John 1:18 furnishes an explanation of what had just been said, that ἡ ἀλήθεια διὰ Ἰ. Χ. ἐγένετο;[107] for that there was required direct knowledge of God, the result of experience, which His only-begotten Son alone possessed.

οὐδείς] no man, not even Moses. “Besides is no doctor, master, or preacher, than the only Teacher, Christ, who is in the Godhead inwardly,” Luther; comp. Matthew 11:27.

ἙΏΡΑΚΕ] has seen, beheld (comp. John 3:11), of the intuition of God’s essence (Exodus 33:20), to the exclusion of visions, theophanies, and the like. Comp. 1 John 4:12; also Romans 1:20; Colossians 1:15; 1 Timothy 1:17. Agreeably to the context, the reference is to the direct vision of God’s essential glory, which no man could have (Ex. l.c.), but which Christ possessed in His pre-human condition as λόγος (comp. John 6:46), and possesses again ever since His exaltation.

Ὁ ὮΝ ΕἸς ΤῸΝ ΚΟΛΠ. ΤΟῦ ΠΑΤΡΌς] As ἘΞΉΓΗΣ. refers to the state on earth of the Only-begotten, ὠν consequently, taken as an imperfect, cannot refer to the pre-human state (against Luthardt, Gess, pp. 123, 236, and others); yet it cannot coincide with ἐξήγη. in respect of time (Beyschlag), because the ΕἾΝΑΙ ΕἸς ΤῸΝ ΚΟΛ. Τ. Π. was not true of Christ during His earthly life (comp. especially John 1:51).[108] The right explanation therefore is, that John, when he wrote ὁ ὦν εἰς τ. κ. τ π., expressed himself from his own present standing-point, and conceived of Christ as in His state of exaltation, as having returned to the bosom of the Father, and therefore into the state of the εἶναι πρὸς τὸν θεόν. So Hofmann, Schriftbew. I. 120, II. 23; Weiss, Lehrbegr. 239. Thus also must we explain the statement of direction towards, εἰς τὸν κόλπ., which would be otherwise without any explanation (Mark 2:1; Mark 13:16; Luke 11:7); so that we recognise in εἰς as the prominent element the idea of having arrived at (Ellendt, Lex. Soph. I. p. 537; Jacobs, ad Anthol. XIII. p. 71; Buttm. N. T. Gr. p. 286 [E. T. p. 333]), not the notion of leaning upon (Godet, after Winer, Lücke, Tholuck, Maier, Gess, and most others), nor of moving towards, which is warranted neither by the simple ὦν (in favour of which such analogies as in aurem dormire are inappropriate) nor by εἰς, instead of which πρὸς (Hom. Il. vi. 467) or ἐπί with the accusative ought rather to bo expected.[109] This forced interpretation of εἰς would never have been attempted, had not ὮΝ been construed as a timeless Present, expressing an inherent relation, and in this sense applied (Lücke, Tholuck, De Wette, Lange, Brückner, Hengstenberg, Philippi, and most expositors) also to the earthly condition of the Son; comp. Beyschlag, pp. 100, 150. So far as the thing itself is concerned, the εἶναι εἰς τὸν κόλπ. does not differ from the ΕἾΝΑΙ ΠΡῸς ΤῸΝ ΘΕΌΝ of John 1:1; only it expresses the fullest fellowship with God, not before the incarnation, but after the exaltation, and at the same time exhibits the relation of love under a sensuous form (κόλπον); not derived, however, from the custom (John 13:23) of reclining at table (thus usually, but not appropriately in respect of fellowship with God), but rather from the analogy of a father’s embrace (Luke 16:22). In its pragmatic bearing, ὁ ὦν is the historical seal of the ἐξηγήσατο; but we must not explain it, with Hilgenfeld, from the Gnostic idea of the ΠΛΉΡΩΜΑ.

