Jesus Did Not Create Planet Earth, A Commentary on John 1:9-13

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For Part 2, click here.

 

The Prologue of the Gospel of John is best understood as introducing the man Jesus the Messiah from Nazareth and summarizing his ministry. As we saw in our previous podcast, in John 1:6-8 the author told us that the prophet John the Baptizer was sent by God, but was not the light. The Baptizer came to bear witness to the light that was coming into the world, the man Jesus (John 8:12, 12:46).

 

The author continued in John 1:9:

This was the true light, which enlightens everyone, coming into the world.

 

In John 1, the light is a metaphor or symbol for the man Jesus Christ. It would be silly for the author to be comparing John the Baptizer with a pre-incarnate divine figure or abstract concept. Rather, this Gospel contrasts and clarifies the relationship between John the Baptizer and the man Jesus Christ. The Baptizer was not the light, the man Jesus of Nazareth was the light. As the last words of testimony of the Baptizer in this Gospel declare, “That one (Jesus of Nazareth) must increase, but I must decrease” (John 3:30).

 

In a certain way, Jesus is the light, but in another way the good news and promise in him is the light. "Light" is used as metaphor to refer both to who Jesus is, and to what he brings.

 

Put another way, in the Bible there is not a total one to one correspondence between the word “light” and Jesus. Sometimes the word “light” is used to describe Jesus. Sometimes the word “light” describes something or someone else. This is the nature of a metaphor. The Bible says “God is light” (1 John 1:5), the nation Israel is light (Isa. 42:6, Rom. 2:19), God’s word is light (Psa. 119:105), Jesus is light (John 8:12), the message of salvation in Messiah is light (Luke 2:30-32), the apostle Paul was light (Acts 13:47), and followers of Jesus are light (Matt. 5:14, Phil. 2:14-15).

 

“Light” used as a metaphor can be applied to multiple subjects, and the writer using “light” as a metaphor is free to apply the word to one or more of the subjects.

 

It is the same with "word". In the Gospel of John “word” is a metaphor describing who Jesus is, and what he brings.

 

There is much metaphorical language in the Gospel of John, both from the mouth of Jesus, and from the author himself. We must recognize metaphors in language. If we don’t recognize metaphors in language, we would conclude that there are real black sheep in most people’s homes. If we don’t recognize the metaphors in the Gospel of John and interpret them properly, we will come to silly conclusions – e.g., you have to enter your mother’s womb again, or take a bite of Jesus leg to have everlasting kingdom life. And, if we don’t recognize metaphors used in the Gospel of John, we will end up being like the opponents of Jesus who had no idea what Jesus was talking about. “This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them” (John 10:6, cf. 16:25).

 

Back to John 1:9.

The man Jesus Christ was the true light which was coming into the world, to whom John the Baptizer testified.

This was the true light which enlightens everyone…

Here we have, like in 1:5, another present tense verb describing illumination, “enlightens”. The Prologue of John’s Gospel is almost entirely narrated in the past tense. But the ministry and life of Jesus which happened in real time and place in the past, is still enlightening people, showing people the way and giving people understanding and hope. The life of Jesus enlightens. It doesn’t confuse, contradict or shroud in mystery.

 

The author is most likely making an intentional parallel between Jesus and the word of God as given to Israel. To Israelites, the word of God is light, which gives light and illumination. The word of God shows man what is true and right, and teaches man who God is and how to approach God. In the Gentile world we refer to the Law of Moses, but to the Israelite, the word of God in the books of Moses is Torah, teaching. The emphasis in the Hebrew mind is not on law and regulation but on guidance and direction. The Torah reveals who God is and how to approach him. In parallel fashion, the Messiah Jesus of Nazareth is light that reveals and illuminates for mankind who God is and how to approach Him.

 

There may also be a double allusion here, since because Israel had the light of the word of God, the people of Israel themselves were called to be light to the Gentiles, light to the world. See Isa. 42:6 and Rom. 2:19. Jesus of Nazareth, as the ideal Israel, is the light of the world.

