1What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life-- " John 1:1
John here breaks his witness down to the very core level, his very senses and experience. While he was the final remaining Apostle there may have been other disciples still alive who had seen Him. John is also, possibly, invoking the memory of the other apostles that had passed away and saying, “We all had this experience.”
Hearing – The first sense with which John mentions having experienced the person and ministry of Jesus Christ is with his ears. This is in the perfect tense which is “past tense completed action with results going into the present.” There may be a sense of “we heard Him and His voice still rings in our ears.” John heard Jesus and remembered very well what He said.
Seen – The next way in which John interacted with Jesus Christ during His earthly ministry is that he saw Jesus. To the verb “seen” John adds “with our eyes.” John wanted to make sure that everyone understood that this is not a metaphor for spiritually seeing Jesus. He actually SAW Jesus. He saw Jesus make footprints, he saw Jesus eat, He likely camped out close enough to Jesus to know that when He tossed in his sleep he upset the blankets that were draped over Him. Then he says “we looked”, this is to look so as to gain insight. They gazed at Jesus and studied Him!
Touch – Not just that, John touched Jesus. He undoubtedly exchanged the traditional greeting of a holy kiss on the cheek and felt Jesus’ beard on his face. John remembered that Peter was raised out of the water by Jesus’ own hand, and himself reclined against Jesus at the last supper. Jesus had come fully in the flesh and it is of the utmost importance that He did.
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