ἘΚΕῖΝΟς] strongly emphatic, and pointing heavenwards.[110]

ἐξηγήσατο] namely, the substance of His intuition of God; comp. John 8:38. The word is the usual one for denoting the exposition, interpretation of divine things, and intuitions. Plato, Pol. iv. p. 427 C; Schneid. Theag. p. 131; Xen. Cyr. viii. 3. 11; Soph. El. 417; comp. the ἐξηγηταί in Athens: Ruhnken, ad Tim. p. 109 ff.; Hermann, gottesd. Alterth. § 1, 12. It does not occur elsewhere in John, and hence a special reference in its selection here is all the more to be presumed, the more strikingly appropriate it is to the context (against Lücke, Maier, Godet). Comp. LXX. Leviticus 14:57.

[107] Not including any explanation of ἡ χάρις also (Luthardt), because ἑώρακε and ἐξηγήσατο answer only to the conception of the truth in which the vision of God is interpreted.

[108] Hence we must not say, with Brückner, comp. Tholuck and Hengstenberg, that a relation of the μονογενής is portrayed which was neither interrupted nor modified by the incarnation. The communion of the Incarnate One with God remained, He in God, and God in Him, but not in the same manner metaphysically as before His incarnation and after His exaltation. He while on earth was still in heaven (John 3:13), yet not de facto, but de jure, because heaven was His home, His ancestral seat.

[109] Philippi’s objections (Glaubens. IV. 1, p. 409 f.) to my rendering are quite baseless. For an explanation of the ὦν εἰς τὸν κόλπ. which occurs to every unprejudiced expositor as coming directly from the words themselves cannot be “arbitrary.” And it is not contrary to the connection, as both Godet and Beyschlag hold, because what the words, as usually interpreted, say, is already contained in the ὁ μονογενής υἱός, whereupon ὁὦν, κ. τ. λ. sets forth the exaltation of the Only-begotten—just as in ὁ μονογ· υἱός were given the ground and source of the ἐξηγήσατο—as the infallible confirmation hereof. This also against Gess, p. 124. My interpretation is quite as compatible with earnest dealing in regard to the deity of Christ (Hengstenberg) as the usual one, while both are open to abuse. Besides, we have nothing at all to do here with the earnestness referred to, but simply with the correctness or incorrectness of the interpretation. Further, I have not through fear of spiritualism (as Beyschlag imagines) deviated from the usual meaning, which would quite agree with John 3:13.

[110] As with Homer (see Nitzsch, p. 37, note 1), so in the N. T. John pre-eminently requires not merely to be read, but to be spoken. His work is the epic among the Gospels.

Note.

The Prologue, which we must not with Reuss restrict to John 1:1-5, is not “A History of the Logos,” describing Him down to John 1:13 as He was before His incarnation, and from John 1:14 ff. as incarnate (Olshausen). Against this it is decisive that John 1:6-13 already refer to the period of His human existence, and that, in particular, the sonship of believers, John 1:12-13, cannot be understood in any other than a specifically Christian sense. For this reason, too, we must not adopt the division of Ewald: (1) The pre-mundane history of the Logos, John 1:1-3; (2) The history of His first purely spiritual working up to the time of His incarnation, John 1:4-13; (3) The history of His human manifestation and ministry, John 1:14-18. John is intent rather on securing, in grand and condensed outline, a profound comprehensive view of the nature and work of the Logos; which latter, the work, was in respect of the world creative, in respect of mankind illuminative (the Light). As this working of the Logos was historical, the description must necessarily also bear an historical character; not in such a way, however, that a formal history was to be given, first of the λόγος ἄσαρκος (which could not have been given), and then of the λόγος ἔνσαρκος (which forms the substance of the Gospel itself), but in such a way that the whole forms a historical picture, in which we see, in the world which came into existence by the creative power of the Logos, His light shining before, after, and by means of His incarnation. This at the same time tells against Hilgenfeld, p. 60 ff., according to whom, in the Prologue, “the Gnosis of the absolute religion, from its immediate foundation to its highest perfection, runs through the series of its historical interventions.” According to Köstlin, p. 102 ff., there is a brief triple description of all Christianity from the beginning onwards to the present; and this, too, (1) from the standing-point of God and His relation to the world, John 1:1-8; then (2) from the relations of the Logos to mankind; John 1:9-13; and lastly, (3) in the individual, John 1:14-18, by which the end returns to the beginning, John 1:1. But a triple beginning (which Kaeuffer too assumes in the Sächs. Stud. 1844, p. 103 ff.) is neither formally hinted at nor really made: for, in John 1:9, ὁ λόγος is not the subject ἦν, and this ἦν must, agreeably to the context, refer to the time of the Baptist, while Köstlin’s construction and explanation of ἦν

