1 John 1.1a-The First Assertion Supporting the Historicity of the Hypostatic Union of Jesus of Nazareth
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Wednesday March 8, 2017
First John: 1 John 1:1a-The First Assertion Supporting the Historicity of the Hypostatic Union of Jesus of Nazareth
Lesson # 17
1 John 1:1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life. (NASB95)
“What” is the accusative neuter singular form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς), which is functioning as the direct object of the first person plural present active indicative form of the verb apangellō (ἀπαγγέλλω), “we proclaim,” which appears in 1 John 1:2.
The relative pronoun hos refers to the statement tēn zōēn tēn aiōnion hētis ēn pros ton patera (τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον ἥτις ἦν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα), “the eternal life, which was with the Father,” which appears in 1 John 1:2.
This interpretation is supported by the fact that each time the relative pronoun hos is used in this prologue, it functions as the direct object of the verb apangellō (ἀπαγγέλλω), “we proclaim,” which appears in this statement in verse 3.
It is describing how the eternal life which as always existed with the Father manifested Himself.
Therefore, the relative pronoun is in the neuter gender rather than masculine because John wants to emphasize with his readers that Jesus Christ is eternal life incarnate who was has eternally experienced fellowship with the Father.
He also wants to emphasize that he and his fellow apostles and disciples of Jesus Christ are eyewitnesses to this fact.
Thus, the neuter form of hos enables John to not only refer to Jesus Christ but also to emphasize with the Christian community that He is eternal life incarnate and that he is an eyewitness to this historical fact.
Therefore, if you plug this statement in verse 3 in place of the relative pronoun hos when it is used the first time in verse 1, we would have the following statement: The eternal life, which was with the Father was from eternity past.
“Was from the beginning” is composed of the following: (1) third person singular imperfect active indicative form of the verb eimi (εἰμί), “was” (2) preposition apo (ἀπό), “from” (3) genitive feminine singular form of the noun archē (ἀρχή), “beginning.”
The verb eimi is used in an absolute sense meaning “to exist” and functions as a copula linking the main verb apangellō, “we proclaim” in verse 3 with the accusative relative pronoun hos when it appears for the first time in the prologue at the beginning of verse 1.
This word places the subject found in verse 3 apangellō and the relative pronoun hos in predicate relation to each other and unites them.
This would indicate that John and his fellow eyewitnesses proclaimed to the Christian community that the eternal life, which was with the Father and manifested to him and his fellow eyewitnesses was from the beginning.
The imperfect tense of this verb eimi is a customary imperfect tense, which can be used to indicate a regularly recurring activity in past time (habitual) or a state that continued for some time (general).
Here the customary imperfect here refers to an ongoing state indicating eternal life incarnate, the Lord Jesus Christ has always existed from eternity past.
The noun archē means “the beginning, eternity past” implying “something before time, i.e., not a beginning within time, but an absolute beginning, which can be affirmed only of God, of whom no temporal categories can be predicated.”
The word is answering the question as to how long the Lord Jesus Christ who is eternal life and was with the Father, has always existed and thus speaks of the preexistence of Jesus Christ in that He has always existed from eternity past.
This is first indicated by the fact that the relative pronoun in the prologue emphasizes that Jesus Christ is eternal life incarnate who experienced fellowship with the Father from eternity past and this fact was witnessed by John and his fellow apostles and disciples.
The person of Christ is referred to by the relative pronoun but not the message about Him, however the proclamation of the message about Him, i.e. the gospel is expressed by the verb apangellō, “we proclaim” in verse 3.
The relative pronoun hos is the direct object of this verb each time it appears in the prologue and thus John and his fellow disciples proclaimed that Jesus Christ is eternal life incarnate who was with the Father from eternity past.
Secondly, the qualitative relative pronoun clause hētis ēn pros ton patera kai ephanerōthē hēmin (ἥτις ἦν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα), “which was with the Father” in 1 John 1:2 modifies the phrase tēn zōēn tēn aionion (τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον), “the eternal life.”
