John 1:1 is Parallel to the Man Moses?

 In the two previous One God Report podcast episodes, episode #69) In the Gospel of John, the “Jews” are “Judeans” (Not all “Jews”) and episode #70) The GREEKS in John's Gospel were GREEK-SPEAKING JEWS (not Gentiles), I gave evidence that the original audience of John’s Gospel were Diaspora, Greek-speaking Hebrews; that is, not Gentiles. If the original recipients of the Gospel of John were Greek-speaking Israelites they would have had various levels of familiarity with the Greek translation of the Old Testament Scriptures (the LXX).

In this current episode I will suggest that the author of John’s Gospel drew literary and thematic parallels from the Greek Old Testament to convince his Israelite readers that Jesus was the one “of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote” (John 1:45). For audio, click here.

To listen to this episode on the ONE GOD REPORT podcast, click here.
 

I will focus on John 1:1, giving evidence that Greek-speaking Israelites familiar with the Greek translation of the Old Testament could recognize the first sentence of John’s Gospel, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” as a parallel to Moses.

 

Unfortunately, later Gentile audiences, instead of sticking with the Bible, assimilated neo-Platonic philosophy about a divine Logos, and misunderstood this first verse in John’s Gospel to be a reference to a second divine figure involved in the Genesis creation. The Gentiles interpreted John 1:1 ontologically, that is, to be about nature, or essence, or deity. But an Israelite would not necessarily interpret John 1:1 ontologically. An Israelite reader familiar with the Greek Old Testament Scriptures could connect John 1:1 to Moses.

 

Previously (podcast #7) we have given reasons to understand that “in the beginning” of John 1:1 is not a direct reference to the Genesis creation, but rather intentionally echoes Genesis because John is about to describe a new beginning. Later I’ll mention how Israel’s Exodus from Egypt was in fact a beginning as well. But in the podcast today we will focus on the two statements that the Word “was with God” and “was God”. My thesis (not only mine) is that “The Word was with God, and the Word was God” is a comparison to Moses, not a description of a second divine person or an abstract plan involved in the Genesis creation.

This podcast will have two parts:

1)      First, we will see that literary and thematic parallels to “was with God” and “was God” of John 1:1 are to be found in the Greek version of the Old Testament, not in extra-biblical literature, and these phrases especially refer to the man Moses.

2)      We will see that the Gospel of John explicitly compares Jesus to Moses, and not to God. John’s Gospel presents Jesus as the prophet like unto Moses sent by God, not as God himself.

John 1:1 is About a Human Person

“The Word was with God, and the Word was God” is speaking of a human person, not a second divine figure (a divine “hypostasis”) nor an abstract idea like “Wisdom”.

I’d like to paraphrase Dr. Andrew Perry from episode #67 Why the Man Jesus is Called the Word in John 1:1 (see also, Perry, A. John 1:1-18 A Socinian Approach, p. 25ff). Dr. Perry says that if we look for a precedence in Second Temple Period literature or in the Old Testament of someone or something that was “with God and was God”, either a second divine figure (hypostasis) called the “Logos”, or of an abstract entity like Wisdom, we won’t find one. Rather, the precedence for “was with God” and “was God” is a particular man, Moses.

 

So, our task is to see how the phrases “was with God” and “was God” could be recognizable to Greek-speaking Israelites familiar with the LXX as pointing to the man Moses.  We will first take the phrase in John 1:1b “was with God”. To whom, or to what, does the phrase “was with God” refer to in the Greek Old Testament? It will be helpful to know the phrase “was with God” in Greek: πρὸς τὸν θεόν, pros ton Theon.

 

πρὸς τὸν θεόν of Moses

 

Often the phrase pros ton Theon is translated in the LXX as “to God” when followed by a transitive verb like “speak, say, call out, or pray” as in “Abraham said to God” (Gen. 17:18, Neh. 4:3, etc.). But there are other examples of pros ton Theon with verbs that have a sense of spatial closeness, like “come near” and “make supplication” that are used most often of one man, Moses.

 

Quite a few times Moses is said to be in a relationship pros ton Theon / πρὸς τὸν θεόν “to/toward/with God” when Moses makes supplication with God on Pharoah’s behalf. Here are some examples:

 

Exodus 8:29 (LXX Exo 8:25) “Then Moses said, ‘Behold, I am going out from you, and I shall make supplication to Yahweh that the swarms of insects may depart from Pharaoh’”

(καὶ εὔξομαι πρὸς τὸν θεόν).”

