While attempting to downplay the forces of passages that teach the personal (not merely notional) preexistence of Jesus, the late Raymond E. Brown was forced to concede that John 17:5 teaches the personal preexistence of Jesus:
In
1 Corinthians 8:6 there is a hint of creational activity by Jesus Christ,
but this theme is much clearer in Colossians 1:15-17. The language of
Philippians 2:6-7 (being “in the form of God”—emptying and “taking the form of
a servant”) was once thought to be clearly incarnational; but recent writing by
Protestants and Catholics alike (Talbert, Bartsch, Grelot, Murphy-O’Connor)
questions a reference to preexistence. This means that the attitude of the
indisputably Pauline letters (Corinthians, Philippians) is uncertain; but in
the late-Pauline (60s) or in the post-Pauline period (80s—date of Colossians?)
the theme of preexistence becomes clearer. This period from the 60s to 90s
would also cover the span of Johannine composition (final Gospel in the 90s),
although the Johannine theme of preexistence represents an “advance” over the
Pauline theme in two ways: [a] The Johannine Word is not a creature—compare Colossians
1:16; [b] Preexistence is historicized in a Gospel about the earthly Jesus
(John 17:5) rather than simply appearing in poetic humans of wisdom derivation.
(Raymond E. Brown, Christ in the Gospels of the Liturgical Year [Collegeville,
Minn.: Liturgical Press, 2008], 133 n. 3)
