Jesus and John the Baptist – John Chapter 1 is Not about the Genesis Creation
To hear a podcast episode of this teaching, click here.
John the Baptist was a prophet sent by God to testify about the man Jesus Christ, not about a pre-incarnate 2nd person of the Trinity, nor about a pre-Genesis abstract plan of God.
A commentary on the Gospel of John 1:4-8.
John 1:4-5: (that which came to be) in
him was life, and the life was the light of
men. 5 The light shines in the
darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
(that which came to be) in him was life,
See podcast #29 commenting on John 1:2-3 where I understand the
verb at the end of verse 3 to go with the beginning of verse 4: “that which came
to be in him was life”. Just as through the first man Adam, also through the
second man, Jesus, life came to be. John’s Gospel is concerned with the
resurrection, eternal life of the next age that came to be in the man Jesus
Christ.
and the life was the light of men.
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome
it.
I think these verses negate any interpretation of John 1 that
posits that the Logos, the Word is either a divine figure or an abstract idea which
was involved in the Genesis 1 creation. Go ahead, read John 1:4-13 and see if
you think that the man Christ Jesus and his ministry is being introduced, or is
John the Baptist testifying about a pre-human person or concept.
It should be evident to everyone that while the words life
and light in John 1:4-5 have parallels to the Genesis creation, the
Genesis creation is not under discussion here. Instead, the life and the
light here in John 1:4-5 directly refer to the man Christ Jesus, who is the
subject of this Gospel. Sure, there are intentional parallels to the light of
Genesis 1 and also of Exodus 10, but John 1 directly describes the light
that still shines in the life of the raised from the dead man, Christ
Jesus.
Those who insist that the phrase “in the beginning” of John 1:1
refers directly to the Genesis creation, and that the Gospel of John’s Prologue
is a commentary on Genesis creation, I think even unconsciously know the topic
switched somehow from the supposed Genesis creation in the first three verses of
John’s Gospel, to the life and light of men, the man Jesus Christ, that shines
in the darkness, described here in verses 4 and 5. Why is the life and the light
and the darkness here in John 1:4-5 not also the life and light and the darkness
mentioned in Genesis 1:3, 4, 5. Why in Genesis did light precede
human life, but here in John’s Gospel the life was the light of
men?
The truth is, the life and light and darkness of
John 1:4-5 is not the life and light and darkness of Genesis 1. Rather, it is
the life and light in the man Jesus Christ that still shines in the darkness.
Is this not obvious? Again, the life and light and darkness
described in John 1:4-5 relate to the man Christ Jesus, not to the Genesis
creation.
In the person that the Gospel of John is describing was life,
resurrection life. And that resurrection life was light, and that light was the
light of men. That light still continues to shine. The darkness did not
overcome it. Folks, the topic is God’s work in Jesus Christ, not the Genesis
creation.
Jump ahead for just a second, to verses 6-8, where we are told that
John the Baptizer was not the light. Shouldn’t that be rather obvious that John
the Baptizer was not the light of Genesis 1:3 (or of Exodus 10:23)?
The appearance of John the Baptizer at all in John
1:6-8 is problematic for any Genesis creation interpretation of John 1. The
declaration that John the Baptizer was not the light is an insurmountable
exegetical road-block for any Genesis creation interpretation of John 1. Here,
early in the Prologue, John the Baptizer is being contrasted not with the light
of Genesis 1, but with the person whose name will be given shortly, the man
Jesus Christ.
In verses 8 and 9 we learn that John the Baptizer “was not the
light, but came to bear witness to the light. The true light that enlightens
every man was coming into the world” (John 1:8-9). John the Baptizer “was not
the light”. Well, you don’t say? The Baptizer wasn’t the light that preceded
and was involved in the creation of the universe? We can certainly be glad that
the author of the Gospel of clarified that for us! I’m being sarcastic of
course. John the Baptizer was being contrasted not with the light of Genesis
chapter 1, but with a person whom this Gospel is about, the man Christ Jesus.
Let’s say that again. John the Baptizer is not being contrasted
with the light of Genesis chapter 1. Neither did John the Baptizer come to bear
witness to the light of Genesis chapter 1. John the Baptizer came to bear
witness to the light, the man Jesus Christ. There should be no doubt that the
Prologue of John is introducing the life and light that was in the man Jesus
Christ. In Jesus Christ was life, and his life was the light of men.
