God bless all my brothers of steemit that the peace of God dwells in his heart.
"What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have contemplated and palpated our hands about the Word of life."
With reference to the three principles.
The first took place in Genesis 1: 1, in creation. The second was described in the Gospel of John 1: 1, and it goes back to the past, going much farther than the creation of the world itself. It extends to eternity itself.
Now the third beginning is the one that started in 1 John 1: 1, which says: 1What it was from the beginning, which refers to the time when Christ came to this world in Bethlehem.
When He was about 30 years old, Juan got to know him. John and his brother James met Him in Jerusalem. Later, they were with their father, repairing networks when Jesus came and called them to follow him. Then they left their father (probably a fisherman of good standing) with the hired staff and followed Jesus. And then, Juan said that he wanted to tell his readers something about Him and then he affirmed the reality of the total personality of Jesus, because he said: (1) what we have heard. - that is, by the sense of hearing; (2) What we have seen (through the sense of sight); (3) What we have contemplated (that is, looking fixedly and attentively) and (4) (what) palpated our hands (through the sense of touch).
The apostle John was speaking, of course, of the incarnation of Jesus and of his own association with him when he was here on earth.
By saying what we have heard he was not expressing his opinions or speculations. He was talking about the fact that he had really heard the Lord Jesus, had heard His voice, and when he heard him, he had listened to God.
The verse goes on to say what we have seen with our eyes. The apostles had not only heard him speak, but they had also seen him with their own eyes. In our time, we can not contemplate it with our physical eyes, but we can see it with the eyes of faith. The apostle Peter told us: 8 You who love him without having seen him, believing in him though you do not see him now, rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorious (as we can read in 1 Peter 1: 8). And the Lord told Thomas, that he would not believe that he had risen until he could see and touch him: Because you have seen me, Thomas, you believed; Blessed are those who did not see and believe (as we can read in John 20:29). Today we are living by faith and the Lord Jesus Christ can be as real to us as it was to Thomas.
the Greek word here means "to contemplate with attention". For example, a theater would be the place where you sit and watch, not simply with a quick glance, but with a constant look and for a couple of hours. John was saying that for three years they had been contemplating Jesus. In his Gospel, in chapter 3, verse 14, he wrote: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so it is necessary that the Son of Man be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost, but may have life eternal During the crossing of the desert, people who had been bitten by snakes, to receive healing had to look at the bronze serpent that had been raised on a stake. John was applying that incident to the Lord Jesus, saying that now we have to look to Him with faith to receive salvation. After having done it, we have to contemplate Him attentively, and this is what we will do when we go through this epistle. That is to say, that looking at him saves us; contemplating him attentively and constantly sanctifies us. In his Gospel John wrote, in chapter 1, verse 14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth; and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father. Many of us need to do much more than simply look to receive salvation: we need to spend time contemplating him with the eyes of faith.
Verse 1 ends by saying and palpating our hands. Juan was saying that they did more than just contemplate him from a distance: they touched him. The apostle John himself reclined on his chest in the meeting of the upper room. Speaking to His own after the resurrection, He said to them: 39 Look at my hands and my feet, that I am myself. Palpad and see, because a spirit has no flesh and bones as you see that I have. 40And saying this, he showed them his hands and feet (as we can read in Luke 24:39 and 40).
Dr. G. Campbel Morgan adopted the position that when the Lord Jesus Christ extended his hands to Thomas and the
other disciples, they were all so overwhelmed that they did not touch him. Instead, they bowed in reverence before Him. This would have been the normal attitude. That would be normal. But John told us clearly here that they touched the Lord. At this point we do not agree with Dr. Morgan, although we would not dare to disagree with a man of his caliber unless there was a reason for it. Because we believe that when John said they touched him, he meant that they put their hands on Him and with their fingers felt the nail prints, that convinced them that He was a man, the Word, the Word made incarnate, God manifested in a human body After the death of the apostle Paul, approximately in the year 67 of our era, a heresy called Gnosticism emerged in the church, of which we have already spoken in the introduction to this book, and which is the opposite of Agnosticism. Agnosticism proclaims that the reality of God is unknown and probably unknowable, that is, that it can not be known. Now, while the agnostic is saying, "I do not know," the Gnostic says, "I do know." So the Gnostics were a group that entered the church claiming to have a superior knowledge that normal Christians did not have. They considered themselves at a higher level of holiness, and believed that they had greater knowledge than the rest of the believers.
The Gnostics presented some novel ideas, which we have dealt with in more detail in the introduction to this epistle. One of his heretical teachings was that Jesus, when he was born, was simply a man. He was simply like any other human being at the time of his birth, but at His baptism, the Christ came upon Him and then, when He hung on the cross, the Christ left Him. John refuted this teaching in clear terms, without leaving any room for doubt, when in his Gospel he affirmed And the Word became flesh (as we can read in John 1:14). And here in his first epistle, he emphatically declared that after Jesus was resurrected from the dead, he was still a human being. In essence, the apostle John said "we have touched him with our hands", that is, he had a normal body, with flesh and bones. It is that the apostle was not talking about a theory, but about "Someone" whom he had heard, had seen and touched. God is light (prologue)
"What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have contemplated and palpated our hands about the Word of life."
