John 1 Christmas

The 4th gospel (John) is attested as written by John by Papias, disciple of Polycarp, from the first century AD.

The earliest manuscript evidence of John that survives is P.90, which is John 18:36-19:1 dating from AD ~180.

From the early second century, all four gospels were used together an authoritative. P.45, aka the Chester Beatty Codex, is the earliest surviving codex containing all four gospels dating to before AD 250.

For context, the earliest copies of Aristotle (Biographical essays) and Julius Caesar (Commentaries on the Gallic War) are both from the AD 800s. Just a reminder that the manuscript evidence of the New Testament, and especially the gospels, is categorically stronger than any other ancient Greek documents.

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s was influential on the study of the Gospel of John. Although John was written later than the Dead Sea Scrolls, many critical scholars said that John (and Jesus) could not have used the heavily dualistic language (light vs dark, above/below, truth/lie, etc.) because Jews at the time did not use such language. The Dead Sea Scrolls, written before the time of Jesus, are heavy in dualistic language and affirm Jewish thinking at the time of Jesus as reflected in John’s Gospel.

Unlike the other gospels, John is written less like a story and more like an essay. The introduction describes the key points that are true about Jesus that will be expanded upon. Unlike the other gospels, John frequently uses narration to explain things or move things along. It is often difficult to tell when Jesus’s words end and the narration begins.

The summary in 20:30-31 is like a conclusion that the reader should draw based on the arguments throughout.

John 20:30–31 CSB

Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

In the early church, they were more concerned about Jesus being fully man than fully God. The prior gospels make a big point of Jesus actually being a man. Last week we explored Jesus’s human origins in Ruth. This week, we’ll explore Jesus’s divine origin, or rather, lack of origin. He is fully God from all eternity past. The Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.

Like everything, this too became controversial in church history. Arius, a Libyan Berber who became an elder in Alexandria, taught that Jesus was not eternally God but “made God” only by the Father’s permission and power.

"there was [a time] when he (the Son) was not."

John 1:1–5 CSB

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. All things were created through him, and apart from him not one thing was created that has been created. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. That light shines in the darkness, and yet the darkness did not overcome it.

John 1:6–8 CSB

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify about the light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but he came to testify about the light.

John 1:9–13 CSB

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was created through him, and yet the world did not recognize him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, he gave them the right to be children of God, to those who believe in his name, who were born, not of natural descent, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God.

John 1:14–18 CSB

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us. We observed his glory, the glory as the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John testified concerning him and exclaimed, “This was the one of whom I said, ‘The one coming after me ranks ahead of me, because he existed before me.’ ”) Indeed, we have all received grace upon grace from his fullness, for the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. The one and only Son, who is himself God and is at the Father’s side—he has revealed him.