ritings which likewise
gives evidence of a middle position with regard to the matter, I mean
the Johannine writings. If we only possessed the prologue to the Gospel
of John with its "[Greek: en arche en ho logos]," the "[Greek: panta di'
autou egeneto]" and the "[Greek: ho logos sarx egeneto]" we could indeed
point to nothing but Hellenic ideas. But the Gospel itself, as is well
known, contains very much that must have astonished a Greek, and is
opposed to the philosophical idea of the Logos. This occurs even in the
thought, "[Greek: ho logos sarx egeneto]," which in itself is foreign to
the Logos conception. Just fancy a proposition like the one in VI. 44,
[Greek: oudeis dunatai elthein pros me, ean me ho pater ho pempsas me
elkuse auton], or in V. 17. 21, engrafted on Philo's system, and
consider the revolution it would have caused there. No doubt the
prologue to some extent contains the themes set forth in the
presentation that follows, but they are worded in such a way that one
cannot help thinking the author wished to prepare Greek readers for the
paradox he had to communicate to them, by adapting his prologue to their
mode of thought. Under the altered conditions of thought which now
prevail, the prologue appears to us the mysterious part, and the
narrative that follows seems the portion that is relatively more
intelligible. But to the original readers, if they were educated Greeks,
the prologue must have been the part most easily understood. As nowadays
a section on the nature of the Christian religion is usually prefixed to
a treatise on dogmatics, in order to prepare and introduce the reader,
so also the Johannine prologue seems to be intended as an introduction
of this kind. It brings in conceptions which were familiar to the
Greeks, in fact it enters into these more deeply than is justified by
the presentation which follows; for the notion of the incarnate Logos is
by no means the dominant one here. Though faint echoes of this idea may
possibly be met with here and there in the Gospel--I confess I do not
notice them--the predominating thought is essentially the conception of
Christ as the Son of God, who obediently executes what the Father has
shewn and appointed him. The works which he does are allotted to him,
and he performs them in the strength of the Father. The whole of
Christ's farewell discourses and the intercessory prayer evince no
Hellenic influence and no cosmological speculation whatever, but shew