 

Parallels: Evidence that the Prologue is not a commentary on Genesis creation but rather introduces and summarizes the person and ministry of the man Jesus Christ

As we saw in our previous discussion on John 1:3-8, the direct connection between statements in the Prologue to the body of the Gospel of John are evidence that the Prologue is introducing the person Jesus of Nazareth the Messiah. The man Jesus and his ministry are  described with the exact same terminology in the body of the Gospel as we see here in the Prologue.

 

Note the parallel between:

John 1:9 “the true light that enlightens every man was coming into the world” and

John 12:46 “I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”

 

John 3:19 “And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil.

 

John 9:5 "While I am in the world, I am the light of the world."

 

All these parallels between the Prologue and the life of the man Jesus as described in the body of the Gospel, are evidence that John 1 is not describing Genesis 1, but is introducing the new beginning in the man Jesus Christ.

 

coming into the world

the world kosmos

 

Here we have the first appearance in the prologue of the word “world”, which appears three more times in the next verse. The Greek word translated in all these cases as “world” is kosmos (alternate spelling cosmos). Kosmos does not mean planet earth in the Bible. I’ll use the word kosmos to help us keep in mind that John’s Gospel is not talking about planet earth.

 

The basic meaning of kosmos is order, arrangement, adornment or ornament. In the Greek version of the Old Testament kosmos is often used to translate words like jewelry, ornaments, and decoration (e.g., Exo. 33:5-6, Isa. 3:18, Jer. 2:32). The verbal idea means “to put in order or arrange with the intention of making beautiful or attractive, to adorn, to decorate.” The English word “cosmetic” is derived from this word.

 

Kosmos often denotes, as related to human beings, the order of human society and culture. The English word cosmo-politan relates to human society and the variety within human culture.

 

Somewhat ironically, the word “cosmos” in modern English does not mean the earth or world at all, but rather the heavens, outer space, or the universe. This is probably because from mans’ perspective the stary heavens show the orderly design and decoration of the universe.

 

The word kosmos is never used in the Greek Old Testament to mean “planet earth.” The word is definitely not the word used in the Greek version of the creation of the earth in Genesis 1.

 

The word kosmos occurs 78 times in the Gospel of John, and 24 more times in the epistles of John. That is a lot of times. Kosmos is an important word to John. But likewise, in John, kosmos translated as “the world” does not mean planet earth. To John kosmos means what the world is arranged and decorated with, the world’s greatest ornamentation - humanity, or human society, or a section of human society.

 

The apex of God’s creation in Genesis 1 is human beings. Imagine how dull the universe would be without humanity. It is human society, or a section of human society, that is the kosmos of the Gospel of John, not physical planet earth.

 

It can’t be over emphasized. Kosmos, even though translated into English as “world”, does not mean planet earth.

 

But the word kosmos/world is confusing to most English readers because we just can’t seem to get the idea of planet earth out of our heads when we see or read the word “world”. We read John 1:10 and think the creation of planet earth is under discussion. But planet earth is nowhere in John 1:10.

 

Actually, I think we know better, and we can understand that planet earth is not under discussion in John 1:9-10. We know that when this Gospel says that “God so loved the world that He sent his unique Son”- that this does not mean that God so loved the globe, the physical planet earth. Rather, we know the “world” that God so loved means people, as the verse continues, “so that whoever believes in him might not perish, but have everlasting life”. The physical globe, planet earth, cannot believe in Jesus the Messiah, but people can.

 

We use the word “world” in idiomatic ways which do not refer to the physical globe. We speak of “the world of sports”, “the Christian world”, “the Jewish world”, etc., meaning the society and people involved in those realms.

 

To the author of the Gospel of John the word “world” means human beings, humankind, human society, which really is the ultimate ornament of God’s creation. And, as we will see, the word kosmos in John’s Gospel can have other more specific nuances too, sometimes meaning Jewish society, the Jewish world, the Jewish people, or God’s covenant people.

