That which (ο). Strictly speaking, the neuter relative here is not personal, but the message "concerning the Word of life" (περ του λογου της ζωης), a phrase that reminds one at once of the Word (Λογος) in John 1:1; John 1:14; Revelation 19:14 (an incidental argument for identity of authorship for all these books). For discussion of the Λογος see on John 1:1-18. Here the Λογος is described by της ζωης (of life), while in John 1:4 he is called η ζωη (the Life) as here in verse 1. John 1:2 and as Jesus calls himself (John 11:25; John 14:6), an advance on the phrase here, and in Revelation 19:14 he is termed ο λογος του θεου (the Word of God), though in John 1:1 the Λογος is flatly named ο θεος (God). John does use ο in a collective personal sense in John 6:37; John 6:39. See also παν ο in 1. John 5:4.

From the beginning (απ' αρχης). Anarthrous as in John 1:1; John 6:64; John 16:4. See same phrase in 1. John 2:7. The reference goes beyond the Christian dispensation, beyond the Incarnation, to the eternal purpose of God in Christ (John 3:16), "coeval in some sense with creation" (Westcott).

That which we have heard (ο ακηκοαμεν). Note fourfold repetition of ο (that which) without connectives (asyndeton). The perfect tense (active indicative of ακουω) stresses John's equipment to speak on this subject so slowly revealed. It is the literary plural unless John associates the elders of Ephesus with himself (Lightfoot) the men who certified the authenticity of the Gospel (John 21:24).

That which we have seen (ο εωρακαμεν). Perfect active, again, of οραω, with the same emphasis on the possession of knowledge by John.

With our eyes (τοις οφθαλμοις ημων). Instrumental case and showing it was not imagination on John's part, not an optical illusion as the Docetists claimed, for Jesus had an actual human body. He could be heard and seen.

That which we beheld (ο εθεασαμεθα). Repetition with the aorist middle indicative of θεαομα (the very form in John 1:14), "a spectacle which broke on our astonished vision" (D. Smith).

Handled (εψηλαφησαν). First aorist active indicative of ψηλαφαω, old and graphic verb (from ψαω, to touch), the very verb used by Jesus to prove that he was not a mere spirit (Luke 24:39). Three senses are here appealed to (hearing, sight, touch) as combining to show the reality of Christ's humanity against the Docetic Gnostics and the qualification of John by experience to speak. But he is also "the Word of life" and so God Incarnate.