Program / Course 7: New Testament Theology and History / Lesson 6.2
What you will learn
- Read the prologue of John (1:1 to 18) and explain what it says about the Word.
- Trace the themes of light and darkness, life and love through the Gospel.
- Explain the Jewish and Greek backgrounds that scholars suggest for the idea of the Word.
- Describe how the early church and later traditions understood John’s teaching about Jesus’ identity.
The big idea
John’s Gospel opens with a hymn to the Word who was with God and was God, through whom all things were made, and who became flesh and lived among people. From this opening the Gospel develops a small set of large themes: Jesus is the light that shines in darkness, the giver of life, and the one who reveals the Father’s love. These themes shape every scene and discourse. The Gospel is written so that readers may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and have life in his name.
Key terms
- Logos
- The Greek word translated Word in John 1:1. It can also mean reason, speech or message. Greek philosophers and Jewish writers both used related ideas.
- Prologue
- The opening hymn-like section of John, verses 1 to 18, which introduces the main themes of the whole Gospel.
- Incarnation
- From Latin for being made flesh. It names the Christian teaching, based on John 1:14, that the Word became a human being.
- Glory (doxa)
- The visible presence and splendor of God. In John, Jesus’ glory is shown in his signs and above all in his death and rising.
- Eternal life
- In John, the life of the age to come, begun now through knowing God and Jesus Christ (John 17:3), not only life without end.
- Dualism
- A way of speaking in opposites. John contrasts light and darkness, above and below, truth and falsehood, life and death.
- Wisdom tradition
- Jewish writings such as Proverbs 8, Sirach 24 and the Wisdom of Solomon that describe Wisdom as present with God at creation and coming to dwell with human beings.
Background
The opening words of John echo the opening of Genesis: ‘In the beginning.’ They claim that the story of Jesus begins before creation. The author uses the Greek word logos, which in Greek thought could mean the reason that orders the universe, as the Stoics said, and in Jewish thought could point to God’s creating word (‘And God said...’ in Genesis 1), the Wisdom of God (Proverbs 8, Sirach 24) and the Torah. Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish thinker of the first century, wrote at length about the Logos as God’s agent. Scholars debate which background is chief. Many suggest that the Jewish background of God’s word and wisdom is primary, with Greek associations in the background.
John says something new about this familiar idea: the Word became flesh. This is the center of Christian teaching about the incarnation. The early church read John’s prologue as the clearest statement in the New Testament that the Son is divine and eternal. The councils of Nicaea and Chalcedon rest on this reading. Modern scholars ask what the author meant in his own setting, and many agree that he meant that Jesus shared fully in the identity of God.
Step-by-step explanation
Step 1: The Word
The prologue reads, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God’ (John 1:1). It goes on to say that all things were made through him, that he came into the world and was not received by his own, and that to those who received him he gave power to become children of God. At the center: ‘And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth’ (John 1:14).
The phrase ‘the Word was God’ has a long history of interpretation. The Greek has theos without the article before it. Arius, in the fourth century, used such points to argue that the Son was a creature, and the Council of Nicaea (325) declared him of one being with the Father. Modern grammarians note that the absence of the article describes the Word’s nature, and does not mean that he was a lesser god. Jehovah’s Witnesses and some others read it differently, and most Christian churches reject that reading.
Step 2: Light and darkness
The prologue says of the Word, ‘In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not’ (John 1:4 to 5). The theme returns. Jesus says, ‘I am the light of the world’ (John 8:12), heals a blind man to show it (John 9), and tells Nicodemus that people love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil (John 3:19). In John 13:30, when Judas leaves the supper, the narrator adds only ‘and it was night.’
The contrast of light and darkness appears in the Dead Sea Scrolls, where the sons of light and the sons of darkness are opposed. Scholars note this as evidence that John’s language belongs to a Jewish world. But John uses it differently: the light has come into the world, and the question is whether people will receive him.
Step 3: Life
The Gospel states its purpose at its close: ‘that ye might have life through his name’ (John 20:31). Jesus offers living water (John 4), the bread of life (John 6), and says he came that people might have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10). He raises Lazarus and says, ‘I am the resurrection, and the life’ (John 11:25).
Eternal life in John begins now. ‘This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent’ (John 17:3). Scholars note that, compared with the synoptic gospels, John gives less on the future coming of the kingdom and more on the present gift of life, though he also speaks of the last day (John 6:39 to 40). How the two emphases fit is a topic in a later lesson.
Step 4: Love
Love is the theme of the second half of the Gospel. At the last supper Jesus washes the disciples’ feet and gives a new commandment: ‘That ye love one another; as I have loved you’ (John 13:34). He says that greater love has no one than to lay down one’s life for his friends (John 15:13). In John 3:16, God’s love is the source of the sending of the Son: ‘For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son.’
The first letter of John carries the theme further: ‘God is love’ (1 John 4:8). Readers have noticed that in John the command to love is usually directed to fellow believers, and have asked whether it is narrower than the synoptic command to love the neighbor and the enemy. Others reply that John 3:16 shows love for the world, and that the community’s love is meant to witness to the world (John 13:35).
- What do you notice about the parallels between John 1:1 and Genesis 1:1?
- Why might the author have chosen the word Logos for a mixed audience of Jews and Greeks?
- How does the theme of light and darkness shape the story of the man born blind?
