The Prologue of John - - in the Body of the Gospel of John

The words and themes that are introduced in the first verses of John’s Gospel are developed in the body of the Gospel of John. That the the Prologue's words and themes are reiterated later in the Gospel is evidence that the Prologue is about the human person Jesus of Nazareth and his ministry, not the Genesis creation.

As simple as this may sound, the Gospel of John’s first sentences introduce his Gospel, not the Genesis creation. In the previous One God Report podcast episode we explored that while there are a few linguistic connections between John’s opening sentences and Genesis 1, the connections are actually very few.  And, the few words that are the same: “in, beginning, light and darkness”,  mean something different in John 1 than in Genesis 1. Light and darkness in John 1 is not the light and darkness in Genesis 1. The topic of John 1 is not the same topic as Genesis 1.

 

In this current episode we will examine how the language and themes in the Prologue of John are developed in the body of the Gospel of John and are connected specifically to the human person Jesus the Messiah and his ministry, NOT to the Genesis creation. This fact is exegetical evidence that John’s Prologue is not about Genesis but refers directly to the human person Jesus Christ through whom God brings about a new beginning.

 

The words, ideas and the people mentioned in the Prologue: “the beginning, word, life, light, darkness, John the Baptizer, coming into the world, coming to his own, his own not receiving him, some receive him, some believe in his name, children of God, being born of God” - all these words and people are introduced in the first 13 verses of the Prologue and then expanded upon in the body of the Gospel, that is, in connection to the human person Jesus and his ministry.

 

And, all these ideas are applied to the human Jesus Christ in the Prologue before he supposedly “became human” (literally, “became flesh”) in vs. 14, as incarnation theories would have us believe.

 

Again, the introduction of words like beginning, life, light and darkness in the Prologue of John’s Gospel which are then applied to Jesus and his ministry in the body of the Gospel of John is evidence that already in John 1:1-13 the human person Jesus Christ is the subject matter.

 

Let’s look at some examples:

 

Life

The word “life” is mentioned two times in verse 4: “in him was life, and the life was the light of men”. First let’s point out that already here in verse 4 there are “men” on the scene, human beings, which does not fit a Genesis creation context. But to our main point, we find the word “life” some 45 more times in the body of the Gospel of John. Life is a very important theme to this Gospel writer. And life in this Gospel is most often the eternal life ζωὴ αἰώνιός (age life) that is associated with the ministry and person of the man Jesus Christ.

 

A few examples (Remember, 1:4, “in him was life, and the life was the light of men”):

Whoever believes in the one whom God sent (the man Jesus) will not perish, but will have eternal life (John 3:15-17).

 

“As the Father has life in himself, so he has granted the Son also to have life in himself” (John 5:26).

The Father has granted that the Son has life in himself.  What did John 1:4 say? - “that which came to be in him was life”.  The life of the Prologue is connected directly to the Son, the human person Jesus.

 

Jesus told those who opposed him, “you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:40). Where is life found in this Gospel? In the man Jesus of Nazareth.

 

“I am the bread of life” (John 6:35, 48).

 

“I came that they may have life and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).

 

Jesus said to Martha, "I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live” (John 11:25).

 

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

 

“but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name” (John 20:31).

 

It does not do justice to the author of the Gospel of John to think that the life being introduced in verse 4 of the Prologue is not the same life in the man Jesus Christ in the pages of the Gospel itself. The parallel statements between the Prologue and subsequent chapters of the Gospel tie the Prologue directly to the rest of the Gospel. Again, strong proof that the Prologue is about the human person, the man Jesus Christ.

 

Light and Darkness

 

Light and darkness are introduced in the Prologue in verses 4 and 5. We are to see the link between the light and darkness of the Prologue to the light and darkness in the body of the Gospel. 

 

Actually, in John chapter 1, the author mentions the light in verses 4, 5, 7, 8, and 9. That’s five verses out of the first 9 verses of the Prologue. We read in verses 6-8 that John the Baptizer was not the light, but came to bear witness to the light coming into the world. Then (wonder of wonders!) in the body of the Gospel we are told directly that the human person Jesus Christ is the light that has come into the world.

 

It makes no sense to think that the author felt it necessary to tell his readers that John the Baptizer was not the light of Genesis 1. And, for deity-of-Christ believers it makes no sense to think that the author felt it necessary to clarify that the Baptizer was not Almighty God.

 

In these first verses of John’s Gospel the Baptizer is being compared to the human person Jesus, the True Light, who came into the world. How can we be certain of that? Because the author tells us so some four times in his Gospel that the human person Jesus is the Light that came into the world. 

 

Notice too that in this Gospel Jesus as the Light and the light he brings are in contrast to the darkness of the world in the 1^st century. The darkness of John 1:5 is not the Genesis 1 darkness.

 

Let’s examine light and darkness in rest of John’s Gospel.

 

The author stated in 3:17 that God sent his Son into the world that the world might be saved through him, Then, immediately in a parallel statement the author declared in John 3:19-20, “…the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil...”