The latter is a title describing Jesus Christ and the eternality of His person whereas the former is describing His eternal relationship with the Father and thus together, they assert that Jesus Christ, eternal life incarnate, has always existed with the Father.
This assertion would indicate that archē in 1 John 1:1 is a reference to eternity past.
John is establishing the preexistence of Christ with both the noun archē and this qualitative pronoun clause with the former describing the eternality of His person while the latter His eternal relationship with the Father.
Consequently, he is affirming the deity of Jesus of Nazareth.
He further explicitly establishes the deity of Jesus by identifying Him at the end of 1 John 1:3 as the Son of the Father in 1 John 1:3.
So the prepositional phrase ἀπʼ ἀρχῆς, “from the beginning” in 1 John 1:1 along with the qualitative relative pronoun clause ἥτις ἦν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα, “which was with the Father” in 1 John 1:2 serve to establish the preexistence and thus, the deity of Jesus in the prologue.
Lastly, “from the beginning” in 1 John 1:1 recalls “in the beginning” in John 1:1 and Genesis 1:1.
The former serves to establish the origin of Jesus Christ in that He was no mere man but God since He is eternal.
The noun archē is in the genitive case and is the object of the preposition apo, which functions as a marker of time emphasizing extent of time and that the Lord Jesus Christ, eternal life incarnate, has always existed from eternity past.
1 John 1:1 We are proclaiming to each and every one of you at this particular time what has always existed from eternity past, what we have heard, what we have witnessed with our eyes, what we observed for ourselves, even what we touched with our hands concerning the Word which is truly life. (My translation)
The first assertion “what has always existed” declares that the eternal life which has always existed with the Father has always existed from eternity past and of course, He is describing the Lord Jesus Christ.
John is not only asserting that He is eternal life incarnate but also that He is God since He is describing Him as always existing and thus eternal.
Therefore, he is describing the preexistence of Jesus Christ with this first assertion or in other words, he is describing the eternality of the person of Jesus of Nazareth who is the Christ.
The eternal life manifested by the Lord Jesus Christ during His First Advent has always existed from eternity past since He is eternal life (Jn. 14:6) and thus, His doctrines are spirit and are eternal life (Jn. 6:63).
Not only does the apostle John affirm the preexistence of Jesus of Nazareth in 1 John 1:1 but he does so in John 8:58, John 1:1-14, 1 John 2:13-14 and Revelation 1:8, 21:6 and 22:13.
Our Lord’s birth in Bethlehem 2000 years ago was not His origin, only His incarnation.
There could be no incarnation and hypostatic union without our Lord having a previous existence.
To deny the preexistence of our Lord renders the incarnation and hypostatic union impossible and to go back further, could there be a Trinity were there no preexistent Son of God?
The one necessarily presupposes the other.
Christ’s preexistence is not a matter of purely academic interest but in fact it is the foundation on which the whole superstructure of the Christian faith rests.
If our Lord is not preexistent, He cannot be God, and if He is not God, He cannot be the Creator or Redeemer.
Jesus was unique among men in that His birth did not mark His origin, but only His appearance as a man on the stage of time.
Of no other person would it be possible to distinguish between His birth and origin, or to say that His life did not begin when He was born.
He was the meeting place of eternity and time, the uniting of deity and humanity, the junction of heaven and earth.
His origin was not related to His birth, or His nature dependent only on human ancestry.
His nature was derived from His eternal being.
The Lord Jesus Christ did not become God’s Son at the incarnation or when He rose from the dead.
His resurrection in fact demonstrated that He was the eternal Son of God who has no beginning.
He is God, supreme and without beginning.
Our Lord was conscious of a previous existence since He spoke of the glory He had with the Father before the foundation of the world (cf. John 17:5).
In John 16:26-28, He claimed preexistence in explicit and unmistakable terms.