The prologue of John 1:1-18 corresponds to Mark 1:1-3. The Logos is the word of the Lord, by which the heavens were framed, which came through the prophets to Israel, was rejected by the people a large, but found acceptance with the faithful remnant, to whom it gave the status to the children of God. this prophetic word was declared true, but in a deeper sense it was fulfilled. The Word which proceeds from the mouth of God found embodiment at the beginning. The meaning of prophecy is realized in the story of the gospel. Logos is also the divine Wisdom, which overlaps with the Platonic Idea and the Stoic Logos. The Logos is that thought of God that is the transcendent design of the universe and its immanent meaning. In contrast to the eschatological message of the synoptic gospels, Logos here is based upon the philosophical conception of two orders of being, distinguished by the greater or less measure of reality that they possess. There is the order of pure reality, transcendent and eternal, which is the very thought of God, and there is the empirical order, which is real only as it expresses the eternal order. The world at various levels, displays an increasing penetration of the lower order by te higher, an increasing dominance of light over darkness, of being over not-being, of truth over error. The absoluteness of the Christian revelation is the eternal archetype, and that this area is co-extensive with the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. The lower order is the flesh, so accordingly, the fundamental proposition is that the Logos became flesh. The prologue represents a thoroughgoing reinterpretation of the idea expressed in terms of the realized eschatology of the early Christian community. The Logos-doctrine is first because it related the higher religion of Hellenism to the crucial point of the gospel, leading his readers to the historical actuality of its story, rooted in Jewish tradition.[1]
While the mystery of the Infinite and Eternal God remains, Christians celebrate God getting local, getting up close and personal (John 1:1-18). The Word is pre-existent, and Christ is the pre-existent Word incarnate. It is the most powerful Word-Christology in the New Testament. It was written soon before the composition of the gospel. It is significant that Logos does not occur in the rest of the gospel, but this is because the prologue is emphasizing the preexistence of the Word, which becomes Jewish flesh in Jesus of Nazareth in v. 14. In him is the unity of speech and action. Awareness of the pre-temporal existence of the Son is essential background for understanding this gospel. The idea is not unique to John, where it provides the basis for ethical exhortation (Phil 2:1ff) and soteriology (Col 1:12ff). Thus, while the Logos is a distinctive aspect of the prologue, it is consistent with the underlying theme of early Christology regarding the preexistence of Jesus. The sole concern is with what has taken place in Jesus. In the person and event of Jesus traditional religious values are present in a new and personal way.[2] It is also significant that neither grace nor fullness occur outside the prologue in this gospel. The poem influences the composition of the gospel. It confronts the reader with the pre-existent Logos, which was in the beginning, a thought related to Philo, and in verse 14 with the Logos becoming flesh, an explicit statement of incarnation, the only such statement in the New Testament. The Logos is both as close to God as human beings can conceive or perceive and reveals as much of God to humanity as is possible to be revealed. John unites two separate ways of understanding Christ. The one used Wisdom and Logos language of Christ, identifying Christ as Wisdom, as the man that the Logos became, but did not seem to think of pre-existent Wisdom-Logos as a personal being or of Christ as one who had been pre-existent. However, Word was the more serviceable concept to provide a bridge of communication between Jewish monotheism and Greek religious philosophy, as it was with Philo. In the line of Jewish Wisdom theology, the Word is the self-revelation of God, as far as God may be known by humanity. He is the definitive manifestation of divine reality Jesus is not another God, but as God becoming present and known to humanity as far as that was possible within the confines of human experience. Jesus is unique, one of a kind. The Word was in the beginning, the power of God put forth in creation and revelation. Jesus Christ is this Word become a human being, embodying divine glory and alone reveals who God is. The other thought of Christ more as the Son sent by the Father. He took the step of speaking of Christ as the Son sent from heaven, as a personal being sent from his pre-existent glory into the world. This union of logos Christology and Son of God Christology, with its possibility of combining the metaphors and imagery appropriate to the personified Wisdom and the idea Logos of pre-Christian Judaism of Philo with the intimate personal language appropriate to talk of Father and Son, became the matrix from which developed the christologies of subsequent centuries. It represents a breakthrough into a different conceptuality and a bolder claim than we find in earlier and categories and structure of thought. The concept of incarnation comes to explicit expression, presenting Jesus as the incarnation of the divine Word. He is the only one who can make God fully known.