 

Exodus 8:30 (LXX Exo. 8:30) “So Moses went out from Pharaoh and made supplication to Yahweh (ηὔξατο πρὸς τὸν θεόν).”

 

Pharoah again, Exodus 10:17 “Now therefore, please forgive my sin only this once, and make supplication to Yahweh your God, that He would only remove this death from me (προσεύξασθε πρὸς κύριον τὸν θεὸν ὑμῶν).”

 

Exodus 10:18 “And he (Moses) went out from Pharaoh and made supplication to Yahweh (ηὔξατο πρὸς τὸν θεόν).”

 

Note three things about these verses:

1.      The verb in both Greek and Hebrew translated as “make supplication” has the idea of mediating or interceding. Moses can and does come pros ton Theon “with/toward/to God” in order to mediate and make intercession for others.

2.      The LXX sometimes changes “LORD/Yahweh” to “God/Theon”. Where the Hebrew has “make intercession to Yahweh”, the LXX translates “make intercession to God (pros ton Theon)”.

3.      The point: a reader familiar with the Greek Old Testament would associate making intercessory supplication and the phrase pros ton Theon to Moses. Moses is presented as a human being who has mediatorial access pros ton Theon, to/toward/with the God of Israel.

Jethro’s advice:

Exodus 18:19 “Now listen to me: I shall give you counsel, and God be with you. You be the people's representative before God, and you bring their cases to God…” The LXX has pros ton Theon twice in this verse. In the first instance, the LXX reads “you be for the people the things pertaining to God.” Then Jethro says, “and you bring their cases to God (pros ton Theon)”

(γίνου σὺ τῷ λαῷ τὰ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν καὶ ἀνοίσεις τοὺς λόγους αὐτῶν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν).

  הֱיֵ֧ה אַתָּ֣ה לָעָ֗ם מ֚וּל הָֽאֱלֹהִ֔ים וְהֵבֵאתָ֥ אַתָּ֛ה אֶת־הַדְּבָרִ֖ים אֶל־הָאֱלֹהִֽים׃

The Hebrew reads: “You be for the people in front of God and bring their cases to God”.

 

Certainly, Jethro saw the unique relationship of Moses to God on behalf of the people. Moses, described with pros ton Theon, would represent the people “in front of God” and with “the things pertaining to God”.

 

Let’s note additional occurrences of pros ton Theon with verbs that involve Moses coming into close spatial proximity with God. After the first time that Moses went up to God on Mt. Sinai and then returned back down to the people and told the people what God had said:

Exodus 19:8 “And all the people answered together and said, ‘All that Yahweh has spoken we will do!’ And Moses brought back the words of the people to Yahweh (ἀνήνεγκεν δὲ Μωυσῆς τοὺς λόγους τοῦ λαοῦ πρὸς τὸν θεόν).”

 

Next, when Moses was again with God on Mt. Sinai we read, Exodus 19:21 “And Yahweh said to Moses, ‘Go down and warn the people, lest they come near to Yahweh to gaze and many of them perish’” (ἐγγίσωσιν πρὸς τὸν θεὸν). The people were forbidden to come pros ton Theon. But Moses could come pros ton Theon.

 

Still on Mt. Sinai, Exodus 19:24, “And Yahweh said to him, “Go down, and come up bringing Aaron with you; but do not let the priests and the people break through to come up to Yahweh, lest He break out against them (βιαζέσθωσαν ἀναβῆναι πρὸς τὸν θεόν   יֶֽהֶרְס֛וּ לַעֲלֹ֥ת אֶל־יְהוָ֖ה).”

 

Now note especially the next two verses. During Israel’s acceptance of the Sinai Covenant, Aaron and his two sons, and 70 elders representing the people were to come part way up the mountain with Moses but were only to worship from a distance. We read:

 

Exodus 24:2 “Moses alone shall come near to Yahweh; but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him (καὶ ἐγγιεῖ Μωυσῆς μόνος πρὸς τὸν θεόν).”