 

Here are a few examples in the Gospel of John to illustrate that the word “kosmos, world” does not mean planet earth. In the next verse:

 

John 1:10 “…the world knew him (the Messiah Jesus) not”.

It is not the physical globe that didn’t recognize the Messiah, but people, and in this case most likely a segment of the Jewish people, since Jesus was a Jew who lived only among Jews.

 

John 12:19 “The Pharisees therefore said to one another, "You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.”

It’s not the physical planet earth that followed Jesus, but many people, Jewish people.

 

John 15:18 “If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.”

It’s not the physical planet earth that hated Jesus and his followers, but a segment of human society, a segment of people.

 

John 16:20 "Truly, truly, I say to you, that you will weep and lament, but the world will rejoice…”

It’s not the physical planet that rejoiced over the death of Jesus, but certain people.

 

Often the “world”, the kosmos, is spoken of in the Gospel of John as the society, or those people who are hostile to God, lost in ignorance, sin and darkness. And since Jesus is a Jew, it is the Jewish world, and as we will suggest later, specifically the Judean world centered in Jerusalem, that was against Jesus.

 

But the Jewish world represents all of humanity. Jesus did not come into the Gentile world. If he had, the Gentile world would have had absolutely no clue about who he was or what he was talking about. The Jewish world was the only world expecting a Messiah from the line of David. The Jewish world was mankind’s only chance for recognizing the Messiah. The Gentile world was in total darkness.

 

But the Gospel of John is insistent that God does not intend to leave the world, the Jewish world specifically, nor humanity in general, in this dark, antagonistic condition. God loved the world (3:16). God acted in the world through his Messiah (3:16, 17:3), and spoke to the world through his Messiah (John 8:26). Again, it is not to physical planet earth that God through Jesus was speaking, but to human beings.

 

And the world, people, can be saved through God’s unique son, the Messiah Jesus Christ:

John 3:17 "For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through him.” So, there can also be a saved world, that is, a saved people, a saved community.

 

In any case, we must keep in mind as we continue our study in John’s prologue that the Greek word kosmos, the English word translated “world” does not mean the physical planet earth. Kosmos “world” in this Gospel means human beings, human society, and sometimes specifically the Jewish people, who can hear, know, reject, follow and believe.

 

coming into the world

So if “world” does not mean planet earth, what does “coming into the world” mean? John 1:9 describes “the true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.”

 

To “come into the kosmos” does not mean one comes from some celestial place in heaven to the physical globe we call planet earth. Rather, “to come into the world” is a Hebraic idiom that means to “show up on the scene, to come into history, to become a part of human society”, and sometimes specifically to be a part of the Jewish world. The expression “all who come into the world” was common among Jews to denote everyone^[1] because everyone was born and showed up on the scene of human history.

 

In fact, John 1:9 is a bit ambiguous grammatically because the subject of “coming into the world” could be either “the true light…coming into the world”, or “everyone”, as in “the true light enlightens everyone coming into the world”. That is, the true light can enlighten everyone who is born, every human being who comes into the world. In the Hebrew mind, everyone “comes into the world”, every human being comes into the world. To “come into the world” simply means to exist and be alive at a certain time and place.

 

However, in John 1:9 it is best to understand the subject of “coming into the world” as the true light, since later in the body of the Gospel, in both John 3:19 and in 12:46, Jesus is the light which “has come into the world”. In John 12:46 Jesus says, “I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”

 

Let’s note a few other biblical references where “to come” or “to come into the world” does not mean to come from some non-earthly location, but simply means to be born and live in human society, to be alive at a certain time and place.

 

Luke 7:33, “John the Baptizer has come eating no bread and drinking no wine”

This doesn’t mean that John the Baptizer came from some place other than earth. It means he was alive at that time and place.

 

In John 16:21, Jesus compared the short-lived sorrow of the disciples to a woman who after giving birth “no longer remembers the anguish, for joy that a human being has been born into the world.”

 

After the feeding of the 5000, John 6:14 records, “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, "This is indeed the Prophet who comes into the world!"

