A bre.ha.m to upon the old life. 'I'his new Ii fe is e. new M11lo.chi ancl to John 'the Baptist, those humo.nity within the bosom or womb of the who did recognize the Light and live in the old, o.ncl so it corresponcls with the Po.uline love of God. The author of Pd. xvi., xvii., doctrine of new orention o.nd of resurrection. xxiii., xxv., ciii., cxix., and a multitude be- 'E~ouula. is more tho.n opportunity, and less yond calculation, discerner! anrl received tho.n (86vciµas) power; it is rightful claim him, walked in the light of the Lord, were (which is itself the gift of God) to become kept in perfect peace, founcl in the Lord whr.t they wero not before, seeing the.t e. their most exceeding joy. "Like e.s a. Divine generation has begotten them age.in. father pitieth his children, eo the Lord They a.re born from o.bove. The Spirit of pitied _them." He nourished and brought the Son he.a po.seed into them, e.nd they cry, up children, and to the extent to which '' Abba, Fo.ther." This Divine begetting is they appreciated his holy Ne.me they therein still flll'ther explained and differentie.ted received e.s a. gift the capability and claim from ordinary humo.n life. The writer dis- to ca.11 him their Father. Thie was not n. tinctly repudiates the idea that the con- question of human fatherhood or hereditary dition he speaks of is e. consequence of privilege at all, hut of gracious exchanges of simple birth into this world. This is done affection between these children of hi,, love in e. very emphatio manner (o1 here in the and the Eternal, who had fashioned them masculine, is the well-known constructio ad in his image and regenerated them by his ,en8'Um, e.nd refers to ..-,1<va. ®eoii). Who were Holy Spirit. To restrict any element of begotten from God, not from (or, of) blood. this passage to conscious faith in the Chrut (The pllll'a.l word a./µJ..,-..,v has been variously is to repudiate the activity of the Logos a.nd rendered by expositors : Augustine regard- Spirit before the Ince.rna.tion, a.nd almost ing it as a reference to the blending of the compels a. Sabellian interpretation of the blood of both sexes in ordinary generation ; Godhead. Even now ·the grandeur of the Meyer, a.a not different from 'the singular in biblical doctrine of the Trinity-a doctrine meaning, giving numerous passages in the which treats these relations a.s eternal and classics where this or an equivalent usage universa.l~ompels us to believe that when- of the plural for the singular occlll's. The ever among the sons of men there is a sonl suggestion of Moulton is more satisfa.ctory- which receives the Logos in this light, i.e. that it points to pride of race, common a.po.rt from the special revelation of the enough in Israel, but not peculiar to Jews.) Logos in the flesh, to suc.h a one he gives John repudiat.E's for this "generation" any the capacity and claim of sonship. ,John connection with mere hereditary privilege. certainly could not mean to imply that there No twice-born Brahmin, no dignified race, had never been a. regenerated soul uutil he no descendant of Abraham, can claim it as and his fellow-disciples accepted their Lord. such, and the writer fUJ'ther discriminates Up to this point in his argument he has It, as though he would leave no loophole for been disclosing the uni versa! a.nd the special escape : Nor yet from the will of the 11.esh, operations of the Logos who in the begin- 11or even from the will of the man (civSp,h ning was with God and was God. the SoUJ'ce not civ9pw,rou). Some, very erroneously, have of 1111 life, the Giver of all light, the veri- supposed that "the 11.esh " here refers to table Light which shines upon e'l'ery man, "woman" in coutradistinction to "man," and which does more even than that-which numerous efforts have been made to point made a long-continued series of approaches out the threefold distinction. The simplest to his own specially instructed and prepared and most obvious interpretation is that people. Prophecy all through the ages ha.s " the will of the flesh" here means the had a wondrous function to bear witness to human process of generation on its lower the reality of this Light, tha.t all might be- side, and " the will of the man " the higher lieve in it, that all might become sons by plll'poses of the nobler side of human na\ure, faith ; but, alas I darkness, prejudice, de- which lead to the 1:1ame end. Special dig- pravity, corruption-" darkness" diu not nity is conferred by being the son of a special apprehend the nature, name, or mystery of father; but however honoured such might love. And so he proceeds to describe the be, as in the case of an Abraham, a Do.vid, o. greatest, the most Slll'prising, su pxeme energy Zacharias, such paternity bas nothing to do of the Eternal Logos-that which illustrates, with the sonship of which the evangelist is confirms, brings into the most forcible relief, thinking. Doubtless this triumphant new be- the nature of his personality, and the extent ginning of humanity can only be found in the of the obligation under which he has pie.cad full revelation of the no.me of the ince.m11te the human race ; and proves in the most Logos ; but surely the primary application irresistible way, not only the cha.meter and of the passage is to the fa.et that, notwith- nature of God, but the actua.l condition of 11widing the stiil'-necli.ed rejection of the humanity. The gree.t extent of the litera- l(i THE GOSPEL ACCORDING 'l'O ST. JOHN. [ea. 1. 1-51.