A Non-Genesis-Creation Interpretation of John 1:3-4
Almost all deity-of-Christ and Arian readers of the Bible understand John 1:3-4 to be a statement about the involvement of the Logos of John 1:1 in the Genesis creation of the physical universe.[1] The Logos of John 1:1 is taken to be a pre-incarnate divine person or being distinct from the God of John 1:1b[2], either one member of a co-equal “godhead” (Trinitarianism), or a subordinate god/angel (Arianism) who eventually became incarnated as Jesus.
Some Biblical Unitarians also interpret John 1:3-4 in a Genesis
creation context, but maintain that the Logos of John 1:1 is not a literal
person, only a personification of God’s Wisdom or Plan involved in the Genesis
creation.[3]
In contrast, this paper interprets the Prologue of John, focusing
on verses 3-4, as introducing a new beginning in the Gospel of Jesus of
Nazareth, and not directly describing the Genesis creation of the physical
universe. While intentionally re-using some Genesis language, John 1:3-4 introduces
other things, not the material universe, that came to be in and through
the Logos/Word, the man Christ Jesus. The non-Genesis view of John 1 was essentially
the view of the 16th-17th century Socinian reformers:
In the cited passage (John 1:1) wherein the Word is said to have been in the beginning, there is no reference to an antecedent eternity, without commencement; because mention is made here of a beginning, which is opposed to that eternity. But the word beginning, used absolutely, 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.[4]
A
Brief Summary of John 1:1-2:
a Non-Genesis Creation Interpretation
·
“In
the beginning was the Word” (1:1a) is an intentional parallel but not a direct
reference to the Genesis creation. John’s “beginning” refers to a new beginning
in the life and ministry (the gospel) of the human person Jesus of Nazareth.
The human Jesus is called the Word because through him God spoke and worked to
bring about the ongoing new creation (John 4:50, 5:8, 6:54, 8:25, 29, 44, 9:7,
14:10, 14:24, 15:27, 16:4, 17:21).
·
“and
the Word was with God” (1:1b) means that the human Jesus had a unique
relationship with God. Jesus, in Moses-like fashion saw and heard things from
God (1:17, 1:45, 3:2, 3:11, 5:19, 8:26, 8:28, 8:38, 8:40, 9:16, 9:33, 15:15). The
“Word was with God” also foreshadows the human Jesus’s post-ascension position
with God (John 1:18).
·
“and
the Word was God” (1:1c) is not a statement about ontology, but means that God (the
Father, the one true God, 17:3) spoke and worked in and through the man Jesus. Rather
than being about ontology, “the Word was God” is a statement about
representation and agency. This Gospel declares some 40 times that Jesus was
sent. As Jesus declared in John’s Gospel, “He who has seen me has seen the
Father” and “the Father who dwells in me does His works” (John 5:19, 5:30,
8:28, 10:38, 14:7, 9-20, 28, 17:21, 20:28). The God in Jesus was the Father. “God”
in John 1:1c is the same “God” in 1:1b and is the same God in 1:2. The past
tense “was God” (not “is God”) is used since in this short
statement the author introduced and summarized the historical work of God in
the life and ministry of Jesus.
·
John
1:2 begins a contrast between the human Jesus (the Word) and John the Baptizer.
“This one” ou-toj[5]
who “was in the beginning with God”[6] is the
Logos, the human Jesus, in whom life came to be and who was
the true light (1:3-4, 9) - in contrast to “this one” ou-toj in 1:7, John the Baptizer, who was not the light but came to bear
testimony to the light.[7]
Typical translations compared with Literal Translations
Typical translations render John 1:3 as: “all things were made through him, and without him not anything was made…” (KJV, RSV, ESV). Or, “all things came into being through him” (NRS), “All things came into being by Him” (NAS). NET has “all things were created by him”.
There are several vocabulary and
translation issues within this verse that we will examine as we proceed. Translations
of John 1:3 of “all things” which “were made” or “were created” pre-suppose and
advocate a Genesis creation, material beginning. However, the biases of a Genesis creation interpretation
and translation of verse 3 become apparent when compared to literal
translations of John 1:3:
Youngs Literal:
“all things through him did happen, and without him happened
not even one thing that hath happened.”
Literal Standard Version:
“all things happened through Him, and without Him not even one thing happened
that has happened.”
The word choice of these literal translations - specifically “happened”
instead of “were made” or “were created” - does not so readily recommend a
Genesis creation context.
