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A Parallel Usage.
A.--I should like to know what I am to believe regarding this Greek article; I understood
that its presence or absence is of great importance.
B.--You are quite right; it is the false deductions that you have to guard against.
A.--Could you give me something of a parallel with John 1: 1?
B.--We find one in this very chapter, viz., verse 14, "the Word was made flesh". It is
manifestly absurd to translate, "the Word was made A Flesh", yet the case is parallel.
"The Word was Theos", "the Word became sarx."
There is something more than the question of the article in John 1: 1; there is also the
order of the words. In the original the sentence reads, "And God was the Word". This
alteration of the order draws attention to the statement concerning the Deity of the Logos.
As our subject is "God--manifest", we must not leave John 1: without a further glance at
verse 18:--
"No one has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him."
This passage really comes under the fourth heading, "God--manifest in the flesh", and
we may have to return to it. Here however it is closely connected with the verse which
teaches that God is manifested in the Word, and so claims our attention. There is a
reading favoured by Lm., Tr., WH., Rm., endorsed by the Numeric Version, Rotherham,
and above all by the Syriac Version, which gives "God only begotten" instead of "The
only begotten Son". I would not build a doctrine upon this reading, but it cannot be
ignored.
The prologue of John's Gospel occupies verses 1-18. The whole passage is an
introversion, verse 1 balancing verse 18. The three clauses of verse one find an echo in
verse 18, thus:--
a | In the beginning the Word.
\
b | The Word was with God.
}
God manifest.
c | The Word was God.
/
c | Son (or God) only begotten.
\
b | In the bosom of the Father.
}
God manifest
a | He hath declared Him.
/
in the flesh.
Before the birth of Christ at Bethlehem He is called the Word, and revealed God.
After His birth at Bethlehem He is called the Son, and revealed the Father. We must take
this further when we come to the question of the Sonship of Christ.
Let us pass to our next passage, viz., Col. 1: 15, 16.