 

We need to get biblical metaphors and idioms correct if we want to correctly understand the Bible. We must read the Gospel of John with Hebrew perspectives, idioms and figures of speech in mind, not with Greek philosophical or modern western ideas. God had promised through Moses, as recorded in Deuteronomy 18:15, to send another prophet like Moses. The Jewish people expected a prophet like Moses to “come into the world”. They were not expecting God to send a pre-incarnate being from some non-earthly location.

 

To “come into the world” in the case of the expected prophet like Moses also carries with it the idea of being part of the plan, purpose and commission of God. In God’s purpose and timing, the prophet like Moses would “come into the world.”

 

Likewise, because of God’s promise and purpose, the Jewish people expected the Messiah “to come into the world”.

 

Some Judeans said at the Festival of Tabernacles, as recorded in John 7:31 “When Messiah comes, will he do more signs than this one has done”

 

Martha the sister of Lazarus, said to Jesus in John 11:27, "Yes, Lord; I have believed that you are the Messiah, the Son of God, who comes into the world." Martha was not thinking that the Messiah literally pre-existed and then came to our physical globe from some other celestial location. Rather, she knew that the promised Messiah would eventually, in God’s timing, come into the kosmos.

 

By the way, believers in Jesus are sent “into the world” (cf. Mark 16:15).[2] We don’t come from outer space to the “third rock from the sun”.

 

We must remember that kosmos, although translated as “world” in John 1:9-10, does not mean planet earth. Rather kosmos means human society, or a segment of human society. To go or come into the kosmos, the world, does not mean you came from some other heavenly or planetary realm into our physical earth. It means to be alive at a certain time and place, to be a part of human society, and specifically for God’s prophets and Messiah, at a time and place determined by God.

 

1:10 He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, yet the world knew him not.

 

What John 1:10 is not saying

For deity of Christ proponents, this verse is interpreted, like John 1:3, as if Jesus was both on earth and that he created earth. But that understanding makes very simple yet fatal errors of interpretation. Let’s look closer at the verse, which breaks down into three parts:

 

He was in the world, (John 1:10a)

I will say it again. “World” kosmos does not mean planet earth. Kosmos means humanity, human civilization, and as we will see in just a minute, sometimes specifically a segment of humanity, the covenant people of God, Israel.

 

The first mistake the deity of Christ interpretation makes, even though they know better, is that the they slip back into thinking that “world” means the physical planet earth. But interpreting kosmos as planet earth totally misconstrues the meaning of the verse.

 

Secondly, deity of Christ proponents do not notice, or unconsciously switch the order of the first and second phrases in the verse. Since, like Greek philosophers, and in complete contradiction to the Holy Scriptures, deity of Christ believers think that somehow the Logos, a pre-incarnate “God the Son” was involved in the Genesis creation, they think this verse says that Jesus made planet earth and then came to planet earth. But the order of the events in this verse is exactly the opposite of what deity of Christ proponents think.

 

Notice the order of the first two phrases in this verse:

“He was in the kosmos”. That is, first, Jesus, the Word and Light, was in the kosmos,

and then,

“the kosmos came to be through him”

 

The kosmos didn’t first come to be through him, and then he was in the kosmos. No, he was in the world and then the world came to be through him. There’s a big difference. I suppose one could claim that there isn’t a strict chronological order between the two phrases. But nonetheless, this would be a very strange way to say Jesus created planet earth and then came to planet earth.

 

The third way in which deity of Christ proponents mistreat this verse is by translating and interpreting the middle clause as if Jesus, the light, was the active creator of the physical planet. Does John 1:10 declare that Jesus created planet earth?

 

The verb “came to be”

The phrase, “the kosmos came to be through him” is often translated “was made, or even “was created” (NET NLT, CSB). But this word (ἐγένετο, γίνομαι) is not the Greek verb for create or make. As we have seen in our discussion of John 1:3, the biblical words for create and make do not appear anywhere in John 1. Nowhere. John 1:10 has absolutely nothing to do with the creation of planet earth.

