the only-begotten Son (or God only-begotten),^823 who is in the bosom^824 of the Father, he and he
alone (εκεῖνος) declared him and brought to light, once and forever, the hidden mystery of his
being.^825
This perfect knowledge of the Father, Christ claims himself in that remarkable passage in
Matthew 11:27, which strikingly confirms the essential harmony of the Johannean and Synoptical
representations of Christ.
John (and he alone) calls Christ the "Logos" of God, i.e., the embodiment of God and the
organ of all his revelations.^826 As the human reason or thought is expressed in word, and as the
word is the medium of making our thoughts known to others, so God is known to himself and to
the world in and through Christ as the personal Word. While "Logos" designates the metaphysical
and intellectual relation, the term "Son" designates the moral relation of Christ to God, as a relation
of love, and the epithet "only-begotten" or "only-born" (μονογενής) raises his sonship as entirely
unique above every other sonship, which is only a reflection of it. It is a blessed relation of infinite
knowledge and infinite love. The Logos is eternal, he is personal, he is divine.^827 He was in the(^823) There is a remarkable variation of reading in John 1:18 between μονογενής θεός ,one who is God only-begotten, andὁ
μονογενής υἱός ,the only-begotten Son. (A third reading: ὁ μονογενὴς θεός ,"the only-begotten God," found in א’ and 33, arose
simply from a combination of the two readings, the article being improperly transferred from the second to the first.) The two
readings are of equal antiquity; θεός is supported by the oldest Greek MSS., nearly all Alexandrian or Egyptian (א BCL, also
the Peshitto Syr.);υἱός by the oldest versions (Itala Vulg., Curet. Syr., also by the secondary uncials and all known cursives
except 33). The usual abbreviations in the uncial MS., Θο-for θεός and ΥΟ for υἱός ,may easily be confounded. The connection
of μονογενής withθεόςis less natural than with υἱὸς although John undoubtedly could call the Son θεός (not ὁ θεός), and did so
in 1:1. Μονογενής θεόςsimply combines the two attributes of the Logos, θεός 1:1, and μονογενής, 1:14. For a learned and
ingenious defence of θεός see Hort’s Dissertations (Cambridge, 1877), Westcott on St. John (p. 71), and Westcott and Hort’s
Gr. Test. Introd. and Append., p. 74. Tischendorf and nearly all the German commentators (except Weiss) adopt υἱός, and Dr.
Abbot, of Cambridge, Mass., has written two very able papers in favor of this reading, one in the Bibliotheca Sacra for 1861,
pp. 840-872, and another in the " Unitarian Review" for June, 1875. The Westminster Revision first adopted " God" in the text,
but afterwards put it on the margin. Both readings are intrinsically unobjectionable, and the sense is essentially the same.
Μονογενής does not necessarily convey the Nicene idea of eternal generation, but simply the unique character and superiority
of the eternal and uncreated sonship of Christ over the sonship of believers which is a gift of grace. It shows his intimate relation
to the Father, as the Pauline πρωτότοκος his sovereign relation to the world.
(^824) Lit."towards the bosom" (εἰς τὸν κόλπον), i.e., leaning on, and moving to the bosom. It expresses the union of motion and
rest and the closest and tenderest intimacy, as between mother and child, like the German term Schoosskind, bosom-child. Comp.
πρός τὸν θεόνJohn 1:1 and Prov. 8:30, where Wisdom (the Logos) says: "I was near Him as one brought up with Him, and I
was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him."
(^825) With this sentence the Prologue returns to the beginning and suggests the best reason why Christ is called Logos. He is the
Exegete, the Expounder, the Interpreter of the hidden being, of God. "The word ἐξηγήσατο used by classical writers of the
interpretation of divine mysteries. The absence of the object in the original is remarkable. Thus the literal rendering is simply,
he made declaration (Vulg. ipse enarravit). Comp. Acts 15: 4. Westcott, in loc. See the classical parallels in Wetstein.
(^826) John 1:1, 14:1 John 1:1; Rev. 19:13. The Logos theory of John is the fruitful germ of the speculations of the Greek church
on the mysteries of the incarnation and the trinity. See my ed. of Lange’s Com. on John, pp. 51 and 55 sqq., where also the
literature is given. On the latest discussions see Weiss in the sixth ed. of Meyer’s Com. on John (1880), pp. 49 sqq. Λόγος means
both ratio andoratio reason and speech, which are inseparably connected. " Logos," being masculine in Greek, is better fitted
as a designation of Christ than our neuter " Word." Hence Ewald, in defiance of German grammar, renders it "der Wort."On the
apocalyptic designation ὁ λογος τοῦ θυοῦ and on the christology of the Apocalypse, see Gebhardt, l.c., 94 and 333 sqq. On
Philo’s idea of the Logos I refer to Schürer, Neutestam. Zeitgeschichte, pp. 648 sqq., and the works of Gfrörer, Zeller, Frankel,
etc., there quoted.
(^827) These three ideas are contained in the first verse of the Gospel, which has stimulated and puzzled the profoundest minds
from Origen and Augustin to Schelling and Goethe. Mark the unique union of transparent simplicity and inexhaustible depth,
and the symmetry of the three clauses. The subject (λόγος) and the verb (ἧν) are three times repeated. " The three clauses contain
all that it is possible for man to realize as to the essential nature of the Word in relation to time and mode of being and character:
A.D. 1-100.