John 1:1-18

Welcome!

This study is designed for anyone who is willing to approach the Bible with an open heart, including:

• Catholics, Protestants, evangelicals, and Orthodox.

• People who are active in their church, who have stepped away from a local church or the Church as a whole, or who have never found a church home.

• People who are familiar with the Bible and people who are just starting out.

• Seekers, doubters, agnostics, explorers, and the curious.

Everyone is welcome to join us as we explore what the Bible says, what it means, and how we can apply it to our lives today.

A NOTE FOR SMALL GROUPS

This study material can be very enriching for personal study and growth, and it can be even more powerful and life-changing when it is used by a small group of people who explore God’s Word together.  We will occasionally offer instructions, indented like this, that may be useful for a small-group study.

Small-group leaders can find leadership training material and practical suggestions at Leading a Small-Group Bible Study.

Leaders can see Preparing to Lead a Small-Group Bible Study Meeting for suggestions on how to prepare for a small group Bible Study.  I encourage you to begin and end each meeting with a time of prayer, and to go through each passage in detail, often verse by verse.  As you do so, try to explore what the passage says, what it means, and how we can apply it in our lives.

Personal Introductions

If you are studying with a small group, it would be helpful to take some time to build community.  Introduce yourselves, make sure everyone has a chance to know everyone else’s name, and get to know each other a bit.

Here are some questions you could ask everyone in the group to answer:

What is your name and where are you from (or how are you connected to our church or this group?

Can you describe some away that the written word or the spoken word is important to you?

What is one thing you hope to learn more about as you participate in this study of the Gospel of John?

We will provide an introduction that looks at the background of the Gospel of John (who wrote it, etc.) in our third study, after we have explored the first 18 verses and have an idea of what this Gospel sounds like.  If you want to explore that introductory material first, you can find it here: Introduction to John.

NOTE: Whenever the chapter and verse for a passage are underlined, please read the passage before proceeding.

John 1:1-18 The Word was with God and was God, created all things, and became human

Verse 14 and 15 tell us who John is talking about when he refers to the Word.  John doesn’t name him until verse 17, but who is he talking about?

Jesus, the One who was God and became flesh, the only Son of the Father, the one John the Baptist pointed to, whom Christians identify as the Second Person of the Trinity.

John 1:1-18 is a prologue to the Gospel of John.  It sounds very abstract, because John is speaking in cosmic terms, but it is introducing some of the major themes of that we will see again in more detail later in the Gospel. 

How is this writing different than what you have seen in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark, and Luke?

What is your reaction to this passage?

What questions does this passage prompt in you?  What questions do you already have after having just read it?

Re-read John 1:1-5

In the first verse, what does John tell us about the Word?

The Word was already present in the beginning, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The Greek word translated as “Word” is logos.  John tells us a lot about the Word in this section.  Let’s look at what logos meant.

• Although the Greek word logos did mean “word,” it also meant much more than that.  It traditionally was used where we might use the word “reason” or “thought” or “speech.”

• Then a Greek philosopher named Heraclitus, who lived from around 540 BC to 480 BC, used the word Logos in a way that affected Greek philosophy ever after.  He said the Logos was the divine reason or principle that keeps the universe orderly, that sustains and provides order to the world.

• Hundreds of years later, around the time of Jesus, a Greek-speaking Jewish philosopher named Philo tried to make connections between Greek philosophy and the Jewish worldview derived from the Torah.  Philo described the Logos as the intermediary between God and the universe and said that God created the universe through the Logos.  (For more on the Greek understanding of Logos, see Barclay, The Gospel of John, Volume 1, pp. 2-14; and Encyclopaedia Britannica.)

Even before Philo, the Jews thought that a “word” was much more than a unit of speech:

• In Jewish thinking, every word has creative power.  When God created the universe, all he had to do was speak a word and things came into being.  For everyone, once a word went forth, it had an independent existence and force.

• In the last few hundred years before Christ, a form of Old Testament literature arose that is known as “Wisdom literature.”  In Wisdom literature, Wisdom is personified as a living being.  Wisdom was present with God at the Creation (Proverbs 8:30).  Wisdom is the breath of God (Wisdom 7:25).  Wisdom is always actively seeking to guide humans (Proverbs 8:1-9:12 and Wisdom 7:7-10:21).  (For more on the Jewish understanding of the word of God and of Wisdom, see Barclay, The Gospel of John, Volume 1, pp. 2-14.)

John brings all of this together at the beginning of his Gospel in a way that offers a truer understanding of the Greek concept of the Logos while remaining consistent with the Jewish Scriptures.

