John 1:1 The Beginning of God's New Creation
The Gospel of John and the New Creation:
Jesus is the Beginning of God’s New Creation
“What about John 1:1?” Ever since I
came to understand from the Bible that God (Yehovah, YHVH) is one, and that
Jesus is God’s human Messiah (Christ) whom God raised from the dead, people say
to me: “What about John 1:1?”. For my friends who believe in the “deity of
Christ”, John 1:1 is biblical evidence that Jesus is God.
I think they are missing a main
point of what John 1:1 and the entire Gospel of John are declaring. That main
point is that through the life and ministry of the human person Jesus the
Messiah, God is beginning His promised New Creation. Jesus is the
Beginning of God’s New Creation. As the words and deeds of Jesus recorded by
John are evidence, the ultimate evidence that Jesus is the beginning of God’s
New Creation is the resurrection of Jesus from the dead (John 20). As John records
in another place, Jesus is “the beginning of God’s creation” (Rev. 3:14).
Paul as well calls Jesus “the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead ones”
(Col. 1:18). The “beginning” in John 1:1 is a new beginning.
Here is John 1:1:
“In the beginning was the Word, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was God” (ESV, KJV, RSV, NAS, NIV, etc.).
What Beginning?
Does “In the beginning” in John 1:1 mean
the Genesis creation?
Trinitarians bring a number of
assumptions to the text when reading John’s Gospel. For instance, there is no Trinity described in
John 1:1, or anywhere else in John’s Gospel.
Another assumption that Trinitarians
make is that “In the beginning…” of John 1:1 is a direct reference to the
creation of the universe. But understanding “the beginning” as a
reference to the Genesis creation is an assumption that isn’t suitable with the
rest of the verse, or with the rest of the Gospel of John, or with the rest of
John’s other writings, or with the rest of the New Testament, or with the rest
of the Bible entire.
Something is very strange if we
interpret the “beginning” in John 1:1 as the Genesis creation.
Is this Jewish author telling us in
one sentence, or a few sentences, that YHVH really isn’t one, but He is two? Is
John in the first few verses of his Gospel telling us that neither Moses nor
any of the prophets, nor Matthew, Mark or Luke knew that there was a second (or
third) Person involved in creating the universe? Why does the Old Testament say
that only a singular God Person (YHVH) created the universe (Gen. 2:1-4, Exo.
20:11, Deu. 32:6, Isaiah 44:24, Mal. 3:10, Psa. 33:6).
If “the beginning” in John 1:1 means
the Genesis creation, why does the author strangely and suddenly introduce the
person and ministry of John the Baptist only five verses later (John 1:6)?
A New Beginning
It is at least possible, and fits
the context of the Gospel of John much better, to understand “the beginning”
of John 1:1 as the beginning of the ministry and life of Jesus, who is the
beginning of God’s new creation, the firstborn from the
dead (John 20:1, Rev. 1:5, 3:14; Col. 1:15, 18).
John boldly echoes creation language
in his opening, using words like “beginning, word, light, life, came to be”,
not because he is describing the original creation of the universe, but because
he is describing how the same God of Genesis is beginning His promised new
creation (Isa. 65:17-18, 66:22, 43:18-19; Ezek. 37:4-6; Matt. 19:28; Rom.
8:19-23; 2 Pet. 3:13; Rev. 21:1, 5). The
biblical New Creation is not a demolition of the current heavens and earth followed
by a total new re-creation of matter, but is a renewal or restoration of the
current heavens and earth to the righteousness and goodness that God intends
(cf. 2 Pet. 3:6). This restoration and renewal understanding of
“the beginning” in John 1:1 agrees with how John used “the beginning” in other
places in his Gospel, in his Epistles, and in the Book of Revelation. This restoration
and renewal, New Creation understanding of “the beginning”
also agrees with the theological framework of other biblical authors.
“the beginning”
in the Gospel of John
· “For Jesus knew from the beginning who those were who did
not believe, and who it was who would betray him” (John 6:65)
· “So they said to him, ‘Who are you?’ Jesus said to them, ‘Just what
I have been telling you from the beginning’” (John 8:25).
· "I did not say these things to you from the beginning,
because I was with you” (John 16:4).
· “And you also will bear witness, because you have been with me from
the beginning” (15:27).
