Expositor's Bible: The Epistles of St. John Part 8

II. LANGUAGE.

1. _Tenses._

In the New Testament generally tenses are employed very much in the same sense, and with the same general accuracy, as in other Greek authors.

The so-called "enallage temporum," or perpetual and convenient Hebraism, has been proved by the greatest Hebrew scholars to be no Hebraism at all. But it is one of the simple secrets of St. John's quiet thoughtful power, that he uses tenses with the most rigorous precision.

(_a_) The _Present_ of continuing uninterrupted action, _e.g._, i. 8, ii. 6, iii. 7, 8, 9.

Hence the so-called _substantized_ participle with article ? has in St.

John the sense of the continuous and const.i.tutive temper and conduct of any man, the principle of his moral and spiritual life--_e.g._, ? ?e???, he who is ever vaunting, ii. 4; pa? ? ?s??, every one the abiding principle of whose life is hatred, iii. 15; pa? ? a?ap??, every one the abiding principle of whose life is love, iv. 7.

The Infin. Present is generally used to express an action now in course of performing or _continued_ in itself or in its results, or _frequently repeated--e.g._, 1 John ii. 6, iii. 8, 9, v. 18. (Winer, _Gr. of N. T. Diction_, Part 3, xliv., 348).

(_b_) The _Aorist_.

This tense is generally used either of a thing occurring only once, which does not admit, or at least does not require, the notion of continuance and perpetuity; or of something which is brief and as it were only momentary in duration (Stallbaum, _Plat. Enthyd._, p. 140).

This limitation or isolation of the predicated action is most accurately indicated by the usual form of this tense in Greek. The aorist verb is encased between the augment e- past time, and the adjunct s- future time, _i.e._, the act is fixed on within certain limits of previous and consequent time (Donaldson, _Gr. Gr._, 427, B.

2). The aorist is used with most significant accuracy in the Epistle of St. John, _e.g._, ii. 6, 11, 27, iv. 10, v. 18.

(_c_) The _Perfect_.

The Perfect denotes action absolutely past which lasts on in its effects. "The idea of completeness conveyed by the aorist must be distinguished from that of a state consequent on an act, which is the meaning of the perfect" (Donaldson, _Gr. Gr._, 419). Careful observation of this principle is the key to some of the chief difficulties of the Epistle (iii. 9, v. 4, 18).

(2) The form of _accessional parallelism_ is to be carefully noticed.

The second member is always in advance of the first; and a third is occasionally introduced in advance of the second, denoting the highest point to which the thought is thrown up by the tide of thought, _e.g._, 1 John ii. 4, 5, 6, v. 11, v. 27.

(3) The _preparatory touch_ upon the chord which announces a theme to be amplified afterwards,--_e.g._, ii. 29, iii. 9--iv. 7, v. 3, 4; iii.

21--v. 14, ii. 20, iii. 24, iv. 3, v. 6, 8, ii. 13, 14, iv. 4--v. 4, 5.

(4) One secret of St. John's simple and solemn rhetoric consists in an _impressive change_ in the order in which a leading word is used, _e.g._, 1 John ii. 24, iv. 20.

These principles carefully applied will be the best commentary upon the letter of the Apostle, to whom not only when his subject is--

"De Deo Deum verum Alpha et Omega, Patrem rerum";

but when he unfolds the principles of our spiritual life, we may apply Adam of St. Victor's powerful and untranslatable line,

"Solers scribit idiota."

SECTION I.

GREEK TEXT. LATIN.

? ?? ap' a????, ? Quod fuit ab initio, a????ae?, ? ???a?ae? quod audivimus, et t??? ?f?a???? ???, vidimus oculis nostris, ? e?easae?a, ?a? a? quod perspeximus, et ?e??e? ??? e???af?sa? ma.n.u.s nostrae temtaverunt, pe?? t?? ????? t?? ????? de Verbo vitae; ?a? ? ??? efa?e????, et vita manifestata ?a? ???a?ae?, ?a? est, et vidimus et testamur, a?t????e?, ?a? apa??e???e? et adnuntiamus ??? t?? vobis vitam aeternam, ???? t?? a??????, ?t?? quae erat apud Patrem, ?? p??? t?? pate?a, et apparuit n.o.bis: quod ?a? efa?e???? ???? vidimus et audivimus, ? ???a?ae? ?a? a????ae?, et adnuntiamus vobis, apa??e???e? ut et vos societatem ???, ??a ?a? ?e?? habeatis n.o.bisc.u.m, et ???????a? e??te e?' societas nostra sit c.u.m ???? ?a? ? ???????a Patre, et Filio eius Iesu de ? ?ete?a eta t?? Christo. Et haec scripsimus pat??? ?a? eta t?? vobis ut gaudium ???? a?t?? ??s?? nostrum sit plenum.

