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S. JOHN.--NOTES.

I: I. "In the beginning was the Word."

The allusion here to the beginning of Genesis is obvious at a glance. But John does not stop at that beginning which Moses makes the point of departure. He ascends still higher. His aim is more remote than that of his predecessor. Moses has immediately in view only the development of the Jewish theocracy. John's aim is the second creation, the recreation in Christ our Lord. For him, therefore, Moses' beginning cannot suffice. into eternity.

He must plunge

The term Word of necessity contains an allusion to the story of creation in Genesis. Eight times in the course of that narrative, like the refrain of a hymn, occur the words: "And God said."

John gathers up all these sayings into a single saying. It is a living saying. It is endowed with activity and intelligence. From it all divine orders emanate. It is the basis of all spoken words. It is the speaking Word himself.

1:4.

"The Life was the Light of men."

This profound word "light" appears in the language of S. John to denote the knowledge of moral good, or moral good fully conscious of itself in the living beings who realize it.

The word "truth"

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expresses the same thing without a

Light, thus understood, is accessible to no being on the earth except man. He alone is the one being endowed with the necessary inward organ for the perception of it.

This inward organ was originally one. It is now divided into conscience and reason.

Moral good does not emanate directly from the Word. It proceeds from life. This life proceeds from the Word directly and immediately to man. For as bodily sight is one of the functions of physical life, so spiritual light is an emanation from moral life.

The Word is light. But it is only through the mediation of life he always must become so. This, then, is the very relation the Good News of Christ's Kingdom restores to man. We recover through the new creation in Christ Jesus an inner light. Learning how to live as he lived, this inner light springs up from our walking in newness of life. The light gains in clearness in proportion as our moral life grows in intensity.

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Truth is God perfectly revealed and known. In Jesus comes truth because he possesses and brings the adequate revelation of the Divine Being.

The full and true knowledge of God cannot be the result of philosophical investigation. Our understanding as such can receive only certain isolated rays of the revelation of God. It cannot succeed in uniting these isolated rays into a complete whole. Still less can it succeed in ascending to the divine focus from which they emanate.

1:32. dove."

"I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a

Some passages are found in the Jewish teachers where the Spirit who moved on the face of the waters at the creation is associated with the Spirit of the Messiah, and compared to a dove brooding over her young without touching them.

As this comparison was familiar to the Jewish mind, it probably explains to us the form of the divine revelation. The emblem admirably suits the decisive moment of Jesus' purification.

2:4. "What do you wish of me, Mother?"

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All scholars agree that in the use of the word "woman in addressing his mother, Jesus showed all due respect for her, because in the East that was the ordinary way of addressing even one's mother. To us, however, this mode of address seems harsh and disrespectful. For this reason we have attempted a more natural translation by rendering it as we ourselves would say, " mother."

"What do you wish of me?"

This rendering of Ti emoi kai soi ? is so radically different from the ordinary rendering it is here accounted for.

Wherever the expression is used in Scripture the rendering above given is in harmony with the sequence of the text, the logic of ideas, and the reality of the thought ex

pressed.

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To translate Ti emoi kai soi ? "What have I to do with thee?" it is necessary to arbitrarily suppose that in the original," common is understood. Nor is this enough. We must suppose the word "interest " also to be understood. As if the original really said: What common interest to you and me ?

This literal word for word translation is not only at first sight quite obscure, but no key to its meaning can be found in the idioms of any language. The only ground for it appears to be in the fact that it was once adopted by some one and so in lieu of his ignorance every following translator adopted it out of sheer necessity. When, however, we once stop to think carefully upon the circumstances in which these words were originally spoken it gradually dawns upon the mind that they were used as an idiom expressive of condescension and submission.

The mind is drawn to this presumption by a careful study of the text in the original. It becomes a fixed conviction with us when we also consider the contexts wherever else in Scripture it is found.

Ti emoi kai soi? is found in S. Mark 5:7, and S. Luke 8:28. There it is spoken to Jesus by one possessed. The possessed one sees Jesus at a distance, runs to him, throws himself at his feet, and cries in a loud voice: Ti emoi kai soi, Iesou huie tou theou tou hupsistou? and then adds: “I adjure thee by God not to torment me."

We find in S. Matthew 8: 29-31, a like circumstance. The possessed show their terror and implied submission. For they cry out: “Ti hemin kai soi huie tou theou?" and then continue: "Hast thou come to torment us before the time?" Then the demons become suppliants. "If thou cast us out," they say, "send us into the herd of swine."

Again. In S. Luke 4: 34, asking the question: "Ea, ti hemin kai soi, Iesou Nazarene?" the demon continues, "Hast thou come to destroy us? I know who thou art. The Holy One of God."

From all this it appears necessary that Ti emoi kai soi ? must have a meaning suitable for the use of two extremes

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