A priceless document

By Noralyn  O. Dudt

THE "GOSPEL according to John"  is indeed a priceless document.  "But these are written that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through believing you may  have life in  his name" (20:31)

There in Ephesus about 2,000 years ago  lived a lonely old man, the first and the last of the apostles, the great apostle to the church. His brother James was dead. Peter, the leading apostle to the Jews, was dead. Paul, the intrepid apostle to the gentile world, was dead. Thomas, Andrew, Philip, Nathaniel,  all the apostles, were dead—all except John.

John  had lived through an extraordinary time. In his days, the Son of God had become the Son of man. He had been incarnated (became flesh) at Bethlehem, baptized in the river Jordan, tempted and proved sinless in the wilderness.  He had healed the sick, cleansed the leper, raised the dead. He has made the blind see, the deaf hear, the dumb speak, the lame walk. He had turned water into wine, walked on the waves, fed hungry multitudes with a handful of bread and two fish. He had taught God's truth in a pungent, memorable way. He had been love incarnate, God manifest in flesh. He had been betrayed, falsely accused, manhandled, flogged, crucified. He had been buried, but had risen  triumphantly from the tomb. He had ascended into heaven, and John had assurance  from him that  he was coming back.

All these memories lingered in John's heart. Not only was he one of the disciples, he was Jesus' human cousin as well. John had almost certainly known  "Jesus of Nazareth" since he was a small boy. His mother Salome, was sister of the virgin Mary. The mysterious circumstances surrounding the birth of Jesus, chronicled by Matthew and Luke, were no secret in the family circle. We can reasonably assume that the Lord Jesus, in his boyhood and early manhood days, along with his brothers and sisters, had normal contact with the relatives who lived by the lake. Nazareth was not that far from the sea of Galilee. Annual pilgrimages to attend the religious feasts in Jerusalem were always social occasions when families and friends banded together to make the trip.

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in darkness; and the darkness did not overcome it" (1:1-5)

John's "language" is Greek but his thoughts are Hebrew. His language is simple, his vocabulary small. As reflected in the fourth gospel, he is seen as one who quickly acquired an acute understanding of the Hellenistic ( Greek culture) mind indicated by his vocabulary that demonstrates an ability to communicate to the sophisticated as well as to the simple. He tended to see things in simple terms of black and white, good and evil; there were few shades of gray in his perspective.

John makes three sweeping statements that affirm once and for all the deity of the one he had known so well. After becoming one of Jesus' disciples, John knew that Jesus of Nazareth was God. He simply tells what he knows. He knew what truth was and bears witness to it.

To equate Jesus with God was a proposition that was not made lightly. As a Palestinian Jew of his time,  John was aware of the horrors such a person would have for blasphemy. He was neither a philosopher  nor a theologian. He was a man who had spent three-and-a-half extraordinary years in the company of Jesus. He had  half a century to think things over. It was his conviction then, that Jesus of Nazareth was no ordinary man. He was—and is—God.

John begins with an affirmation,  "In the beginning was the Word, " that does not refer to a start, but to an infinite state. "Logos" is the Greek word used by John. It was a word familiar to Greek philosophers and the Jewish philosopher Philo  adopted it for his own purposes.  To the Greeks, the word "logos"  refers  to the abstract conception that lies behind everything concrete—to the ideal, to what we could perhaps call Wisdom. This identification of Jesus with the logos is based on Old Testament  concepts of revelation,  such as  in the frequently used phrase "the Word of the Lord"—which connotes ideas of God's activity and power—and the Jewish view that Wisdom is the divine agent that draws humans to God and is identified with the word of God. It hints at having order and meaning, implying knowledge. But John did not get his views from Greek philosophy or from the speculations of Philo. John borrowed the Greek word but he used it in a new sense, in a more Hebrew sense. When it came to eternal verities (truths)  lying behind the world of  time and space, the Hebrews left the Greeks behind. The Hebrew would argue from the thought to the thinker, from "wisdom" to God. The Greeks had not gone  that far then. They were still "looking" for the "unknown" God.  Thus, when John calls Jesus "the Word," the "logos" he is referring to him as the thinker, the omniscient genius behind the created universe.

This passage "in the beginning" in John's gospel  begins in an epic manner, referring to and like Genesis 1, where we find similar words, "in the beginning  God created the heaven and the earth."

The similarity is striking and purposeful. There is a beginning! To the aspiring scientists,  yes there was a  big bang. John is presenting a specific choice of language here. Very poignant, very specific.  An interesting choice of language indeed, because the word "logos" is unlike any other found in the Greek. This passage implies something much bigger than just a "word."  "Logos" is  also used to convey reason or rationality,  signifying the capacity for logical thought. It's a principle originating in classical Greek thought which refers to a universal divine reason,  immanent in nature, yet transcending all oppositions and imperfections in the cosmos and humanity.

"LOGOS"—an eternal and unchanging truth present from the time of creation,  available to every individual who seeks it.

John adds layers and depth of meaning with every additional phrase. Let's look at it line by line:

"In the beginning  was the Word."  That 'word' was present in the beginning of all things in the universe. It was right there in the beginning.

"The Word was with God."

This could not be more specific,  that "word" was there with God in the beginning. It is separate from God, yet it was there with Him.

"and the Word WAS God"

Now this gets interesting;   first the Word was just 'there' in the beginning, then it was "with" God, then it IS God?

This portrays an incredibly diverse relationship between God and this "Word", and hints at divine nature, hints at closeness to God, and then flatly, directly, says that it IS God.

Three  attributes to that "Word," all at the same time—There, With, and then IS. This description of the Word is intertwined With God, About God, and In God which  hints at  the triune (three in One) nature of God. And this building up of layers of meaning keeps going......

"and the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us."

All this careful, deliberate layering of meanings to pull the reader into the vast depth of meaning that ultimately reveals who that "Word" is.

What a beautiful, wonderful way to introduce Jesus, the Christ ! John presents Him as one with a divine heritage,  presents Him as one with a divine nature, and then presents Him as a human in the flesh.

He "dwelt among us" and in doing so he understands our human frailty, pain and suffering—he had  experienced how it was to be hungry; he knew how it feels to be lonely and alone. He had experienced rejection,  betrayal,  mockery and humiliation. And most of all, he had  endured  the cruelest form of death, a death on the cross.

The Word ( Logos) shows God's desire and ability to "speak" to the individual. In these 3 biblical words, "Word becomes flesh,"  God is reaching out to us, extending His hand. We can clasp that extended hand and be united with the One who created us, the One who came that we may have "life and have it more abundantly."

John 21:24-25

"This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and has written them, and we know that his testimony is true. But there are also many things that Jesus did; if every one of them were written down, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written."