The use of “the beginning” by
the same author in the same book to mean the beginning of Jesus’s life and
ministry is good reason to understand “the beginning” in the first verse of his
Gospel as a reference likewise to the beginning of the life and
ministry of Jesus. Put another way, to interpret “the beginning” in John 1:1 as
a reference to the Genesis creation contradicts how John uses the phrase in all
other places in his Gospel.
With all the immediate contextual
evidence in the Gospel of John, it is unreasonable, and exegetically a failure
to interpret the beginning of John 1:1 as describing directly the
Genesis creation. Rather, the beginning in John 1:1, while shamelessly and intentionally
echoing Genesis, is the beginning of the new creation of God through the life
and ministry of Jesus the Messiah.
“the beginning”
in the Epistles of John
1 John 1
In 1 John 1:1 “that which was from
the beginning” was that which people heard, saw and touched in the AD 1st
century, “the word (logos) of life”. In 1 John 1:1 the same words which
occur in the Gospel of John, “the beginning” and “word or logos”,
refer to the life and ministry of Jesus the Messiah on earth, not to the
beginning of the creation of the universe. The Epistle of 1 John 1:1-3 can be
considered a commentary or explanation of the Gospel of John 1:1. The beginning
that John describes in his epistle is the same beginning he described in
his gospel. It is the beginning which John others in the 1st century had experienced,
that which they had heard, that which they had seen and that which they had touched
-- the human Jesus resurrected from the dead.
1 John 2
The phrase “the beginning”
occurs five times in 1 John 2 (2:7, 13, 14, and 24 twice). In none of these
occurrences does “the beginning” refer to the Genesis creation. Note 1 John 2:7
as an example:
“Beloved, I am writing you no new
commandment, but an old commandment that you had from the beginning. The
old commandment is the word that you have heard.”
1 John 3:11:
Likewise, in 1 John 3 “the
beginning” does not mean the Genesis creation. “For this is the message (ἀγγελία)
which you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one
another.”
It seems that there are only two
exceptions in John’s Gospel and Epistles, once in the Gospel of John 8:44 and
once in 1 John 3:8, both which refer to the devil, where “the beginning” refers
to something else other than Jesus’s ministry. But the devil was not with God
in eternity past. The devil’s sinning and murdering relate to his own
beginning.
2 John
Neither does “the beginning”
mean the Genesis creation in 2 John 1:5, 6:
“And now I beg you, lady, not as
though I were writing you a new commandment, but the one we have had from the
beginning, that we love one another.
And this is love, that we follow his commandments; this is the
commandment, as you have heard from the beginning, that you follow
love.”
To summarize so far, John’s other
references to “the beginning” in his Gospel and Epistles shed light on
what he meant by “the beginning” in John 1:1. Nowhere else in John’s Gospel or Epistles
does “the beginning” refer to the Genesis creation. Rather, “the beginning”
refers to the life and ministry of Jesus the Messiah, whose resurrection from
the dead is a new creation, a new beginning, the beginning of the long hoped-for
restoration of the Age to Come (cf. Matt. 19:28, Mark 10:30, Luke 22:28-30,
Eph. 1:21, Heb. 6:5).
Revelation
The Book of Revelation is another
book in the Bible that is attributed to John. The Book of Revelation agrees
with John’s Gospel and Epistles in presenting Jesus not as someone literally
present with God at the Genesis creation, but as the beginning of God’s new
creation.
Jesus in the Book of Revelation is
not God, but has a God (1:1, 1:4-6, 3:2, 3:12). As in the Gospel of John, Jesus
is presented in the Book of Revelation as a human being who was dead but was
raised from the dead and exalted by God.
In Revelation chapter 1, certain
characteristics of Jesus are described and then in chapters 2-3 those
characteristics are referred to again as Jesus addressed the seven churches.
For instance, in Revelation 1:5 Jesus Christ is “the faithful witness, the firstborn
of the dead.” Then Jesus addressed the church in Laodicea as the “the
faithful and true witness, the beginning of God’s creation” (Rev. 3:14).
Being the “firstborn of the dead”
is parallel to “the beginning of God’s creation”. John presents the
resurrection of Jesus from the dead as the beginning of God’s work of
creation renewal.