 

Finally, after the people had made a golden calf, and Moses came down with God’s word in tablets of stone, and smashed them, and ground the gold calf to powder:

 

Exodus 32:30 The next day Moses said to the people, “You have sinned a great sin. And now I will go up to Yahweh; perhaps I can make atonement for your sin”

(ἀναβήσομαι πρὸς τὸν θεόν).

 

I believe these examples show that a Greek-speaking Israelite who had some familiarity with the Greek Old Testament (LXX) could recognize the phrase pros ton Theon and associate it with the man, Moses. Moses made mediatorial supplication pros ton Theon. Moses represented the people pros ton Theon. Moses only came consistently into unique spatial proximity prost ton Theon. For a Greek Old Testament reader, the coming into or being in the position pros ton Theon described neither a second divine figure nor an abstract attribute like Wisdom. It was the human being, the man Moses, who was pros ton Theon.

 

There is some corraborating New Testament evidence that is fitting to mention at this juncture where we find the phrase pros ton Theon used specifically to designate a human person, the man Jesus Christ. Jesus the Messiah, like Moses, but to a far greater extent, has a mediatorial role and spatial relation pros ton Theon.

 

Hebrews 2:17 Therefore, he had to be made like his brethren in all things, that he might become a merciful and faithful high priest in the things pertaining to God, to make propitiation for the sins of the people (τὰ πρὸς τὸν θεὸν).

 

Hebrews 5:1 For every high priest taken from among men is appointed on behalf of men in the things pertaining to God, in order to offer both gifts and sacrifices for sins (τὰ πρὸς τὸν θεόν, cf. 2 Corinthians 3:4).

 

Serving as other people’s mediator in the things pertaining to God pros ton Theon is the same role that Moses performed (Exo. 4:16, 18:19).

 

The Word was God - θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος - of Moses

 

Fine enough, you might say, the phrase pros ton Theon “was with God” might be recognizable to a Greek-speaking Israelite as an allusion to Moses, as one who had a unique spatial relation and mediatorial role between God and Israel, but what about the next phrase, “the Word was God”? Does the Old Testament ever say that Moses was God?

 

When God called Moses at the burning bush, and Moses expressed reluctance to God sending him because of his inability to speak well, God told Moses that Aaron would be Moses’s spokesman. And then, God said that Moses would be “God” to Aaron.

 

Exodus 4:16 “He (Aaron) shall speak for you to the people; and he shall be a mouth for you, and you shall be to him as God.”

Now, most English translations put in the word “as” in translating God’s declaration: “you shall be as God to him”. But the Hebrew of this verse וְאַתָּ֖ה תִּֽהְיֶה־לּ֥וֹ לֵֽאלֹהִֽים  does not have the word “as” in it. The more literal translation is “You will be God to him” (cf. Exo. 29:45; Jer. 24:7, 32:8; Eze. 34:24; Zec. 8:8).

 

Interestingly, the LXX adds a definite article which tends to soften the direct reference to Moses being God: “you shall be to him the things pertaining to God” (σὺ δὲ αὐτῷ ἔσῃ τὰ πρὸς τὸν θεόν). This is the exact same phrase that we saw used of Jesus in the New Testament describing Jesus’s mediatorial role as high priest (Exo. 18:19, Heb. 2:17, 5:1).

 

Exodus 4:16 is also of interest because it has the same “to be” verb (but in a future tense) as John 1:1. John 1:1 says, “and the Word was God”. Exodus 4:16 says, “You will be God.”

 

Exodus 7:1 “So Yahweh said to Moses, ‘See, I have made you like God to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron will be your prophet.’”

 

καὶ εἶπεν κύριος πρὸς Μωυσῆν λέγων ἰδοὺ δέδωκά σε θεὸν Φαραω καὶ Ααρων ὁ ἀδελφός σου ἔσται σου προφήτης (Exo 7:1 BGT)

   וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהוָה֙ אֶל־מֹשֶׁ֔ה רְאֵ֛ה נְתַתִּ֥יךָ אֱלֹהִ֖ים לְפַרְעֹ֑ה וְאַהֲרֹ֥ן אָחִ֖יךָ יִהְיֶ֥ה נְבִיאֶֽךָ׃

 

English translations insert the word “like”: “I have made you like God to Pharoah”.  But the word “like” is not in either the Hebrew or Greek Old Testament. The literal translation is “I have made you God to Pharoah”.

