John 1:4

In him was life,.... The Persic version reads in the plural number, "lives". There was life in the word with respect to himself; a divine life, the same with the life of the Father and of the Spirit;…

In him was life - The evangelist had just affirmed Joh 5:3 that by the λόγος Logos or “Word” the world was originally created. One part of that creation consisted “in breathing into man the breath of…

In him was life - Many MSS., versions, and fathers, connect this with the preceding verse, thus: All things were made by him, and without him was nothing made. What was made had life in it; but This…

Austin says (de Civitate Dei, lib. 10, cap. 29) that his friend Simplicius told him he had heard a Platonic philosopher say that these first verses of St. John's gospel were worthy to be written in…

In him was life He was the well-spring from which every form of life physical, intellectual, moral, spiritual, eternal flows. See on Joh 5:26.

Observe how frequently S. John's thoughts overlap and…