The following paragraphs are taken from John
Wilson’s translation of Hans Hinrich Wendt’s book:
The Teaching of Jesus
In Two Volumes, T & T CLARK, 1901.
Here Wendt explains ideal or
notional pre-existence
i.e. how things such as glory, etc; can be
spoken of as
pre-existing in the sense
that they are
foreordained/foreknown in the counsels of the One, Eternal
GOD.
Thus, this concept would explain some of
Jesus the Messiah’s sayings whereby he speaks
as if somehow he
pre-existed his own conception
e.g. John 17.5 & 8.58.
Volume 2, Pages 168-177:
“… Two
passages in which Jesus appears most plainly to make reference to his
heavenly pre-existence:
[John] 8. 58 and 17. 5. …
The
one passage, 17. 5, stands in the following connection: Jesus having, at the
beginning of his farewell prayer (verse 1 ff.), referred to the authority over
all flesh whom God has delivered to him for the purpose of granting them eternal
life, and to his own accomplishment through his work on earth of this charge
received from God, now prays for such glorification from God as corresponds to
the perfect glorifying of God by him: “I have glorified Thee on the earth; I
have finished the work which Thou gavest me to accomplish. And now glorify Thou me with Thyself with the glory I had with Thee before the world was” (verse 4 and
5). …
But
yet it rests on a misconception of the New Testament mode of speech
and conception if we straightway infer that the declaration of Jesus, that
he had a glory with the Father before the world was created, is simply and
necessarily identical in meaning with the thought, that he himself
pre-existed in possession of this glory with God before the creation of the
world. …
We
therefore
deem that a heavenly glory can only, in the case of a person not yet
existing, belong to him ideally in God, inasmuch as he is foreknown
and predestinated by God. But, according to the mode of speech and
conception prevalent in the New Testament, a heavenly good, and so also a
heavenly glory, can be conceived and spoken of as existing with God and
belonging to a person, not because
this person already exists and is invested with glory, but because the glory of
God is in some way deposited
and preserved for this person in heaven. We
remember how, according to the synoptical reports,
Jesus also speaks of the treasure (Matt. 6.20
f.; Mark 10. 21) or the reward (Matt. 5. 12, 46; 6. 1)
which his disciples have in heaven with God …
Therefore
it is wholly unnecessary to find in our passage, John 17. 5, the
thought that Jesus himself had a pre-existence in the possession of the heavenly
glory with God; but the meaning is also possible, that the heavenly glory which
Jesus, as the Messiah, shall attain at the close of his earthly ministry has
been laid up for him with God in heaven as a reward destined for him from
eternity; and this possible sense we must recognise as the only true
one, because it just as strikingly accords with the connection of this
passage, as with the self-judgment of Jesus recorded for us elsewhere in the
Johannine discourses. Jesus wishes to set forth the glory, which he now prays
for from the Father, … as one undoubtedly certain for him in the present,
because standing in
necessary
relation to his Messianic calling and work. All the previous utterances, in the
prayer, in regard to the accomplishment of the work committed to him upon earth
by God, serve as the foundation of petition …
This
foundation would not be strengthened, but weakened, by the indication
that he had already, as pre-existent from eternity, been invested with the
heavenly glory; for then his earthly mission would appear as an episode in his
heavenly life of glory, after which, but not on account of which, he again obtained the
heavenly glory. But it serves emphatically to strengthen that foundation
when Jesus designates the reward, which he prays for, as one which has been
destined by God and kept in heaven for him as the Messiah, so he asks for
himself not something arbitrary, but what was to be given him according to
God's decree, and what had always ideally belonged to him. It is also
directly expressed in these words that the heavenly glory which God has decreed
for the Messiah as his possession existed from the beginning; the presupposition
for this declaration, however, is certainly the thought, which finds decided
expression at the close of the prayer in verse 24, that Jesus himself, as the
Messiah, did not indeed really exist from the beginning with God,
but was the object of the love of God, of His loving thoughts, plans, and
purposes.