ἐρχόμενον is quite untenable; and because in the last part, from John 1:14 onwards, the antithesis between receiving and not receiving, so essential in the first two parts, does not at all recur again. The simple explanation, in harmony with the text, is as follows: The Prologue consists of three parts,—namely, (1) John gives a description (a) of the primeval existence of the Logos, John 1:1-2, and (b) of His creative work, John 1:3 (with the addition of the first part of John 1:4, which is the transition to what follows). Next, (2) he represents Him in whom was life as the Light of mankind, John 1:4 ff., and this indeed (a) as He once had been, when still without the antithesis of darkness, John 1:4, and (b) as He was in this antithesis, John 1:5. This shining in the darkness is continuous (hence φαίνει, John 1:5John 1:18. θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακεν … ἐξηγήσατο. This statement, “God no one has ever seen,” is probably suggested by the words διὰ Ἰησοῦ χριστοῦ. The reality and the grace of God we have seen through Jesus Christ, but why not directly? Because God, the Divine essence, the Godhead, no one has ever seen. No man has had immediate knowledge of God: if we have knowledge of God it is through Christ.

A further description is given of the Only Begotten intended to disclose His qualification for revealing the Father in the words ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον τοῦ πατρός. Meyer supposes that John is now expressing himself from his own present standing point, and is conceiving of Christ as in His state of exaltation, as having returned to the bosom of the Father. But in this case the description would not be relevant. John adds this designation to ground the revealing work which Christ accomplished while on earth (ἐξηγήσατο, aorist, referring to that work), to prove His qualification for it. It must therefore include His condition previous to incarnation. ὁ ὤν is therefore a timeless present and εἰς is used, as in Mark 13:16, Acts 8:40, etc., for ἐν. εἰς τὸν κόλπον, whether taken from friends reclining at a feast or from a father’s embrace, denotes perfect intimacy. Thus qualified, ἐκεῖνος ἐξηγήσατο “He” emphatic, He thus equipped, “has interpreted” what? See John 8:32; or simply, as implied in the preceding negative clause, “God”. The Scholiast on Soph., Ajax, 320, says, ἐξήγησις ἐπὶ θείων, ἑρμηνεία ἐπὶ τῶν τυχόντων, Wetstein.

18. The Evangelist solemnly sums up the purpose of the Incarnation of the Logos—to be a visible revelation of the invisible God. It was in this way that ‘the truth came through Jesus Christ,’ for the truth cannot be fully known, while God is not fully revealed.

No man] Not even Moses. Until we see ‘face to face’ (1 Corinthians 13:12) our knowledge is only partial. Symbolical visions, such as Exodus 24:10; Exodus 33:23; 1 Kings 19:13; Isaiah 6:1, do not transcend the limits of partial knowledge.

hath seen] With his bodily eyes.

at any time] Better, ever yet; ‘no one hath ever yet seen God;’ but some shall see Him hereafter.

the only begotten Son] The question of reading here is very interesting. Most MSS. and versions have ‘the only-begotten Son’ or ‘only-begotten Son.’ But the three oldest and best MSS. and two others of great value have ‘only-begotten God.’ The test of the value of a MS., or group of MSS., on any disputed point, is the extent to which it admits false readings on other points not disputed. Judged by this test the group of MSS. which read ‘only-begotten God’ is very strong; while the far larger group of MSS. which have ‘Son’ for ‘God’ is comparatively weak, for the same group of MSS. might be quoted in defence of a multitude of readings which no one would think of adopting. Again, the revised Syriac, which is among the minority of versions that support ‘God,’ is here of special weight, because it agrees with MSS. from which it usually differs. We conclude, therefore, that the very unusual expression ‘only-begotten God’ is the true reading, which has been changed to the usual ‘only-begotten Son,’ a change which in an old Greek MS. would involve the alteration of only a single letter. Both readings can be traced up to the second century, which again is evidence that the Gospel was written in the first century. Such differences take time to spread themselves widely. See on John 1:13 and John 9:35.