 

So here we have a clear reference to Moses as God. Now, we all know that the Bible is not saying that Moses was God in an ontological, physiological, or in an “essence” or in “nature” sense.

We can be certain that the Bible is NOT claiming that Moses is God in an ontological sense for various reasons, including:

1.      We take the statement in context. We read the rest of the Bible. Moses was a baby, someone tried to kill him, he grew up, shepherded sheep, died, etc. He is not the one God of Israel ontologically.

2.      The God of Israel “made” Moses God. Actually, the verb is not really “made you God” but is more literally “gave, granted”. God said, “I have granted you to be God to Pharoah”. The God of the Bible is not made, granted or allowed to be God by anyone. But God “gave/granted/made” Moses God in that the man Moses represented God in function, power, authority and probably character to both Aaron and Pharoah. Moses had a “God-like” role in that Moses gave words to Aaron as God gave words Moses. It was God at work in and through the words and deeds of Moses. Moses functioned as God to Pharoah because the plagues that Moses brought upon Pharoah were brought by God.

This is the same with the man Jesus. It was God at work in and through the words and deeds of the man Jesus.

The Gospel of John is not declaring Jesus to literally or ontologically be God in nature, just like the book of Exodus wasn’t declaring Moses to literally or ontologically be God. In John’s Gospel Jesus is distinguished from God. God sent Jesus (3:34, 5:24, 17:3. Cf. Exo. 3:12-15, etc.). Jesus represents God and speaks the words that God gave him. In John’s Gospel Jesus is “a man who told you the truth which I heard from God” (John 8:40, cf. John 14:1, Acts 2:36, 10:38, 2 Cor. 5:9).

 

To summarize so far, the phrases “with God” and “was God” of John 1:1 have parallels to the man Moses in the Greek Old Testament. We need to try to shed ourselves of ontological interpretations of John 1:1 that contradict the rest of Scripture.

 

We see that "the Word was with God and the Word was God" parallels are much closer at hand than most Gentile Christian’s have seemed to realize. The parallels are not in extra-biblical literature, but in the LXX of passages like Exodus 4:16, 7:1, 24:2, 32:30. A Greek speaking Jew familiar with the LXX would read John 1:1 and think “It's the prophet like unto Moses!”. A Greek-speaking Jew familiar with the LXX would not read John 1:1 and think “Oh! a second divine hypostasis!” Niether would he think, Oh! “Personified Wisdom!”, which as far as I can tell, is an interpretation of John 1:1 that had its origin in the Enlightenment Period in Europe.

 

Before we move on to see how Jesus is compared to Moses in the remainder of John’s Gospel, it is worthwhile to note that the first part of John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word” also has parallels to Moses.

 

Beginning and Word/Torah

While I see “in the beginning” of John 1:1 in the main as an intentional echo of Genesis 1:1 because in Jesus and his ministry God has set into motion a new beginning, there is also a parallel of “word” with Moses and the Exodus from Egypt, which was a new beginning.

 

Israel’s beginning and covenant came through the word of God. It is significant that the word “word”, דבר davar in Hebrew and λόγος logos in Greek, is not found in the creation account in Genesis. Rather, davar/logos relates in the Old Testament more often to God’s revelatory promise to the patriarchs and the fulfillment of that promise in the formation of the people of Israel.

 

God gave His word, a promise to the fathers. Then, God gave His word uniquely through Moses at Mt. Sinai and Israel was formed. Modern commentaries on the Gospel of John almost invariably describe what Logos (the word) was to a Greek thinking mind. But Logos, word, to the Hebrew mind would mean Torah, the body of revelation and teaching that God gave to Israel through Moses. The beginning of Israel as a people came through God’s word, God’s Torah. Even today religious Jews know that what is most essential in the creation and maintenance of Israel as a people is God’s word (Torah).

 

In the beginning, through the word, that is, through the Torah given during the Exodus and Sinai experience, Israel experienced a new beginning. Israel became a nation, God’s firstborn son, God’s people. That is why God said: “This month is to be your beginning of months; for you it is the beginning/first month of the year” (Exodus 12:2).

 

With Moses and Israel’s national beginning, God’s word/Torah came etched on tablets of stone. But with the new beginning in Jesus, God’s Word was flesh, a human being. The Bible is called the word of God because it contains the words of God. Jesus was the Word of God because he had and spoke the words of God in a way which no other human had.

