In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
All Commentaries on John 1:1 Go To John 1
Tertullian of Carthage
AD 220
Read the testimony of John: "That which we have seen, which we have heard, which we have looked upon with our eyes, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.".
But because they knew that He was the Word of Life, and was come from God.
Therefore on this ground Hermogenes puts Matter even before God, by putting it before the Son. Because the Son is the Word, and "the Word is God".
Now in this there is all the greater reason why there should be shown the material (if there were any) out of which God made all things, inasmuch as it is therein plainly revealed by whom He made all things. "In the beginning was the Word".
-"and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. All things were made by Him, and without Him nothing was made.".
Is that Word of God, then, a void and empty thing, which is called the Son, who Himself is designated God? "The Word was with God, and the Word was God.".
and is always with God, according to what is written, "And the Word was with God; ".
Now if He too is God, according to John, (who says.) "The Word was God".
That is a still grander statement which you will find expressly made in the Gospel: "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.".
But the very same apostles testify that they had both seen and "handled "Christ.
"That "says John, "which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.".
the flesh, was the "Word in the beginning with God "the Father.
loves Him indeed from the beginning, and from the very first has handed all things over to Him. Whence it is written, "From the beginning the Word was with God, and the Word was God; ".
The Word, no doubt, was before all things. "In the beginning was the Word; ".
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God: all things were made by Him, and without Him was nothing made.".
But what is that which, in a certain way, has been grasped by hand.
To God their beauty, to God their youth (is dedicated). With Him they live; with Him they converse; Him they "handle".
Rst and the last, the Lord assumes to Himself, as figures of the beginning and end! which concur in Himself: so that, just as Alpha rolls on till it reaches Omega, and again Omega rolls back till it reaches Alpha, in the same way He might show that in Himself is both the downward course of the beginning on to the end, and the backward course of the end up to the beginning; so that every economy, ending in Him through whom it began,-through the Word of God, that is, who was made flesh,