Additionally, the word “things” in John 1:3 suggests the material,
physical universe of the Genesis creation. But the word “things” is not
literally in the Greek New Testament text (see further below). John 1:3 can justifiably
be translated:
“All happened through him, and
without him nothing happened…”
Interpreted and translated this way, the verse introduces events which the
author is about to describe in his Gospel. “All things” the
author is about to record happened through the Logos who was with God – and not
through someone or something else.[8] All
the divine teaching and all the miraculous signs: the changing of water into
wine, the healing of the sick and lame by a spoken word, the feeding of a
multitude, the giving of sight to the blind, and the raising of the dead with a
spoken word. And, perhaps the most important of all those things that happened
was the resurrection of a human life to immortality. All these things came
to be, that is, happened through the Logos, the man Jesus of
Nazareth.
Indeed, there are some intentional parallels of language between the
Septuagint translation of Genesis 1 and John 1. But the parallel language in
John serves a different purpose than in Genesis. Words like “light” and
“darkness” in the first verses of John’s Gospel are not the light and darkness
of the Genesis creation account.[9]
And, there are gigantic differences between Genesis 1 and John 1. Things
that come to be in John’s Gospel are not the things that come to be in Genesis.
Every verse in John 1 is very different from Genesis 1.[10] In
John 1:1, the third word is different from Genesis 1:1. In the LXX Genesis, the
third word is “created”[11].
But no word for “create” occurs anywhere in John’s Prologue - a strange fact if
John is describing the Genesis’ creation.
Likewise, John’s famous noun logos is not in the Genesis creation
account.[12]
There is no second G/god-figure or personified Logos present and partnering
with God in the Genesis creation account of light, darkness, the separation of
the waters, creation of dry land, plants, trees, sun, moon, stars, animals or
humans.[13]
John 1 may have some parallels to the Genesis beginning but has
many differences because John describes a different beginning. Similarities, intentional
continuity and parallelism (typology) do not prove identity, but in fact are
evidence of differentiation. Two parallel lines are not identical lines, but are
different lines. The Genesis 1 and John 1 beginnings may be parallel
beginnings, but they are not identical beginnings.
Examination of Key Words in John 1:3
πάντα δι᾽ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶς αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν ὃ γέγονεν
all through him came to be, and apart from
him came to be not one (that which came to be)
all things
The Greek word translated “all things”
is one Greek word, not two words - the neuter plural adjective “all” (πάντα[14] panta). The word “things” is supplied by translators.[15] But although the adjective “all” is only one
word, it functions as a noun, meaning all something. The
reader has to decide what the something of the all is. All
the universe? All material things? All people? All powers? All teaching? All
events? There are many options.
Context is necessary to interpret the word “all”. The translation
“all things” tends to convey material, physical things. However, all material
things may not be the “all things” the author intended to communicate
here in John’s opening sentences.
It is helpful to see how the author uses “all” in the rest of his
book. Of the 65 occurrences of the word “all” in the Gospel of John (with and
without a noun supplied), there is not one occurrence where “all” means unequivocally
“all the created physical, material universe.”
Different, non-material meanings of “all” in the Gospel of John
include: all (things) the Father showed
Jesus (5:20), all (things) Jesus heard from the Father (15:15), all (things)
the Father gave to Jesus (17:7, 16:15), all authority, privileges or power (3:25,
13:3, 5), all truth (14:26), all knowledge (16:30, 21:17), all (things) said
or taught (10:41, 14:26), all (things) that belong to the shepherd
(i.e., sheep, 10:4). In many of these references there is no noun with the
adjective “all”. Context, as well as grammatical gender, number and case
determine what “all” is intended.
Another significant use of “all” (usually in masculine) in
the Gospel of John means “all” people. The word “all” is used three more times
in the Prologue, in each case referring to all people:
1:7 “This one came for testimony, to bear witness to the light,
that all (mp)[16]
might believe through him.”
1:9 “The true light that gives light to all human beings” (mp, the
noun “men, human beings” is in the Greek text).
1:16 “from his fullness we have all (mp) received”
Other examples in John’s Gospel of “all” meaning all people,
include:
3:16 “that all (ms, “everyone”) who believe in him should not
perish”.
3:20 “all (ms) who do evil”
3:26 “all (mp) are coming to him”
6:37 “all (ns, which many translations in context understand to be
people) that the Father gives me will come to me;”
17:21 “that they may all (mp) be one”
Significant for
our study are examples in the Gospel of John where “all” by itself in the same neuter
plural as in 1:3 means events - including events associated with the life
of Jesus:
4:29, 39 “Come,
see a man who told me all things (np) that I have done; this is
not the Christ, is it?"