???st??? ?a? ta?ta ??af?e? ???, ??a ?

?a?a ??? ? pep????e??.

AUTHORISED VERSION. REVISED VERSION.

That which was from That which was from the beginning, which the beginning, that we have heard, which which we have heard, we have seen with our that which we have eyes, which we have seen with our eyes, looked upon, and our that which we beheld, hands have handled, and our hands handled, of the Word of Life; concerning the Word (for the life was of life (and the life was manifested, and we manifested, and we have seen _it_, and bear have seen, and bear witness, and show unto witness, and declare you that eternal life, unto you the life, the which was with the eternal _life_, which was Father, and was manifested with the Father, and unto us;) that was manifested unto which we have seen us); that which we and heard declare we have seen and heard unto you, that ye declare we unto you also may have fellowship also, that ye also may with us: and truly have fellowship with our fellowship _is_ with us: yea, and our fellowship the Father, and with is with the his Son Jesus Christ. Father, and with his And these things write Son Jesus Christ: and we unto you, that your these things we write, joy may be full. that our joy may be fulfilled.

ANOTHER RENDERING.

That which was ever from the beginning, that which we have heard, that which we have seen with our eyes, that which we gazed upon, and our hands handled--_I speak_ concerning the Word who is the Life--and the Life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal _life_, as being that which was ever with the Father, and was manifested unto us: that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: yea, and that fellowship, which is our _fellowship_, is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.

And these things write we unto you, that your joy may be fulfilled.

DISCOURSE I.

_a.n.a.lYSIS AND THEORY OF ST. JOHN'S GOSPEL._

"Of the Word of Life."--1 JOHN i. 1.

In the opening verses of this Epistle we have a sentence whose ample and prolonged prelude has but one parallel in St. John's writings.[132] It is, as an old divine says, "prefaced and brought in with more magnificent ceremony than any pa.s.sage in Scripture."

The very emotion and enthusiasm with which it is written, and the sublimity of the exordium as a whole, tends to make the highest sense also the most natural sense. Of what or of whom does St. John speak in the phrase "concerning the Word of Life," or "the Word who is the Life"? The neuter "that which" is used for the masculine--"He who"--according to St. John's practice of employing the neuter comprehensively when a collective whole is to be expressed. The phrase "from the beginning," taken by itself, might no doubt be employed to signify the beginning of Christianity, or of the ministry of Christ.

But even viewing it as entirely isolated from its context of language and circ.u.mstance, it has a greater claim to be looked upon as _from eternity_ or _from the beginning of the creation_. Other considerations are decisive in favour of the last interpretation.

(1) We have already adverted to the lofty and transcendental tone of the whole pa.s.sage, elevating as it does each clause by the irresistible upward tendency of the whole sentence. The climax and resting place cannot stop short of the bosom of G.o.d. (2) But again, we must also bear in mind that the Epistle is everywhere to be read with the Gospel before us, and the language of the Epistle to be connected with that of the Gospel. The promium of the Epistle is the subjective version of the objective historical point of view which we find at the close of the preface to the Gospel. "The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us;" so St. John begins his sentence in the Gospel with a statement of an historical fact. But he proceeds, "and we delightedly beheld His glory;" that is a statement of the personal impression attested by his own consciousness and that of other witnesses. But let us note carefully that in the Epistle, which is in subjective relation to the Gospel, this process is exactly reversed. The Apostle begins with the personal impression; pauses to affirm the reality of the many proofs in the realm of fact of that which produced this impression through the senses upon the conceptions and emotions of those who were brought into contact with the Saviour; and then returns to the subjective impression from which he had originally started. (3) Much of the language in this pa.s.sage is inconsistent with our understanding by the Word the first announcement of the Gospel preaching. One might of course speak of hearing the commencement of the Gospel message, due surely not of seeing and handling it. (4) It is a noteworthy fact that the Gospel and the Apocalypse begin with the mention of the personal Word. This may well lead us to expect that Logos should be used in the same sense in the promium of the great Epistle by the same author.

We conclude then that when St. John here speaks of the Word of Life, he refers to something higher again than the preaching of life, and that he has in view both the manifestation of the life which has taken place in our humanity, and Him who is personally at once the Word and the Life.[133] The promium may be thus paraphrased. "That which in all its collective influence was from the beginning as understood by Moses, by Solomon, and Micah;[134] which we have first and above all heard in divinely human utterances, but which we have also seen with these very eyes; which we gazed upon with the full and entranced sight that delights in the object contemplated;[135] and which these hands handled reverentially at His bidding.[136] I speak all this concerning the Word who is also the Life."

Tracts and sheets are often printed in our day with anthologies of texts which are supposed to contain the very essence of the Gospel.

