Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 John 1:1-4

The Preface. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we beheld and our hands felt, concerning the Word of Life and the Life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and announce to you the Life, the Eternal Life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us that which we have seen and heard, we announce to you also, that ye also may have fellowship with us. Yea, and our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things we are writing that our joy may be fulfilled.”

The Apostle here characterises and commends his Gospel (cf. Introd. p. 154). 1. Its theme the earthly life of Jesus. No mere biography, since Jesus was not one of the children of men but the Eternal Son of God, the Word made flesh. (a) An ineffable wonder but no dream, an indubitable reality. His readers might doubt it, since they belonged to a later generation and had never seen Jesus; but St. John had seen Him, and he assures them, with elaborate iteration, that it is no dream: “These eyes beheld Him, these hands felt Him”. “Because,” says Calvin, “the greatness of the thing demanded that its truth should be certain and proved, he insists much at this point”. (b) His narrative was necessarily incomplete, since the infinite revelation was larger than his perception or understanding of it. “He would give only a little drop from the sea, not the sea itself” (Rothe). A complete biography of Jesus is impossible, since the days of His flesh are only a segment of His life, a moment of His eternal years. 2. His purpose in writing it : (a) that his readers might share his heavenly fellowship; (b) that his joy might be fulfilled.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 John 1:1-4

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