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CHAP. I.
1. IN the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God.
[Ftn: The Word. “Jesus is so called, because God revealed himself, or his word, by him." Newcome. The same title is given to Christ, Luke i. 2. For the same reason he is called the Word of life, 1 John i. 1. which passage is so clear and useful a comment upon the proem to the gospel, that it may be proper to cite the whole of it. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the Word of life; for the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show to you, that aionian Life which was with the Father, and was manifested to us; that which we have seen and heard, declare we to you.” By a similar metonymy Christ is called the Life, the Light, the Way, the Truth, and the Resurrection. See Cappe's Dissertion - i. p- 19]
2. The same was in the beginning with God. 3. All things were done by him; and without him, was not any thing done that hath been done.
[Ftn: All things were done by him.] “All things were made by him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” Newcome: who explains it of the creation of the visible material world by Christ, as the agent and instrument of God. See his notes on ver. 3 and 10. But this is a sense which the word EGENETO will not admit. GINOMAI occurs upwards of seven hundred times in the New Testament, but never in the sense of create. It signifies in this gospel, (where it occurs fifty-three times,) to be, to come, to become, to come to pass; also, to be done or transacted, chap. xv. 7.5 xix. 36. It has the latter sense, Matt v. 18; vi. 8; xxi. 42; xxvi. 6. All things in the christian dispensation were done by Christ, i. e. by his authority, and according to his direction; and in the ministry committed to his apostles, nothing has been done without his warrant. See John xv. 4, 5, “Without me ye can do nothing.” Compare ver. 7, 10, 16; John xvii. 8; Col. i. 16, 17. Cappe's Dissert. vol. i. p. 19.]
4. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. 5. And the light shone in darkness; and the darkness obscured it not. 6. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7. He came as a witness, to testify concerning the Light; that through him all might believe. 8. He was not himself the Light, but was sent to testify concerning the Light. 9. That was the true Light, which, having come into the world, is enlightening every man.
10. He was in the world, and the world was enlightened by him, and yet the world knew him not.
[Ftn. and the world was enlightened by him. hO KOSMOS DI AUTOU EGENETO. The common version, adopted by Abp. Newcome, is, “the world was made by him,” meaning that “the visible material world was created by him.” But this, as was observed before in the note on verse 3, is inadmissible, as the word EGENETO never bears that sense. In the present version PEFWTISMENOI, enlightened, is understood after EGENETO, as best connecting with the preceding verse. So ver. 6, a man was sent from God, EGENETO APESTALMENOS. And Matt. xxiii. 15. PROSHLUTOS is understood after GENETAI. Mr. Cappe translates the words, “the world was made for him;” understanding by the world, the Jewish dispensation, Gal. iv. 3; Col. ii. 8,20, and taking DIA with a genitive to express the final cause: of which he has produced several remarkable instances. Cappe, ibid. p. 50. The reader will judge which of these interpretations is to be preferred. See Improved Version, and the notes there]
11. He came to his own; and yet, those who were his own received him not. 12. But as many as received him, to them he gave authority to be the children of God, even to them who believe in his name: 13. who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. 14. And the Word was flesh, and he dwelt among us: (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the well-beloved who came from the Father,) full of kindness and truth; 16. for of his fulness we have all received; and favour for favour.
17. For the law was given by Moses; but favour and truth were by Jesus Christ. 18. No one hath seen God at any time; the well-beloved [Son] who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.
[well-beloved. “only son,” Im. Ver. “only begotten,” Newcome. See the lengthy notes on this subject, in the improved version.]
15. John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, “This is he of whom I said, 'He who cometh after me, is before me, for he is my chief.’”
[The connexion requires that the fifteenth verse should be placed between the eighteenth and nineteenth. See Boyer's Conjectures, and Wakefield in loco.]
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