LAING, Librarian in the New College,
Edinburgh, for the valuable assistance which he afforded to him in the
translation of this work. Any observation on the work itself or its
Author would be superfluous, if not presumptuous, considering the high
position which Dr HENGSTENBERG holds as a Biblical Scholar. High,
however, as this position is, the Translator feels confident that it
will be raised by the present work, the Author's _latest_ and _first_;
and not only revering Dr HENGSTENBERG as a beloved Teacher, but being
under many obligations to him for proofs of personal kindness and
friendship, the Translator sincerely rejoices in this prospect.

As regards the translation itself, it was the Translator's aim to bring
out fully the Author's meaning. This object, which ought to be the
first in every translation, has been kept steadily in view, and
preferred to all others. In rendering Dr HENGSTENBERG'S translation of
Scripture-passages, the expressions in our Authorized Version have, as
far as possible, been retained. Wherever the division of the text in
the latter differed from that of the original text, it has been added
in a parenthesis; an exception in this respect having been made in
quotations from the Psalms only, in which this difference is almost
constant, the inscriptions not being counted in our English Version,
while they are in the Hebrew Text.

Edinburgh, January 1854.

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THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE.

The first edition of the Christology, although the impression was
unusually large, had been for years out of print. It was impossible
that the work could appear a second time in its original form. The
first volume of it--written twenty-five years ago--was a juvenile
performance, to which the Author himself had become rather a stranger;
and the succeeding volumes required references to, and comparisons
with, a large number of publications which subsequently appeared. But
for the remodelling and revising which these circumstances rendered
necessary, the Author could not find leisure, because new tasks were
ever and anon presenting themselves to him; and these he felt himself,
as it were, involuntarily impelled to undertake. But now he is led to
believe that he could no longer delay. A powerful inclination urges him
to comment on the Gospel of St John; but he thinks that the right to
gratify this inclination must first be purchased by him by answ