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The Rosicrucian Mysteries by Max Heindel

III. THE VISIBLE AND THE INVISIBLE WORLD

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The opening verse of the gospel of St. John is as follows: “In the _beginning_ was the _Word_, and the _Word_ was with _God_, and the _Word_ was _God_.” We will examine the words: “beginning,” “Word” and “God.” We may also note that in the Greek version the concluding sentence reads: “and God was the Word,” a difference which makes a great distinction.

It is an axiomatic truth that “out of nothing, nothing comes,” and it has often been asserted by scoffers that the Bible teaches generation “from nothing.” We readily agree that _translations_ into the modern languages promulgate this erroneous doctrine, but we have shown in _The Rosicrucian Cosmo Conception_ (chapter on “the Occult Analysis of Genesis”), that the Hebrew text speaks of an _ever-existing essence_, as the basis whence all forms, the earth and the heavenly lights included, were first created, and John also gives the same teaching.

The Greek word _arche_, in the opening sentence of the gospel of St. John has been translated _the beginning_, and it may be said to have that meaning, but it also has other valid interpretations, vastly more significant of the idea John wished to convey. It means:—an elementary condition,—a chief source,—a first principle,—primordial matter. There was a time when science insisted that the elements were immutable, that is to say, that an atom of iron had been an atom of iron since the earth was formed and would so remain to the end of time. The Alchemists were sneered at as fanciful dreamers or madmen, but since Professor J. J. Thomson’s discovery of the electron, the atomic theory of matter, is no longer tenable. The principle of radio-activity has later vindicated the Alchemists. Science and the Bible agree in teaching, that all that is, has been formed from one homogeneous substance.

It is that basic principle which John called _arche_:—primordial matter,—and the dictionary defines Archeology as: “the science of the origin (_arche_) of things.” Masons style God the “Grand Architect,” for the Greek word tektos means builder, and God is the Chief Builder (_tektos_) of _arche_: the primordial virgin matter which is also the chief source of all things.

Thus we see that when the opening sentence of St. John’s gospel is properly translated, our Christian Religion teaches that once a virgin substance enfolded the divine Thinker:—God.

That is the identical condition which the earlier Greeks called Chaos. A little thought will make it evident that we are not arbitrary in finding fault with the translation of the gospel, for it is self-evident that a word cannot be the beginning, a thought must precede the word, and a thinker must originate thought before it can be expressed as a word.

When properly translated the teaching of John fully embodies that idea, for the Greek term _logos_ means both the reasonable thought,—(we also say Logic),—and the word which expresses this (logical) thought.

1) _In the primordial substance was thought, and the thought was with God And God was the word_,

2) THAT, [The Word], _also was with God in the primal state_.

Later the divine WORD; the Creative Fiat, reverberates through space and segregates the homogeneous virgin substance into separate forms.

3) _Every thing has come into existence because of that prime fact_, [The Word of God], _and no thing exists apart from that fact._

4) _In that was Life._

In the alphabet we have a few elementary sounds from which words may be constructed. They are basic elements of expression, as bricks, iron and lumber are raw materials of architecture, or as a few notes are component parts of music.