4:45 “they had
seen all (np) things he had done in
Jerusalem”
5:20 “For the
Father loves the Son, and shows him all (np) things that He
Himself is doing”
15:21 “But they
will do all (np) these things to you on account of my name”
18:4 “Jesus
therefore, knowing all (np) the things that were coming upon him”
19:28 “After
this Jesus, knowing that all (np) things were now finished, said
(to fulfil the scripture), ‘I thirst.’”
“All things were now finished”.
What all things? The Genesis
creation (cf. Gen. 2:1)? Obviously not.
John 19:28 refers to all things that happened in Jesus’s ministry.
All these references show that there is a wide range of meanings
for “all” in John’s Gospel, particularly of things that are not material or
physical; and, a significant use of the neuter plural “all” (πάντα) means “all
events”. Rather than take the “all things” of John 1:3 to be a reference to all
material things in the created universe - a way in which the word is never used
anywhere else in the Gospel of John or for that matter rarely if ever in all of
the New Testament - the word all is better understood in John 1:3 as all
the events that the Gospel of John is about to narrate.[17]
ἐγένετο egeneto “were made”, “came
to be” or “happened”?
Another word that requires consideration is ἐγένετο egeneto,[18] the Greek word that
is often translated in John 1:3 as “was made” with the implication of things
being “created”.
For instance:
ESV, RSV: “All things were made through him, and without him
was not any thing made …”
NAS: “All things came into being by Him, and apart from Him
nothing came into being…”
NET: “All things were created by him, and apart from him not
one thing was created that has been created.”
These are theologically biased translations of egeneto that cause readers to think that the
Genesis creation is the topic. It is understandable why so many readers think
John 1:3 describes the Genesis creation when material connotations of “all things”
(see above) are combined with “were made” or “were created”.
But egeneto has a wide range of meanings, many
which have nothing to do with creation ex nihilo.[19] The
word occurs 51 times in various forms in the Gospel of John, 17 times in this exact form (ἐγένετο egeneto). Setting aside for the moment the
two occurrences of egeneto under discussion in John 1:3, the author of
John’s Gospel does not use egeneto anywhere else to mean “were made” or
“were created” in a material, physical sense.[20] Instead,
throughout John’s Gospel egeneto communicates the historical sense of
something that “happened, came to pass, came to be, came
about, occurred, was done, came, came on the scene, arrived, was.”[21]
A few examples:
1:6 “There was egeneto a man sent from God,
whose name was John.”
1:17 “For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came
egeneto through Jesus Christ.”
1:28 “This happened egeneto
in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.”
2:1 “On the third day there was egeneto a wedding in
Cana…”
3:25 “a discussion arose egeneto about purification…”
10:22 “At that time the Festival of Tabernacles came about egeneto…”
10:35 “to whom the word of God came egeneto”
19:36 “these things happened egeneto
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled…”[22]
Presuppositions affect how translators interpret a passage and then
which words they choose to translate one language into another language. Readers
should be aware that a word like egeneto has many translation
possibilities. Out of the seven times that egeneto appears in John 1,
the word is typically translated six different ways: “was made” in 1:3 (2x),
1:10; “was” in 1:6; “became” in 1:14; “came” in 1:17; “happened” in 1:28.[23] We are
justified in rejecting the theological presuppositions that interpret and
translate John 1:3 in an ontological, material sense like “were created” (NET)
or “were made”. A historical, non-material interpretation and translation such
as “happened” is to be preferred.
The Greek words for “create” or “make” are not in
John’s Prologue.[24]
This absence of any “create” verb (active or passive) in John’s Prologue is more
evidence that John’s first chapter is not commenting on the Genesis
creation. John’s subject is different from Genesis’s subject. In John there is
no mention of the creation of the heavens and earth,[25] seas,
dry land, sun, moon, stars, rocks, plants, trees, birds or animals. The author
of the Gospel of John mentions nothing of such things because these things are
not his topic. His topic is a new beginning in the life and ministry of Jesus of
Nazareth, the Messiah.