 

As we discussed with John 1:3, the Greek verb under consideration here, translated in many English versions as “was made”, is the word ἐγένετο, γίνομαι. The word has a wide range of meanings, and is translated some five different ways in John chapter 1. The word does not mean “to create” out of nothing. In general, it means “to become” and refers to something that “happened” or became historical fact. Something that “was” or “came to be”. The word is translated as “was” in John 1:6, “become” in John 1:12, “came” in John 1:17 and “happened” in John 1:28.

 

It is a combination of translation bias and misunderstanding of word meanings that makes John 1:10 sound like the Logos or the Light (that is, Jesus) was somehow involved in creation of the physical world. It is a real shame that deity of Christ believers interpret John 1:10 this way.

 

Perhaps we should have pointed out in our earlier discussion of kosmos - not only does the word kosmos not mean planet earth, but the word kosmos is not anywhere in the Greek translation of Genesis 1. The Greek version of the Old Testament does not say in the beginning God created the heavens and the kosmos. Actually, the word kosmos occurs only one time in the LXX Greek translation of the entire Book of Genesis, in Genesis 2:1; and, kosmos is not the word there for “earth”. Rather it is the word for all the “host” of the heaven and earth, all their order, glory and ornamentation, which includes humanity.

 

John 1 is not describing the Genesis creation of the heavens and planet earth. John 1 has no words for create, earth, heavens, waters, dry land, stars, plants or animals. John 1 is about the new beginning for humanity in the man Jesus Christ.

 

Ignore, Ignore, Ignore: Ignoring the word “through”

Deity of Christ interpreters read verses like John 1:10, John 1:3, Colossians 1:16, and Hebrews 1:2, and think they see Jesus as the active creator of the heavens and earth, shoving Jesus into Genesis 1. But in each case, they ignore a very important word. They ignore the word “through”. In every case in the New Testament where the man Jesus Christ is involved in the “coming to be” or “making” of something, as in John 1:3 or here in John 1:10 (Colossians 1:16 or Hebrews 1:2, 1 Corinthians 8:6), the “coming to be” or “making” is always in the context of a new creation being made “through” Jesus Christ. Here in John 1:10, the kosmos came to be “through” the light, Jesus Christ. The text does not say “the light made the kosmos”. Much less, “the light created the kosmos”. Jesus Christ is not the source of the kosmos coming to be, but is the channel through whom it came to be.

 

So what does John 1:10 mean? In short, I believe the author of the Gospel is describing the coming to be of a new humanity, a new people of God, that came to be through Jesus of Nazareth .

 

I think we can see this because the author explains in verses 11-13 what he means in verse 10.

 

In verse 11 the author expands on the first and third clauses of verse 10.

 

1:10a - “he was in the kosmos”

is parallel to

1:11a - “he came to his own”

 

Then,

1:10c – “the kosmos knew him not

is parallel to

1:11b “his own people received him not”

 

The author clarifies for us what he means by kosmos. The kosmos that Jesus the light was in, and who knew him not, was “his own”. This is a clear reference to his own people, as many translations interpret, since it is people who can know and receive.

 

Many commentators see a reference, and I think rightly so, to the Jewish people here. Jesus is a Jew, who was born and lived only in the land of Israel among Jews. The Messiah came to his own people, not to Gentiles in Ephesus or Rome.

 

I suggest that “his own” can be even more narrowly defined, and that “his own” that Jesus came to and was rejected by were Judeans, especially the Jewish leadership centered in Jerusalem.

 

Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea as a descendant of David of the tribe of Judah (Judea is simply the Greek way of saying Judah). As God’s anointed Messiah of the line of David, Jesus has the right to rule from the city of Jerusalem where the Davidic dynastic capital was divinely established.

 

The Gospel of John focuses on the ministry of Jesus in Judea, e.g., John’s Gospel is the only Gospel to describe the miracles of Jesus done in Jerusalem. Yet, there is a very distinct contrast in this Gospel between the rejection of Jesus in Judea compared to how he was received in other geographical areas. Jesus was received warmly in Samaria (4:39-42). In Galilee, Israelites wanted to make Jesus king (6:14-15, 4:45). Jews across the Jordan believed in him (John 10:40-42). On the other hand, the threats to kill Jesus are always in Judea, and in the end, he was killed in Judea.

