The Pulpit Commentary — John — Volume 1 — Section 160

turo 1md !he impoeing oontroversies which veritable Light which lightetl1 every mnn" have &0C't11nulat.cd over the entirely uniqno is the illumination which the Life pours o~ sentence Orn! here follows render any treat- the understanding and conscienco of men, ment of it difficult. A volume rather ths.n t~ which all prophecy bears witness; but a page or hrn is requil'('d to exhibit the Im is not se.id to have become thnt light. • eignifi<'ance of a \'erse which is probftbly the Thus the incarnntion of the Logos in every 1 most important oollocation of words ever Illl\n is most certninly foreign to the thought made. of the apostle. Ho is se.id to hnve been · Ver. 14.-(5) The incarnation of the Logos. "in the world'' which ho mnde, yet in such And the Logoa beoame flesh. The 1eal bas manifestation and concealment that the been Ye.riously expanded, some giving it the world as such did not apprehend the force of " then" or "therefore," as though wondrous presence; nnd he is said o.lso to John Wll.8 now resuming the entire argument have been continually coming to his own from the beginning; others the sense of people "in sundry times" o.nd "divers "for," e.s though the apostle needed to mnnncrs," in prophetic visions o.nd o.ngelio introdncc a reason or justification for whe.t and even theanthropic form or fo.shion. had been said in ,ers. 12, 13. It is enough Elsewhere in this Gospel we hear that to regard the rcal M a simple copula, after Abraham "saw his day," o.nd Ise.io.h "beheld the same manner in which it is used in bis glory;" but it is not so.id tho.t he became, vers. 1, 4, 5. 10, introducing by it a new i.e. entered into perm[l.nent and uno.lterable and suggcsti"l"e truth or fact which must be rebtions with these theopho.nio glories. added to what has gone before, qualifying, Consequently, the deep self-conscious reali- illumining, illustrating, consummnting all zation of the glory of his Name, enjoyed by pre,ioue representations of the activity and greatest saints and sages of the past, was functions of the Eternal Logos. Meyer, but o. faint adumbro.tion of what John rejecting all the explicative modifications declared he and others had bad distinct of the copula, nearly approaches the historical opportunity of seeing, bearing, emphasis which Godet would lay upon it, handling, of that Word of life which was by saying," John cannot refrain from ex- with the Father, and was manifested unto pressiDg the how of that appearing which us (l John i. 1, 2). The statement of this had snch blessed results (vers. 12, 13), and verse,howevcr, is entirely, absolutely unique. which he had himself experienced." The The thought is utterly new. Strauss tells • circumstance that in this verse the author us that the apostolic conception of Jesus • goes back to the verbal use of the great can have no historic validity, because it term o Ao-,os suggests rather the fact that represents a state of things which occurs no- the fourteenth verse follows directly upon where else in history. Thi, is ezactly what the stupendous definitions of ver. l, and Christians contend for. He is in the deepest indicates a powerful antithesis to the several sense absolutely unique in the history of clauees of that opening sentence. The mankind. Moses, Isaiah, John the Baptist, Logos which was in the beginning has now John the Apostle, Socrates, Buddha, Zoro- become ; the Logos which was God became aster, may have borne witness to the Light ; fteah ; the Logos that was with God has set but of not one of them can it be said, o.nd up his tabernacle among ,1s. If so, the ,ea.I at least it was not said or even imagined by does suggest a parenthetical treatment of St. John, the Logos became fiesh in their vers. 2-13, every clause of which has been humanity. Yet this is what he did think necessary to prepare the read.er for the vast and say was the only explanation of the announcement which is here made. Various glory of Jesus; this unspeake.ble relo.tion things, relations, and powers have been to tho Eternal Logos was sustained by his . asserted with reference to the Logos. All well-known Friend and Me.ster. .And the things became through him ; not a single Word was made flesh. Flesh (crd.p{, answer- exception is allowed. Not one thing can ing in the LXX. to il;'f) is the term used to be, or ce.n have come into existence, inde- denote the whole of humanity, with prominent pendently of him; yet he is not said in any reference to that part of it which is the senae to have "become all things." More region of sensibility and visibility. The than that, the twofold form of the expres- word is more comprehensive tho.n (er"'//-") sion stringently repudiates the pantheistic "body," which is often used as the antithesis hypothesis. All life is said to be "in him," of 11ovs, ,t,ux-fi, and 1rv,vµ.a; for it is unques- to have i!Jl being in his activity; yet he is tionable that the conventional use of crdp~, not said to have become life, as if the life- and crdp! Kai aTµa., includes oftentimes both principle were henceforth the mode of his soul and spirit-includes the whole of human existence, or a state or condition into which constitution, yet that constitution considered he pused, and so the emanation theories ape.rt from God and gro.ce, answering in of early Gnostics and of modem pantheistic this way to ,cocrµ.os, The fiesh is not neces• evolutioni.Jsts a.re virtue.lly aet uide. •• The urily connotative of sin, though the oon- OlJ, I, 1-61.] THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN. 17