There are two other verses in John’s Prologue where egeneto
is paired with the word “through”: 1:10 and 1:17. In both cases the things that
“came to be through” are not physical or material. The world/kosmos
“that came to be through him” is not planet earth, but relates to
a segment of human (Israelite) society. The “grace and truth” that came to
be through Jesus Christ (1:17) is also non-material. The “grace and
truth” that came through Jesus in 1:17 is a kind of inclusio of “all” that came
to be “through him” in 1:3. All things included in “grace and truth” came to be
through the man Jesus Christ.[26]
Author’s purpose statement: This one through whom all things
happened is the Christ
The author has a reason for stating here at the beginning of his
book that all things happened through the Word (the man Jesus). The same
reason is reiterated in the purpose-for-writing-statement at the end of the
book. The reason the author wrote was so that his readers would believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God (20:31). All the messianic events that happened,
all the life-restoring signs that came to be through him - all these things
are evidence that Jesus of Nazareth (the Word) is the Christ. John the Baptizer
was not the Christ and neither is anyone else who had or would come later. No
man ever spoke like the man Jesus (7:46) and no such things happened
through anyone else. The declaration of Andrew in chapter 1 announces the same
purpose: “We have found the Christ!” (1:41). All things that happened (or came
to be) through Jesus of Nazareth is evidence that he is the Christ.
It makes good sense that John’s introduction (1:1-18) introduces
the rest of his Gospel and not the Genesis creation, since all that happened in
his Gospel confirms that Jesus is the Christ. The author’s topic is not the Genesis
creation but the identification of the Christ.
through διά – the Word is the channel not the source for what comes to be in
John 1
Deity-of-Christ readers claim they see Jesus as the active creator in
verses like John 1:3, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 1:16, and Hebrews 1:2.[27] But
each of these references has a very important word that tends to be overlooked:
the word is through διά. Some translations of John 1:3
misdirect by translating “through” as “by” (“all things were created by
him” NET; also, NAS, KJV) as if the Logos is the active creator. But the
L/logos is not the source of what comes to be (happens) in John 1:3. God is the
source who brings new things to be through the Logos. Just as new things
come to be through the man Jesus Christ in 1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians
1:16 and Hebrews 1:2[28], so
here in John 1:3, all things came to be through the Word, the man Jesus
Christ.
Jesus Christ was not the creator in either Genesis 1 or John 1.[29]
The Jesus of John’s Gospel made it clear
that he was not the source of things that came to be in his ministry
(John 5:30, 8:28, 10:49, 14:10, cf. Acts 2:22, 17:31). However, Jesus Christ
was present and participated in the things that came to be in John’s Gospel.[30] The
things that John’s Gospel describes came to be through Jesus. God has even
granted to Jesus the authority to raise the dead and give life to others (John
5:26, Acts 2:22). But the source of all that happened came from outside of
Jesus Christ. The source for what happened was God, who is also called the
Father in this Gospel. The Father brought about these things through His
Word, the man Christ Jesus.
We have confirmation in other New Testament literature which
describes God’s work being accomplished through Jesus. When the New
Testament describes God bringing about things through Jesus Christ, it
is in the context of renewal and resurrection life of new creation, not Genesis.
Paul’s Adam – Jesus parallel is a good example. Jesus is the second Adam, not
the second God. As through the first Adam came all human life, society
and death, also through the second Adam, Jesus, the firstborn from the
dead, comes redemption and life in the age to come (Rom. 5:14-19, 1 Cor. 15:20-22,
Acts 2:22, 2 Cor. 5:19, cf. Rev. 1:5, 21:5).
Deity-of-Christ and Arian interpreters tend to miss the new
creation context of passages like John 1, 1 Corinthians 8:6, Colossians 1 and
Hebrews 1 because they have followed the path of 2nd century and
later church fathers who assimilated Neo-Platonic Greek ideas about a personal
divine Logos involved in the creation of the material world.[31] But
this kind of speculation is nowhere in the Bible and in fact directly
contradicts the Bible. The Bible declares that the One God, the Father, created
all, and that the One God, the Father, brings about the redemption and new creation
through the human person, the Lord Jesus the Messiah (Exo. 20:11, Deut.
32:6, Isa. 44:24, Mal. 2:10, Matt. 19:4, John 3:17, 1 Cor. 8:6, Rom. 5:12-17, 1
Cor. 15:21-22, Col. 1:15-18, 1 Tim. 2:5-6, Heb. 1:1-3).
Failure to see the human person Jesus Christ of Nazareth as the
beginning of God’s new creation prevents a person from understanding the promise
that God has given to human beings through Jesus – specifically, resurrection (new)
life in the age to come.