 

Once one understands that the beginning of the nation of Israel came to be through the word of God, one may see that the first verse of John’s Gospel brings together parallels and types from both the Book of Genesis and the Book of Exodus. All of this is evidence that John 1:1 is describing the counterpart to Moses, the man Jesus.

 

Throughout John’s Gospel Jesus is explicitly compared to Moses, not to God.  Jesus is the 2^nd Moses, not the 2^nd God

 

That John 1:1 is alluding to Moses is supported by the fact that the author of the Gospel early and often makes the direct comparison between Moses and Jesus. The Moses-Jesus comparison is based on the words of Yahweh which He communicated through Moses, as recorded in Deuteronomy 18:15-19:

"Yahweh your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your brothers- it is to him you shall listen- ¹⁶ just as you desired of Yahweh your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, when you said, “Let me not hear again the voice of Yahweh my God or see this great fire any more, lest I die.”  ¹⁷ And Yahweh said to me, “They are right in what they have spoken.  ¹⁸ I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers. And I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him.  ¹⁹ And whoever will not listen to my words that he shall speak in my name, I myself will require it  of him."

 

In his first chapter, John hastens to declare through the testimony of Andrew that “we have found him of whom Moses in the Torah and also the prophets wrote” (John 1:45). Moses never wrote about a second God figure, a second God hypostasis, whom Yahweh would send. Rather, Moses wrote about the prophet like himself that Yahweh would send.

 

Just like when Israel requested that a mediator speak the words of God to them, and God said the request was appropriate (Deu. 18:16, Exo. 20:19-20), and Moses was that mediator, even so God put His words into the mouth of the mediator Jesus. The Gospel of John can say “the Word was God” because when Jesus spoke it was God speaking. When Jesus performed a miracle, it was God acting (cf. Acts 2:22). Moses and Jesus were God’s agents, through whom God spoke and operated. But Jesus was God operating and speaking to such a degree that Jesus himself was called the Word of God.

 

The statement “and the Word was God” is not an ontological statement about Jesus being deity in nature or essence, but about agency. That is, Jesus represented God. God was at work in and through Jesus (cf. 2 Cor. 5:19). The “Christology” of John’s Gospel, who Jesus is, is not “incarnation”, that “God became man”, but rather “agency”, that the man Christ Jesus was sent by God, represents God, speaks the words of God, and by God’s empowering does the works of God. Moses did not perform God’s miracles through only the spoken word. One time God told Moses to only speak, but he failed. Jesus was God’s word to such an extent that when Jesus spoke, the lame were healed and the dead were raised.

 

So, let’s see how Jesus is compared to Moses in John’s Gospel, not to God, nor to an abstract idea in God’s mind. Moses is mentioned explicitly 13 times in John’s Gospel. The first time is in John’s Prologue.

 

John 1:17: “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.”

Moses and Jesus were both mediators, through whom something came. The source of the Torah was God – it came through Moses. The source of grace and truth was God – they came through Jesus Christ. “Grace and truth” are central elements in the revelation of Yahweh to Moses to confirm that even after the sin of the golden calf, Yahweh renewed His covenant with Israel and would still be with Israel (Exo. 34:6).

 

Then, still in chapter 1, John 1:45, “Philip found Nathanael and said to him, ‘We have found him of whom Moses in the Torah and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’”

 

It is simply preposterous to suggest that Moses wrote about God literally taking on human nature. The apostle Philip's confession flies in the face of traditional Christianity’s interpretation of John 1. What Moses did write about was God sending a prophet like himself.

 

Neither did the prophets write about God taking on human form. What the prophets did write about was Yahweh God sending the Davidic Messiah (cf. John 1:41).

 

Jesus said in John 5:46: “If you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me.” Again, did Moses write about a god that would take on human flesh, or a god-man whom a different person of God would send? No, he wrote about the prophet like unto himself whom God would send. That prophet would speak all that God commanded him.

 

The miraculous signs that the Gospel of John records are full of Moses to Jesus parallelism (typology). Perhaps the best example of parallel miracle signs is the feeding of the 5000, because it reminded the people of God’s miraculous provision of manna when Moses led Israel for 40 years.

