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Moreover, in harmony with his theme in Colossians--the sphere of blessing belonging
to the Mystery--he continues: "Whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities,
or powers; all things were created by Him, and for Him" (Col. 1: 16).
Where John speaks of Christ as "the Word", Paul speaks of Him as "the Image of the
invisible God". Moreover the reader will notice that, while John defers the title "The
Only-begotten of the Father" until the Word is "made flesh", Paul goes back to the
beginning and speaks of Him then as "the Firstborn of every creature".
In his epistle to the Hebrews, the Apostle refers to the Lord and creation in yet another
set of terms. He speaks of Christ as "The express image of His person"--or "The
external and manifest character of His unseen substance" (Heb. 1: 3)--and also refers to
the earth, whose foundation He had laid, and the heaven, which His hands had made.
The Apostle speaks of these things as being transient and destined to vanish away, so as
to enforce the necessary lesson that Christ "remaineth", a lesson which was much needed
by the Hebrews, as they saw all that they had regarded as most vital (the law, the
priesthood, the sacrifices, the temple) vanish away. Every book of the Bible resolves
itself at last into some fresh aspect of the Person and Work of Christ.
The observant reader will have noticed that when Augustine quotes John 1: 1-4 in his
Confessions (an extract from which we cited in the third article of this series), he divides
verses 3 and 4 in a way which differs a little from that found in the A.V. Instead of the
A.V. rendering:
"All things were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was
made. In Him was life, etc.,"
he reads:
"All things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made: that which was
made by Him is life."
This rendering is placed in the R.V. margin. Rotherham, on the other hand, adopts
this reading, and puts the A.V. punctuation in the margin, while Alford cites John's usage
and gives grammatical reasons for retaining the A.V. rendering. Webster and Wilkinson
comment as follows:
"Many of the ancient commentators place the period at hen (one), thus reading, ho
gegonen en hauto zoe en--`Whatever hath come into being derives its origin and
existence from Him'."
Whatever punctuation we may at length accept, the meaning of the Apostle remains
unchanged. Just as Paul could say that "in Him we live, and move, and have our being",
so John reveals, that in Him, Who was the Word, and Who at the incarnation was made
known as the Only-begotten of the Father, was life. And then, transferring his thought
from the physical realm to the spiritual, he translates "life" into terms of "light" and says
"The life was the light of men".