John does not immediately carry out this thought, in the form of expression with which he had begun; but interrupting himself, expresses in a new form what was already in his mind and filled his soul while writing the first words: "Of the Word of life (for the Life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and show unto you that Eternal Life which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us)".

What now are we to understand by "the Word of Life"? Shall we, as elsewhere, understand "word" in the sense of announcement? We must then refer it to that original proclamation of the Life, which was made by Christ. Even thus the mind would still be directed to the appearing of Christ himself: as, in what immediately follows, not merely the proclamation of the Life is spoken of, but the manifestation of the life in its self-revelation among men; and also the expression "That which was from the beginning" refers, as we have seen, not merely to an indefinite something, but to Him who was from the beginning. He it is, then, whom we here find represented as the "Word of life." The mind is thus directed to what John calls "The Word," at the beginning of his Gospel. Christ himself is the Word, in whom the hidden being of God has revealed itself. Since, in his temporal manifestation as the revelation of God in human nature, he is the perfect expression of the divine nature in human form; this his temporal manifestation is by John referred back to the Eternal Word, in which the hidden being of God originally imaged and revealed itself, became objective to itself, -- in which the whole creation had its archetype. As the spirit of man, before it reveals itself outwardly in the spoken word, expresses itself to itself, unfolds and becomes objective to itself, in an inner word, the word of self-consciousness; so in God, this Word of his eternal self-revelation is to be distinguished from his hidden, unfathomable being. It was this Word which was from the beginning. It is this Word which John calls "the Word of Life." By life here he understands the divine life originating in God, proceeding from him alone as the only true life. Since now all communication of life from God is through the medium of this Word, it is itself the fountain of true life, and John calls it absolutely the Word of Life. He then proceeds, under this form of conception, to express what he had in mind at his opening words, what he wished to testify to his readers as something made certain to him by personal observation and experience. Having designated Christ as himself the Word of Life, he adds, under the same form of thought, the declaration that the Life absolutely, He whose nature is life, the divine life-fountain, has revealed itself in a human manifestation. He claims to have been an eye-witness of this self-revelation of the Life. The eternal Life itself, which as the Word was hidden with the Father, has appeared in a self-revelation in humanity; -- such, and no other than this, was the appearing of Christ. John testifies of that eternal Life, which appeared in Christ in order to impart itself to men; to impart to them this life which constitutes His whole being, and whose fountain he himself is. This it was the object of John's testimony to make known.