Note 452 — APPENDIX I.

Footnote 452:

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These hints will have shewn that Paul's theory occupies a middle position between the Jewish and Greek ideas of pre-existence. In the canon, however, we have another group of writings which likewise gives evidence of a middle position with regard to the matter, I mean the Johannine writings. If we only possessed the prologue to the Gospel of John with its "εν αρχη ην 'ο λογος," the "παντα δι' αυτου εγενετο" and the "'ο λογος σαρξ εγενετο" we could indeed point to nothing but Hellenic ideas. But the Gospel itself, as is well known, contains very much that must have astonished a Greek, and is opposed to the philosophical idea of the Logos. This occurs even in the thought, "'ο λογος σαρξ εγενετο," which in itself is foreign to the Logos conception. Just fancy a proposition like the one in VI. 44, ουδεις δυναται ελθειν προς με, εαν μη 'ο πατηρ 'ο πεμψας με ελκυση αυτον, or in V. 17. 21, engrafted on Philo's system, and consider the revolution it would have caused there. No doubt the prologue to some extent contains the themes set forth in the presentation that follows, but they are worded in such a way that one cannot help thinking the author wished to prepare Greek readers for the paradox he had to communicate to them, by adapting his prologue to their mode of thought. Under the altered conditions of thought which now prevail, the prologue appears to us the mysterious part, and the narrative that follows seems the portion that is relatively more intelligible. But to the original readers, if they were educated Greeks, the prologue must have been the part most easily understood. As nowadays a section on the nature of the Christian religion is usually prefixed to a treatise on dogmatics, in order to prepare and introduce the reader, so also the Johannine prologue seems to be intended as an introduction of this kind. It brings in conceptions which were familiar to the Greeks, in fact it enters into these more deeply than is justified by the presentation which follows; for the notion of the incarnate Logos is by no means the dominant one here. Though faint echoes of this idea may possibly be met with here and there in the Gospel—I confess I do not notice them—the predominating thought is essentially the conception of Christ as the Son of God, who obediently executes what the Father has shewn and appointed him. The works which he does are allotted to him, and he performs them in the strength of the Father. The whole of Christ's farewell discourses and the intercessory prayer evince no Hellenic influence and no cosmological speculation whatever, but shew the inner life of a man who knows himself to be one with God to a greater extent than any before him, and who feels the leading of men to God to be the task he had received and accomplished. In this consciousness he speaks of the glory he had with the Father before the world was (XVII. 4 f.; εγω σε εδοξασα επι της γης, το εργον τελειωσας 'ο δεδωκας μοι 'ινα ποιησω; και νυν δοξασον με συ, πατερ, παρα σεαυτω τη δοξη 'η ειχον προ του τον κοσμον ειναι, παρα σοι). With this we must compare verses like III. 13: ουδεις αναβεβηκεν εις τον ουρανον ει μη 'ο εκ του ουρανου καταβας, 'ο 'υιος του ανθρωπου, and III. 31: 'ο ανωθεν ερχομενος επανω παντων εστιν. 'ο ων εκ της γης εκ της γης εστιν και εκ της γης λαλει 'ο εκ του ουρανου ερχομενος επανω παντων εστιν (see also I. 30: VI. 33, 38, 41 f. 50 f. 58, 62: VIII. 14, 58; XVII. 24). But though the pre-existence is strongly expressed in these passages, a separation of πνευμα (λογος) and σαρξ in Christ is nowhere assumed in the Gospel except in the prologue. It is always Christ's whole personality to which every sublime attribute is ascribed. The same one who "can do nothing of himself", is also the one who was once glorious and will yet be glorified. This idea, however, can still be referred to the προεγνοσμενος προ καταβολης κοσμον, although it gives a peculiar δοξα with God to him who was foreknown of God, and the oldest conception is yet to be traced in many expressions, as, for example, I. 31: καγω ουκ ηδειν αυτον, αλλ' 'ινα φανερωθη τω Ισραηλ δια τουτο ηλθον, V. 19: ου δυναται 'ο υιος ποιειν αφ' εαυτου ουδεν αν μη τι βλεπη τον πατερα ποιουνται, V. 36: VIII. 38: 'α εγω 'εωρακα παρα τω πατρι λαλω, VIII. 40: την αληθειαν 'υμιν λελαληκα 'ην ηκουσα παρα του θεου, XII. 49: XV. 15: παντα 'α ηξουσα παρα του πατρος μου εγνωρισα 'υμιν.