There's no need to look for an antecedent; the usage in TON AP' ARCHS is
the very common and traditional one whereby an article with any adverbial
expression forms a substantive: hOI TOTE and hOI EN EKEINHi THi POLEI thus
mean, respectively, "the men/people of that time" and "the men/people in
that city." In the same manner here, hO AP' ARCHS means something like "the
aboriginal one." One could suppose it to refer either to God or to the
LOGOS, Christ, particularly since it is a Johannine theme to associate the
LOGOS with "the beginning," both in the prologue of the gospel and in the
proem of the First Letter.
Carl W. Conrad
Department of Classics, Washington University
One Brookings Drive, St. Louis, MO, USA 63130
(314) 935-4018
cwconrad@artsci.wustl.edu OR cwc@oui.com
WWW: http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~cwconrad/