"For God was not manifested in the flesh from the beginning. But He Who always was Life and the eternal Word of God, appeared [later] in the fullness of time as man….
"He Who truly proved Himself to be the Son of God in the flesh, and was acknowledged to be the Son of God, was always God's invisible Word…. He does not refer here to the beginning of the World but goes much further back."
Second. John insists that the Lord had manifested Himself to humans as that eternal Life — precisely so that those humans could in turn tell others about Him. "For The Life was manifested; and we have seen Him; and we bear witness and show to you that eternal Life Who was with the Father and Who was manifested to us."5507
