206 INTRODUCTION TO THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. From the earliest age of the church, this Gospel has been unanimously ascribed to John, "that disciple whom Jesus loved," and who was permitted to recline on his bosom. Its authorship was not questioned by the early adversaries of Christianity, and its canonical authority has been universally admitted by Christians. John was son of Zebedee and Salome, and a younger brother to James the Greater. His mother, Salome, is said by Theophylact to have been a daughter of Joseph, (the husband of Mary,) by a former marriage. Whether on this account, or in consequence of his amiable and affectionate disposition, this apostle was regarded with peculiar tenderness by our Lord, and admitted to the closest and most confidential intimacy. He was selected, with James and Peter, to witness the transfiguration, the raising of the ruler's daughter, and the agony in the garden; and to him alone was committed the care of Mary, the mother of Jesus. See ch. xix. 26, 27. He was early called to the apostleship, Matt. iv. 21, 22; and he was active and zealous in the performance of his ministry. See Acts, ch. ii., iii., iv., viii. Ecclesiastical historians inform us, that the latter part of his life was spent in Asia Minor, chiefly at Ephesus; that he was banished, near the close of Domitian's reign, to the isle of Patmos, where he wrote the Apocalypse; that he subsequently returned to Ephesus, wrote his three Epistles and this Gospel, and died in that city, about A. D. 100, in the one hundredth year of his age. A characteristic anecdote is preserved of him. When very aged and unable to preach, he was accustomed to exhort the church at every meeting, "Little children, love one another." And when some inquired, why he so constantly reiterated this exhortation, he replied, "Because it is the Lord's command; and if it be obeyed, this alone is sufficient." The same spirit is manifest, throughout the Gospel and Epistles of this "beloved" and loving apostle; and some have suggested, that he is thus sufficiently identified as the author, even if there were no other evidence of the fact. THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JOHN. IN CHAPTER I. N the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, CHAPTER I. 1-18. These verses contain what may be styled the Proem or Introduction to John's Gospel. Their interpretation is confessedly attended with some difficulties. Various and widely different theories have been adopted by different commentators. By Trinitarians, the Logos, translated Word, is understood to mean our Lord Jesus Christ; and the whole passage, to prove his supreme divinity. and the Word was God. 2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him ; 17. It does not appear credible that John should first represent his Master as the supreme God, and then record his Master's testimony to the contrary; or, more plainly, that the spirit of truth should assert, in the introduction to this gospel, what it manifestly contradicts, in other portions of it. A different interpretation is given by Norton. The importance of the subject will justify a somewhat long quotation. "Let us now examine whether the language of the apostle can be better But the idea that our Lord Jesus Christ explained, if we understand him as using was verily and absolutely the supreme the term Logos merely to denote the God, "the same in substance, and equal attributes of God manifested in his in power and glory," with the Father, is works. It was his purpose, in the innot easily reconciled with the uniform troduction of his gospel, to declare that description of him by the other evan-Christianity had the same divine origin gelists and apostles, and by John also in the remainder of his gospel. They describe him as praying to God for blessings which he desired, soinetimes even "with strong crying and tears," Heb. v. 7; thanking God for favors bestowed; professing his dependence on God; commending to him his spirit, in the hour of dissolution; and ascending to him, after his resurrection. And it is worthy of remark, that some of the most striking instances of these facts are recorded by John. Witness the prayer and thank-offering, chap. xvii.; our Lord's assurance to his disciples, that the Father would bestow the Holy Spirit on them, or send them the Comforter, xiv. 16, 26; his declaration that he could of himself do nothing, but depended on the Father's assistance, v. 19, 30; and his language to Mary Magdalene, when he assured her that although he had not yet ascended to his Father, he should ascend very soon, xx. as the universe itself; that it was to be considered as proceeding from the same power of God. Writing in Asia Minor for readers, by many of whom the term Logos was more familiarly used than any other, to express the attributes of God viewed in relation to his creatures, he adopted this term to convey his meaning, because, from their associations with it, it was fitted particularly to impress and affect their minds; thus connecting the great truth which he taught with their former modes of thinking and speaking. But upon the idea primarily expressed by this term, a new conception, the conception of the proper personality of those attributes, had been superinduced. This doctrine, then, the doctrine of an hypostatized Logos, it appears to have been his purpose to set aside. He would guard himself, I think, against being understood to countenance it. The Logos, he teaches, was not the agent of God, but God himself. — It is and without him was not any thing | made that was made. of Power, as the translation of Logos. For myself, I would prefer the word Energy, which seems to express the idea with more exactness; wisdom signifies right knowledge, or, figuratively, ability to know; power, the ability to act or perform; energy combines in itself somewhat of the meaning of both the others, and hence appears more appropriate to