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Cross-reference two thousand years of doctrine with one question. Ask answers with what the fathers, Reformers and preachers already said, in their own words, every one named and cited and every quote checked against its source.
Ask answers something like this
Was the Word always with God?
Commentary
“the Father was never without the Word, but He was always God with God, yet Each in His proper Person.”
John Chrysostom, Homily IV on John · Patristic
Commentary
“In this introduction he asserts the eternal Divinity of Christ, in order to inform us that he is the eternal God, who was manifested in the flesh”
John Calvin, Commentary on John
Theology & Confessions
“The question why the Son is called “The Word” may be answered by saying that the term expresses both his nature and his office.”
Charles Hodge, Systematic Theology · Reformed
Hymns & Sacred Poetry
“Ere the blue heavens were stretch’d abroad, From everlasting was the Word; With God he was; the Word was God, And must divinely be ador’d.”
Isaac Watts, Hymns and Spiritual Songs · Nonconformist
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Read history straight from the historians.
What happened in A.D. 70? Who was Herod? Ask, and History opens Josephus, Bede, Schaff and other historians at the passage, so you read the event in their own words.
The witnesses
- Flavius Josephus, Josephus: The Complete Works (Whiston)
- Bede, Bede's Ecclesiastical History of England
- Thieleman J. van Braght, Martyrs Mirror
- Alfred Edersheim, The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah
- Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church
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Then tap Find reading for this sermon for suggested readings that complement your own work, chosen for each part of the sermon with the key sentences quoted. It is free for now.
Christmas Eve Sermon
The tradition
- Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole BibleJohn 1:1
Commentary on the Whole Bible
these first verses of St. John’s gospel were worthy to be written in letters of gold.
- Adam Clarke, CommentaryJohn 1:1
- Barnes' Notes, Barnes' New Testament NotesJohn 1:1
Your work
Before there was a manger, there was the Word.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The child in Bethlehem is not where the story begins.
The Verse Panel
Every voice on your verse, side by side.
Reading your Bible? Tap any verse and see what the Church has said about it, every voice quoted and cited, right beside the text. It is free and runs in your browser.
John 1 · King James
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2The same was in the beginning with God.
3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1
Ten voices on this verse
“…While all the other Evangelists begin with the Incarnation, John, passing over the Conception, Nativity, education, and growth, speaks immediately of the Eternal Generation”
Thomas Aquinas (comp.), trans. J.H. Newman, Catena Aurea
The Study Desk
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Lay a chapter beside the commentaries and sermons on it, up to sixteen panes on one screen. Keep what you find in My Studies, export it to Word or PDF, and share a desk with one link.
1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
2The same was in the beginning with God.
3All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.
4In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
5And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.
Homilies and Expositions
Augustine of Hippo
For he is like one who has drunk in the secret of His divinity more richly and somehow more familiarly than others, as if he drew it from the very bosom of his Lord on which it was his wont to recline when He sat at meat.
Wesley's Explanatory Notes
John Wesley
the Word existed, without any beginning. He was when all things began to be, whatsoever had a beginning.
Spurgeon: New Park Street & Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit
Charles Haddon Spurgeon
The Dictionary
The Greek and Hebrew behind every word, one tap away.
Read the Greek and Hebrew without a seminary degree. Tap any word to see the original beneath it, what it means and its Strong’s number. Its word page lists every verse that carries it.
Read John 1 with the original beneath it →Ἐν
En
In
ἀρχῇ
archē
beginning
ἦν
ēn
was
ὁ
ho
the
λόγος
logos
Word
λόγος
G3056 · noun, masculine, singular, nominative
Word, speech; the Divine Expression.
Greek text: SBLGNT © 2010 SBL & Logos (CC BY 4.0). Greek morphology: MorphGNT (CC BY-SA 3.0). Strong’s numbers & definitions: public domain (Strong’s, 1890).
Prayer Journal
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Friday, August 8
Psalm 23
The restoration is not a fixing of what was broken, but a return to what was intended. In the quiet of this morning, I feel the weight of the last month lifting.
Guide me in paths of righteousness for Thy name’s sake. Not for my own comfort, but for Your glory.
Yours alone
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