The Word Made Flesh - John 1:1-18 Study Guide
While serving as a campus minister, I wrote a Bible Study Guide on the gospel of John to help my students to study and think further about Biblical text. The following reflections come from that study. Please see the full list of studies and reflections here:
Greek vocabulary: The prologue of John can seem extremely dense for readers unfamiliar with the Jewish/Early Christian context in which John was writing. Moreover, a lot of the richness imbued in the original Greek text becomes lost when the text is translated to English. Here is some of the Greek vocabulary with an expanded English definition. This deeper understanding of the Greek terminology affects the way that we read and understand the text.
logos
(Word vs. 1)
of speech, a word uttered by a living voice, the sayings of God, of the moral precepts given by God,
Reason—the mental faculty of thinking, meditating, reasoning, or calculation
zwn (zoe) (Life - vs. 4)
life
The absolute fullness of life, both essential and ethical, which belong to God,
life real and genuine, a life active and vigorous, devoted to God
Phos (light - vs. 4)
Light
a heavenly light such as surrounds angels when they appear on Earth
Fire (as in phosphorus)
of truth and its knowledge, together with the spiritual purity associated with it
Reason or mind, the power of understanding esp. moral and spiritual truth
scotia (darkness vs. 5)
Darkness
the darkness due to want of light
metaphysically used of ignorance of divine things, and its associated wickedness, and the resultant misery in hell
katalambano (translated overcome or understand depending on translation in vs. 5)
to lay hold of
to lay hold of so as to make one’s own, to obtain
to seize upon, take possession of
of evils overtaking one
to understand, perceive, learn, comprehend
egno: (know or recognize in vs. 10)
to know
to understand
paralambano: (receive in vs. 11)
to take to, to take with one’s self, to join to one’s self
an associate, a companion
to accept or acknowledge one to be such as he professes to be; not to reject, not to withhold obedience; to receive with the mind
skeno: (dwell in vs. 14)
to fix one’s tabernacle, to have one’s tabernacle, abide; to dwell
pleerees: (full in vs. 14)
full, filled up as opposed to empty; of the soul, thoroughly permeated; full; lacking nothing, perfect
karis: (grace in vs. 14 & 16)
grace; that which affords joy/pleasure, delight, sweetness; good will, loving-kindness, favour
aletheia:
objectively what is true in any matter under consideration; truly, in truth, according to truth; what is true in things pertaining to God and the duties of man, moral and religious truth; the true notions of God that are open to human reason.
In his prologue, the apostle John, one of Jesus’ chosen disciples writes to inform his readers of the truth concerning Jesus Christ. Near the ending of his gospel, John explicitly states that he has written that his audience “may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing [they] may have life in his name” (John 20:31). It is important to keep in mind that John is not writing mythology or fiction, but rather he is writing in a historical and biographical genre. He is writing (partially from eye-witness testimony) the history of his teacher while attempting to convince his readers of what he believes to be the truth concerning his beloved teacher—that Jesus is indeed the Jewish Messiah and the way through which human beings come to know eternal life.
In the first verse, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.” John intentionally seeks to call to mind Genesis 1:1, a passage that would have been familiar to Hellenistic Jews. Logos is the Greek term for “word.” But more than just being a word like the words that make up this sentence, the “logos” was understood to be the divine wisdom of God and refers to the mental faculty of thinking, meditating, reasoning or calculation. In fact, the Aramaic Targums and other Jewish wisdom literature explicitly speaks of the ‘word’ of the Lord as God’s agent in creation—hence, the bringer of life. So when John describes Jesus as the Word that was with God, the word that was God, and the word that took on flesh, John is making very bold claims about Jesus. John is asking his readers to believe that Jesus was not an ordinary man, Jesus was the eternal God, who was at the Father’s side since the beginning; that Jesus is the Creator God through whom “all things were made.” Jesus is the God who takes on flesh and becomes mortal that human beings may know the truth concerning God.
In verse 4, John claims that life, not just in the sense of existing as an animate being, but rather the absolute fullness of life, real, genuine, and wholly devoted to God is in Jesus Christ. He goes on to say that this fullness of life was the light of all men meaning that Jesus is the one who brings truth, knowledge, and understanding to all mankind. Here, the implication is that apart from Jesus Christ, man lives in the darkness of ignorance and lacks true knowledge of divine matters. In verse 5, the Greek verb “katalambano” may be translated to understand or to overcome. Thus, though Jesus came as the bearer of truth and light, due to the darkness of its ignorance, humanity did not understand Jesus (this is the ignorance that led them to crucify Him) nor did the darkness overcome the light in the sense of Jesus’ victory over death—that is resurrection. John goes on to stress this ignorance in the 10th and 11th verses where he states that though Jesus, the living--Creator God, and bearer of truth was in the world, the world did not recognize Him.
In this prologue, John, the author, speaks of a man “sent from God”, common terminology to refer to a prophet, who came to testify to the light. John seems to assume that his readers know about this John: John the Baptist.
And yet the reward for those who chose to receive Jesus would be greater than one could ever imagine. John tells his audience that those who chose to receive (paralambano), or to accept and acknowledge Jesus to be who He professed to be, the Son of God, would receive the right to become children of God. Here, the Creator of the Universe is pictured not as a God who is far off, but rather a God of relationship, who welcomes mankind to know Him as a Father through the acceptance of His son Jesus Christ.
To recap, Jesus is depicted as God, the Word that was with God [the Father], and who was God [He is the Son], who is the only One who has seen God, because He was and is at the Father’s side, but came to Earth and took on flesh to make God known. Here, John has introduced us to two members of the Christian Trinity, God the Father who is Creator, and God the Son—Jesus Christ—God in the flesh. John clearly states that the purpose for Jesus, God the Son, coming into the flesh was to reveal the truth and knowledge of life in God to a humanity that lived in darkness. In the reality that Jesus must come to bring light into the darkness is the very weighty assumption that human beings can do nothing to grasp the truth of God on our own terms and through our understanding, but rather it had to be revealed through Jesus Christ. John goes a step further to say that Jesus brings this true understanding not merely for knowledge’s sake, but rather that those who believe in Jesus may become children of God and have the same relationship that Jesus, the Son, has with the Father.
Devotional Questions:
*How does this understanding of God as a Father and a God of relationship through Jesus challenge your previous or current understandings of the character of God or of Christianity?
*How does it feel to know that the Sovereign Creator of this Universe wants to have a relationship with you as his son or daughter through Jesus Christ?
*What does it mean to have a relationship with someone?
