The Great Commentary of Cornelius a Lapide: S. John
Hence also the Gentile philosophers, Trismegistus, Orpheus, Plato, and the rest of the Greeks, Chaldaeans, and Egyptians called the Father mind; and the Son Logos , as it were, the offspring of the mind. See S. Augustine (lib. 7, Confess, c. 9). Whence that saying of Plato’s, “A Monad begat a Monad, and in it reflected his ardour.” He means, The Father begat the Son, and through Him breathed the Holy Spirit, which is the reciprocal Love of the Father and the Son. Many, however, are of opinion that Plato and the other Gentile philosophers mean by the Logos not the Son but the idea in the mind of God, according to which He created all things, and reflected His love back upon Himself, because He created the world on account of His love.
Here observe, the Word of God is twofold. First, essential , because it is the very Intelligence of the Father, which together with essence, understanding, and will, He shares with the Son and the Holy Ghost. The second is notional , which is the Word produced by the Father, and subsisting personally, that is, as the Son. So S. Thomas (1 dist. 27 q. 2. a . 2). This is the twofold meaning of the Word, taken in its widest sense.
I have written more upon the Word in 1 Epis. John, chap. i. ver. 1. Let me add here what S. Augustine says (Serm. 38 de Verb. Dom.) “ The Word of God is, as it were, a Form, but not formed. It is the Form of all forms, over all things, and existing in all things. But some ask, How could the Son be begotten coeternal with the Father ? As if fire were eternal, would not its brightness be coeternal with it? Is it not the same with the reflection in a mirror, or in water ? As, for example, a shrub would always have its reflection in the water beside which it grew.” And S. Chrysostom says, “ He said not Word simply, but by the article distinguished it from all others. For it is an Hypostasis, proceeding forth impassibly from the Father. This is the meaning of was in the beginning, that it always existed, and with an infinite existence. For it is not said of the heaven and the earth, that they were in the beginning, but that they were made in the beginning.”
And the Word was with God . S. John meets an objection. Some one may say, “ Where was the Word in the beginning, from eternity, when as yet there was no place, and no created nature of things ? ” He answers, “ The Word had no need of place, because It is spiritual, and divine ; but It was with the Father, as with that from which It derived Its origin.” As it is said in the 18th verse, It was in the bosom of the Father. Or, as we might say, It was in the Father's House, which is God Himself, and His immensity.
The preposition with denotes — 1. Distinction of person, because indeed the Son is a different Person from the Father, not one and the same, as the Sabellians say. “ For how should that which is one numerically be understood to be with itself?” says S. Cyril. “ Before all things,” says Tertullian (lib. 5 cont. Prax.) “God alone was Himself to Himself both universe and space and everything. But in this respect only was He alone, that He had nothing external to Himself for not even then was He alone ; for He had with Himself what he had in Himself, His Reason, or that which the Greeks call His Logos.”
2. With denotes the loving and perfect union of the Son with the Father, by which it comes to pass that it is impossible for Him to be separated from the Father. So Nonnus.
3. With denotes the equality of the Son with the Father. For to be with God, or near to (juxtd) God, means to sit at the right hand of God, as it were God of the same substance as the Father. Wherefore Christ is said after His Ascension to have returned to the right hand of the Father (Mark xvi.) As Nonnus expounds, “ the Son is sunthronos with the Father,” a term which cannot be expressed by a single word in English, but which means an associate in the same throne, an assessor in the same seat.
And the Word was God. The order of the words in the Greek is, And God was the Word. Lest the Arians should bring forward the objection, “ If the Word was with God, then the Word was not God,” John confutes them by anticipation, saying, The Word was God.
For the Arians placed the interior and essential Word of God, that is, the Intelligence of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost (as the orthodox faith is) in one Person of Godhead, coeternal with Himself . They said that God began to be a Father in time, when He produced the Word (Verbum notionale) distinct from Himself, as it were the first of creatures, and by him all other creatures. John refutes this by saying, And God was the Word, meaning that the Word already spoken of was God. He said this lest any one should suppose that the Word was not God, because he had said that He was with God. He means that the Word was with God in such sort that He Himself was God.
The Arians object that the Greek word θεός, God, has not the article in this clause as it had in the preceding clause, and the Word was with God (apud τὸν Θεόν). Therefore, say they, the Word was not true God. I reply by denying the conclusion. For the reason of the difference is that the word God (ὁ Θεός) in the preceding clause, with God, denotes a distinct Person, namely, the Person of the Father with whom the Word was. But in this latter clause it denotes not a Person but the essence of the Godhead common to each Person. For the Word is one God with the Father, so far as relates to Essence and Godhead, but not as regards Person. And the article in this place signifies a distinct Person, not the nature common to both. Again, the Greeks prefix the article to the subject, not the predicate ; and in this place God is the predicate, the Word is the subject.
Observe that John in this sentence with three clauses, by the first clause unfolds the when of the Word : it was eternity. Secondly, the where of the Word, and His distinction from the Father. In this third clause, the essence of the Word, and His identity in essence with the Father. S. John unfolded this threefold sentence of His Gospel in the Creed which, at the bidding of the Blessed Virgin, he delivered to S. Gregory Thaumaturgus, as S. Gregory of Nyssa relates in his life. For this symbol is as follows, “There is one Father of the living Word, the substantial Wisdom and Power, and eternal Image, the perfect Father of the perfect and only begotten Son. One Lord, alone from the Only One, God of God, the form and image of the Godhead, the efficacious Word, the comprehensive Wisdom by which all things were made, and the effectual power of the whole creation. True Son that cannot be seen, of the true Father that cannot be seen, incorruptible, immortal, and eternal Son of the incorruptible, immortal, and eternal Father.”
The same was in the beginning with God. He compendiously repeats and confirms this proposition of this clause by a sentence of a single clause. Thus, “This Word, which I have said is God, was in the beginning, that is, from eternity, with God.” For it is difficult to understand how the Word can be with God, and yet the same be God. Therefore John writes and inculcates both together, that he may signify at one and the same time the unity of essence and the diversity of persons, and that he may teach that in the Godhead there is a Trinity of Persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. For this is the deepest and most obscure mystery of our faith, and the most difficult to be believed.
Maldonatus gives a second reason for this repetition, derived from the third clause, the Word was God , that is to say, forasmuch as the Word was God, therefore it follows that He was in the beginning with God the Father, that is, coeternal and of one substance with the Father.
S. Hilary gives a third reason (lib. i de Trin.), lest any one should suppose because he said the Word was God, and the same was in the beginning with God, there were therefore two Gods, one which was the Word, and the other with whom the Word was, as the Manichaeans held two Principles, or Gods, one of which was the Creator of all things corporeal, the other the Creator of angels and things spiritual, John declares that the Word was so with God the Father as to be the same God with Him.
All things were made by Him, that is, by the Word. All things which were not God were created by the Word. “All things, from an angel to a worm,” says S. Augustine ; who adds, “between God who speaks, and the creature which was made, what is there by which it was made, but the Word, by whom God said, Let it be made, and it was made.” As the Apostle says, “By Him,” i.e., the Word, “were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers : all things were created by Him, and in Him.”