- What does John mean by eternal life, and how is it different from simply living forever?
- How does Jesus’ washing of the disciples’ feet illustrate the new commandment?
- What is gained and what is risked by speaking of Jesus as the Word made flesh?
Examples
Nicodemus at night
Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night (John 3:2), a detail that fits the theme of light and darkness. At the end of the Gospel the same Nicodemus helps bury Jesus (John 19:39), which suggests a change. The detail shows how John uses ordinary facts to carry theological meaning.
The prologue in worship
The Western church traditionally reads John 1:1 to 14 at the Christmas Day mass, and the Orthodox read John 1:1 to 17 at the Paschal liturgy. The passage is used to connect the birth and the resurrection of Christ with creation.
Love in the letters
1 John 4:20 says that whoever does not love a brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. The statement shows how the community tied love of God to concrete love for others.
Different perspectives
Orthodox view
The Orthodox Church calls John the Theologian because of the prologue. It reads the Word made flesh as the foundation of the doctrine of the Trinity and of theosis, the hope that human beings share in the divine life. Athanasius’ On the Incarnation is a classic statement of this reading.
Catholic view
The Catholic Church teaches that the Word is the second person of the Trinity, true God and true man, and finds in John 1:14 the biblical basis for the doctrine of the incarnation. The Catechism begins its treatment of Christ with the Word made flesh.
Protestant view
Protestants of all kinds hold the divinity of Christ from John’s prologue, which Luther and Calvin both read in this way. Evangelicals stress John 3:16 and the call to believe. Some liberal Protestants stress the love theme more than the doctrinal one.
Scholarly view
Scholars agree that the prologue shows an exalted view of Jesus and draws on Jewish traditions of Wisdom and Word. They debate whether the prologue was an earlier hymn adapted by the author, how much Greek philosophy lies behind it, and how this Christology relates to that of the synoptic gospels.
Why it matters
These themes have shaped Christian worship, creeds and art. A reader who sees how they run through the Gospel can read each scene as part of a single design. The prologue also stands behind the church’s confession of who Jesus is, and so connects to the doctrines of the incarnation and the Trinity.
Common misunderstandings
Misunderstanding: The Logos is a Greek philosophical idea imported into Christianity.
Correction: Greek thought may be in the background, but the Jewish traditions of God’s word and wisdom are at least as important. Scholars debate the balance.
Misunderstanding: John teaches only about love and has no moral demands.
Correction: John joins love with obedience (John 14:15) and with judgment (John 3:18 to 21). Love is a demanding commandment.
Misunderstanding: Darkness in John means people with dark skin or the physical night.
Correction: In John, light and darkness are symbols of knowledge of God and of rejecting him. They are not terms about race or about the time of day, apart from the literal night in scenes where the author uses it as a symbol.
Misunderstanding: Eternal life in John refers only to life after death.
Correction: John speaks of eternal life as a present possession (John 5:24) and also of a future resurrection (John 6:40). Both belong together.
Knowledge check
What does John 1:1 to 14 claim about the Word?
That the Word was in the beginning, was with God and was God, that all things were made through him, that he is life and light, and that he became flesh and lived among people, showing God’s glory. It introduces the Gospel’s main themes.
What are two backgrounds scholars propose for the term Logos?
The Jewish background of God’s creating word and Wisdom, as in Genesis 1 and Proverbs 8, and the Greek background of the Logos as the ordering reason of the universe, as in Stoic thought and in Philo. Many give priority to the Jewish background.
How does John use light and darkness?
As symbols of belief and unbelief. Jesus is the light of the world, who brings knowledge of God, and people respond by coming to the light or turning away. The theme appears in the story of the blind man, in Nicodemus, and in the departure of Judas at night.
What does eternal life mean in John?
It is the life of the age to come, begun now by knowing God and Jesus Christ whom he sent, and fulfilled in the resurrection. John speaks of it as a present gift received by faith and also as a future hope.
What is the new commandment?
In John 13:34, Jesus tells the disciples to love one another as he has loved them. It follows the washing of feet and is the center of the Gospel’s teaching on community life.
Think it through
- Which image in the prologue speaks to you most, the Word, the light or the life, and why?
- How does the claim that the Word became flesh affect your view of the body and the material world?
- What does it mean to love as Jesus loved?
- How would you explain the opening of John to someone who has never read it?
Independent assignment
A prologue in plain language
In your own notebook, write 300 to 450 words. Read John 1:1 to 18 slowly twice. Write a paraphrase of the passage in plain language, no more than 150 words. Then list the themes that you find in it and mark one place later in the Gospel where each returns. Do not send this to anyone.
Further study
- Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation of the Word Read the early sections for the classic patristic reading of the Word made flesh.
- Philip Schaff and Henry Wace, eds., The Seven Ecumenical Councils (Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol. 14) Read the creed of Nicaea and the definition of Chalcedon, and note their use of Johannine language.
- Augustine of Hippo, Confessions Read Book 7, chapter 9, where Augustine compares what he found in the Platonists with the prologue of John.
- J. N. D. Kelly, Early Christian Doctrines Read the chapters on the Word and the Trinity.
- John 1:14 The Word became flesh.
- John 8:12 I am the light of the world.
- John 13:34 A new commandment.
- Proverbs 8:22 Wisdom present at creation.