LIFE THROUGH HIS NAME

is not yet come' (2:4). To the Samaritan woman He says: `The hour

cometh' (4:21,23). In chapter 5 He says: `The hour is coming, (and

now is), when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God' (5:25).

In 7:30 and 8:20, we read that `His hour was not yet come'. And then

in the twelfth chapter, with the quest of the Greeks, we reach the

turning-point of the Gospel: `The hour is come, that the Son of Man

should be glorified'. It is clear, therefore, that the Greek point of view

cannot be ignored without serious loss.

As we are not `Greeks', and have not been brought up in an

atmosphere of philosophic discussion, we shall have to pause at

various points, as we go through the prologue, and acquaint ourselves

with some of the ideas that John seems to have had vividly in mind as

he wrote. We all know something of what is intended by the title `The

Word', but how many of us know anything of the history of the quest

for the Logos?

Coming now to the structure of these first eighteen verses, it is at

once clear that verses 1 and 18 are in correspondence.

In the beginning was the WORD.

The Word was WITH God.

The Word was GOD.

God only begotten.

In the BOSOM of the FATHER.

He hath DECLARED Him.

Here the `Word' is echoed by `declared', and the term `with God'

finds its echo in `in the bosom of the Father'. The reading `God only

begotten' echoes the statement that the `Word was God'. We defer the

proofs for this reading until later.  The structure of the complete

section is as follows:

A 1:1. a THE WORD. In the beginning.

b WITH. The Word was with God.

c GOD. The Word was God.

B 2.

The same was in the beginning with God.

C 3.

All things were made by Him (egeneto dia).

D 4,5.  In Him light and life (en).

E 6-8.  JOHN. Witness (marturia).