Let’s come back to verse 4. This life that the Gospel
presents “was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and
darkness has not overcome it”. How does this verse apply to the Genesis creation
account? The simple answer is, it doesn’t. It applies to the life and light in
Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Verse 5 says “the light shines in the darkness”. Note the present
tense verb, the first present tense verb in this Gospel. In the Prologue the
author is in the main introducing and summarizing real events that happened in
the past – real events which he is about to describe in more detail in his
Gospel. But these real events connected to the life of Jesus reveal to us who
God is. And the life of Jesus on earth which happened in the real past continues
to affect the present. “The light shines in the darkness.” That is, the light
of revelation, of promise and hope for mankind that the ministry and life of the
raised-from-the-dead man Jesus Christ gives to human beings, still
shines. The work of God through the man Jesus Christ is the light that still shines
in the darkness, not Genesis 1 life and light.
In verse 9 there is another present tense verb connected with the
shining light. “the true light that enlightens every man”. This
is Jesus Christ, the light that
enlightens every (kind of) man. This is not Genesis 1 light.
One other important observation from verse 5. “The light shines
in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.”
the darkness did not overcome it
The verb here is not easy to translate. Some English translations have
“the darkness did not comprehend it”. But it is best to understand the
verb as “overcome”. Let me read a note from the New English Translation Bible
that I see agrees with other commentators on this word:
For it (the
word) to mean this (“comprehend”), "darkness" must be understood as
meaning "certain people," or perhaps "humanity" at large,
darkened in understanding. But in John's usage, darkness is not normally used
of people or a group of people. Rather it usually signifies the evil
environment or 'sphere' in which people find themselves: "They loved
darkness rather than light" (John 3:19). Those who follow Jesus do not walk in darkness (8:12). They are
to walk while they have light, lest the darkness
"overtake/overcome" them (12:35, same verb as here). For John, with his set of
symbols and imagery, darkness is not something which seeks to "understand
(comprehend)" the light, but represents the forces of evil which seek to
"overcome (conquer)" it.
This verb, “overcome” is in a Greek tense, called aorist, which is
best understood as refering to a single occasion in the past: “darkness did not
overcome it” a specific point in time. What the author of the Gospel most
likely has in mind here is the death by crucixion of Jesus Christ at Calvary.
There the light of life came into conflict with the darkness of death and darkness
did not prevail. Darkness did not overcome it.
The commandment of God for mankind, eternal life (John 12:50) and
the light of hope that commandment gives to mankind, all the forces of darkness
together could not annul.
This is exactly the kind of thing we hear the apostles Peter and Paul
describe over and over again in their sermons in the Book of Acts. “Jesus the
Messiah was put to death, but God, the God of our Fathers raised him from the
dead. He is alive!” (Acts 2:22-24, 3:15-17, 4:10, 5:30-31, 10:38-40, 13:28-33,
etc).
So here we have already in John 1:5 a reference to Calvary, the
death and resurrection of the man Jesus Christ. Darkness did not overcome the
light. Jesus was raised from the dead. The light shines in the darkness.
It is interesting to see the deity of Christ theologians commenting
on these passages in John 1. Some may try to interpret these verses in the context
of the Genesis creation, but they inevitably forget that they are supposed to
interpret all these verses in John 1 as describing the Genesis creation. They
see the man and ministry of Jesus Christ being laid out before them here –
because it is obvious that is who the Gospel is introducing. And the deity of Christ interpreters also tend
to forget that all these verses describing Jesus and the Baptizer occur before
the supposed “incarnation birth of God”, which they take to occur in verse 14.
The Gospel of John is not introducing the life, light and darkness
of Genesis 1 or of some other period in Israel’s history. The life, light and
darkness of John 1 allude to and parallel Genesis and the light for Israel in
Egypt, but John is not directly commenting on Genesis or the Exodus.
We might ask: Why did the author of the Gospel of John make
allusions to Genesis and Exodus with words like life, light and darkness? I
suggest an answer: Because the author shows the continuity
between Old Testament sacred history and the New Testament. The God who made and
gave life and light to his people in both Genesis and Exodus, “the God
of our fathers” as He is called in the New Testament, is the same God who brought
life and light to mankind through Jesus Christ. We might put it this way: the
God of Jesus is the God of Moses.
