illustrates the obvious scantiness of the evidence furnished by Justin.
Tischendorf, however, with his usual temerity, claims Justin as a
powerful witness for the fourth Gospel. He says: "According to our
judgment there are convincing grounds of proof for the fact that
John also was known and used by Justin, provided that an unprejudiced
consideration be not made to give way to the antagonistic predilection
against the Johannine Gospel." In order fully and fairly to state the
case which he puts forward, we shall quote his own words, but to avoid
repetition we shall permit ourselves to interrupt him by remarks and
by parallel passages from other writings for comparison with Justin.
Tischendorf says: "The representation of the person of Christ altogether
peculiar to John as it is given particularly in his Prologue i. 1 (" In
the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was
God"), and verse 14 ("and the word became flesh"), in the designation
of him as Logos, as the Word of God, unmistakably re-echoes in not a
few passages in Justin; for instance:(1) 'And Jesus Christ is alone
the special Son begotten by God, being his Word and first-begotten and
power.'"(2)
With this we may compare another passage of Justin from the second
Apology. "But his son, who alone is rightly called Son, the Word before
the works of creation,
1 Tischendorf uses great liberty in translating some of
these passages, abbreviating and otherwise altering them as
it suits him. We shall therefore give his German translation
below, and we add the Greek which Tischendorf does not
quote--indeed he does not, in most cases, even state where
the passages are to be found.
{272}
who was both with him and begotten when in the beginning he created and
ordered all things by him,"(1) &c.
Now the same words and ideas are to be found throughout the Canonical
Epistles and other writings, as well as in earlier works. In the
Apocalypse,(2) the only book of the New Testament mentioned by Justin,
and which is directly ascribed by him to John,(3) the term Logos is
applied to Jesus "the Lamb," (xix. 13): "and his name is called the Word
of God" [------]. Elsewhere (iii. 14) he is called "the Beginning of the
Creation of God" [------]; and again in the same book (i. 5) he is "the
first-begotten of the dead" [------]. In Heb. i 6 he is the "first-born"
[------], as in Coloss. i. 15 he is "the first-born of every creature"
[------]; and in 1 Cor. i. 24 we have: "Christ the Power of God and the
Wisdom of God"[------], and it will be remembered that "Wisdom" was
the earlier term which became an alternative with "Word" for the
intermediate Being. In Heb. i. 2, God is represented as speaking to us
"in the Son.... by whom he also made the worlds" [------]. In 2 Tim. i.
9, he is "before all worlds" [------], cf. Heb. L 10, ii. 10, Kom. xi.
36, 1 Cor. viii. 6, Ephes. iii. 9.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account