in the bosom] Literally, into the bosom, which may mean that the return to glory after the Ascension is meant. Comp. Mark 2:1; Mark 13:16; Luke 9:61. On the other hand the Greek for ‘which is’ points to a timeless relation.

hath declared] Better, declared, acted as His interpreter. The Greek word is used both in the LXX. and in classical authors of interpreting the Divine Will. On the emphatic use of ‘He’ here comp. John 1:33 and see on John 10:1. In the First Epistle this pronoun (ekeinos) is used specially for Christ; John 2:6, John 3:3; John 3:5; John 3:7; John 3:16, John 4:17.

In this prologue we notice what may be called a spiral movement. An idea comes to the front, like the strand of a rope, retires again, and reappears later on for development and further definition. Meanwhile another idea, like another strand, comes before us, and retires to reappear in like manner. Thus the Word is presented to us in John 1:1, is withdrawn, and again presented to us in John 1:14. The Creation comes next in John 1:3, disappears, and returns again in John 1:10. Then ‘the Light’ is introduced in John 1:5, withdrawn, and reproduced in John 1:10-11. Next the rejection of the Word is put before us in John 1:5, removed, and again put before us in John 1:10-11. Lastly, the testimony of John is mentioned in John 1:6-7, repeated in John 1:15, taken up again in John 1:19, and developed through the next two sections of the chapter.

We now enter upon the first main division of the Gospel, which extends to the end of chap. 12, the subject being Christ’s Ministry, or, His Revelation of Himself to the World, and that in three parts; the Testimony (John 1:19 to John 2:11), the Work (John 2:13 to John 11:57), and the Judgment (12). These parts will be subdivided as we reach them. 19–37 The Testimony of the Baptist (1) to the deputation from Jerusalem, (2) to the people, (3) to S. Andrew and S. John: 38–51 The Testimony of the Disciples: John 2:1-11 The Testimony of the First Sign.

John 1:18. Θεόν, God) Whom grace and truth exhibit as love [in essence].—οὐδείς, no one) not even Moses, much less those earlier than the time of Moses, nor Jacob, nor Isaiah, nor Ezekiel: not even the angels saw Him in such manner as the Son. See the note on Romans 16:25, etc. [The revelation of the mystery, which was kept secret since the world began].—εὥρακε, hath seen) no one hath seen: no one hath declared [God]: The Son hath seen, the Son hath declared, [God] ch. John 3:32 [What He hath seen and heard, that He testifieth].—ὁ ὤν, who was) Comp. John 5:1, and still more, John 6:62 [What and if ye shall see the Son of man ascend up, where He was before?]; 1 John 1:2 [That eternal life which was with the Father, and has been manifested unto us]. So ὤν for was, ch. John 9:25 [whereas I was blind, now I see; τυφλὸς ὤν]: So Heb. יונק, who sucked, Song Song of Solomon 8:1. εἰς τὸν κόλπον, in the bosom) ch. John 6:46 [Not that any man hath seen the Father, save He which is of God, He hath seen the Father]. Proverbs 8:30 [Then I was by Him as one brought up with Him, I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him]. Zechariah 13:7 “My shepherd, and the man that is my fellow, saith the Lord of Hosts.” The bosom here is divine, paternal, fruitful, mild, secret, spiritual. Men are said to be in the loins, who are about to be born: they are in the bosom, who have been born. The Son was in the bosom of the Father; because He was never not-born. The highest degree of unity, and the most intimate knowledge are signified by immediate sight [the seeing God face to face].—εκεῖνος [That Being] He) An epithet of excellency and distance [implying the vast interval that separates Him above all others].—ἐξηγήσατο, hath explained [declared God]) both by His words and by the sight of Himself [as God manifest in the flesh].