In addition, we might wonder why the author of this Gospel begins
by referring to Jesus with symbols and metaphors like “the Word”, “life” and
“light”. I suggest there are at least two reasons:
1. In this Gospel the author liked to apply metaphorical and symbolic
language to Jesus to make spiritual truths concrete. The author described Jesus
as “the lamb, the bread, the door, the shepherd, the way, the truth, the life, the
resurrection”. So also using a term like Logos (Word) as a title for Jesus shows
that the human Jesus is the communication or revelation of God to humankind.
Like the “word” in the Old Testament, Jesus is the source of re-creation “life”
for humankind (Psa. 33:6, John 1:3, 10-13), and Jesus is the revelation “light”
that gives hope and leads to salvation (Jer.
1:4-5, 9; John 1:4-5, 9, 14, 18).
2. The author introduced Jesus as “the word”, the “life” and
“light” here in the Prologue as he is preparing to give more details in the
body of his Gospel to prove how the man Christ Jesus is the Word, the life and the
light.
The Words and Themes in the Prologue are Elucidated in the Body of
the Gospel of John
Many of the words and themes that the Prologue introduces are repeated
and developed in the body of the Gospel of John, and are associated
specifically to the man Jesus the Messiah. This is evidence that the Logos and
other terms of the Prologue refer to the man Jesus Christ and not to some
pre-creation person or concept.
All these words and ideas of the Prologue: the beginning, word, life,
light, darkness, the Baptizer’s testimony, and more phrases about to appear in the
Prologue, like “coming into the world, coming to his own, his own not receiving
him, some did receive him, believe in his name, being born of God” - all these
concepts are introduced in the first 13 verses of the Prologue, and then expanded
in the body of the Gospel in connection to Jesus and his
ministry.
Let’s keep in mind, all these ideas are applied to Jesus Christ in
the prologue before he supposedly “became flesh” in vs. 14, as the
deity of Christ interpretation would have us believe. That the ministry of the
man Jesus Christ is surveyed in John 1:1-13 is irreconcilable with the deity of
Christ interpretation that John 1:14 supposedly describes the birth incarnation
of “God the Son.” Could it be that verse 14, “the word was flesh” doesn’t mean what
deity of Christ proponents think it means?
In any case, the introduction of words and themes like life
and light and darkness in the Prologue of John’s Gospel, which
are then applied to Jesus and his ministry in the body of the Gospel of John,
is evidence that the Prologue is as well describing the man Jesus Christ.
Life
For example, take the word life, which is mentioned two times
here in verse 4: “in him was life, and the life was the light of
men”. We find the word “life” some 45 more times in the body of the Gospel of
John. Life is a very important theme to this Gospel writer. And life in this
Gospel is most often the eternal life that is associated with the ministry and
person of the man Jesus Christ.
A few examples:
Whoever believes in the one whom God sent will not perish, but will
have eternal life (John 3:15-16).
“As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also
to have life in himself” (John 5:26).
Jesus told those who opposed him, “you refuse to come to me that
you may have life” (John 5:40).
“I am the bread of life” (John 6:35, 48).
“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly”
(John 10:10).
Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life.
Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).
“And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true
God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent” (John 17:3).
“but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his
name” (John 20:31).
It just doesn’t do justice to the author of the Gospel of John to
think that the life being introduced in the Prologue is not the same
life that he attributes to the man Jesus Christ in the body of the Gospel. The
parallel statements between the Prologue and subsequent chapters of the Gospel
of John tie the prologue directly to the rest of the Gospel. This is unavoidable
evidence that the Prologue is about the person, the man Jesus Christ.
Light and Darkness
We see the same link between the light and darkness
introduced in the Prologue to the light and darkness reiterated
in the body of the Gospel.
In John chapter 1, the author mentions the light in verses
4, 5, 7, 8, and 9. That’s five verses out of the 18 verses of the prologue. We see
in verses 6-8 that John the Baptizer wasn’t the light, but came to bear witness
to the light. Then (guess what?), in the body of the Gospel we are told
explicitly that the man Jesus Christ is the light.