[3] When compared with the other Christological hymns (Phil 2:6-11, Col 1:15-20, I Tim 3:16, I Peter 3:18-22 and 1:20, Heb 1:1-4), what is surprising is to find that it does not go on to speak of the subsequent ascent of this Word, for only the first half of the myth appears, that of the descent of the Word from the heavenly realm to the earthly. However, the ascent is concentrated in the incarnate life of Jesus that will be stated clearly in the cross and resurrection.[4]
In verses 1-5, God created all finite and temporal things, bringing all things into historical reality. This gospel begins with an ontic statement, which raises the ontological question.[5] The Word (ὁ λόγος, found only in the prologue, showing the distinctive use by John[6]) was present with God and present with the beginning of that which is distinct from God.[7] The Word was never distant from God. The Word stands outside the sequence of created things. No one escapes the Word. The Word precedes all being and all time. Given that the Word was not only with God but was God, the being of the Word and the being of God are identical, suggesting that the doctrine of “homoousion” in classical Christian theology is on the right track.[8]The fellowship between God and the Word, and by extension in the Trinitarian relation, finds correspondence in the fellowship between God and that which God has created. It speaks to the ontological connection between the Word and creation. The world is tightly bound to the Word and therefore to God. It speaks to the position, dignity, and power of the Creator that this passage also ascribes to the Word.[9] God created through the Word, manifesting itself in the world in the crucial metaphors of life and light which are open to every person. Here is life in the full sense, making the presence of life in the finite and temporal life with reservations. “Life” refers to the vitality of creation, which has its origin in the Logos. Life and light come together, which suggests the possibility of revelation. It refers to the enlightenment of human existence in order that humanity should understand itself in this world and find its way without anxiety. Light and revelation are the character of the life that entered through the Logos.[10] God becomes light that enlightens humanity in a world assaulted by the darkness. The theme of light opposed by the darkness becomes a leitmotif of the entire gospel.
In verses 6-8, 15, which reads as though it was a reference back to 1:30, and is thus an insertion into the original poem,[11] the prologue emphasizes John the Baptist as a witness to the light that has come into the darkness through the Word. The divine origin of the mission of John means we need to receive him in a way different from the way we would if he were simply an insightful human being. As such, consistent with four important themes of the Gospel of John, he is a (1) witness who (2) testifies to the (3) light, so that people might (4) believe through the Word. The author emphasizes that John was not the light. The world lives in darkness, but nothing so tames the terrors of the darkness for us than light. The Word is that light that falls upon a humanity who lives in darkness. God has directed the light of the Word toward human beings. Human beings will find their life as they open themselves to this Word, and therefore to this light and grace.[12]
To state this belief in a Trinitarian way, Life in the full sense has a relation to its divine origin, permeated by the Spirit and the new life of eschatological hope. God revealed this new and imperishable life with the raising of Jesus into that life.[13] The Logos is never just an assemblage of words, but is always meaning, thought, or discourse. It means an orderly presentation. It could connect with God speaking finite and temporal things into historical reality. It could connect with the prophetic word of the Lord to the prophets, a word rejected by many but received by a remnant. It could connect with the notion of Wisdom, suggesting that this form of Wisdom is part of the world. Logos is the rational principle in the universe. Logos is the meaning, plan, or purpose that God has revealed and is active in the universe. The cosmos exhibits a divine meaning that constitutes its reality. Logos is the thought of God that is the transcendent design of the universe and its immanent meaning. We might even say something as bold as this. We will not really understand creation until we come to terms with the