Verse 18. - No one hath ever yet seen God. Many visions, theophanies, appearances, angelic splendours, in the desert, on the mountain, in the temple, by the river of Chebar, had been granted to the prophets of the Lord; but they have all fallen short of the direct intuition of God as God. Abraham, Israel, Moses, Manoah, David, Isaiah, Ezekiel, saw visions, local manifestations, anticipations of the Incarnation; but the apostle here takes the Lord's own word for it (John 5:37), and he elsewhere repeats it (1 John 4:12). These were but forerunners of the ultimate manifestation of the Logos. "The Glory of the Lord," "the Angel of the Lord," "the Word of the Lord," were not so revealed to patriarchs that they saw God as God. They saw him in the form of light, or of spiritual agency, or of human ministries; but in the deepest sense we must still wait for the purity of heart which will reveal to our weakened faculties the beatific vision. The only begotten Son - or, (God only begotten) - who is in (or, on) the bosom of the Father, he interpreted (him); became the satisfying Exposition, the Declarer, drawing forth from the depths of God all that it is possible that we shall see, know, or realize. This lofty assertion is augmented by the sublime intensification of the earlier phrase, "with God (πρὸς τὸν Θεόν)," by (εἰς τὸν κόλπον), "in or on the bosom of the Father;" i.e. in most intimate and loving fellowship with the Father as the only begotten. The relations of fatherhood and sonship within the substance of the Godhead give new life, warmth, realization, to the vaster, colder, more metaphysical, metaphenomenal relations of Θεός and Λογός (cf. here Proverbs 8:30). Bengel here says, "In lumbis esse dicuntur qui nascentur homines, in sinu sunt qui nati sunt. In sinu Patris erat Filius, quia nunquam non-natus." In view of the contention of Meyer that the language here refers to no age long, eternal indwelling of the Logos with, or of the Son (God only begotten) on the bosom of, the Father, but to the exaltation of the Christ after his ascension, we can only refer to the present tense (ὁ ω}ν), which from the standpoint of the prologue does not transfer itself to the historical standpoint of the writer at the end of the first century. Lange thinks that the whole of this wonderful utterance is attributed by the evangelist to the Baptist; but the standing of the Baptist, lofty as it is in John's Gospel, after the Baptist came into brief fellowship with the One who was before him, certainly falls short of this insight into his eternal Being. John the beloved disciple could thus speak of the revelation and interpretation of God which was made in the life, words, and death of the Only Begotten, from whose fulness he had received "grace for grace;" but in this verse he is speaking of the timeless condition, the eternal fellowship, of the Only Begotten with the Father, as justifying the fulness of the revelation made in his incarnation. The prologue forms a key to the entire Gospel. It may have been written after the record of the central principles involved in the life work of Jesus had been completed. Every statement in it may be seen to be derived from the recorded words or acts of the Lord, the revelation of the Father in time, the unveiling of the eternal heart of him who made all things, and by one competent to speak of both eternities. The writer of the prologue speaks of himself as one of a group or society who had had ocular evidence of the perfection and glory of the manifestation. This fellowship of men had found themselves children of God, and in the possession of a life, a light, and a hope which were derived entirely from Jesus Christ, who is undoubtedly in a unique sense declared (though not formally defined) to be "the Word made flesh." In the subsequent narrative we find a graduated series of instructions on the powers of Christ and the opposition of the world to his self-manifestation. Thus (ch. 1.) the testimony of the Baptist (made after his contact with Christ) to the Person and work of the Lord attributes to him, on prophetic authority, most stupendous functions - those of baptizing with the Holy Spirit, and taking away the sin of the world. He does himself reveal the way to the Father. He is hailed as the "Christ," the "King of Israel," and as the link between heaven and earth, between the invisible and visible, the Divine and the human (John 1:51). In ch. 2, with all its other suggestiveness, Christ displays his creative power, and (cf. ch. 6.) his relation to the world of things, as well as his organic relation to the old covenant. In ch. 2 his "body" is the "temple" of God, where his Father dwelt, thus justifying the ἐσκήνωσεν of ver. 14. The pre-existence of Christ as a self-conscious personality in the very substance of Deity is asserted by himself in John 6:62; John 8:58; John 17:5, 24. The fact that he is the Source of all life (John 1:3), is involved in the teaching of the Gospel from end to end. Eternal life is ministered through him, to believers (John 3:16, etc., John 3:36). He claims to have life in himself (John 5:26). He is the "Bread of life" for starving humanity (John 6:35, 48). The words that he speaks are spirit and life (John 6:63). In John 8:12 the φῶς τῆς ζωῆς links the idea of life and light as they are shown to cohere in the prologue. In John 14:6 he declares himself to be "the Truth and the Life," thus sustaining the great generalization. By raising Lazarus he is portrayed as the Restorer of forfeited life, as well as the original Giver of life to men (John 11:25). The ninth chapter records the symbolic event by which he proved himself to be the Sun of the spiritual universe, "the Light of the world" (cf. John 1:4 with John 8:12; cf. John 12:36, 46). The whole history of the conflict with the people whom he came to save, with "his own," with the world power, and the death doom, is the material which is generalized in the solemn statements of John 1:5-10. The prologue says nothing in express words of Christ's supernatural conception, of his death, or of his resurrection and eternal glory; yet these objective facts are woven through, and involved in, the entire context, for the incarnation of the Eternal Word is the historic basis of the apostle's experience of such a life as that which he proceeds to sketch. The absolute antagonism of the darkness to the light, and the rejection of the light and life by the world, never had such exposition as that which the repudiation and crucifixion of the Son of God gave to them; while the eternal nature of the central life and being of him who, when incarnate, was thus resisted by unbelief renders the resurrection and ultimate and eternal glory a necessity of thought even to these who have not yet seen, but yet have believed. John 1:18No man hath seen God at any time (Θεὸν οὐδεὶς ἑώρακεν πώποτε)

God is first in the Greek order, as emphatic: "God hath no man ever seen." As to the substance of the statement, compare John 3:11; Exodus 33:20; 1 John 4:12. Manifestations of God to Old Testament saints were only partial and approximate (Exodus 33:23). The seeing intended here is seeing of the divine essence rather than of the divine person, which also is indicated by the absence of the article from Θεὸν, God. In this sense even Christ was not seen as God. The verb ὁράω, to see, denotes a physical act, but emphasizes the mental discernment accompanying it, and points to the result rather than to the act of vision. In 1 John 1:1; 1 John 4:12, 1 John 4:14, θεάομαι is used, denoting calm and deliberate contemplation (see on John 1:14). In John 12:45, we have θεωρέω, to behold (see on Mark 5:15; see on Luke 10:18). Both θεάομαι and θεωρέω imply deliberate contemplation, but the former is gazing with a view to satisfy the eye, while the latter is beholding more critically, with an inward spiritual or mental interest in the thing beheld, and with a view to acquire knowledge about it. "Θεωρεῖν would be used of a general officially reviewing or inspecting an army; θεᾶσθαι of a lay spectator looking at the parade" (Thayer).

The only begotten son (ὁ μονογενὴς υἱὸς)

Several of the principal manuscripts and a great mass of ancient evidence support the reading μονογενὴς Θεὸς, "God only begotten."

Another and minor difference in reading relates to the article, which is omitted from μονογενὴς by most of the authorities which favor Θεὸς. Whether we read the only begotten Son, or God only begotten, the sense of the passage is not affected. The latter reading merely combines in one phrase the two attributes of the word already indicated - God (John 1:1), only begotten (John 1:14); the sense being one who was both God and only begotten.

Who is in the bosom (ὁ ὢν εἰς τὸν κόλπον)

The expression ὁ ὢν, who is, or the one being, is explained in two ways: 1. As a timeless present, expressing the inherent and eternal relation of the Son to the Father. 2. As interpreted by the preposition. εἰς, in, literally, into, and expressing the fact of Christ's return to the Father's glory after His incarnation: "The Son who has entered into the Father's bosom and is there." In the former case it is an absolute description of the nature of the Son: in the latter, the emphasis is on the historic fact of the ascension, though with a reference to his eternal abiding with the Father from thenceforth.

While the fact of Christ's return to the Father's glory may have been present to the writer's mind, and have helped to determine the form of the statement, to emphasize that fact in this connection would seem less consistent with the course of thought in the Prologue than the other interpretation: since John is declaring in this sentence the competency of the incarnate Son to manifest God to mankind. The ascension of Christ is indeed bound up with that truth, but is not, in the light of the previous course of thought, its primary factor. That is rather the eternal oneness of the Word with God; which, though passing through the phase of incarnation, nevertheless remains unbroken (John 3:13). Thus Godet, aptly: "The quality attributed to Jesus, of being the perfect revealer of the divine Being, is founded on His intimate and perfect relation to God Himself."

The phrase, in the bosom of the Father, depicts this eternal relation as essentially a relation of love; the figure being used of the relation of husband and wife (Deuteronomy 13:6); of a father to an infant child (Numbers 11:12), and of the affectionate protection and rest afforded to Lazarus in Paradise (Luke 16:23). The force of the preposition εἰς, into, according to the first interpretation of who is, is akin to that of "with God" (see on John 1:1); denoting an ever active relation, an eternal going forth and returning to the Father's bosom by the Son in His eternal work of love. He ever goes forth from that element of grace and love and returns to it. That element is His life. He is there "because He plunges into it by His unceasing action" (Godet).

He (ἐκεῖνος)

Strongly emphatic, and pointing to the eternal Son. This pronoun is used by John more frequently than by any other writer. It occurs seventy-two times, and not only as denoting the more distant subject, but as denoting and laying special stress on the person or thing immediately at hand, or possessing pre-eminently the quality which is immediately in question. Thus Jesus applies it to Himself as the person for whom the healed blind man is inquiring: "It is He (ἐκεῖνος) that talketh with thee" (John 9:37). So here, "the only-begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father - He hath declared Him."

Hath declared (ἐξηγήσατο)

Or, rendering the aorist strictly, He declared. From ἐκ, forth, and ἡγέομαι, to lead the way. Originally, to lead or govern. Hence, like the Latin praeire verbis, to go before with words, to prescribe or dictate a form of words. To draw out in narrative, to recount or rehearse (see Acts 15:14, and on Luke 24:35). To relate in full; to interpret, or translate. Therefore ἐξήγησις, exegesis, is interpretation or explanation. The word ἐξηγητής was used by the Greeks of an expounder of oracles, dreams, omens, or sacred rites. Thus Croesus, finding the suburbs of Sardis alive with serpents, sent to the soothsayers (ἐξηγητὰς) of Telmessus (Herodotus, i. 78). The word thus comes to mean a spiritual director. Plato calls Apollo the tutelary director (πατρῷος ἐξηγητής) of religion ("Republic," 427), and says, "Let the priests be interpreters for life" ("Laws," 759). In the Septuagint the word is used of the magicians of Pharaoh's court (Genesis 41:8, Genesis 41:24), and the kindred verb of teaching or interpreting concerning leprosy (Leviticus 14:57). John's meaning is that the Word revealed or manifested and interpreted the Father to men. The word occurs only here in John's writings. Wyc. renders, He hath told out. These words conclude the Prologue.

The Historical Narrative now begins, and falls into two general divisions:

continued...

John 1:18 Interlinear
John 1:18 Parallel Texts


John 1:18 NIV
John 1:18 NLT
John 1:18 ESV
John 1:18 NASB
John 1:18 KJV

John 1:18 Bible Apps
John 1:18 Parallel
John 1:18 Biblia Paralela
John 1:18 Chinese Bible
John 1:18 French Bible
John 1:18 German Bible

Bible Hub