John 3:19-20 And this is the judgment, that the light has
come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light,
because their deeds were evil. For everyone
who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his
deeds should be exposed.
John 8:12 Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I
am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness,
but will have the light of life."
John 9:5 As long as I am in
the world, I am the light of the world."
John 12:35-36 So Jesus said to them, "The light is
among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest
darkness overcome you. The one who walks in the darkness does not
know where he is going. While you have
the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light."
John 12:46 I have come as light
into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness
(cf. 12:35, 3:20).
The life, light and darkness of the Gospel of
John which are introduced in the Prologue, and reiterated in the body of the
Gospel, are the light and life associated with the man Christ Jesus in a dark
world, not the life, light and darkness of Genesis 1. It seems that anyone
who interprets John chapter 1 as referring to the Genesis creation is either
ignoring or has forgotten the words of Jesus in John 8:12: "I am the light
of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but
will have the light of life."
Let’s move on to John 1:6-8 as we will contemplate again why John
the Baptizer is introduced so early in John’s Gospel, just like he is in the Gospels
of Matthew, Mark and Luke.
John 1:6-8
There was a man sent from God, whose
name was John. 7 This one came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that
all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to bear
witness about the light.
1.
The
entire Prologue, including “in the beginning” in John 1:1 is not the Genesis
beginning, but the new beginning in Jesus. As we’ve looked at in podast #7 “John
1:1, Jesus is the Beginning of God’s New Creation”, the phrase “the beginning”
in the Gospel of John and in many other places in the New Testament refers not
to the Genesis creation but to the new beginning inaugurated with Jesus.
That the ministry of John the
Baptizer is explicitly introduced so early in John’s Prologue is also very
strong evidence that:
2.
the
Logos in 1:1 and the light in 1:4 are references to the human person Jesus the
Messiah, who will be named in verse 17. John the Baptizer came to bear witness
to Jesus, not abstract or pre-incarnate light. John the Baptist is contrasted
and said specifically not to be that light. It’s pretty obvious that the Gospel
is not comparing John to the light in Genesis 1, but to the man whom this
Gospel calls the light of the world, Jesus Christ.
For anyone who thinks that John 1 is
describing the Genesis creation, John’s presence in verses 6-8 in the Prologue
is a strange, out of place interruption. One might even say an embarrassment. Let
me quote well-respected evangelical scholar Leon Morris, in the New
International Commentary on the New Testament, The Gospel According to John (p.
87):
“It is curious at first sight that there should be this mention
of John the Baptist in the Prologue. There is no difficulty about his appearing
in the narrative sections, but it is certainly perplexing to find him in
this brief introduction to the teaching of the Gospel.”
I suggest the Baptizer’s early appearance in the Prologue is
“curious” and “perplexing” to commentators like Leon Morris because they have
brought incorrect presuppositions to the text, thinking that the Gospel begins
with a description of the Genesis creation. If “the beginning” that Gospel of
John opens with is the same beginning as the beginning in the other Gospels –
the new beginning in the Gospel of the Messiah Jesus of Nazareth, then it makes
perfect sense why the Baptizer is introduced here in the Prologue and given
such a prominent place in the rest of chapter 1.
The Baptizer is a central feature in the beginning of Jesus’s
ministry, not in the Genesis creation. There is nothing “curious” or “perplexing”
about the Baptizer’s presence in John 1:6-8. That the Baptizer’s ministry is so
early and prominently put forth in the Prologue is strong evidence that the Prologue
is about the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, and that the Word and Light of the Prologue
are the person, Jesus the Messiah, who is named in 1:17.
1:6 There was a man sent from God, whose
name was John.
The word translated as “was”, “there was a man sent from God”
is the same word that is translated with “deity of Christ” bias as “was made”,
even “was created” in verse 3. But the word does not have any sense of “being
created from nothing”. There is no Greek word “created” or “was created” in
John chapter 1. English translations that give a creation sense to the word in
verse 3 and 10 are biased. As we have seen in podcast #29, verse 3 is better
translated as “all things that happened, or came about through him”; not, “all
things were made through him.”
