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"But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God;
and that believing, ye might have life through His name."
In the great prayer of John 17:, there is a fourfold emphasis on the Father's name.
A | 6. Thy name manifested to those given out of the world.
B | 11. Keep through Thine own name those given.
I am no more in the world.
B | 12. Kept in Thy name.
While with them in the world.
A | 25, 26. Thy name declared. The world hath not known Thee.
To appreciate fully the significance of the "name" we must know something of the
conditions and customs in O.T. times. When law and order were not sustained by the
same legal machinery as at present, a man in trouble "called on the name" of his kinsman.
And so we find (in the Psalm of the name) the "name" of the Lord as something in which
the believer can take refuge:
"The name of the God of Jacob defend thee" (20: 1).
"In the name of our God will we set up our banners" (20: 5).
"Some trust in chariots and some in horses; but we will remember the name of the
Lord our God" (20: 7).
Applying all this to John 1:, we may say that those who "received Him" and
"believed on His name", accepted Him in all the fulness of what His name represented--
both as the Word (His name "in the beginning"), and as "Jesus Christ", His name when
"the Word was made flesh".
The word translated "on" in the expression "believe on His name" here, is eis and
literally means "unto". This word usually indicates the believing of a person; the fuller
word epi ("upon") denotes trust, which is a step in advance of John 1: 12.
In verse 13 we read:
"Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,
but of God" (John 1: 13).
It is interesting to enquire whether this verse completes the statement of verse 12, or
introduces the glorious doctrine of verse 14. As the A.V. rendering stands, the words
"were born", being plural, must necessarily refer to those that believe, whose new birth is
entirely dissociated from "bloods"--that is to say "ancestry"--and from the "will of the
flesh", and the "will of man". Griesbach, however, has called attention to a different
reading. Instead of Hoi . . . . . egennethesan, he reads Hos . . . . . egennethe, "Who was
not begotten of blood . . . . . but of God". This reading would mean that verse 13 refers to
Christ.
The Companion Bible has the following note in connection with this verse: