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#6.
"In the beginning was the Word" (1: 1).
pp. 212 - 219
Within the ambit of human experience, two conditions are inseparable from existence
and action--the conditions of time and space. It is true that in a certain sense "thought"
is free from the conditions of space, for thought cannot be regarded as occupying so
many cubic inches, but, on the other hand, there can be no thought without a thinker, and
speaking humanly, the living personality of the thinker must conform to all the conditions
of space and time. So that we come back to the fundamental fact, that for all human
experience, there must be a place where, and a time when. With John 1: 1 before us, we
are naturally thinking particularly of the limitations of time, and the reader will remember
that the Preacher, who examined all things that are done "under the sun", found that there
was a time and a season for every purpose (Eccles. 3:). The synoptic Gospels, and the
narrative sections of John's Gospels are no exceptions to this rule. The earthly life of the
Son of God was as much conditioned by time and space as that of the sons of men.
"Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judæa, in the days of Herod the King"
(Matt. 2: 1).
Here we have the two essential conditions: the place, "in Bethlehem", and the time,
"in the days of Herod". We also read that Herod enquired "where" Christ should be born,
and at "what time" the star appeared. We also discover that, from the beginning of His
ministry, the Lord was conscious of a set time in which His work was to be
accomplished, and a set hour in which that work should reach its crisis.
We turn now to the opening words of John's Gospel, and are immediately confronted
with a state of being that is not conditioned in the same way as our own. We do not read
about the beginning of any particular event or action, which could be used as a sort of
date line. There is no possibility of printing a date in the margin here, for all is timeless.
We are simply told that "in the beginning", however far back that may be, the Word
already "was". Nothing is said about activity; it is just sheer existence. The passage is
quite different from Gen. 1: 1, where we read that "in the beginning God created". Here,
in John 1:, it is just pure unconditioned existence that confronts us, and if we are honest
we shall say, concerning this sphere of being, that we can know nothing apart from what
we are told. To import into John 1: 1 arguments drawn from our own experience would
be simply irrelevant. Our difficulty in understanding the statement that the Word was
"with God", and also that the Word "was God" is inevitable with our present human
limitations. We cannot make the unconditioned being of God conform to the limitations
of time and space.
"In the beginning was the Word" (En arche en ho logos).
Every student of the Greek N.T. can call to mind the opening sentences of the Gospel
according to John. They represent, so far as mere words are concerned, perhaps the acme
of simplicity. But what a difference there can be between "form" (the actual words used)