THE PROLOGUE
OUTLINE
33
IN
We have now learned that before all things and before all time,
there `was' in timeless existence, the Word, the Reason, the Archetype,
the Mediator, the Revealer. The world is the destined sphere, and man
the destined recipient of the priceless revelation of God, not only as
almighty and invisible, but, through the Word become flesh, as the
God Who is love, and the God Who is also Father.
`In the beginning was the Word'.
`He hath declared Him'.
The Word was `with' God (1:1)
We have already noticed that the truth contained in the opening
sentence of this Gospel is beyond anything of which we can have
direct experience. `In the beginning was the Word' is a statement
simply expressed, and easy to believe, but it speaks of a condition of
being entirely removed from our own experience. And what is true of
the opening sentence is also true of each successive link in the chain of
revelation that covers the first five verses. All is clear to faith so long
as we do not seek to go beyond our limitations, but as soon as we
endeavour to measure infinity with the yardstick of the finite we must
inevitably flounder in confusion. The next link in the chain that is
presented to us is the statement:
`And the Word was with God'.
The Greek language is rich in particles, and in the New Testament
there are no less than fourteen different Greek prepositions that are
translated `with'. If John had been conversant by personal experience
with the subject of his opening verse, he would have been obliged to
exercise the most scrupulous care in determining which would express
just the precise shade of meaning that suited the case; but when we
realize that even the beloved disciple, who had leaned on the Lord's
bosom at the last supper, had no possible personal and experimental
acquaintance with the conditions that obtained `in the beginning', we
can readily see that nothing but the superintending inspiration of God
could have infallibly selected that one preposition out of the fourteen
available, which would express the complete truth. In what sense then,
was the Logos `with' God? Let us take first the preposition meta. This
is the word used by Nicodemus: