Translated using ChatGPT.
1 Jn 1:1 “That which was from the beginning.”
Grace was, as the interpreter renders John 1:4 correctly. From the beginning: that which existed from the beginning of every creature, and of which it was then true to say was, not began when creatures began. By this is implied the eternity of Christ according to his divinity, for before creatures there was no other duration than the “day of eternity,” in which then only the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit lived. Hence was or was existing signifies not flowing time, but an ever-standing eternity.
Thus the Wisdom of the Father, which is his Word, elsewhere says of itself: “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his ways,” that is, of creatures, through which the wisdom and omnipotence of God go forth, as it were, by certain paths outside himself; “from eternity I was ordered,” etc. (Proverbs 8:22).
Saint John begins his Epistle abruptly, without a greeting and without the expression of his own name, just as his Gospel does, so that it has rather the form of a little treatise than of a letter, as we have also said concerning the Epistle of Saint Paul to the Hebrews. Catharinus thinks that he did not prefix his name because he seems to be writing not so much in his own name as in the name of all the Apostles; hence he almost constantly uses verbs in the plural: we have heard, we have seen, and the like.
“Which we have heard.” We Apostles heard it while the Word, in assumed flesh and with his own mouth, was speaking to us. Yet that Word which was heard had been from eternity, because it is the same person who subsisted from eternity in the divine nature and who in time assumed human nature into the unity of the same suppositum.
“Which we have seen.” And not merely, as others do, with the eyes of others, like witnesses who are only “ear-witnesses” and not “eye-witnesses,” but “with our own eyes,” bodily eyes. For the Word, which could be seen only by the heart, was clothed in flesh so that it might be seen with bodily eyes and thus heal us, so that there might be in us that by which we might see the Word, as Saint Augustine philosophizes here.
But because someone can see something with his own eyes only superficially, as though that were still too little, he adds: “which we have looked upon.” That is, we penetrated not merely the surface, but inwardly, as it were beneath the skin, with our gaze; for through a conversation of more than three years the Apostles came to know all the inner things of Christ. In Greek, however, it is “which we have contemplated” (ὃ ἐθεασάμεθα), to signify that the Apostles often and attentively, with affection, admiration, and a certain wonder, as Oecumenius explains the Greek term, contemplated and beheld from close at hand the humanity of Christ, as if set forth for this purpose, as Erasmus adds.
“And our hands have touched.” Not only by hearing and sight—which are sometimes deceived by false images, so that men who are spirits or apparitions are thought to be heard and seen—but our hands frequently touched, handled, and felt him, so that by the very sense of touch we could easily know that he was not a spirit, who has not flesh and bones. John touched him while reclining on his breast (John 13:23). Thomas and the other Apostles are thought to have touched him after the Resurrection, so that they might experience whether he was a spirit (John 20:27; Luke 24:39). They also often touched him by kissing him; for it was the custom that, when going out, they would kiss their teacher, as is gathered from the kiss of Judas (Matthew 26:49), and from many passages of both Testaments it is evident that among the Jews, and then among the first Christians, it was customary for those going out or returning home to greet one another with a kiss.
“Concerning the Word.” Concerning the Son of the eternal Father, through intellect; therefore he is the Word of the mind.
“Life.” In whom there is uncreated life by which he himself lives: “In him was life” (John 1:4), and from whom all life, both natural and supernatural, flows into creatures. Erasmus, in his usual way, translates “concerning the discourse of life,” but verbum is something simpler and more absolute than sermo, which is composed of many words; therefore sermo does not fit the simplicity of the divine Word as well as verbum does. Moreover, sermo is attributed only to spoken or complex mental discourse, whereas verbum is properly said of the divine Word.
The whole period, however, depends on the verb “we announce,” which follows, so that the sense is: We announce to you concerning the Word of life that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, etc. Some explain “to announce the life” by a Hebraism, as meaning to announce the Word of life which was from the beginning; but the word λόγος (logos) among the Greeks is of the masculine gender, which does not agree with the pronoun which (ὃ), when it is said “that which was from the beginning.” Hence the more fitting sense is: We announce to you concerning the Word of life that which was from the beginning, namely the divinity of the divine Word.