But the sweetest scents, it is said, are not distilled exclusively from flowers, for the flower is but an exhalation. The seeds, the leaf, the stem, the very bark should be macerated, because they contain the odoriferous substance in minute sacs. So the purest Christian doctrine is distilled, not only from a few exquisite flowers in a textual anthology, but from the whole substance, so to speak, of the message. Now it will be observed that at the beginning of the Epistle which accompanied the fourth Gospel, our attention is directed not to a sentiment, but to a fact and to a Person. In the collections of texts to which reference has been made, we should probably never find two brief pa.s.sages which may not unjustly be considered to concentrate the essence of the scheme of salvation more nearly than any others. "The Word was made flesh." "Concerning the Word of Life (and that Life was once manifested, and we have seen and consequently are witnesses and announce to you from Him who sent us that Life, that eternal Life whose it is to have been in eternal relation with the Father, and manifested to us); That which we have seen and heard declare we from Him who sent us unto you, to the end that you too may have fellowship with us."

It would be disrespectful to the theologian of the New Testament to pa.s.s by the great dogmatic term never, so far as we are told, applied by our Lord to Himself, but with which St. John begins each of his three princ.i.p.al writings--THE WORD.[137]

Such mountains of erudition have been heaped over this term that it has become difficult to discover the buried thought. The Apostle adopted a word which was already in use in various quarters simply because if, from the nature of the case necessarily inadequate,[138] it was yet more suitable than any other. He also, as profound ancient thinkers conceived, looked into the depths of the human mind, into the first principles of that which is the chief distinction of man from the lower creation--language. The human word, these thinkers taught, is twofold; inner and outer--now as the manifestation to the mind itself of unuttered thought, now as a part of language uttered to others. The word as signifying unuttered thought, the mould in which it exists in the mind, ill.u.s.trates the eternal relation of the Father to the Son. The word as signifying uttered thought ill.u.s.trates the relation as conveyed to man by the Incarnation. "No man hath seen G.o.d at any time; the only begotten G.o.d which is in the bosom of the Father He interpreted Him."

For the theologian of the Church Jesus is thus the Word; because He had His being from the Father in a way which presents some a.n.a.logy to the human word, which is sometimes the inner vesture, sometimes the outward utterance of thought--sometimes the human thought in that language without which man cannot think, sometimes the speech whereby the speaker interprets it to others. Christ is the Word Whom out of the fulness of His thought and being the Father has eternally inspoken and outspoken into personal existence.[139]

One too well knows that such teaching as this runs the risk of appearing uselessly subtle and technical, but its practical value will appear upon reflection. Because it gives us possession of the point of view from which St. John himself surveys, and from which he would have the Church contemplate, the history of the life of our Lord. And indeed for that life the theology of the Word, _i.e._, of the Incarnation, is simply necessary.

For we must agree with M. Renan so far at least as this, that a great life, even as the world counts greatness, is an organic whole with an underlying vitalising idea; which must be construed as such, and cannot be adequately rendered by a mere narration of facts. Without this unifying principle the facts will be not only incoherent but inconsistent. There must be a point of view from which we can embrace the life as one. The great test here, as in art, is the formation of a living, consistent, unmutilated whole.[140]

Thus a general point of view (if we are to use modern language easily capable of being misunderstood we must say a theory) is wanted of the Person, the work, the character of Christ. The synoptical Evangelists had furnished the Church with the narrative of His earthly origin. St.

John in his Gospel and Epistle, under the guidance of the Spirit, endowed it with the theory of His Person.

Other points of view have been adopted, from the heresies of the early ages to the speculations of our own. All but St. John's have failed to co-ordinate the elements of the problem. The earlier attempts essayed to read the history upon the a.s.sumption that He was merely human or merely divine. They tried in their weary round to unhumanise or undeify the G.o.d-Man, to degrade the perfect Deity, to mutilate the perfect Humanity--to present to the adoration of mankind a something neither entirely human nor entirely divine, but an impossible mixture of the two. The truth on these momentous subjects was fused under the fires of controversy. The last centuries have produced theories less subtle and metaphysical, but bolder and more blasphemous. Some have looked upon Him as a pretender or an enthusiast. But the depth and sobriety of His teaching upon ground where we are able to test it--the texture of circ.u.mstantial word and work which will bear to be inspected under any microscope or cross-examined by any prosecutor--have almost shamed such blasphemy into respectful silence.

Others of later date admit with patronising admiration that the martyr of Calvary is a saint of transcendent excellence. But if He who called Himself Son of G.o.d was not much more than saint, He was something less. Indeed He would have been something of three characters; saint, visionary, pretender--at moments the Son of G.o.d in His elevated devotion, at other times condescending to something of the practice of the charlatan, His unparalleled presumption only excused by His unparalleled success.