denote the manifestation of God, in the creation of the world and in the language and miracles of his Son. Logos literally means word; but this may as well figuratively denote energy, as power or wisdom. then of the attributes of God, as dis- which, however, Wisdom is used instead played in the creation and government of the world, that St. John speaks under the name of the Logos. To this name we have none equivalent in English, for we have not the conception which it was intended to express. In rendering the first eighteen verses of St. John's Gospel, I shall adopt the term 'Power of God.' It is, perhaps, as nearly equivalent as any that we can conveniently use. But in order to enter into the meaning of the passage, we must associate with this term, not the meaning alone which the English words might suggest, according to their common use, but the whole notion of the Logos, as 1. In the beginning. John adopted present to the mind of the apostle. the same form of expression which MoAdopting this term, we may say that ses employed in the commencement of the Power of God, personified, is the his history, Gen. i. 1, and very probably subject of the introductory verses of his the coincidence was not accidental. He, gospel. It is first said to be God, and like Moses, was about to speak of the afterwards to have become a man. It creation of the world, and of the divine is first regarded in its relation to God energy by which it was accomplished. in whom it resides, and afterwards in Even if the phrase do not indicate a its relation to Jesus through whom it strict eternity, it refers, at least, to a was manifested. Viewed in the former period prior to the creation, as the cause relation, what may be said of the Power must necessarily have existed before the of God is true of God; the terms be- effect, the energy, before it accomcome identical in their purport. View- plished the creation. But whatever ed in the latter relation, whatever is may be its precise force, as used by true of the Power of God is true of Moses, the phrase here seems to denote Christ, considered as the minister of eternity, if, as I suppose to be the fact, God. His words were the words of it has reference to the existence of a God, his miracles were performed by divine attribute; for as God is perfect the power of God. In the use of such and unchangeable, his energy and all figurative language, the leading term his attributes must be coeval with his seldom preserves throughout the same existence. It should be observed, that determinate significance; its meaning John is speaking of the simple existvaries, assuming a new aspect according ence of the attribute, in this place, to the relations in which it is presented. while Moses refers to a particular maniThus an attribute may be spoken of as festation of it. Hence one may have personified, then simply as an attribute, indicated a limited, while the other and then again as identified with the must have indicated an unlimited, dusubject in which it resides, or the agent ration, by the same form of words. through whom it is manifested. In re-¶ Was the Word. The Logos, the gard to the personification of the Logos by St. John, which is a principal source of embarrassment to a modern reader, it was, as I have said, inseparable from the terms in which the conception was expressed, the actions ascribed to the Logos being of a personal character, and the use of the neuter pronoun being precluded by the syntax of the Greek Language."-Statement of Reasons, pp. 241-244. A similar theory is adopted by Lindsey, and approved by Lardner, Priestley, Wakefield, and others; in Energy of God. It had been a philosophic doctrine, that certain beings, or attributes personified, styled æons, emanated from the Deity, at sundry times; one of whom was called the Logos, by whom it was supposed the world was created. Some of the converts to Christianity, who had been previously instructed in this philosophy, did not abandon their former opinions on this point, but incorporated them with the genuine doctrines of Christ. Against this error, the apostle is supposed to 4 In him was life; and the life | was the light of men. case. so that seeing his power and Godhead is made equivalent to knowing God. Thus also our Saviour, appealing to the miracles which he wrought, argued that the divine power or energy, manifested by them, yielded sufficient proof that they were, not simply wrought by divine power, but truly the works of God. John v. 36; x. 37, 38; xiv. 9-11. 2. The same was in the beginning with God. The sentiment, already expressed in ver. 1, is here repeated, that a more distinct and emphatic condemnation of the philosophic fancy of æons might be understood. It is not, however, a mere repetition; for what was there implied is here declared positively namely, that the energy, which had always existed, which was with God and in God, had been with God from the beginning. It had never been separated from him, nor united to him anew; but was always with him, inherent in the Godhead. direct his testimony; asserting that the world was created, not by such a personal emanation from the Deity as philosophy dreamed, but by the direct energy of God himself; that energy, which was eternal as his own existence, and which was subsequently manifested in our Lord Jesus Christ. The Word was with God. In like manner, when Wisdom is personified by the author of the Proverbs, she is made to say, when God created the heavens, and earth, and sea, "then I was by him, as one brought up with him; and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him." Prov. viii. 30. But no one supposes that Wisdom is here used as the name of a being distinct from the Deity. The idea is, that his wisdom, like himself, was everlasting; that he had never been destitute of wisdom. So in this God's energy had never been wanting; it had always been present to him, as an inseparable attribute. Besides, the preposition, here used, 