 

In John 4:43-45 we can see clearly that the author of this Gospel regards the people and land of Judea to be Jesus’ own land and people. After Jesus had left Judea and passed through Samaria, the author records:

 

“After the two days he departed for Galilee. For Jesus himself had testified that a prophet has no honor in his own country.  So when he came to Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him, having seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the feast” (John 4:43-45).

 

To this author, using the same word as he used in 1:11, his own country for Jesus was Judea.

 

So yes, while the world, the kosmos that Jesus came into may be generally considered to be the Jewish world, his own people that did not receive him is specifically Judeans, Jews with authority over the city and temple in Judea.

 

Understood this way, one theme of the Gospel of John is a description of how and why Judeans did not receive their own anointed Davidic king. Understood this way, the Gospel of John is addressing an internal Jewish controversy. The author may be writing to diaspora Jews who knew Greek explaining why the Messiah was rejected in Jerusalem and Judea, his own city, land and people.

 

and the kosmos came to be through him

As the author further explained (in verse 11) the first and third clauses of verse 10, he also went on to further develop the middle clause of verse 10 in verses 12-13.

 

(1:10b)

“and the kosmos came to be through him”

This phrase is amplified in

(1:12-13)

“but to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”

 

In John 1:12-13 the author is quick to back-track a bit on his statements that the kosmos knew him not and that his own received him not. He quickly adds that there were some who received him and believed on his name, and that these people could become the children of God, born of God, part of God’s family.

 

This is the kosmos that came to be through Jesus, the new community of God’s children. As with Adam, one man, through whom came all the world, all human society, and Noah, through whom all human society came to be again, and the one man Abraham, through whom came to be the Hebrew world, so through the one man Jesus the Messiah the new family of God comes to be.[3]

 

made the world = saved the world

This interpretation of John 1:10-13 is supported by a comparison with how the author reiterated the same concepts in the body of the Gospel, applying them to Jesus, but nuancing “the world was made” to “world was saved”.

 

Just after the discussion of Jesus with Nicodemus about being born from above, we see the similarities of language and ideas of John 1:9-13 expressed again in John 3:17-18 where "made the world" is parallel to "saved the world."

 

"That was the true light (Jesus) which coming INTO THE WORLD enlightens every man ... he was in the world, and THE WORLD WAS MADE THROUGH HIM ... (John 1:9-10)

 

"God did not send the son INTO THE WORLD to judge the world, but that THE WORLD MIGHT BE SAVED THROUGH HIM" (John 3:17).

 

The same ideas are presented. The light coming into the world is parallel to the son being sent into the world. Please, let’s recognize that the light of John 1:9 is the son of John 3:17. And “the WORLD WAS MADE” of John 1:10 is substituted with “the WORLD MIGHT BE SAVED” in John 3:17. The world being made is the world being saved.

 

The same Prologue language and parallel meanings are seen in the words of Jesus in John 12:46-47:

“I have come into the world as light, so that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.  If anyone hears my words and does not keep them, I do not judge him; for I did not come to judge the world but to save the world.”

 

These parallels between John 1:10-12 in the body of the Gospel of John (3:17, 12:46) are evidences that “the world being made” of John 1:10 is the same as “the world being saved”. Remember, world does not mean planet earth.

 

And as we’ve mentioned before, all the connections between the Prologue and the body of John’s Gospel are evidence that the Prologue is introducing neither a pre-incarnate divine person, nor a pre-incarnate divine concept. The Prologue is introducing the man Jesus the Messiah from Nazareth whose life is summarized in the Prologue and then described in the rest of the book.

 

Speaking again of parallels between the Prologue and the body of the Gospel of John, we should mention a few more here in verses 10-13.