As seen here in verse 6 the word is best translated as “was”, or
“came to be”, “happened”, or “came on the scene”. “There was a man…”
sent from God To be sent from
God does not carry with it any connotation of pre-existence. Rather, to
be “sent from God” means to be commissioned, authorized and equipped of God.
The prophets were sent by God. Not only the prophet John was sent from God, but
one of the main themes of this Gospel is that Jesus the Messiah is sent by
God.
1:7 This one came as a witness, to bear witness
about the light, that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but
came to bear witness about the light.
As we have already described in podcast #29, “this one” of verse 7 contrasts
with “this one” in verse 2. In verse 2 “this one”, the Word was with God, and in
him was life and light. But here in verse 7, by contrast, “this one”, the prophet
John, was sent from God to bear witness about the light. The contrast between “this
one” in verse 2 and “this one” in verse 7 is a contrast between two human
persons, Jesus and John.
The verb tenses of came and to bear witness about the
light relate that the testimony of John is already done, an accomplished
historical fact. This is the sense of most of the verbs in John’s Prologue. The
author is introducing the events associated with the life of Jesus that occurred
in the not too distant past. The few exceptions where present tense verbs
appear show how the accomplished historical events associated with Jesus have
bearing on the present, like “the light shines in the darkness”.
that all might believe through him
through him…There is ambiguity
has to whom “him” refers: through Jesus (the light) or through the Baptizer. It
is best to understood as through the Baptizer, who testified about and pointed
people to the man Christ Jesus. People could believe in Jesus
Christ through John’s testimony.
8 He was not the light,
Let’s reiterate one more time that the author is not contrasting
John the Baptizer with a pre-incarnate person, nor a pre-incarnate concept, but
with the man Christ Jesus, who we know in this Gospel is the light of
the world. It would be silly for the author to clarify for us that John the
Baptizer was not the light, if the light referred to either a pre-incarnate
person or abstract idea present at the Genesis creation. Rather, the contrast
between the prophet John the Baptizer and the light makes perfect sense if John
is being compared to the man Jesus Christ.
but came to bear witness about the light.
John did not come to bear witness to a pre-incarnate, Genesis
creation light. Rather, the prophet John bore witness to the light of the world,
the son of God, the lamb of God, the man Jesus the Messiah from Nazareth.
Review:
The life and light in the darkness introduced
in John 1:4-5 refer to the man Jesus Christ and his ministry in the darkness which
mankind finds himself in, not to the Genesis creation. The man and ministry of
Jesus the Messiah is life in which is light that still shines.
The darkness tried to overcome the light, by putting Jesus Christ
to death on a cross. But the darkness was not able to overcome the light, as
Jesus’s death led to resurrection into eternal life. “the darkness did not
overcome the light” is a reference already in John 1:5 to the death and
resurrection of the man Jesus Christ from Nazareth, not to some pre-Genesis
event.
The reiteration in the body of the Gospel of terms used in the Prologue,
like word, life, light, and darkness, is evidence that the Prologue is introducing
the man and ministry of Jesus the Messiah from Nazareth. The man Jesus Christ
from Nazareth is the light of the world. Whoever follows him will not
walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.
Interpreting John 1 as describing the Genesis creation doesn’t
work, or ends up being confusion and contradiction since somewhere between
verse 3 and verse 4 the author supposedly switched from the describing the
Genesis creation to introducing the life of light in the person he is about to
describe, Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
Also, the deity of Christ interpretation is confusing as it must postulate
that that the ministries of Jesus and John the Baptizer being described in verses
3-13 are described before the supposed incarnation described in
John 1:14.
A much better way to understand all of the Prologue of the Gospel
of John is to interpret it as an introduction to the man Jesus Christ of
Nazareth, who is the main topic of the book. The testimony ministry of John the
Baptizer has no business being introduced in 1:6-8, 1:15 and 1:19-34 if “the
beginning” of John 1:1 refers directly to the Genesis creation as the Greek philosophers
understood it, referring to some pre-human “Logos”, some pre-human “Word”.
Rather, the ministry of John the Baptizer, his testimony to the
light, and the contrast statement that John was not the light, is evidence that
the prologue is about the man Jesus and his ministry, and that “the beginning”
of John 1:1 is the new beginning of God in the life of the Messiah Jesus.
Bill Schlegel, One God Report Podcast
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