 

Note the people’s reaction to Jesus’s feeding of the 5000. John 6:14: “When the people saw the sign that he had done, they said, ‘This is indeed the Prophet who is to come into the world!’” Jesus’s miracle connected him to the promised prophet like unto Moses.

 

Jesus (like Moses) made clear, as he did on many other occasions (e.g., John 5:30, 8:28, 14:10; Acts 2:22), that he was not the source of the miracle. Jesus was the channel. God was the source. The Father was acting, but “behind the scenes”, because He can’t be seen by humans. John 6:32: “Jesus then said to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave you the bread from heaven, but my Father gives you the true bread from heaven.’”

 

Like Moses, Jesus was the channel through whom and by which the miracle was done.

 

John records for us the reaction of the people to Jesus’s teaching in Jerusalem at the Festival of Tabernacles: John 7:40-41a “When they heard these words, some of the people said, ‘This really is the Prophet.’  Others said, ‘This is the Christ.’”  Moses emphasized the coming one to be a prophet like unto himself, but did not describe the coming one as Messiah. The prophets described the coming one as the Messiah, the anointed king descended from David.

 

Finally, John shows the Moses-Jesus comparison even through the words of the ones condemning the blind man to whom Jesus gave sight: John 9:28-29, “And they reviled him, saying, “You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses.  ²⁹ We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from.”

 

Other New Testament Comparisons of Jesus to Moses

 

I’d like to just mention that other New Testament literature confirms the Moses-Jesus parallel that the Gospel of John presents. John presents the same Christ as the rest of the New Testament, not a different Christ. It should go without saying that if, as other New Testament literature, the Gospel of John compares Jesus to Moses, this Gospel is not declaring that Jesus is literally God.

 

In the Gospels of Matthew and Luke, Jesus is presented as the prophet like unto Moses who goes up on to a mountain and interprets Torah. In the Book of Acts the Apostle Peter and disciple Steven directly connect Jesus to the statement of Moses that “God will raise up for you a prophet like me from your brothers” (Acts 3:22-23, 7:35-37).  Likewise, the author of the Book of Hebrews directly compares Jesus to Moses (Hebrews 3:3-6). 

 

Once one starts to notice, the parallels between Moses and Jesus seem to be everywhere. As babies, both Moses and Jesus were threatened with murder by the ruling political authorities. Through Moses the Passover was initiated. Jesus told his disciples to remember his covenant securing death in connenction to Passover. As Moses was ready to die for his people (Exo. 32:32), Jesus was not only ready but did die “that the whole nation not perish” (John 11:50).

 

Review and Challenge

1.  The literary and thematic parallels to the phrases “was with God” and “was God” of John 1:1 are to be found in the Greek version of the Old Testament, not in extra-biblical literature, and these phrases particularly refer to the man Moses. Greek-speaking Israelites familiar with the Greek Old Testament could recognize that Moses “was with God pros ton Theon“ and even “was God” in a representative sense, and understand that the author was introducing the coming of the “prophet like unto Moses…about whom Moses wrote”. 

 On the hand, Gentiles of the second century and later misunderstood John’s opening statement and instead claimed John was introducing a second God figure who was related to God in an ontological way, in nature or essence. These interpreters either ignored or missed the Moses typology and instead assimilated Greek philosophical speculations onto John’s writing. Likewise, the Greek mind failed to recognize the Hebrew parallel of Logos to Torah, and “in the beginning” to Israel’s beginning at Sinai.

 To put it another way, John 1:1 is introducing a prophet like unto Moses, not a second God figure, and not an abstract plan.

 2.      References in the Gospel of John that directly compare Jesus to Moses are evidence that John’s opening statement is doing the same thing, just as other New Testament comparisons of Jesus to Moses. John’s Gospel is not presenting a different Christ than the rest of the New Testament.

 3.      A challenge: If the thesis is wrong, that is, the thesis that John 1:1 is an allusion to Moses who both “was with God (pros ton Theon)” and “was God” – allow me to present a two-fold challenge:

a.       Explain why “was with God” (pros ton Theon) and “was God” are not applicable to Moses, and

b.      Give evidence from the Bible and other Second Temple Period Jewish literature where either a second God-figure (hypostasis), or a divine attribute like wisdom, is presented as being both “pros ton Theon” and “was God”.