John 1:1-18 (Prologue)

4TH and 1
Part 2: Prologue

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning.

1. The passage has clear allusions to Genesis 1
2. Usage of ‘The Word’ comes from the Old Testament*
3. Psalm 33:6, Isaiah 55:11
*’The Word’ was also used in ancient pagan philosophy
4. The Word is both distinct from and equated with God

3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.*

1. The Word was responsible for all creation. This is the consistent teaching of the New Testament. 1 Cor. 8:6, Colossians 1:16-17, Heb. 1:2
2. Knowledge of God is available through the Word.
3. Darkness (ignorance and evil) cannot defeat* light. They are not equal opposites.
*Understood is better translated as ‘overcome’

6 There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

1. The focus changes, here, to how darkness was ultimately defeated in Jesus Christ. The story of Christ’s victory begins with the witness of John the Baptist.
9 The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

1. Through the incarnation of the Word, the true/ultimate means to knowing God came to the world.
2. Amazingly, the very world that the Word created did not (in general) recognize Him as their Creator. What’s more, not even God’s covenant people received Him.
3. Some, however, received/believed-in His identity/authority and were born-again as children of God, a birth not of the flesh (sexual relations), but of God (Spiritual relations).

14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. 15 John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’” 16 From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.

1. The author is part of a community of witnesses to the shocking incarnation of God. This would have been shocking to both Jews and Gentiles for different reasons.
2. The incarnation is, of course, superior to all previous revelation. Seeing Jesus amounts to having seen God.