ἐξῆλθον … πατέρα. “I came forth from the Father and am come into the world; again (reversing the process) I leave the world and go to the Father.” There is a sense in which any man can use these words, but it is a loose not an exact sense. The latter member of the sentence “I leave the world and go to the Father” gives us the interpretation of the former “I came forth,” etc. For to say “I leave the world” is not the same as to say “I go to the Father”; this second expression describes a state of existence which is entered upon when existence in this world is done. And to say “I came forth from the Father” is not the same as to say “I am come into the world”: it describes a state of existence antecedent to that which began by coming into the world.

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Old Testament