102 THE REV. PROFESSOR A. S. GEDEN, M.A., D.D., 



may be partially at least comprehended, but to wbich no verbal 

 definition or substance can be given. 



The fourth Gospel begins with metaphor. The Logos, whether 

 you render the word Reason or Word or Speech, or maintain 

 that it is untranslateable and in its connotation comprehends 

 all these three and more, is not a literal measure or term, like 

 pound or rupee, but is a figure or simile, a title or convenient 

 name, which in limited inadequate fashion sets forth the nature 

 and function of Him Who in the beginning was with God and was 

 God. He is supreme Reason and inspirer of the loftiest speech. 

 But if you pour into the term all that you can conceive of majesty 

 and power you have not equalled the Divine greatness of Him 

 of whom the Apostle thinks and desires to write. Logos " is a 

 human word, of human coinage and associations, and behind it 

 there is the limited human capacity to understand. It is as 

 though at the very threshold and beginning of his teaching the 

 Apostle declared his purpose to set forth the realities of the 

 Divine life as he conceived or had been taught them in the 

 terms which seemed to him most faithfully to image forth the 

 truth. 



Mutatis mutandis the same reasoning is valid for the abounding 

 metaphor employed throughout the Gospels, both in the dis- 

 courses of our Lord, and in the setting of the author's teaching 

 and narrative. It would be tedious, even if it were possible, to 

 enumerate them all. I propose to discuss a few of the more 

 striking or unusual similes that are found in the text, and to 

 suggest or refer to some others, where points of especial interest 

 or importance appear to be involved. 



The birth avw 6ev is a striking instance of a metaphor, which 

 seems to correspond faithfully to the definition of the word above 

 quoted. An adequate rendering of the term is perhaps unattain- 

 able. The English Revisers adopt " anew," with a marginal alter- 

 native "from above " ; and the latter meaning would appear to 

 be distinctly impUed in ch. iii. 31, and in St. James' description 

 of the wisdom dvcoOev. Elsewhere the word is of time, "from 

 the beginning " (Acts xxvi. 5 ; Gal. iv. 9 ; Luke i. 3), or of direc- 

 tion in space or place, " the veil of the temple was rent in twain 

 from top to bottom " (Mark xv. 38 ; cp. John xix. 23). If it 

 is necessary to select here one or the other rendering, then 

 undoubtedly "from above" corresponds most closely to the 

 Apostle's thought. The conception of a fresh or second birth 

 is subordinate in his mind to that of Divine origin. The former, 