 

John 1:10c

“yet the kosmos/world knew him not” (“know” occurs 99 times in John’s Gospel).

John the Baptizer’s testimony concerning Jesus:
1:26 “among you stands one whom you do not know” (cf. the Baptizer’s own knowledge in 1:31, 33)

8:19 Jesus answered, "You know neither me nor my Father. If you knew me, you would know my Father also.”

9:24 "Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner."

John 17:3 And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.

 

John 1:12

“believe in his name”

Parallels in the body of the Gospel to “all who believed in his name”

2:23 Now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover Feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs that he was doing.

John 3:18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

John 20:31 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.

 

Belief “in/on his name is applied to the historical human being, Jesus the Messiah from Nazareth.

 

“children of God”

The last parallel reference from John 1:12 that I will mention is an interesting one, because the repetition of the phrase, “children of God” comes in the author’s response to the unknowing prophetical utterance from the mouth of the antagonistic high priest in Jerusalem.

 

John 1:12 says, “But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” Then in John 11:50-52, we find the high priest saying it would be better for one man to die rather than have the whole nation perish. The author adds, “He did not say this of his own accord, but being high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus should die for the nation, and not for the nation only, but to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.”

These are the only two occurrences of the phrase “children of God” in the Gospel of John.

 

Based on Old Testament Scriptures, the gathering together of dispersed Israelites was and still is for Jewish people part of the job description of the Messiah. Again we see the Jewish context of this Gospel. The author saw Israel’s regathering connected with the death of Jesus.

 

And as in the Old Testament Scriptures (Gen. 12:3; Psa. 22:27, 117; Gal. 3:8), the author may also see in the death of Jesus a fulfillment of the Israelite expectation of Gentile participation in the community known as the “children of God”.

 

Verse 13 describes the different kind of birth required for those who are the children of God.
Being connected to a certain ethnicity is not enough to become a child of God (cf. Matt. 3:9). The will of God is involved. This different kind of birth, being “born of God”, introduced here in the Prologue is developed in chapter 3 when Jesus spoke with Nicodemus (3:3-8).

 

Review

1. First, we must understand the figures of speech, idioms and metaphors in the Gospel of John if we are to understand the Gospel correctly. It was those in opposition to Jesus that especially misunderstood his figures of speech. John 10:6, “This figure of speech Jesus used with them, but they did not understand what he was saying to them.”

 

2. Next, the Greek word kosmos, although translated as “world” in John 1:9-10, does not mean planet earth. Rather kosmos means human society, or a segment of human society, specifically Jewish society.

 

3. Also, to go or “come into the kosmos, into the world” does not mean a person came from some heavenly or planetary realm into planet earth. To “come into the world” means to be a part of human society, to exist and be alive at a certain time and place. Everyone “comes into the world.” As fulfillment of God’s promise the Prophet of Deut. 18:15 “comes into the world” and the Messiah “comes into the world” (John 7:31, 11:27).

 

4. The man Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah is the light who “came into the world.” This is made clear by the author both in the Prologue (by stating that the Baptizer was not the light) and in the body of the Gospel: “I have come as light into the world” (John 12:46, 3:19).

 

5. Next, John 1:10 does not say that Jesus created planet earth. Such an interpretation is really an embarrassment to biblical exegesis. Kosmos does not mean planet earth.

We can understand better what the author meant by kosmos, world, in John 1:10 by seeing the parallels in the next verse. Kosmos of verse 10 is parallel to “his own” in John 1:11, meaning the Jewish people and perhaps even specifically Jews who lived in the geographical region of Judea. The “kosmos that knew him not” in verse 10 is parallel to “his own people who received him not” in verse 11.

 

6. Also, the word “create” is nowhere in John’s Prologue. The kosmos was not created by Jesus, but rather it came to be through the man Jesus. The kosmos that came to be through Jesus is the new people of God, specifically those who are born of God and are the children of God as described in verses 12-13.