Son of God. Of course, we can understand it scientifically, but we will never have a proper view of it until we turn to Jesus. Since the Word embodies itself in Jewish flesh, this rational principle and Jewish Wisdom are embodied. It means that when see the world in this way, we are growing a philosophy of life or worldview in such a way that it influences our view of self, humanity, and world. It also means we know God through this Word. We know the will of God because of this gracious Word. God wills or chooses nothing apart from Christ. We can distinguish between this Infinite and Eternal Logos from its historical manifestation. This Infinite and Eternal Word who is life and light became historical reality. This Word became the Moment to which the churches witness throughout generations. Christianity affirms that we find truth, goodness, and beauty in an event within human history, in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. We learn that truth in the simple affirmation that “The Word became flesh,” and not just any flesh, but Jewish flesh. This self-revealing of the Logos took the form of a human being, becoming identical with humanity so that those born of God might see the glory of the Father.[14] We learn that when the Word came into this world, the Word did not come as a stranger. The Word came to his own possession or people, and not to foreign territory. Those who did not receive him were not strangers, but his own people. Our resistance to the Word means that we need rebirth by the Spirit. If this divine Word became flesh, God intends to redeem this world and bring it into the eternal presence of God. Human sin as alienation from the Logos is something that the Incarnation of the Logos must overcome. The resistance that darkness presents means that we do not receive him unless we receive new birth through the Spirit.[15] Human beings depend upon their Creator. They participate in the Logos. The Logos is not alien to human nature. All creatures owe their independent existence to the creative activity of the Word in virtue of this self-distinction from God because the Logos is the basis of their creaturely independence as the generative principle of otherness. The nature of the Logos can find expression in all creatures. The Logos can do so in humans to a higher degree than in other creatures. The Incarnation is no alien thing, although it may seem alien to sinners alienated from the Logos. The Incarnation is the union of deity with humanity, suggesting that humanity cannot fulfill its destiny on its own finite strength. Only the Spirit, who lifts human beings above finitude, can enable humans to accept finitude, allowing the Trinitarian distinction of Father and Son take shape in it.[16] While many reject this Word, Light, and Life, some in the decisive act of belief or trust receive this Word. This decisive act, this Moment, is also a personal one. Belief or trust in what God has done in the Word becomes crucial. We have many roles in this world as human beings who are part of various groups. We are in families, places of work, communities, and nations. Yet, beyond all roles, the most important thing you can be is a child of God. The Word constitutes a people who did not possess the power to become children of God by their decision.[17] The Word constitutes and gathers a people that represent a new calling and personal faith distinct from what was present in Israel.[18] The vocation of the believer is nothing more nor less than to become a child of God, to be a Christian.[19]
This Infinite and Eternal Logos descends to the fleshly depths and becomes flesh. The Logos binds itself to human history. In one single area of the universe of space and time, we find the eternal archetype of Life and Light becoming part of the temporal order. This Word, by becoming flesh, dwelt among us, becoming a tabernacle, a sign or symbol of the presence of God, the presence of the Eternal in time.[20] The Logos, who dwelt with God, entered the earthly, human, material, and perishable world by becoming flesh. This is something new. This is a real event. The Logos had already been present with God and present with creation as that which gives life to all that is. Now, the Logos becomes flesh and pitches a tent among human beings. This statement confronts us with the mystery of revelation. The Word speaks, acts, prevails, reveals, and reconciles while never ceasing to be the Word. The Word became a human being, participating in the same human essence and existence as any of us. The Word is divine, and therefore God touches every human being in the Incarnation. Somehow, miraculously, the Word “became” flesh without surrendering divinity. The significance of this becoming of the Word as Jewish flesh is that the Old Testament is a record of the ways in which Israel broke the covenant it had with the Lord and thereby received judgment from the Lord. For the Word to become this flesh reveals the determination of the Word to redeem a rebellious humanity. Sinful humanity and a broken creation still bear the marks of their creator. God created us for a relationship with God, and in the Word, God shows us what that relationship looks like. The Word brings humanity into fellowship with the Trinity. In this way, human beings can find God in the Word become flesh.