The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Chapter 1
In the beginning , &c. So the Persian, Syriac, Egyptian, Ethiopic, and Arabic, except that the last version has the article in the second and third clauses of the verse — “the Word was with God, the Word was God.” The Ethiopic for Word has ca/ 9 answering to the Latin Verbum, which is better than Sermo, as Erasmus and the innovators translate the Greek λόγος.
John begins from the Godhead of the Word : first, because the right order and a full account of Christ require it; second, because in the time of S. John the heresies of Cerinthus and Ebion had arisen, which denied Christ's Divinity.
After a similar manner did Moses begin his account of the genesis of the world, “ In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” Moses begins from the creation of the world, but John far higher, even from the eternity of the Word. Moses marks the beginning of time, in which God made all things. John marks a beginning which was from eternity, when the Word was, by which all things were made by God in time. John therefore takes up the exordium of Moses, and presupposes the beginning of the world, when he gives, so to say, an account of the long anterior beginning of the Word. Hence Tertullian, in his book against Hermogenes, truly asserts that the Gospel is the supplement of the Old Testament.
S. John alludes to Ecclus. xxiv. 5, “I (the Eternal Wisdom) came forth from the mouth of the Most High, the first begotten before every creature.” Also to Prov. viii. 22, “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of His ways, before He made anything, from the beginning.” Where the Septuagint translates, “The Lord built, or founded (ἔκτισε) me the beginning of His ways, in His work. Before the age He founded me in the beginning, before He made the earth, and appointed the great depths.”
In the beginning, i.e., first, “ in the Eternal Father,” as Cyril says, and Origen. For by-and-by John says in the 14th verse, that the Word was in the bosom of the Father. Second, and more simply, Augustine, Bede, and Hilary, In the beginning, i.e., of the world, or of times, such as you can only imagine, which went on from all eternity before the foundation of the world. As much as to say, the Word was not made in the beginning of time, however ancient and imaginary ; but He existed then, because He was not made, but was begotten from eternity. Third, and most simply, Augustine, Chrysostom, and Basil, In the beginning, i.e. , before all things, even from the beginning of all eternity, long before all angels, or men, or things created, the Word was. For S. John is here speaking of a true and real beginning (principium ), just as Moses does in the first verse of Genesis, and Solomon in Prov. viii. 22. Wherefore all the Fathers from the passage prove the true Divinity and eternity of Christ. This beginning S. John sets in opposition to Ebion, who affirmed that Christ began to be after His birth of the Virgin, and that He had no previous existence. So Cyril. Hence Nonnus expounds the expression, In the beginning, in a fivefold manner, one following after another. He was in the beginning, saith he, first, as not subject to conditions of time ; second, as coeternal with the Father ; third, as equal to the Father by nature ; fourth, as incomprehensible ; fifth, as ineffable. The four last are consequences of the first.
You will say, Eternity is infinite duration, having neither beginning , nor end : why then is a beginning here spoken of ? I answer, the reason is, because of the weakness of the human intellect, which is not able to comprehend eternity, nor to conceive of it definitely , except by a comparison with time. Therefore it conceives of eternity as duration which is coexistent with all time — past, present, and future, and that not only time actual, but which can be conceived of. Indeed, it precedes all time. The meaning therefore is this, In the beginning, that is, before all time, even that which can be imagined in the mind, the Word was . Think of millions of millions of years, as much as ever thou canst conceive in thy mind ; before all these, and whatsoever infinite number thou canst add, the Word was . This is why S. John repeats was four times, saying, In the beginning was the Word, &c., that thou mayest understand that whatsoever time thou thinkest of, the Word was then : that in all ages, however far back thou goest, the Word was in those ages. Beginning therefore is here used relatively, for it is spoken with reference to all time, even that which far precedes. For as the whole substance and immensity of God is in every place whatsoever , yes, in every point of space, and yet it encompasses all space and every place, even what we can think of above the heavens, so likewise God’s eternity, which altogether in time present , or in one single instant of the duration of time, includes all time, past, present, and to come, and far exceeds and transcends it all. And this is what we mean when we say, following the words of S. John, that God’s eternity was in the beginning.