3. All things were made by him. We among its many shades of meaning, should say, in plainer speech, were sometimes signifies of, or belonging to; made by it. But the pronoun in the so that the phrase may mean that this Greek is masculine, because the syntax energy was a characteristic of God, his of the language requires it, and because, property, so to speak, something which while the divine energy is personified, exclusively belonged to or inhered in it is proper to speak of it as a person, And the Word was God. not as a thing or an attribute. Thus it So absolutely was his energy identified is written of Wisdom, when in like with himself, that it might appropriately manner personified, "she standeth in be called God. Thus does the apostle, the top of high places,"-" she crieth in the strongest possible manner, affirm at the gates," "her ways are ways of that the creation, ver. 3, was accom- pleasantness, and all her paths are plished by the supreme God, not by a peace." Prov. iii. 17; viii. 2, 3. But personal emanation from himself, but no one supposes that an individual creatby his own indwelling energy. Noted female is here intended. So neither altogether dissimilar is a form of speech, did John intend to represent any indioften used now, even in this matter-of-vidual, in any sense whatever distinct fact age, when the highly figurative from the Deity, as the creator of all language of the East falls strangely on things; on the contrary, this is the very our ears; we say that God may be seen idea which he opposed, and in condemin his works, meaning, that his works nation of which he declared that all bear the impress of his divine energy; things were made by that divine energy and thus do we speak of his energy which had always existed as an inand himself as one and the same. To separable attribute of God himself. the same effect is the language of Paul: And without him, &c. The same "The invisible things of him from the idea, expressed in a different form, accreation of the world are clearly seen, cording to a common Hebrew usage. being understood by the things that are The first member of the parallelism made, even his eternal power and God-asserts, that God by his divine energy head; so that they are without excuse; because that when they knew God, they glorified him not," &c. Rom. i. 20, 21. How knew they God? By discerning his power and divinity, in his works; himself. created all things; the second, that nothing was created by any other power. Thus was condemned not only the Platonic fancy that the universe was created by an individual emanation from 5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not. God, but also that other fancy, of Persian origin, that good and evil were created by different beings. The same opinion is referred to and condemned in the word of the Lord by his prophet :"I am the Lord, and none else. I form the light, and create darkness; I make peace and create evil; I, the Lord, do all these things." Isa. xlv. 6, 7. See also Rev. iv. 8-11. 4. In him was life. "Life, according to the tenets of this false philosophy, was one of the highest æons; Light was another of the same order, and darkness an antagonist being, or æon, to Light. But John shows, that Life and Light were not particular and separate spirits, but were inherent in the creative Word, in God, and were derived from him, and him alone, to bless mankind."-Livermore. A different view is given by Norton, who translates the verse thus:-"In him was the source of blessedness; and the source of blessedness was the light for He adds this note on the word man." ness:" "Zōė, (twi,) rendered in the 6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 The same came for a witness, glory of divine truth, darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness the people. Isa. lx. 2. And the moral and intellectual condition of the mass had not materially changed, when John wrote his gospel. With striking propriety might he say the light shineth in the midst of darkness. Notwithstanding the moral and mental obscurity and lack of vision among the people, the light of revelation still shone with a mild and steady lustre. It was disregarded then; but in due time, Gentiles were to come to this light, and kings to the brightness of its rising. The darkness comprehended it not. Did not perceive it; was not penetrated by it; was not illuminated. For a time, the light of revelation was unable, so to speak, to penetrate the thick darkness which shrouded the minds of men. Or, without figure, men were so profoundly ignorant of spiritual truth, and so entirely under the dominion of error, that when the truth was revealed, it did not obtain ready access to their minds. 6. There was a man sent, &c. That is, John the Baptist. See note on Matt. iii. 1. It is said to have been a heresy, current in the days of the apostle, that the æon Light descended upon John, and endowed him with superior knowledge. Indeed, some believed he was the promised Messiah. This is evident from the inquiries made of him, Luke iii. 15, John i. 19-21. He had many disciples, even after Jesus commenced preaching, Matt. ix. 14; and, long after our Lord's ascension, we find at Ephesus, in which city many suppose this gospel was written, sundry disciples of John, who had kept themselves so entirely aloof from the disciples of Jesus, that they had "not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost." Acts xix. 1-3. It was one object of the apostle, to correct the erroneous opinions of men concerning John the Baptist. Hence he proceeds, in the succeeding verses, to show, that John was not the Light, or the medium through whom it was communicated to 5. The light shineth in darkness. men, which he confirms by the testiLight is often put for truth, and dark-mony of John himself. ness for ignorance, in the scriptures. 7,8. Came for a witness. He came, When our Lord appeared to reveal the as the voice of one crying in the wilder |