 

The author is describing something that happened in the AD 1^st century, not aeons before in Genesis. The Son sent into the world is the same as the light come into the world. We are meant to see the direct connection between the light in the Prologue and the human person Jesus. If it isn’t clear yet that the light coming into the world of the Prologue is the human person Jesus, keep reading John’s Gospel.

 

In John 8:12, Jesus declared, "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."

 

John 9:5, “As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.”

 

John 12:35-36, Jesus said to them, "The light is among you for a little while longer. Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overcome you. The one who walks in the darkness does not know where he is going.  While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light."

 

John 12:46, “I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness (cf. 12:35, 3:20).

 

The life and light which are introduced in the Prologue are shown in the body of the Gospel to be the life and light associated with the man Christ Jesus. And the darkness of the Prologue is the darkness of the 1^st century world. The Gospel of John’s life, light and darkness are not the life, light and darkness of Genesis 1.

 

Any interpretation of John chapter 1 as referring only to the Genesis creation either ignores or forgets the words of Jesus in John 8:12 and 12:46: "I am the light of the world; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life… I have come as light into the world, that whoever believes in me may not remain in darkness.”

 

Let’s turn from the Gospel of John for just one moment to see how the Apostle Paul believed that the proclamation of (life and) light is associated with the human person Jesus and his ministry: Act 26:22-23, “I stand testifying to both small and great, saying nothing except what the prophets and Moses said was going to happen: that the Messiah must suffer, and that, by being the first to rise from the dead (life), he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles."

 

John the Baptizer, John 1:6

For any Genesis creation interpretation of John 1, John the Baptizer’s presence in verses 6, 7 and 8 (and 15) in the first chapter of John is an exegetical embarrassment, a strange, out of place interruption. Evangelical scholar Leon Morris states in the New International Commentary on the New Testament, The Gospel According to John (p. 87):

 

“It is curious at first sight that there should be this mention of John the Baptist in the Prologue. There is no difficulty about his appearing in the narrative sections, but it is certainly perplexing to find him in this brief introduction to the teaching of the Gospel.”

 

The Baptizer’s early appearance in the Prologue is “curious” and “perplexing” to commentators like Leon Morris because they bring incorrect presuppositions to the text, thinking that the Gospel begins with a description of the Genesis creation. However, if “the beginning” that Gospel of John opens with is the same beginning as the beginning in the other Gospels – the new beginning in the Gospel of the Messiah Jesus of Nazareth – then it makes perfect sense why John the Baptizer is introduced here in verse 6 of the Prologue and given such a prominent place in the rest of John’s first chapter.

 

The Baptizer is a central feature in the beginning of Jesus’s ministry, not in the Genesis beginning. There is nothing “curious” or “perplexing” about the Baptizer’s presence in John 1:6-8. The Baptizer’s ministry is put forth early and prominently in the Prologue because the Prologue is about Jesus’s ministry. The True Light that the Baptizer testified of in 1:6-9 of the Prologue is the human person, Jesus the Messiah, who is named in 1:17.

 

Summary

 

The straight-line connections between statements in the Prologue to the body of the Gospel of John show that the Prologue is introducing the human person Jesus of Nazareth. The man Jesus and his ministry are described with the same terms in the body of the Gospel that are introduced in the Prologue.

 

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

 

We looked at some of the words of the Prologue that are applied to Jesus in Gospel: life, light, darkness and John the Baptizer. But there are more, like these: “world did not know him, coming to his own, his own not receiving him, some received him, believe in his name, being born of God, becoming the children of God – all these are presented in the Prologue before 1:14 the supposed conception or birth of Jesus verse – and relate to the human person Jesus of Nazareth and his ministry.

_ _ _ _

 

Bonus:

What about verse 1 of John?  Where are these words and truths in the Gospel of John?

 

Beginning - In the Gospel of John “the beginning” refers to the beginning of the ministry of Jesus (John 8:25, cf. 8:44, 15:27, 16:4). The author’s use of the phrase “the beginning” in the body of his Gospel is evidence for what he intended by “in the beginning” in John 1:1.

 

Word - The human Jesus is metaphorically called the Word because in the Gospel Jesus is shown to be the ultimate revelation and power of God. Through the human person Jesus, 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.

 

Cf. Hebrews 1:1-2 “Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the ages.”

 

Also see Rev. 19:13, where Jesus “is called The Word of God” in a similar but nuanced way. In John the emphasis of Jesus as the Word is “making known” and as God’s power (Jesus brings restoration with a spoken word), whereas in Revelation 19:13 Jesus is the Word of God because through Jesus God will judge (cf. Acts 10:42, 17:11).

 

with God – Jesus, in Moses-like fashion had a unique relationship with God. The man Jesus 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). πρὸς τὸν θεόν may foreshadow the human Jesus’s post-ascension position with God (John 1:18).

 

was God – The Gospel of John declares with clarity which God (or who) was seen in the man Jesus: the Father.

John 12:44-45, “whoever sees me sees him who sent me.”

John 14:9, “Whoever has seen me has seen the Father…the Father who dwells in me does his works.”

“The Word was God” is not an ontological declaration, but a statement about authorized representation. In the Gospel of John there is no “God the Son” incarnate in Jesus.