[21] The Logos reveals human life in its fullness, and thus, that human life has significance and is full of meaning, will, and purpose.[22] This approach to the Incarnation is beneficial in that it focuses upon the uniqueness of the embodied Word as the revelation of God. This revelatory function of the Logos arises out of also associating the Logos with involvement in creation.[23] Here is the heart of the debate. A Logos-human being Christology was typical of the Antiochene school and focused on the human Christ, leaving the unity of the divine and human in some question. A Logos-flesh Christology was typical of the Alexandrian school and focused on the preexistent Logos, leaving the humanity of Christ in some unclarity. As the debate became increasingly technical and with increasing subtle refinement, it moved toward a proof texting for arguments and positions determined by the different terms and logical constraints of later debates.[24]
This Logos is the glory, light, radiance, and splendor as the only Son of the Father, the rich fullness of grace and truth, which have been enacted by the incarnate Logos, a fullness of glory in which the grace and truth of God are actively declared. The glory of the Son consists in the sheer event of the divine event of grace and truth, a demonstration of such because it is the glory of the only-begotten Son.[25] People today receive grace through this Word. Thus, torah came through Moses, but enduring love came Jesus Christ, as John finally names the Logos. Only in Jesus is God truly revealed, in the incarnate Word, in which there is a real declaration of God through the gift of grace and truth. Statements of Torah, as light, water of life, and bread of life, are now used of Jesus. John contrasts a word of revelation in Torah with that received in Jesus.[26] The revelation of the Word in Israel and in Jesus tells us the truth about the world. God is with us since the world came into being through the Word. The age of Moses is surpassed in Jesus, for Jesus acts as God and shows himself to be the Son.[27] The incarnate Logos is Jesus Christ, who is set over against Moses as giver of the Torah, while Christ gives grace and truth, which have been enacted in Christ.[28] The creative Word becomes actual in the affirmation found in Emmanuel, God with us. Thus, although no human being can see the Infinite and Eternal, the Son is close to the heart of the Father and thus makes God known. The love relationship between Father and Son is one into which those who believe have an invitation to live in as well. The followers of Jesus participate in the fullness of the Son. Jesus Christ is the Word become flesh, but also superior, exalted, genuine, and glorious human being. Divinity hides in Jesus of Nazareth; while at the same time is blinding light in Jesus of Nazareth.[29] To know the incomprehensible God, one must hold fast to the Son. The divine is incomprehensible to us in our finitude. Yet, the Son discloses or reveals the divine in such a way that the hidden God becomes manifest. Of course, even this revelation waits for a future unveiling in which all will become clear.[30] The Logos implies a personal quality to God in that God speaks. The Word is the revelation of God in proclamation and Scripture. The Word is identical with God. The revelation of God is Jesus Christ. The Word is the revelation and the revealer. In Trinitarian language, the Word is the Son.[31] The Word contains the essence of the speaker. To hear this Word as true requires faith on our part.[32] The eternal divine Logos was this man, Jesus, and this man, Jesus, was in the beginning with God. This man, Jesus Christ, opens the door of communion with the divine life.[33]
A devout Jew will have reverence for the Torah. A devout Muslim will have reverence for the Quran. A devout Christian has reverence for the embodied Word. This Word is precious beyond measure. I understand that it offends others.
"Allah is one, the eternal one of God. ... He begot none nor was he begotten. None are equal to him. ... Those who say that the God has begotten a son preach a monstrous falsehood, which the very heavens might crack, the heavens break asunder, and the mountains crumble to dust. It does not become the holy God to beget a son." (Surah 7:8)
That to which the Quran objects is precisely what Christians have come to believe. A Jewish boy growing up in Nazareth, baptized by John, preaching on the Galilean hills, crucified in Jerusalem, is the very person who lived so uniquely related to God that we call him "Son of God." We had nothing to do with it. It is what God has done. For us, this is good news.