All comes through the man Jesus, the firstborn of God’s new
creation (Col. 1:18, Rev. 1:5, 1 Cor. 15:23). In and through Jesus the Messiah
there is resurrection life, and Jesus’s life is the down-payment and guarantee for
others of the regeneration life of the age to come.
“that which came to be in him, it was life”
There is a punctuation and translation issue at the end of John
1:3. Philip Comfort explains, “The last phrase of 1:3 (ο γεγονεν - “that which
has come into being”) has been connected with 1:3 or with 1:4 by various
ancient scribes and modern translators by means of punctuation.”[32]
There was no punctuation in the oldest Greek texts and the verse
divisions were added much later in history, in the 16th century.
The question is: does the phrase ὃ γέγονεν[33] “that which
came to be (that which happened)” at the end of verse 3 go with what
precedes it, or with what comes after it in 1:4?
Most modern English translations join “that which came to be” with
what comes before in 1:3. The Genesis creation assumptions become apparent in
the translations, e.g., KJV “without him was not anything made that was made”,
or even more so, NET “apart from him not one thing was created that has been
created.”
But attaching 1:3b to 1:3a produces an unnecessary redundancy: “apart from him not one thing was made that was made”. As did a consensus of ante-Nicene writers[34], it makes better sense to take ὃ γέγονεν (“that which came to be”) with what follows in 1:4. The UBS Nestle-Aland and Wescott-Hort New Testament Greek texts also assign 1:3a to what follows in 1:4.[35]
Taken with what follows in 1:4, the text
can be rendered, as does the NRS:[36]
“3b) What has come into being 4) in him was life, and the life was the light of all people.”[37]
1:3b with 1:4 present a clarification and emphasis of what the author meant by “all things that came to be” in the first part of verse 3: “…all things came to be through him and without him nothing came to be. That which came to be in him, it was life…” A most significant thing of “all things” that came to be through him, it was life.
It is eternal life ζωὴν αἰώνιον of the age to come that concerns the Gospel of John.[38] All the signs that Jesus performed, all things that came to be (happened) - all confirm that life comes to be through him. The capstone of all the restoration events and miracles described in John’s Gospel is life from the dead.
The life (pre- and
post-resurrection) of the man Jesus is a beacon of light for all men, the
guarantee and hope of resurrection life for others.[39] “Because
I live” said the Jesus of John’s Gospel, “you will live also” (John 14:19; cf.
5:28-30, 8:12; 1 John 5:11-12, 2:25). The Apostle Paul similarly connected life
and light to the man Jesus: “…the Christ was to suffer
and be the first to rise from the dead, to proclaim light
both to our people and to the Gentiles” (Act 26:23).
Summary:
1. John 1:3-4 have typically been interpreted and translated as a description of the Genesis creation of the material universe. But an examination of the vocabulary of John 1:3-4 shows that it is possible and preferable to understand these verses in a non-Genesis creation context.
2. We examined the range of meanings of the word “all” (πᾶς, πᾶσα, πᾶν – nominative neuter plural πάντα). Of the 64 other occurrences of “all” in John’s Gospel, “all” never means the entire created physical universe. A better referent to “all” in John’s Gospel, especially of the neuter plural, is all that happened or came to be through the life of the man Jesus of Nazareth.
3. We also examined the range of meanings of ἐγένετο egeneto, the Greek word that is often translated in John 1:3 as “were made” with the implication of “were created”. But Greek words for create do not occur in John 1 and the word ἐγένετο egeneto is not used in John’s Gospel to mean “created” ex nihilo. It is preferable to understand ἐγένετο egeneto in John 1:3-4 as relating to things that “happened, came to pass, came to be (in the sense of occurred), came on the scene, was done, came, arrived, or even simply “was.”
4. With these viable vocabulary options – as literal translations (YLT, LSV) confirm - a better translation of John 1:3 is: “All happened through him, and without him nothing happened…” This means that all the things that came about - which this Gospel is about to describe - did so through the Word, the man Jesus of Nazareth. John 1:3-4 introduce the central theme of the Gospel and align with the author’s purpose-for-writing statement that Jesus is the Christ (1:17, 20, 41; 3:28; 4:25; 7:26-27, 31, 41-42; 9:22; 10:24; 11:27; 12:34, 42; 17:3; 20:31). That all these things happened through Jesus, not through the Baptizer (1:20, 3:28) nor through anyone else who had or might yet come, is evidence that the Christ has come and been identified (1:41, 11:27, 17:3, 20:31).