In Revelation 1:17-18 Jesus calls
himself "the first and the last, and the living one; I died, and
behold I am alive for evermore…” Then in Revelation 2:8 Jesus addressed the
church in Smyrna as “the first and the last, who died and came to life.”
Jesus being “first” in the Book of Revelation is always in the context
of his death and resurrection. Jesus was dead but he is the first to be
resurrected to immortal life.[2]
Other Gospel’s
“beginning”
The three other Gospels, Matthew,
Mark and Luke, all begin with a beginning that relates to the life and
ministry of Jesus Christ on earth.
Matthew
Matthew begins his Gospel: “The book
of the origin (or genealogy) of Jesus the Messiah” (Matt. 1:1). The
Greek word for origin/genealogy is genesis which means a
beginning. While Matthew starts his book by recording Jesus’ ancestry through
David to Abraham (not to eternity past) Matthew’s whole book describes the life
and ministry of Jesus that culminates in the resurrection of Jesus from the
dead on the first day of the week (28:1ff).
Mark (and John the Baptist)
“The beginning” for Mark
refers to the beginning of Jesus’s life and ministry on earth. Mark starts: “The
beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Mark is very
similar to John’s Gospel in that he immediately, from the second verse of his
gospel, began describing the ministry of John the Baptist in association with
the beginning of the ministry of Jesus. John’s Gospel describes the ministry of
John the Baptist beginning with the sixth verse in the “Prologue”, 1:6-8, 15
(see also 1:19-35). The appearance of John the Baptist early in John’s Gospel, and
the parallel to the Baptist’s early appearance Mark’s Gospel is evidence that the
beginning that John refers to is the same beginning of Mark, “the beginning
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”.[3]
In other words, John the Baptist is
so quickly and prominently introduced at the beginning of John’s Gospel because
John has a key role in that beginning. It goes without saying that John
the Baptist was not involved in the Genesis creation.
Since the prologue (John 1:1-18)
introduces the ministry of Jesus the Messiah, and because the witness of John
the Baptist plays an important role introducing the Messiah Jesus, the Baptist is
quickly and prominently introduced in the prologue (John 1:6-8, 15). John the
Baptist really has no business being in the prologue if John 1:1 is about the
Genesis creation. On the other hand, it is fitting that John the Baptist is in
John 1:6-7 and 15 if John 1:1 is refering to the new beginning, the life and
ministry of Jesus the Messiah.
Luke
In another very close parallel to
John 1:1, Luke uses the same words - “the beginning” and “word/logos”
- at the beginning of his Gospel to describe events in the life of Jesus.
“Inasmuch as many have undertaken to compile a narrative of the things that have been accomplished among us,
just as those who from the beginning were eyewitnesses and ministers of
the word have delivered them to us…” (Luke 1:1-2).
So, all three of the Synoptic
Gospels, especially Mark and Luke, begin their Gospels with reference to a “beginning”
that relates to the life and ministry of Jesus, including the ministry of John
the Baptist, “things that have been accomplished among us”, not to Genesis
creation. These references in Matthew, Mark and Luke to a genesis and a
“beginning” are evidence that the Gospel of John also is describing the
beginning associated with the life and ministry of Jesus.
“in the
beginning” in (literary) Context
As mentioned above, the word
“beginning” can refer to the beginning of anything.
If I say, “Let me tell you what
happened in the beginning”, would you think that I want to tell you about the
creation of the universe? Maybe. But what if you knew that I was about to tell
you about my relationship with my wife? You would know that “the beginning” in
the context of our discussion didn’t mean the Genesis creation. Likewise, the Gospel of John is about to tell us about the
life, ministry and resurrection of Jesus. The context of “in the
beginning” is the life of Jesus as John is about to describe, not the creation
of earth and stars.
When Peter reported to fellow Jews
about his experience with the Gentile Cornelius, he said “As I began to speak,
the Holy Spirit fell on them just as on us in the beginning (Acts
11:15). Context shows that Peter’s “in the beginning” (the exact same phrase as
John 1:1, ἐν ἀρχῇ) does not refer to Genesis 1:1, but to the Pentecost
described in Acts 2.