With reference to the phrase What was from the beginning, in our previous program we made reference to 3 principles or beginnings. The first took place in Genesis 1: 1, in creation. The second was described in the Gospel of John 1: 1, and it goes back to the past, going much farther than the creation of the world itself. It extends to eternity itself.
Now the third beginning is the one that started in 1 John 1: 1, which says: 1What it was from the beginning, which refers to the time when Christ came to this world in Bethlehem. When He was about 30 years old, Juan got to know him. John and his brother James met Him in Jerusalem. Later, they were with their father, repairing networks when Jesus came and called them to follow him. Then they left their father (probably a fisherman of good standing) with the hired staff and followed Jesus. And then, Juan said that he wanted to tell his readers something about Him and then he affirmed the reality of the total personality of Jesus, because he said: (1) what we have heard. - that is, by the sense of hearing; (2) What we have seen (through the sense of sight); (3) What we have contemplated (that is, looking fixedly and attentively) and (4) (what) palpated our hands (through the sense of touch).
The apostle John was speaking, of course, of the incarnation of Jesus and of his own association with him when he was here on earth.
By saying what we have heard he was not expressing his opinions or speculations. He was talking about the fact that he had really heard the Lord Jesus, had heard His voice, and when he heard him, he had listened to God.
The verse goes on to say what we have seen with our eyes. The apostles had not only heard him speak, but they had also seen him with their own eyes. In our time, we can not contemplate it with our physical eyes, but we can see it with the eyes of faith. The apostle Peter told us: 8 You who love him without having seen him, believing in him though you do not see him now, rejoice with joy unspeakable and glorious (as we can read in 1 Peter 1: 8). And the Lord told Thomas, that he would not believe that he had risen until he could see and touch him: Because you have seen me, Thomas, you believed; Blessed are those who did not see and believe (as we can read in John 20:29). Today we are living by faith and the Lord Jesus Christ can be as real to us as it was to Thomas.
And the verse continues saying what we have contemplated: the Greek word here means "to contemplate with attention". For example, a theater would be the place where you sit and watch, not simply with a quick glance, but with a constant look and for a couple of hours. John was saying that for three years they had been
contemplating Jesus. In his Gospel, in chapter 3, verse 14, he wrote: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so it is necessary that the Son of Man be lifted up so that everyone who believes in him may not be lost, but may have life eternal During the crossing of the desert, people who had been bitten by snakes, to receive healing had to look at the bronze serpent that had been raised on a stake. John was applying that incident to the Lord Jesus, saying that now we have to look to Him with faith to receive salvation. After having done it, we have to contemplate Him attentively, and this is what we will do when we go through this epistle. That is to say, that looking at him saves us; contemplating him attentively and constantly sanctifies us. In his Gospel John wrote, in chapter 1, verse 14: And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us full of grace and truth; and we saw his glory, glory as of the only begotten of the Father. Many of us need to do much more than simply look to receive salvation: we need to spend time contemplating him with the eyes of faith.
Verse 1 ends by saying and palpating our hands. Juan was saying that they did more than just contemplate him from a distance: they touched him. The apostle John himself reclined on his chest in the meeting of the upper room. Speaking to His own after the resurrection, He said to them: 39 Look at my hands and my feet, that I am myself. Palpad and see, because a spirit has no flesh and bones as you see that I have. 40And saying this, he showed them his hands and feet (as we can read in Luke 24:39 and 40).
Dr. G. Campbell Morgan adopted the position that when the Lord Jesus Christ extended his hands to Thomas and the other disciples, they were all so overwhelmed that they did not touch him. Instead, they bowed in reverence before Him. This would have been the normal attitude. That would be normal. But John told us clearly here that they touched the Lord. At this point we do not agree with Dr. Morgan, although we would not dare to disagree with a man of his caliber unless there was a reason for it. Because we believe that when John said they touched him, he meant that they put their hands on Him and with their fingers felt the nail prints, that convinced them that He was a man, the Word, the Word made incarnate, God manifested in a human body
After the death of the apostle Paul, approximately in the year 67 of our era, a heresy called Gnosticism emerged in the church, of which we have already spoken in the introduction to this book, and which is the opposite of Agnosticism. Agnosticism proclaims that the reality of God is unknown and probably unknowable, that is, that it can not be known. Now, while the agnostic is saying, "I do not know," the Gnostic says, "I do know." So the Gnostics were a group that entered the church claiming to have a superior knowledge that normal Christians did not have. They considered themselves at a higher level of holiness, and believed that they had greater knowledge than the rest of the believers.
The Gnostics presented some novel ideas, which we have dealt with in more detail in the introduction to this epistle. One of his heretical teachings was that Jesus, when he was born, was simply a man. He was simply like any other human being at the time of his birth, but at His baptism, the Christ came upon Him and then, when He hung on the cross, the Christ left Him. John refuted this teaching in clear terms, without leaving any room for doubt, when in his Gospel he affirmed And the Word became flesh (as we can read in John 1:14). And here in his first epistle, he emphatically declared that after Jesus was resurrected from the dead, he was still a human being. In essence, the apostle John said "we have touched him with our hands", that is, he had a normal body, with flesh and bones. It is that the apostle was not talking about a theory, but about "Someone" whom he had heard, seen and touched.
The following work was taken from the biblical school following the teacher
the biblical references are from Reina Valera 1960.
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