John 1 - In the Beginning
Known as the Apostle of Love, since the theme of love is so prominent in his writings
The first three gospels in the NT canon—Matthew, Mark and Luke—are known as the “Synoptic” Gospels, so called because they can be viewed side by side (“syn-optically”) and compared very easily by means of a synopsis. The reason for this is that all three gospels have a great deal of material in common and very often they present their material in the same order
John’s gospel is unique in referring to Jesus’ miraculous acts as signs. In the gospel Jesus performs seven signs, which serve as enacted parables—an observation that may help to explain John’s neglect of the Synoptic parables. Each sign is a literary double entendre working on two levels simultaneously: the historical level, communicating a specific significance to the eyewitnesses or the original hearers of the oral tradition; and the literary level, constructing a symbolic significance available only to readers of the gospel. The climax occurs in the seventh sign (seven is often a symbolic number for completion), the resurrection of Lazarus. (See table 7.2 on p. 168.)
These seven signs further highlight the role of John’s literary devices considered above, especially wordplay, irony, and paradox, creating a gospel narrative that requires readers to attend to multiple levels of meaning throughout the entire storyline.
The proper place to begin is with John’s own statement of his purpose: ‘Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name’ (20:30–31)
1. Was the Word
Many have argued that the Prologue is poetry interrupted by two prose insertions
‘the word’ (Heb. dāḇār) of God is connected with God’s powerful activity in creation
When some of his people faced illness that brought them to the brink of death, God ‘sent forth his word and healed them; he rescued them from the grave’ (Ps. 107:20)
In short, God’s ‘Word’ in the Old Testament is his powerful self-expression in creation, revelation and salvation, and the personification of that ‘Word’ makes it suitable for John to apply it as a title to God’s ultimate self-disclosure, the person of his own Son. But if the expression would prove richest for Jewish readers, it would also resonate in the minds of some readers with entirely pagan backgrounds. In their case, however, they would soon discover that whatever they had understood the term to mean in the past, the author whose work they were then reading was forcing them into fresh thought (see on v. 14).
Then God said, “Let there be an expanse between the waters, separating water from water.” 7 So God made the expanse and separated the water under the expanse from the water above the expanse. And it was so.
It is not clear whether John is thinking of our essential constitution, the fact that we have been made ‘in the image of God’ (cf. Gn. 1:27, continuing the creation theme), or of the reflection of himself in the universe he has created (what theologians sometimes call ‘natural’ or ‘general’ revelation; cf. Rom. 1:20), or even of more specific revelation bound up with the coming of the Son.
In summary, this verse surprisingly predicts that the least likely area of Israel, the far northern section that was the most militarily oppressed and most influenced by pagans, will in some way be honored by God when he sends a new “light” in the future.
2. Made Known
3. In The Flesh
in this verse it is the Word, the light, that is coming into the world, in some act distinct from creation
at its best, such faith yields allegiance to the Word, trusts him completely, acknowledges his claims and confesses him with gratitude. That is what it means to ‘receive’ him
The glory displayed in the incarnate Word is the kind of glory a father grants to his one and only, best-loved Son—and this ‘father’ is God himself. Thus it is nothing less than God’s glory that John and his friends witnessed in the Word-made-flesh
In that case John is almost certainly directing his readers to Exodus 33–34 (cf. Hanson, pp. 5ff.). There Moses begs God, ‘Now show me your glory’ (Ex. 33:18). The LORD replies, ‘I will cause all my goodness to pass in front of you, and I will proclaim my name, the LORD