1 Jn 1:2. “And the life.” The Word itself, living in himself and giving life to others; for immediately he will say that this life was from eternity with the Father: “For as the Father has life in himself, so he has given the Son also to have life in himself” (John 5:26). The particle and, as Gagnaeus, Catharinus, and others note, seems to be taken in a Hebraic manner, meaning for or indeed, as in Genesis 14:18: “And he was priest of God Most High” (Hebrew: and he himself was priest). But here this second verse ought to be enclosed in parentheses, or set off on both sides by two points equivalent to a parenthesis.
“Was manifested.” When the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14).
“We have seen.” With bodily eyes, as he said a little before; but love is loquacious, and prefers to repeat the same thing rather than be silent about the beloved. Oecumenius also excuses the disturbed mode of speech here, because the Apostle deliberately despises the elegant trifles of the Greeks, in order to show that our salvation consists not in words but in deeds. Moreover, by this obscurity he wished to make us more attentive, because what is immediately understood is often held cheap.
“And we bear witness.” Even unto death and martyrdom; for whom the Greeks call martyr, the Latins call testis (“witness”). “When they displeased by their testimony of the truth to those against whom it was spoken,” says Augustine, “the witnesses suffered all that the martyrs suffered.” Didymus, weighing almost every word and syllable here, thinks that Saint John rather said “we have seen and we bear witness” than “which we have looked upon and our hands have touched,” because the things which the Apostles had simply seen they could testify to and narrate to others, but the many hidden mysteries which they had perceived and contemplated with wonder were inexpressible.
“And we announce to you.” Through the Gospel, which signifies good news.
“The eternal life.” In Greek, “that eternal life.” The divine Word, who is that uncreated and eternal life by essence, from whom eternal life also flows to us by participation.
“Which was.” From eternity, and before the world was made.
“With the Father.” Abiding most intimately in the intellect of the Father as his Word.
“And appeared to us.” In assumed flesh. “Afterwards he was seen on earth and conversed with men” (Baruch 3:38).
1 Jn 1:3. “That which we have seen and heard, we announce to you.” He repeats the same, not idly, but in order to add the final cause of this proclamation: “so that you also may have fellowship.” In Greek, κοινωνίαν (koinōnian), communion.
“With us.” So that you may become sharers with us in the same grace and glory. Hence, out of love and charity for you, not from desire of gain or honor, we undertake such great labors of evangelical preaching. And so that you may see how great the dignity of that fellowship with us is:
“And our fellowship.” Which you have with us and we with you, “is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ.” And so that through grace we may be made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), and blessed by the vision of that same essence, by the comprehension of which they themselves are most blessed. With the Father and the Son the Holy Spirit also is understood, who is the love and bond of both. With Christ also as man we have fellowship in heavenly goods, because we are sons and heirs of God and coheirs with Christ (Romans 8:17).
1 Jn 1:4. “And these things we write to you,” namely, that blessed fellowship of ours and yours with the Father and his Son, which will one day be ours, “that you may rejoice” with spiritual joy because of the hope of so great a future happiness. But because the spiritual joys of this life are imperfect, weakened by many sorrows and interrupted by many adversities, he adds: “and that your joy may be full,” perfect with all fullness and of eternal duration—perpetual—which will at last be in the next life, “when you will fill us with joy with your countenance and with delights at your right hand forever” (Psalm 15).
Joy or delight, however, which clings to the spiritual acts of virtues as honey to its comb, is not the ultimate end to which the Apostle urges the faithful; rather, every delight is ordered proximately to facilitating the act of virtue, and the act itself to the glory of God. The Greek texts do not have “that you may rejoice,” but read only: “These things we write to you, that your joy may be full.” Some manuscripts read “that our joy may be full,” which Bede interprets in the manner of “Fulfill my joy” (Philippians 2:2), because the joy of teachers is fulfilled when they bring many to the fellowship of the Father and his Son. “They rejoice as in the harvest, and exult as conquerors who divide the spoil” (Isaiah 9:3).
CONTINUE
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