the inner life of a man who knows himself to be one with God to a
greater extent than any before him, and who feels the leading of men to
God to be the task he had received and accomplished. In this
consciousness he speaks of the glory he had with the Father before the
world was (XVII. 4 f.; [Greek: ego se edoxasa epi tes ges, to ergon
teleiosas ho dedokas moi hina poieso; kai nun doxason me su, pater, para
seauto te doxe he eichon pro tou ton kosmon einai, para soi]). With this
we must compare verses like III. 13: [Greek: oudeis anabebeken eis ton
ouranon ei me ho ek tou ouranou katabas, ho huios tou anthropou], and
III. 31: [Greek: ho anothen erchomenos epano panton estin. ho on ek tes
ges ek tes ges estin kai ek tes ges lalei ho ek tou ouranou erchomenos
epano panton estin] (see also I. 30: VI. 33, 38, 41 f. 50 f. 58, 62:
VIII. 14, 58; XVII. 24). But though the pre-existence is strongly
expressed in these passages, a separation of [Greek: pneuma (logos)] and
[Greek: sarx] in Christ is nowhere assumed in the Gospel except in the
prologue. It is always Christ's whole personality to which every sublime
attribute is ascribed. The same one who "can do nothing of himself", is
also the one who was once glorious and will yet be glorified. This idea,
however, can still be referred to the [Greek: proegnosmenos pro
kataboles kosmon], although it gives a peculiar [Greek: doxa] with God
to him who was foreknown of God, and the oldest conception is yet to be
traced in many expressions, as, for example, I. 31: [Greek: kago ouk
edein auton, all' hina phanerothae to Israel dia touto elthon], V. 19:
[Greek: ou duvatai ho uios poiein aph' eautou ouden an me ti blepe ton
patera poiountai], V. 36: VIII. 38: [Greek: ha ego heoraka para to patri
lalo], VIII. 40: [Greek: ten aletheian humin lelaleka hen ekousa para
tou theou], XII. 49: XV. 15: [Greek: panta ha exousa para tou patros mou
egnorisa humin.]]

[Footnote 453: This is indeed counterbalanced in the fourth Gospel by
the thought of the complete community of love between the Father and the
Son, and the pre-existence and descent of the latter here also tend to
the glory of God. In the sentence "God so loved the world" etc., that
which Paul describes in Phil. II. becomes at the same time an act of
God, in fact the act of God. The sentence "God is love" sums up again
all individual speculations, and raises them into a new and most exalted
sphere.]

[Footnote 454: If it had been possibl