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| That the Logos is One, Not Many. Of the Word, Faithful and True, and of His White Horse.
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4. That the Logos
is One, Not Many. Of the Word, Faithful and True, and of His
White Horse.
“He was in the beginning with
God.” By his three foregoing propositions the
Evangelist has made us acquainted with three orders, and he now sums up
the three in one, saying, “This (Logos) was in the beginning with
God.” In the first premiss we learned where the Logos
was: He was in the beginning; then we learned with whom He was,
with God; and then who He was, that He was God. He now points out
by this word “He,” the Word who is God, and gathers up into
a fourth proposition the three which went before, “In the
beginning was the Word,” “The Word was with God,” and
“The Word was God.” Now he says, He, this (Word) was
in the beginning with God. The term beginning may be taken of the
beginning of the world, so that we may learn from what is said that the
Word was older than the things which were made from the
beginning. For if “in the beginning God created heaven and
earth,” but “He” was in the beginning, then the Logos
is manifestly older than those things which were made at the beginning,
older not only than the firmament and the dry land, but than the
heavens and earth. Now some one might ask, and not unreasonably,
why it is not said, “In the beginning was the Word of God, and
the Word of God was with God, and the Word of God was God.”
But he who asked such a question could be shown to be taking for
granted that there are a plurality of logoi, differing perhaps from
each other in kind, one being the word of God, another perhaps the word
of angels, a third of men, and so on with the other logoi. Now,
if this were so with the Logos, the case would be the same with wisdom
and with righteousness. But it would be absurd that there should
be a number of things equally to be called “The Word;” and
the same would apply to wisdom and to righteousness. We shall be
driven to confess that we ought not to look for a plurality of logoi,
or of wisdom, or of righteousness, if we look at the case of
truth. Any one will confess that there is only one truth; it
could never be said in this case that there is one truth of God, and
another of the angels, and another of man,—it lies in the nature
of things that the truth about anything is one. Now, if truth be
one, it is clear that the preparation of it and its demonstration,
which is wisdom, must in reason be conceived as one, since what is
regarded as wisdom cannot justly claim that title where truth, which is
one, is absent from its grasp. But if truth is one and wisdom
one, then Reason (Logos) also, which announces truth and makes truth
simple and manifest to those who are fitted to receive it, will be
one. This we say, by no means denying that truth and wisdom and
reason are of God, but we wish to indicate the purpose of the omission
in this passage of the words “of God,” and of the form of
the statement, “In the beginning the Logos was with
God.” The same John in the Apocalypse gives Him His name
with the addition “of God,” where he says:4668
“And I saw heaven opened, and
behold a white horse, and He that sat thereon called Faithful and True;
and in righteousness doth He judge and make war. And His eyes are
as a flame of fire, and on His head are many diadems, and He hath a
name written which no one knoweth but He Himself. And He is
arrayed in a garment sprinkled with blood, and His name is
called4669
| 4669 In the Greek the
article is here omitted. | Word of God.
And His armies in heaven followed Him on white horses, clothed in pure
fine linen. And out of His mouth proceedeth a sharp sword, that
with it He should smite the nations, and He shall rule them with a rod
of iron, and He treadeth the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath
of Almighty God. And He hath on His garment and on His thigh a
name written: King of kings, and Lord of lords.” In
this passage Logos is necessarily spoken of absolutely without the
article, and also with the addition Logos of God; had the first not
been the case (i.e., had the article been given) we might have been led
to take up the meaning wrongly,4670
| 4670 Reading παρεκδέξασθαι,
with Huet. | and so to
depart from the truth about the Logos. For if it had been called
simply Logos, and had not been said to be the Logos of God, then we
would not be clearly informed that the Logos is the Logos of God.
And, again, had it been called Logos of God but not said to be Logos
absolutely, then we might imagine many logoi, according to the
constitution of each of the
rational beings which exist; then we might assume a number of logoi
properly so called. Again, in his description in the Apocalypse
of the Logos of God, the Apostle and Evangelist (and the Apocalypse
entitles him to be styled a prophet, too) says he saw the Word of God
in the opened heaven, and that He was riding on a white horse.
Now we must consider what he means to convey when he speaks of heaven
being opened and of the white horse, and of the Word of God riding on
the white horse, and also what is meant by saying that the Word of God
is Faithful and True, and that in righteousness He judges and makes
war. All this will greatly advance our study on the subject of
the Word of God. Now I conceive heaven to have been shut against
the ungodly, and those who bear the image of the earthly, and to have
been opened to the righteous and those adorned with the image of the
heavenly. For to the former, being below and still dwelling in
the flesh, the better things are closed, since they cannot understand
them and have neither power nor will to see their beauty, looking down
as they do and not striving to look up. But to the excellent, or
those who have their commonwealth in heaven,4671
he
opens, with the key of David, the things in heavenly places and
discloses them to their view, and makes all clear to them by riding on
his horse. These words also have their meaning; the horse is
white because it is the nature of higher knowledge (γνῶσις) to be clear
and white and full of light. And on the white horse sits He who
is called Faithful, seated more firmly, and so to speak more royally,
on words which cannot be set aside, words which run sharply and more
swiftly than any horse, and overhear in their rushing course every
so-called word that simulates the Word, and every so-called truth that
simulates the Truth. He who sits on the white horse is called
Faithful, not because of the faith He cherishes, but of that which He
inspires, because He is worthy of faith. Now the Lord Jehovah,
according to Moses,4672
is Faithful and
True. He is true also in respect of His relation to shadow, type,
and image; for such is the Word who is in the opened heaven, for He is
not on earth as He is in heaven; on earth He is made flesh and speaks
through shadow, type, and image. The multitude, therefore, of
those who are reputed to believe are disciples of the shadow of the
Word, not of the true Word of God which is in the opened heaven.