5. Our approach has been to understand John’s opening sentences by considering the use of the same language within the Gospel of John. We’ve made no appeal to, nor assumed influence from non-biblical external texts. Other New Testament passages, however, do agree and support our interpretation, e.g., 1 John 5:11-12 (“God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his son”) and Acts 26:23 (“Christ was to…be the first to rise from the dead, to proclaim light…”), 2 Tim. 1:10 (“who abolished death and brought life and immortality to light”).
6. The coming to be or happening of things in John 1:3 occurred through the Logos. That is, the Logos was neither the source nor the creator. The Logos was the channel through whom someone else, namely God, brought things to be.
7. As pre-Nicene writers and UBS Nestle-Aland and Wescott-Hort New Testament Greek texts punctuate, John 1:3b (ὃ γέγονεν “that which came to be/happened”) is to be understood with what follows in 1:4: “That which came to be in him, it was life, and the life was the light of all people.”
8. That is, John 1:3b-4 emphasizes life among the things that came to be or happened through the Logos. As evidenced by the signs that Jesus did, the life that came to be through and in him was restoration life, the capstone being the resurrection to eternal life of the Messiah Jesus himself, and the light in his resurrection that shines for all others (cf. Acts 26:23, 2 Tim. 1:10). In a parallel inclusio statement, John 1:17 sums up the things that came to be through Jesus Christ as “grace and truth”.
9.
While
there are intentional echoes of Genesis, John’s Prologue introduces events
described in John’s Gospel that evidence a new beginning in the man Jesus (the
Word) and show that Jesus is indeed the Christ. Neither the Prologue nor the
body of the Gospel of John describe events or things that came to be in the
Book of Genesis.
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Thomas. The Racovian Catechism : With Notes and Illustrations, Translated
from the Latin ; to Which Is Prefixed a Sketch of the History of Unitarianism
in Poland and the Adjacent Countries. London : Printed for Longman, Hurst,
Rees, Orme, and Brown, 1818. http://archive.org/details/racoviancatechis00rees.
Schlegel,
William. Jesus Did Not Create Planet Earth, a Commentary on John 1:9-13,
2020.
https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2020/11/jesus-did-not-create-planet-earth.html
Smith,
Dustin R. Wisdom Christology in the Gospel of John. Wipf and Stock,
2024.
Whittaker,
Harry. Studies in the Gospels. Biblia Books, 4th Edition,
2020.
[1] E.g.,
Trinitarians: Morris, The Gospel According to John, 79ff; Beasley-Murray et al., John, Volume 36, 11; For a modern “Arian” (Jehovah’s
Witnesses) view, www.jw.org/en/bible-teachings/bible-verses/john-1-1/
[2] “and
the Logos was with God” καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν.
[3]
E.g, Buzzard and Hunting, The Doctrine of
the Trinity, 190ff. Smith, Wisdom Christology in the
Gospel of John,
49ff.
[4] Rees, The Racovian Catechism., 64-65. For more recent
expressions of the New Beginning/Creation view of John 1, see Perry John
1:1-18, and Whittaker, Studies in the Gospels, 45ff.
[5] Masculine
singular near demonstrative pronoun, “this, this one, he”. On the comparison of ou-toj in vss. 2 and 7, see Perry, John
1:1-18, 23ff.
[6] “God”
in verse 2, as in verse 1, is the Father, not the Trinity, and not the Son, and
not abstract “deity”.
[7] The appearance of John the Baptizer early in the Prologue - the sixth verse of the Gospel (and 1:15, 1:19-35, 3:25-30) - is more evidence that “the beginning” of John 1:1 and all of the verses in the beginning of John’s Gospel refer not to the Genesis creation but to the same beginning that the Gospel of Mark describes, “the beginning of the Gospel of Jesus Christ”. John the Baptizer is so quickly and prominently introduced in the beginning of John’s Gospel because the Baptizer has a key role in that beginning, not in the Genesis beginning.
Four times in the first chapter of the Gospel (1:15,
1:30, 1:33, 1:34; also 3:26) the Baptizer distinguishes between himself and
“this one” ou-toj,
the man Jesus. In the Prologue, John the Baptizer is not
being distinguished from and not testifying about:
1. a pre-incarnate divine Logos involved in
the Genesis creation, nor
2. an abstract yet personified logos or light involved in the
Genesis creation.
The author of the Gospel of John clarifies the relationship between two human beings who were ministering and making disciples at the same time. The author draws the contrast in order to establish the roles of each and priority of the one man (Jesus) to the other (John the Baptizer).