 

7. Next, the deity of Christ interpretation of John 1, and specifically of John 1:3 and 1:10, which claims that Jesus was the creator of all things and of the earth, is a direct contradiction to many other Scriptures that state clearly that the Creator of all things is the one God, Yahweh the God of Israel. This contradiction is so obvious. To claim that there was more than one God person involved in the Genesis creation of the heavens and the earth, is a direct contradiction to clear Scriptures, like these:

 

Isaiah 45:18, “For thus says the Yahweh, who created the heavens (he is God!), who formed the earth and made it. He established it; he did not create it a chaos, he formed it to be inhabited! "I am Yahweh, and there is no other.”

 

Revelation 4:11 "Worthy are you, our Lord and God, to receive glory and honor and power, for you created all things, and by your will they existed and were created."

 

These verses and many others like them cannot be any clearer, that there was one God, one God person who created the heavens and the earth. Note all the singular pronouns and verbs. See also Gen. 1:1, Isaiah 37:16, 40:28, 42:5, 45:12; Jer. 10:12, 27:5, Mal. 2:10; Psa. 8:3, 100:3, 102:25; Neh. 9:6; Matt. 19:4; Mark 10:6; Acts 17:24; Rev. 10:6.

 

The deity of Christ interpretation of John 1 tries to avoid or ignore that their interpretation is an obvious and direct contradiction with so much of the clear teaching of Scripture. They must engage in strange philosophical speculations about how Yahweh can be more than one, and by changing the meanings of pronouns so that “I” means “we” and “he” means “they”.

 

8. The interpretation offered here is in complete agreement with other biblical revelation, that the One God, Yahweh, the God of Israel, the Father, is the Creator, and that as He, He alone, created the heavens and the earth and brought about human civilization through one individual human being (Adam, Noah, Abraham). Likewise, He, Yahweh, brings about the community known as the “children of God” which comes to be in the next age through the one man Jesus the Messiah. 1 Cor. 8:6: “yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom are all and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom are all and through whom we exist.

 

9. Finally, we can refer to the body of the Gospel of John to understand what the author means in the Prologue. The Prologue uses much metaphorical language, and the exact same metaphors, themes and language the author introduces in the Prologue he reiterates again in the Gospel, associating the language and themes of the Prologue to the man Jesus and his ministry. These parallels are evidence that John’s Prologue is not a commentary on the Genesis creation, but rather is an introduction to the new beginning in the man Jesus of Nazareth. It does the author of John’s Gospel great injustice to claim that his Prologue is not an introduction to the man Jesus of Nazareth, the Messiah.

 

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^[1] Beasley-Murray, G. R. (1999). John (Vol. 36, p. 12). Dallas: Word, Incorporated.

[2] The preposition “into” εἰς is also evidence that “to come into the world” doesn’t mean to come to earth from another location. To come into the earth would technically mean to go into earth’s subterraneous layers. But this is obviously not what the phrase means. Rather, “to come into the world” means to come into and be in the midst of human society.

[3] One question to this understanding is that kosmos first means “his own people, Judeans or Jewish civilization”, but then shifts to the kosmos of the new the people, community or civilization that comes to be through him. But this nuance of meaning is the kind of thing that John does in his Gospel, and so do the other NT authors.  The author declares that yes, while the Jewish people as a community are the ones through whom Yahweh brings salvation, Jesus is the fulcrum, the ultimate channel through whom the new covenant community (Jewish and by extension other ethnicities) of the ages to come is made. Jesus is a Jew and “salvation is of the Jews”.

The Gospel of John metaphorically describes how the covenant community of God is ultimately formed through the Israelite, Jesus the Messiah. In the Old Testament, Israel is the vine that God took out of Egypt, made into a covenant community, and planted in His, or its, own land (Psalm 80:8).  But Jesus in John 15 took the vine metaphor and applied it to himself, the ideal Israel. Jesus said, “My Father is the vineyard keeper. I am the vine! You are the branches.” Relationship to God hinges on connection to the vine, the Israelite, Jesus the Messiah.

Typical deity of Christ interpretations of John 1:10 also shift the meaning of kosmos within the verse itself.