John 1:14 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

And the Word was made flesh,— This divine and eternal Word was made flesh;uniteditselftoourinferiormiserablenature,withallitsinnocent infirmities, (see the 9th article in the argument;) and not made a transient visit, but for a considerable time pitched his tabernacle among us,—εσχηνωσεν, which manifestly alludes to the tabernacle of Moses, where the Shechinah, or divine glory, inhabited. So the Logos, or divine nature, shechinized, or tabernacled in the human body, which Christ assumed. The word glory here alludes to this Shechinah, or splendid light, which the Chaldee paraphrase always interprets by the word glory. "We, his disciples, (says St. John,) beheld his glory with admiration, and knew it to be such as became the only-begotten of the Father;" for he was not decked with the glitter of worldly pomp and grandeur, but he shone most beautiful with the glory of the divine perfections; and withal he wrought the greatest and most beneficent miracles, expressly called by this evangelist, His glory, ch. John 2:11. Perhaps also there is an allusion here to the descent of the Holy Ghost upon Jesus at his baptism; to the glory with which his body was adorned at the transfiguration, and to the voice from heaven a little before his crucifixion. The particle ως, rendered as of, does not denote similitude or comparison, but reality and confirmation. In this sense it is used by the LXX, Psalms 73:1. Truly, God, is, &c.—And here it signifies the glory of the true and real Monogenes, or Only-begotten. For this verse asserts, that the Logos and Monogenes were not distinct beings, but one and the same person, in opposition to Cerinthus, (article 2.) The last words full of grace and truth, seem much more naturallyand properly to belong to the Word,—the preceding sentence being read in a parenthesis,—than to the Father, as some wouldconnect them. The meaning is, that as this Word who dwelt among us, was in himself most benevolent and upright, so he made the amplest discoveries of pardon to sinners, which the Mosaic dispensation could not possibly do; and exhibited the most important and substantial blessings; whereas that was at best but a shadow of good things to come. Truth is here used, as it often is in the scripture, not so much in opposition to falsehood, as to hieroglyphics, types, and shadows. See John 1:17. Hebrews 10:1; Hebrews 8:2; Hebrews 9:24. Daniel 7:17 and Colossians 3:17.