[8] See
comments above on John 1:2. The comparison in the Prologue is between Jesus and
John the Baptizer. All things happened through the Word (Jesus), not through
the Baptizer. Cf. John 10:41, “John performed no miraculous sign, but
everything John said about this man was true!” Many wondered if the Baptizer
was the Christ (Jn. 1:20, Lk. 3:15). John’s Gospel – starting in the Prologue -
clarifies the relationship between Jesus (the Word) and the Baptizer. While the
Baptizer was important, Jesus had supremacy as God’s chosen vessel through whom
redemption, restoration and new life came. Neither John the Baptizer nor anyone
else is God’s Messiah through whom such things happened or will happen (cf.
John 20:31).
[9] In
Genesis light precedes life. Exactly the opposite in John 1:3-4 where life
precedes light. Further,
all the language in the Prologue that alludes to Genesis is re-iterated later
in the Gospel of John itself, and applied to the ministry of the human person Jesus.
Words like “beginning, darkness, light, life” are explicitly connected to the
ministry of the human person Jesus in the Gospel, which is evidence that the
Prologue also describes the human person Jesus. See also 1 John 2:7-11 where
light and darkness do not refer to the Genesis beginning.
[10]
Compare for example, Gen. 1:6 with John 1:6:
Gen. 1:6, “God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and
let it separate water from water.’”
John 1:6, “A man came, sent from God, whose name was John.”
[11] The
Greek (LXX) text of Genesis uses ποιέω (do, make, accomplish, create)
for the Hebrew words ברא and עשה. Neither ποιέω nor another Greek word for “create” κτίζω are in John’s Prologue.
[12] The
first time the noun logos occurs in Genesis is in the plural form (Gen.
4:23): “You wives of Lamech, hear my words!”
The closest Hebrew equivalent to logos is davar, which is
not found in the Hebrew Genesis creation. The first time davar occurs is
in Genesis is 11:1, also in plural. The verbal form λέγω is in the LXX of Genesis 1. Psa. 33:6
(LXX 32:6) does state that “by the logos/davar of the LORD the heavens
were made”, but this is in parallel to the “breath of his mouth”. Neither logos/davar
nor pneuma/ruah are persons, nor are they abstract wisdom or
plan. The emphasis in Psa. 33:6 is on God’s power and ability, not His plan or
wisdom.
[13]
Finding either a personal or impersonal Logos in Genesis 1:26 at the creation
of man is eisegesis.
[14] πάντα is the grammatical
form for both the masculine singular accusative, and the neuter plural nominative
(cf. John 1:9 as a masculine singular accusative).
[15]
Similarly, many translations add the word “thing” to the word “ἕν/one” toward the end of 1:3 “not one thing,
nothing.”
[16]
Abbreviations for gender/number: masculine plural= mp; neuter plural = np;
masculine singular = ms, etc.
[17] Again,
commentators puzzle over the early appearance of John the Baptizer in the
Prologue as he abruptly interrupts a presumed Genesis creation description. But the Baptizer fits well into an
introduction of “all things” that came to be through the Logos (the man
Jesus). See footnotes #7 and #8.
[18] Verb,
indicative aorist middle 3rd person singular from γίνομαι. The syntax of John 1:3 is “all -
through him - came to be”.
[19] Perry,
A Socinian-Racovian Style Reading of John's Prologue, 6, distinguishes
two broad categories of meaning of egeneto/ginomai: 1) the
historical-temporal, and 2) the ontological-existential. He gives reasons why
the “historical-temporal” meaning is preferred in John 1:3.
[20] John
1:10 is often mistaken to be about Genesis creation, but in error: “world/kosmos”
in John is not planet earth, but relates to human society. In John 1:10 “world”
most likely means Israelite society. Schlegel, Jesus
Did Not Create Planet Earth, a Commentary on John 1:9-13. https://landandbible.blogspot.com/2020/11/jesus-did-not-create-planet-earth.html
[21] 1:3
(2x), 6, 10, 14, 17, 28; Jn. 2:1; 3:25; 5:9; 6:16, 21; 7:43; 10:19, 22, 35; 19:36.
The meaning “happened, came about” is also the case for the other forms of the
verb in John’s Gospel .
[22] When there is no direct object or predicate of the
verb egeneto/ginomai, as in the examples given, the meaning in
John’s Gospel is happened and its synonyms came about, was, took
place. This is the case in John 1:3 - there is no direct object or
predicate. Even with a direct object or predicate, e.g., “water that had become
wine” (2:9), something happened with what already existed, i.e., there was no
creation ex nihilo.
