Joh 1:18, 17:5, 1Jo 1:2 | JFB | STEP | 18. No man —"No one," in the widest sense. hath seen God —by immediate gaze, or direct intuition. in the bosom of the Father —A remarkable expression, used only here, presupposing the Son's conscious existence distinct from the Father, and expressing His immediate and most endeared access to, and absolute acquaintance with, Him. he —emphatic; As if he should say, "He and He only hath declared Him," because He only can. . THE BAPTIST'S TESTIMONY TO CHRIST.

John 1:18

18. No man—"No one," in the widest sense.

hath seen God—by immediate gaze, or direct intuition.

in the bosom of the Father—A remarkable expression, used only here, presupposing the Son's conscious existence distinct from the Father, and expressing His immediate and most endeared access to, and absolute acquaintance with, Him.

he—emphatic; As if he should say, "He and He only hath declared Him," because He only can.

Joh 1:19-36. THE BAPTIST'S TESTIMONY TO CHRIST.

John 17:5

5. And now—in return.

glorify thou me—The "I Thee" and "Thou Me" are so placed in the original, each beside its fellow, as to show that A PERFECT RECIPROCITY OF SERVICES of the Son to the Father first, and then of the Father to the Son in return, is what our Lord means here to express.

with the glory which I had with thee before the world was—when "in the beginning the Word was with God" (Joh 1:1), "the only-begotten Son in the bosom of the Father" (Joh 1:18). With this pre-existent glory, which He veiled on earth, He asks to be reinvested, the design of the veiling being accomplished—not, however, simply as before, but now in our nature.

1 John 1:2

2. the life—Jesus, "the Word of life."

was manifested—who had previously been "with the Father."

show—Translate as in 1Jo 1:3, "declare" (compare 1Jo 1:5). Declare is the general term; write is the particular (1Jo 1:4).

that eternal life—Greek, "the life which is eternal." As the Epistle begins, so it ends with "eternal life," which we shall ever enjoy with, and in, Him who is "the life eternal."

which—Greek, "the which." the before-mentioned (1Jo 1:1) life which was with the Father "from the beginning" (compare Joh 1:1). This proves the distinctness of the First and Second Persons in the one Godhead.