I agree with you. The entire section needs to be taken together, not understood in small phrases.modus.irrealis wrote:Why preexistance, though? I don't see why that's implied.
Ὃ ἦν ἀπ' ἀρχῆς, ὃ ἀκηκόαμεν, ὃ ἑωράκαμεν τοῖς ὀφθαλμοῖς ἡμῶν, ὃ ἐθεασάμεθα καὶ αἱ χεῖρες ἡμῶν ἐψηλάφησαν, περὶ τοῦ λόγου τῆς ζωῆς -- καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἐφανερώθη, καὶ ἑωράκαμεν καὶ μαρτυροῦμεν καὶ ἀπαγγέλλομεν ὑμῖν τὴν ζωὴν τὴν αἰώνιον ἥτις ἦν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἐφανερώθη ἡμῖν -- ὃ ἑωράκαμεν καὶ ἀκηκόαμεν ἀπαγγέλλομεν καὶ ὑμῖν, ἵνα καὶ ὑμεῖς κοινωνίαν ἔχητε μεθ' ἡμῶν.
"What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our {own} eyes, what we have beheld and our {own} hands have grasped, concerning the word of life -- and life was manifest, and we have seen (notice the connection to the beginning) and we are testifying and are proclaiming to you the eternal life which was with the father and was manifest to us -- what we have seen and heard we are proclaiming also to you, so that you might have fellowship with us."
The writer is saying that he isn't passing on his own message. He is passing on the message that is the same message that has been with Christians since the beginning {of their gospel}. It has nothing to do with "from the beginning of the world." I think pre-existence is being read into this where it isn't implied. It is implied, rather, in the phrase ἥτις ἦν πρὸς τὸν πατέρα καὶ ἐφανερώθη ἡμῖν. It is the "life" that was with the Father and made manifest. It doesn't say anything directly about Jesus being there and then being made manifest. It is the message that is in mind here, the thing that John is trying to convey to his audience. Context really rules here. Jesus may be included in the life that was made manifest to the disciples, but that's not the totality of what he's conveying.
The entire message about life and about how to attain life, John says, was hidden with God but has been made known to the disciples "from the beginning" and only later was it given to those to whom John is writing.
That's how I take the passage anyway (reading as an outsider).
Jason