<p>1:1 <i>That which existed from the beginning, which we have heard</i>- The Gospels are transcripts of the version of the Gospel taught by e.g. John. The converts learnt or probably memorized the Gospels, and then after their baptisms, the preacher followed up with them by visits and letters. This is what John is doing in his letters, written to the 'Johannine community', the house churches converted as a result of hearing or reading his version of the Gospel which we have in the gospel according to John. It's therefore to be expected that the letters of John are going to build on his Gospel, and allude back to it constantly.</p><p>The prologue of 1 Jn. is an example of this; it is a conscious allusion to and clarification of that of Jn. 1. Consider the following links:</p><div align=center><table border=0 cellspacing=10 cellpadding=0>    <tbody>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p><b>In the   beginning was the word</b></p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p><b>What   was from the beginning</b></p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>The   word was with God</p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>The   eternal life which was with Gk. in the presence of God</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>In the   word was life</p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>The   word of life</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>The   life was the light of men</p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>God is   light</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>The   light shines in darkness</p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>In Him   there is no darkness at all</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>The   word became flesh</p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>Seen,   touched, handled by the apostles</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>And   dwelt amongst us</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>and was   manifested to us</p>            </td>            <td>            <p>This   life was manifested</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>We   beheld his glory</p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>What we   looked at</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>Of his   fullness we have all received</p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>The fellowship   which we have is with</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>Through   Jesus Christ</p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>the   Father and with his son</p>            </td>        </tr>        <tr>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>The   only Son of God</p>            </td>            <td width=369 valign=top>            <p>Jesus   Christ</p>            </td>        </tr>    </tbody></table></div><p>You will note that the parallel for &quot;the word&quot; of Jn. 1 is 'the life' in 1 Jn. 1, the life which Jesus lived, the type of life which is lived by the Father in Heaven, and the life which was manifested in resurrection that it might be further manifested by the preaching of the disciples. That word was made flesh (Jn. 1:14) in the sense that this life was revealed to us in the life and death of Jesus. So the word becoming flesh has nothing to do with a pre-existent Jesus physically coming down from Heaven and being born of Mary. It could well be that the evident links between the prologue to John's Gospel and the prologue to his epistle are because he is correcting a misunderstanding that had arisen about the prologue to his Gospel. 1 Jn. 1:2 spells it out clearly- it was the impersonal &quot;eternal life&quot; which was &quot;with the Father&quot;, and it was this which &quot;became flesh&quot; in a form that had been personally touched and handled by John in the personal, resurrected body of the Lord Jesus. And perhaps it is in the context of incipient trinitarianism that John warns that those who deny that Jesus was &quot;in the flesh&quot; are actually antiChrist.</p><p>John begins his first letter with an elaborate prologue. Raymond Brown comments: &quot;Many commentators observe that a Prologue is an extraordinary beginning for an epistle since it violates all the standards of letter format&quot;. This 'violation' appears typical of how Scripture so often appears to 'violate' contemporary usages of language. Raymond Brown, <i>The Epistles of John</i> (Garden City: Doubleday, 1982) p. 176.<br />The perfect unity within the Lord Jesus, between the person He portrayed and who He really was, is reflected in much New Testament language concerning Him. Thus &quot;life&quot; in 1 Jn. 1:1,2 is personified as Jesus; He was the life (Jn. 11:25; 14:6; 1 Jn. 5:20). The person whom people knew, saw and touched in first century Palestine was the essence of the eternal life, the life God lives, and the life we by grace will eternally live. He wasn't acting human; He was human, genuinely human, and yet that human life which He lived was the ultimate and inner life of the Spirit.</p><p>&ldquo;The beginning&rdquo; is a term used in John's letters with reference to the beginning of the Lord's ministry, or to the beginning of a believer's conversion. See on Jn. 1:1 <i>In the beginning. </i>Seeing His ministry and life is to be ours, there's an appropriacy in this double usage; His beginning becomes the beginning for each believer when they begin believing in Him. He is &ldquo;the beginning s.w. of the new creation of God&quot; (Rev. 3:14). John writes of the commandment and message which his converts had &quot;in the beginning&quot;- clearly referring to the beginning of their conversion, when they first began to hear the message of the Lord Jesus (1 Jn. 2:7,24; 3:11; 2 Jn. 5,6). John mentions that the &quot;fathers&quot;, the older converts, knew Him from the beginning (1 Jn. 2:13,14); this may simply mean that they had known Jesus as a person, from the beginning of His ministry.</p><p>&ldquo;Which we have heard&rdquo; is an idea often used in John's Gospel about those who heard the historical Jesus, perhaps with special application to how they first heard Jesus in the incidents recorded at the &quot;beginning&quot; of His ministry in Jn. 1.</p><p><i>Which we have seen with our eyes</i>- A reference to the transfiguration? Their eyes were there &quot;opened&quot; to see Jesus in glory (Mt. 9:30). It is John's Gospel more than the others which records believers 'seeing' the historical Jesus, both literally and in the figurative sense of 'understanding'.</p><p><i>Which we saw and our hands handled</i>- The two Greek words for 'seeing' are different; they had literally seen and also perceived. The Lord had promised that the Comforter would enable them to have His presence ever in their hearts, as really as if He were physically present. John is saying that he not only had literally seen the resurrected Lord, referring to the 'seeing' of the risen Lord and the way they responded to His invitation to handle Him (Mk. 16:14; Lk. 24:39); but had also experienced the &quot;I will see you again&quot; promised in the gift of the Comforter. Note the chronological progression- from first 'hearing' Him at the 'beginning' of His ministry and the 'beginning' of their path with Him; to seeing with their eyes at the transfiguration and throughout His ministry; to seeing and handling Him after His resurrection.</p><p><i>Concerning the word of life</i>- The apostles had seen and known the physical, historical Jesus. They had known Him 'from the beginning'. But 'Jesus' was one of the most common male names in first century Palestine. What was unique about Jesus of Nazareth was the word about Him, the <i>logos</i>, the essence, the inner ideas of that Jesus; and His life, lived out in the manifestation of a sinless character. This was the essence of that man, and it was this which the apostles were preaching and fellowshipping in with their converts.</p>