Paul wrote: “And you Philippians
yourselves know that in the beginning (ἐν ἀρχῇ)
of the gospel, when I left Macedonia, no church entered into partnership with
me in giving and receiving except you only” (Philippians 4:15). Paul used the
exact same phrase that John 1:1 uses. Paul wasn’t saying that he and the
Macedonian believers were present at creation, nor at the beginning of Jesus’s
ministry, nor even at Pentecost. Context tells us that this beginning is the
beginning of the gospel message in Macedonia and Greece.
As in these passages, “in the
beginning”, indeed all of the prologue (1:1-18) of the Gospel of John must be
understood in its context, and that context is an introduction to the life and
ministry of Jesus the Messiah.
As some 16th century
reformers recognized:
“In the
cited passage where in the Word is said to have been in the beginning, there is
no reference to an antecedent eternity… But the word beginning… is
to be understood of the subject matter under consideration… As then the matter
of which John is treating is the Gospel, or the things transacted under the
Gospel, nothing else ought to be understood here beside the beginning of the
Gospel…” (The Racovian Catechism; Reprinted by Spirit & Truth
Fellowship, pp. 63 and 64).
Summary:
1.
“In the beginning” of John 1:1 is a new
beginning. While intentionally echoing some of the language of the Genesis
creation, “in the beginning” of John 1:1 directly refers to the life and
ministry of Jesus the Messiah, not to the Genesis creation of earth, plants and
animals.
2.
In the rest of the Gospel of John “the
beginning” never means eternity past or the time of the creation of the
universe. In the Gospel of John “the beginning” refers to the life and
ministry of Jesus,
3.
In the Epistles of John, “the beginning” never refers to eternity past or the time of
the creation of the universe, but rather to events associated in the 1st
century when people saw, touched and heard Jesus.
4.
We
saw that in the Book of Revelation, John’s presentation of Jesus Christ as the “first-born from
the dead, the beginning of God’s creation” agrees with interpreting “the
beginning” in the Gospel John 1:1 as the beginning of God’s new creation
in the life of Jesus.
5.
We saw how the other three Gospels, Matthew, Mark
and Luke also associate words like “the beginning” and “word” with the life and
ministry of Jesus.
6.
We noted other places in the New Testament where
the phrase “in the beginning” does not refer to the Genesis creation. Context
is necessary to determine what beginning is meant.
7.
Finally, we noted that the literary context of John’s Prologue (John 1:1-18) is an introduction to and a summary
of his entire Gospel, which describes the life and ministry of Jesus the
Messiah. The Gospel of John is not a record of the Genesis creation of seas,
dry land, plants, animals, moon and stars. Rather, the context of “in the
beginning” in the Gospel of John is the life of Jesus.
So, if “In the beginning” of John
1:1 is about the new creation which God is working in and through Jesus, as all
the evidences we’ve just looked at indicate – that is, and John’s beginning is
NOT about the Genesis creation, then there is no reason to postulate that the
Word, Jesus was present when God created rocks, trees and animals.
And what a beginning Jesus is. He is
the beginning of God’s new creation.
In a future podcast we plan to:
1.
examine
further the concept of the New Creation in the Gospel of John,
2.
see
how the new creation theme of the Gospel of John fits the historical context of
the 1st century AD. That is, 1st century readers, especially Jews but
also Gentiles instructed in the “hope of Israel” (Acts 28:20), would have
readily identified John’s Gospel as a description of how God, through Jesus, is
beginning creation renewal.
3.
See
that the new creation theme is prevalent in other New Testament writings
[1] ἀρχή ar-khay'
1) beginning, origin 2) the person or thing
that commences, the first person or thing in a series, the leader
3) that by which anything begins to be, the origin, the active cause 4)
the extremity of a thing (The Greek Bible) 5) ruler, authority, official, chief 6) Rule, domain,
sphere of influence, cf. an-archy (no ruler/rule)
[2] Two
times in the Book of Revelation the LORD God Almighty is called “the beginning”
with reference to His eternality (21:6, 22:13, cf. 1:8). But the context shows
that this is clearly a different “beginning” than is associated with Jesus the
Messiah. In Revelation, only the LORD God Almighty is called “the Alpha and
Omega, the beginning and the end” whereas Jesus the Messiah’s beginning relates
to his resurrection from the dead, i.e. being the first-born of the dead, the
beginning of God’s creation.
[3]
Likewise Matthew and Luke also introduce John the Baptist early, preceded only
by the birth narratives.
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