We
are led also to this latter thought by another saying of Jesus, 8. 58, if
we explain it according to its connection. …
He
was indeed greater than Abraham: “Abraham, your father, rejoiced to see my day;
and he saw it, and was glad”(verse 56). And to the question of the Jews, which
was meant to bring out the absurdity of his declaration, when they asked if he,
who was not yet fifty years old, had seen Abraham (verse 57), he replied, still
further heightening his paradoxical claim:
“Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Before Abraham was, I am” (verse 58).
For
the purpose of explaining this latter saying, we must proceed from the fact
that, in any case, at the commencement of the discussion, the question is in
regard to Jesus’ relation to Abraham, as to the significance of his present
earthly existence and activity, with reference to which he himself makes the
claim of being the mediator of eternal life, and with reference to which the
Jews said he was nevertheless no greater than Abraham. Also his saying that
Abraham rejoiced to see “his day,” has still reference to his present
earthly existence; for by “his day” we
can
only understand the day of his appearance on earth. Also the sayings which then
follow point directly to the sense that Jesus declared of his present earthly life, that it reached back to the time of
Abraham, and still farther. His declaration that Abraham had seen his day, and
was glad, at first must be understood in the sense directly intelligible to the
Jews, that Abraham during his lifetime had seen and hailed the advent of the
earthly life of Jesus. And so also the further saying, “Before Abraham was, I
am,” directly expresses the meaning that his present earthly life had existence
before Abraham had been. But this sense, directly given according to the tenor
of the words, is in the highest degree paradoxical. …
For
the saying that Abraham saw and rejoiced in the day, that is, the earthly
appearance of Jesus, the readiest explanation … is this, that Abraham during his
earthly life saw and rejoiced in a spiritual pre-vision of the appearance of Jesus as the
Messiah. The objection cannot be urged that
still
the joy of Abraham at the sight of Jesus' day, given him in future
prospect, is expressly distinct from his joy over this view itself, and over
the realisation of that promise. For, according to the Old Testament
narrative, which without doubt forms the foundation of these utterances of
Jesus, the sight of the day of the Messiah was not directly promised, but only
indirectly, in so far as a son was promised to him, and, through that son, a
posterity in which all nations would be blessed. In the same way,
therefore, also the joy of Abraham at the fulfilment of this promise of a
son might be regarded as the joy of Abraham at the realisation of the
Messianic promise thus indirectly given him. It would not be right to
say that Jesus understood by “his day” the day of the birth of Isaac; but
certainly we may say that Isaac was regarded by Jesus, and, according to Jesus’
view, by Abraham, not as a simple descendant, but as the beginning of the
posterity leading forward to the Messiah. As Jesus therefore makes the joy
of Abraham—expressed in laughter, to which, according to Old Testament
tradition, Isaac owed his name— refer, not merely to Isaac in himself, but to
Isaac as the representative of the Messianic promise; so he also judged that
Abraham, when he saw the promised birth of Isaac realised, saw in spirit the
fulfilment of the Messianic promise, and so far, therefore, “the day of
Jesus.” But from this understanding of the declaration of Jesus, that
Abraham had seen his
day, follows
our understanding of his further declaration that he existed before Abraham was.
For this existence
before Abraham's time must be regarded in the
same way as the existence “of his day” at the time of Abraham. The present
earthly existence of Jesus, in which he is the Messiah, was not a real thing
before Abraham's time; but yet it could truly be spoken of, in so far as it
held good in the Spirit of God, in the thoughts, purposes, and
promises of God. So far as Jesus felt himself to be the Messiah, he knew
that his earthly life was not a fortuitous event but from the beginning—not by
any means only from the date of the promise and fulfilment given to Abraham, but
already before the time of Abraham—it was predetermined and foreseen by
God. Conscious of having had in this sense pre-existence for
God, and, by means of the promises of God, also for the Old Testament saints,
Jesus made the claim of assuredly being greater than Abraham. …
It is certainly a highly idealistic mode of
view and of speech when Jesus designates his ideal existence for
God—which he knew that he had always had as the Messiah, and therefore as the
object of Divine predestination and of the love of God …
An ideal existence is intended, and we must plainly exhibit on our
part that distinction of ideas.”