Hence Jeremiah says,4673
“The Spirit
of our face is Christ the Lord, of whom we said, In His shadow shall we
live among the nations.” Thus the Word of God who is called
Faithful is also called True, and in righteousness He judges and makes
war; since He has received from God the faculty of judging in very
righteousness and very judgment, and of apportioning its due to every
existing creature. For none of those who have some portion of
righteousness and of the faculty of judgment can receive on his soul
such copies and impressions of righteousness and judgment as to come
short in no point of absolute righteousness and absolute justice, just
as no painter of a picture can communicate to the representation all
the qualities of the original. This, I conceive, is the reason
why David says,4674
“Before Thee
shall no living being be justified.” He does not say, no
man, or no angel, but no living being, since even if any being partakes
of life and has altogether put off mortality, not even then can it be
justified in comparison of Thee, who art, as it were, Life
itself. Nor is it possible that one who partakes of life and is
therefore called living, should become life itself, or that one who
partakes of righteousness and, therefore, is called righteous should
become equal to righteousness itself. Now it is the function of
the Word of God, not only to judge in righteousness, but also to make
war in righteousness, that by making war on His enemies by reason and
righteousness, so that what is irrational and wicked is
destroyed,4675
| 4675 Omitting λεγεσθαι, with
Jacobi. | He may dwell in the
soul of him who, for his salvation, so to speak, has become captive to
Christ, and may justify that soul and cast out from her all
adversaries. We shall, however, obtain a better view of this war
which the Word carries on if we remember that He is an ambassador for
the truth, while there is another who pretends to be the Word and is
not, and one who calls herself the truth and is not, but a lie.
Then the Word, arming Himself against the lie, slays it with the breath
of His mouth and brings it to naught by the manifestation of His
coming.4676
And consider
whether these words of the Apostle to the Thessalonians may be
understood in an intellectual sense. For what is that which is
destroyed by the breath of the mouth of Christ, Christ being the Word
and Truth and Wisdom, but the lie? And what is that which is
brought to naught by the
manifestation of Christ’s coming, Christ being conceived as
wisdom and reason, what but that which announces itself as wisdom, when
in reality it is one of those things with which God deals as the
Apostle describes,4677
“He taketh
the wise, those who are not wise with the true wisdom, in their own
craftiness”? To what he says of the rider on the white
horse, John adds the wonderful statement: “His eyes are
like a flame of fire.” For as the flame of fire is bright
and illuminating, but at the same time fiery and destructive of
material things, so, if I may so say, are the eyes of the Logos with
which He sees, and every one who has part in Him; they have not only
the inherent quality of laying hold of the things of the mind, but also
that of consuming and putting away those conceptions which are more
material and gross, since whatever is in any way false flees from the
directness and lightness of truth. It is in a very natural order
that after speaking of Him who judges in righteousness and makes war in
accordance with His righteous judgments, and then after His warring of
His giving light, the writer goes on to say, “On His head are
many diadems.” For had the lie been one, and of one form
only, against which the True and Faithful Word contended, and for
conquering which, He was crowned, then one crown alone would naturally
have been given Him for the victory. As it is, however, as the
lies are many which profess the truth and for warring against which the
Word is crowned, the diadems are many which surround the head of the
conqueror of them all. As He has overcome every revolting power
many diadems mark His victory. Then after the diadems He is said
to have a name written which no one knows but He Himself. For
there are some things which are known to the Word alone; for the beings
which come into existence after Him have a poorer nature than His, and
none of them is able to behold all that He apprehends. And
perhaps it is the case that only those who have part in that Word know
the things which are kept from the knowledge of those who do not
partake of Him. Now, in John’s vision, the Word of God as
He rides on the white horse is not naked: He is clothed with a
garment sprinkled with blood, for the Word who was made flesh and
therefore died is surrounded with marks of the fact that His blood was
poured out upon the earth, when the soldier pierced His side. For
of that passion, even should it be our lot some day to come to that
highest and supreme contemplation of the Logos, we shall not lose all
memory, nor shall we forget the truth that our admission was brought
about by His sojourning in our body. This Word of God is followed
by the heavenly armies one and all; they follow the Word as their
leader, and imitate Him in all things, and chiefly in having mounted,
they also, white horses. To him that understands, this secret is
open. And as sorrow and grief and wailing fled away at the end of
things, so also, I suppose, did obscurity and doubt, all the mysteries
of God’s wisdom being precisely and clearly opened. Look
also at the white horses of the followers of the Word and at the white
and pure linen with which they were clothed. As linen comes out
of the earth, may not those linen garments stand for the dialects on
the earth in which those voices are clothed which make clear
announcements of things? We have dealt at some length with the
statements found in the Apocalypse about the Word of God; it is
important for us to know clearly about Him.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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