Christianity is a revealed religion. We are not about simply delving into the psyche or about stumbling upon God by a walking in nature. Our common human experience will not lead us to what Christians believe about God. All that we know of God comes to us as a gift from God. If God did not choose, out of love for us, to reveal who God is to us, then we would not know God. We would still be in the dark. We would still be religious, but we would have only our imagination to fill in all the blanks about a meaningful and purposeful life. To live within a Christian view of God, you must be willing to take a step of faith in a revelation. God has a human face, the face of Jesus.
For those Christians who think the church needs to demote this revelation to something less absolute regarding our knowledge of God, everything I have written here would offend. I understand the desire to be humble and embracing those who believe differently about God and the world. Those qualities are important for all believers, but that does not mean surrendering that which is the heart of Christianity. Christianity did not figure all this out by reasoning itself to it but accepted it as revelation.
Imagine a king who fell in love with a peasant girl. How could he tell her of his love? Of course, he could come in all his royal power and might, overwhelm her with his glory, sweep her off her feet, bring her to the palace, and live happily ever after. Then, would he ever know if she really loved him, or just the things with which he provided her. No, instead, the king decides to become a peasant himself, to dress and in every way become a peasant, and seek to win her love. Then he would know it was a genuine love for him, rather than only what he could do for her.[34]
I have sought to explore the theology of the texts faithfully. I do so aware that the secularity and scientific nature of contemporary culture presents a unique challenge to this teaching. The bold claim of Christian teaching and preaching is helping people see the reality of the meaning and purpose God has for their lives. Christ is the center of that reality. It is difficult to imagine that the one who is the source of such immense universe that has evolved for around 14 billion years, provided the conditions for humanity to emerge from that process just a couple hundred thousand years ago, and cared enough for the universe and for humanity to send the Son to this earth. It is so difficult that some in our modern culture have decided it is impossible. The secularity of our age suggests that darkness or nothingness is the “ultimate truth” of human existence, whether our personal death, the death of the earth, or the death of the universe. It also suggests that it will take courage to lead a meaningful human life considering our nothingness. We arise every day to fulfill our various tasks, knowing the nothingness of our end. Any meaning we discover along the way is through the connections we develop with others. All this may well be true. That is why the hope presented in texts like this will require the response of faith in the promises of God. What are human beings, of what significance are they within the immensity of the universe as science describes it? Yet, the Incarnation delivers the amazing and miraculous news that each of us matters to the God who is the source of it all. The Incarnation concerns the uniqueness and universality of what the Father has done in sending the Son, in the power of the life-giving and life-sustaining Spirit, to live as one who served as a teacher, healer, and liberator, and as one who showed the full extent of divine love by the supreme sacrifice of himself for the sins of his followers in abandoning him and for the sins of enemies in judging him worthy of death, thereby dying for the sins of humanity in every age and culture. The story is one that invites us to see human life in a specific way. We are in darkness spiritually unless we reach out for healing, guidance, and liberation we need that will come not from us but from God. I would encourage you to try it.
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[2] Kittle, TDNT, IV, 129-36.
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[6] Kittle, TDNT, IV, 128, where the word in Acts and Paul is the message about Jesus.
[7]
[8]
[9]
[10]
[11]
[12]
[13]
[14] Schweizer, TDNT, VII, 139.
[15]
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[17]
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[20] Michaelis, TDNT, VII, 386, where he moves away from the natural meaning that this earthly stay was no more than an episode between pre-existence and post-existence as exalted Lord.
[21]
[22]
[23]
[24]
[25] Delling, TDNT, VI, 285.
[26] Gutbrod, TDNT, IV, 1083.
[27] Rengstorf, TDNT, VII, 257.
[28] Grundmann, TDNT, IX, 566.
[29]
[30]
[31]
[32]
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[34] (Soren Kierkegaard, Philosophical Fragments, 32-35).
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