Thus we are able to ascend with our minds to the idea of the antiquity, and as it were the origin of eternity, which is here called principium, that is, the beginning of all duration and eternity.
Though indeed this beginning is without beginning, a commencement without commencement. Therefore when we would say of anything, that it did not have a beginning in time, we say that it was in the beginning of all duration and eternity. And by this we mean nothing else but that it always existed, that it was from all eternity. This is the meaning of S. John when he says, In the beginning was the Word. This is also why we say in ordinary discourse , that God has existed from the beginning of eternity, that is, that He is from all eternity.
Was: the expression was, says S. Basil upon these words of S. John, leads us to eternity, not as if the word was signified that the Word preceded the beginning, concerning which it is said, It was in the beginning, and consequently the beginning of time and the world were here to be understood (because the Word preceded in computation (ratione) only, as it were, for as everything whatsoever precedes its own duration, so also God is before His duration and eternity : for duration is the continuance and measure of the thing which exists and endures), therefore, even before, from all eternity, was the Word. Here observe that the word employed is was (ἦν), not has been (fuit ), for has been signifies that which has existed, and passed away : but was signifies that it is even now, or that it is perennial and eternal. So S. Chrysostom, Cyril, and Theophylact. The Holy Ghost therefore suggested was to the mind and pen of S. John, as against the Arians, whom He foresaw would arise. They were wont to say, There was when there was no was ; meaning there was a time when the Son was not. From these words of S. John the Council of Nice condemns them ; because, In the beginning was the Word, i.e., from eternity.
Moreover, S. Gregory Nazianzen observes that the substantive verbs is and was have a special application to God from the plenitude of His essence. Wherefore God in Hebrew is called Jehovah, i.e., He who is.
The Word, Gr. ὁ Λόγος, That Word, eternal and divine, which is the Son of God, as even the Arians formerly allowed. For John soon after calls this Word the Only Begotten of the Father. So constantly in Scripture, the Son is called the Word of the Father. S. Basil thought that the Holy Spirit might also be called the Word ; but S. Thomas rightly observes that this can only be said improperly (improperly being used in the logical sense).
You will ask why is the Son of God called the Word ? I answer that the Greek λόγος (Logos) has many meanings, which are all applicable in this place, 1. Logos may be translated reason , because, as reason proceeds from the mind, so does the Son from the Father. So SS. Chrysostom and Basil.
2. Logos may be translated definition , because the Word definitely expresses and unfolds the nature and attributes of the Father. Wherefore Nicetas (in Orat. 42 Nazianz.) says, “The same relation that a definition bears to the thing defined does the Son bear to the Father. For He declares the Father as a definition declares that which is defined by it. Wherefore Christ said, ‘Philip, he that seeth Me, seeth My Father also.’ For the Son is a compendious demonstration of the Paternal nature ; for every offspring is a sort of tacit account, or definition, of its parent.”
3. Logos may be translated cause , because the Word is the cause of all things which have been created and produced by the Word of God.
4. Λόγος may be translated work , because the Word is the Work of the Father, coextensive with Him, coetemal and coequal.
5. Λόγος can be translated power, or virtue, because the Word is the strength and right hand of the Father.
6. Λόγος may be translated beauty , because the Word is the form , grace, and beauty of the Father.
7. And chiefly, Λόγος may be translated, with Tertullian, Cyprian, and Ambrose, speech (sermo), or rather Word (Verbum). This Word, or speech, is not of the mouth, but of the mind ; because as we by thinking form a conception to ourselves of the thing thought of, or understood, which is called the word of the mind, so the eternal Father, by comprehending and understanding His Essence, and all that belongs to It, has produced this Eternal Word, coequal with, and like to, Itself, by means of which it comes to pass that this Word is God, and the Son of God, begotten of the Father.