[23]
Three other forms of γίνομαι
appear in the Prologue (1:3b, 1:12, 1:15), also with various translations.
[24] The
verb egeneto/ginomai is in the
Greek translation of the Genesis creation account. It is not the word in
Genesis for “create” or “make”, but is the equivalent of the Hebrew היה hayah
(be/become/was) “let there be… and it was”. John’s use of egeneto and other
Genesis language (in the beginning, light, darkness, work, finished, garden) communicates
continuity with the Genesis beginning. The same God is at work in both
beginnings.
[25] See
note 17 about “world” in John 1:10. World/kosmos in John is not planet
earth.
[26] Many
commentators recognize a chiastic parallel between John 1:3 and 1:17: “all
things” in 1:3 is parallel to “grace and truth” in 1:17. Culpepper, The
Pivot of John’s Prologue. Compare how the world/kosmos was “rescued,
saved, preserved” through the sent Son (3:17), that is, salvation of the world/kosmos
is another immaterial happening through Jesus.
[27] Morris,
The Gospel According to St. John, 80: “He does not say that all was made
by Him, but ‘through’ Him. This way of putting it safeguards the truth that the
Father is the source of all that is.”. Despite such scholarly caveats, mainstream
Christians believe that Jesus was the creator of the universe, e.g., https://www.gotquestions.org/Jesus-the-Creator.html. Arians
recognize the word “through”, but see a subordinate, pre-incarnate angel/Son of
God involved in the Genesis creation.
[28] 1
Cor. 8:6 concerns how believers can relate to foods offered to idols vis-a-vis
the believer’s relation to God through Jesus Christ. The “all” includes Paul
and others alive in Paul’s day: “…and we through him.” In Colossians
1:16 Paul specified the “all” that came to be in and through the
man Christ Jesus: “all...thrones, dominions, principalities or
authorities - all were created through him…” That is, God created a new authority
structure through the resurrected man Christ Jesus, who is now at God’s
right hand (cf. Eph. 1:19-23). In
Hebrews 1:2 it is the ages αἰῶνας/eons,
in context the current and coming ages, that God has created through the
man Christ Jesus (cf. Eph 1:21, 2:7; Heb 2:5, 6:5).
[29]
Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem thousands of years after God, the Father,
created the heavens and the earth.
[30]
Perry, John 1:18, 79-80: “…the phrase ‘without him nothing was
made’…implies partnership…It was God that made everything, not the Logos.
God made everything through the Logos.”
[31]While
maintaining the Father was the one true God, 2nd century Christian
Logos theorists claimed a secondary, lesser god (the Logos) was involved in the
creation of the material world. In the 4th century the Logos morphed
into a “one being, co-equal” status with the Father and Spirit. Justin Martyr, Dialog
with Trypho, ch. 56. file:///C:/Users/user/Zotero/storage/3G7Y2JZ9/01285.html; Hillar, From Logos to Trinity, 138ff.
[32]
Comfort, New Testament Text and Translation Commentary,
252. See also Perry, The Punctuation of John 1:3b-1:4a, https://www.academia.edu/107696554/The_Punctuation_of_John_1_3b_4a
[33] Verb,
indicative perfect active 3rd person singular from γίνομαι.
[34] Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the
Greek New Testament, 167.
[35] Comfort,
New Testament Text and Translation Commentary, 252. See also https://www.die-bibel.de/en/bible/NA28/JHN.1
[36] See
Perry, A Socinian-Racovian Style Reading of John’s Prologue, 9. We agree
that because of the neuter relative pronoun ὃ, it is best to translate “that which came to be in him, it
was life”.
[37] Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the
Greek New Testament, 167 writes (emphasis mine): “to
take ο γεγονεν with the following
sentence (“That which has been made in him was life” – whatever
that may be supposed to mean)” and note #2 “Despite valiant attempts of
commentators to bring sense out of taking ο γεγονεν with what follows,
the passage remains intolerably clumsy and opaque.” Metzger’s perplexity is a
result of presuming a Genesis creation context. But the bewilderment disappears
once the text is understood to be describing a new beginning, indeed, new life
in the man Jesus.
[38] John
3:15-16, 36; 4:14, 36; 5:24, 39; 6:27, 40, 47, 54; 10:28; 12:25, 50; 17:2, 3
[39] See
footnote #9: light in John 1:4 is not Genesis 1:3-4 light.
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