John is asserting in verse 1 that the Word existed in the beginning, was with God, and was God.  But in verses 14-17, he says that the Word became human and lived as the man Jesus.  Why is it significant that he is connecting God and Jesus in this way, and how does it connect with our concept of the Trinity?

John is saying that Jesus, who is the only Son of the Father, is the Word who was present with God in the beginning.  The Word is distinct from God (he was “with God”), and yet the Word is God, not some lesser being.  He is identifying on God but two Persons, a step toward our understanding of the Trinity (which also includes the Holy Spirit).

Note: The official Bible of the Jehovah’s Witnesses mistranslates verse 1 to say that the Word was “a god”.  The article “a” does not appear in verse 1 in the Greek.  In fact, in the Greek, the verse actually says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and God was the Word,” which makes it even clearer that the Word (i.e., Jesus) is not a lesser god.

What else does John tell us about the Word in verses 2-5?

* All things were created through him, and nothing was created except through him.

* Life came from him.

* This life provided light for the human race.

* Darkness has not overcome this light.

Why is it significant that the Word created the world?

Verse 5 mentions darkness.  What does the darkness not do?

Darkness is not a physical thing – it is merely the absence of light.  (Evil is also not a thing: theologians and church fathers have helped us understand that it is best understood as a corruption of a good or an overemphasis on one good that results in a lack or absence or loss or denial of another good – the technical terms is a privation.)  What does the darkness stand for, metaphorically?

There is not a single correct answer to this question.  The spiritual darkness John is envisioning could be an absence of the knowledge of God, a resistance to God’s teachings, opposition to the way of Christ, a state of having embraced what is contrary to God, etc.  When we do not embrace the light of Christ, we are turning to the darkness.

This reference to darkness brings to mind Isaiah 9:1-7 (8:23-9:6 in the NABRE), which includes verses that are well-known at Advent/Christmas such as, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light” (Is. 9:2; 9:1 in the NABRE) and “For unto us a child is born, a son is given . . .” (Is. 9:5; 9:6 in the NABRE).

John says that the Word brings life and light to us.  How do the images of “light” and “life” capture important elements of the Christian faith?

How have you experienced Jesus bringing you life or light?  Can you describe a time that has happened?

John 1:6-9 John the Baptist came to testify to the light

In the first 5 verses, John establishes some eternal truths.  In verse 6, he moves into the timeline of human history.

Look at verse 7.  What was John the Baptizer’s purpose?

He came to testify, or give testimony, or serve as a witness.

What does it mean to testify or be a witness?  We use those terms in courts of law.  What do they mean?

The NABRE says of verse 7: “Testimony: the testimony theme of John is introduced, which portrays Jesus as if on trial throughout his ministry.  All testify to Jesus: John the Baptist, the Samaritan woman, scripture, his works, the crowds, the Spirit, and his disciples” (NABRE, John 1:7, fn.).

John the Baptist is the first of many people and sources that will “testify” to Jesus or serve as witnesses on his behalf.  What do you think the purpose of their testimony is?  What do they show?

Are we also called to testify (bear witness, give testimony) about Jesus?  Explain.

In verse 9, John says that Jesus was the real light who gives light to every person.  What does that mean?

What is our relationship to the light and to the darkness?

Where do you need the light of God to show in some part of your life right now?

(It would be beneficial to bring to God in prayer those areas of your life where you feel the need for God’s light, and ask him to shine his light in your situation and help you let his light shine through you.)

(We will continue with verse 10 in the next session.)

Take a step back and consider this:

Saint Augustine, in his book The Confessions written around AD 397-400, said that in the books of the Greek philosophers he found teachings that he also found in John 1:1-5, “not indeed in the same words, but to the selfsame effect” (Augustine, Book 7, Chapter 9, par. 13): specifically, that the Word was with God and was God, that all things were created through him, and that he provides light and life to humans.

But Augustine went on to say that he did not find in the Greek philosophers what John says in 1:12: that he gave those who believe in him the power to become children of God.  Nor did he find what John says in 1:14: that the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.  Augustine also did not find in the Greek philosophers that the Word emptied himself and became obedient unto death (Phil. 2:7-8) and died for the ungodly (Rom. 5:6) (Augustine, Book 7, Chapter 9, par. 14).

Augustine expressed appreciation to God that God allowed him to read the books of the Platonists (Greek philosophers in the tradition of Plato), because the Greek teachings about the Word helped prepare him for what he learned when he became a Christian and read John, even though they did not have the whole truth.

Christians sometimes think they must disdain everything that is not “Christian.”  Augustine would have disagreed, as would many of the early Church fathers.  Here, John was clearly building on concepts from the Greek philosophers.  Paul quoted a Greek philosopher-poet as he tried to bring the gospel to the people of Athens (Acts 17:28).  Partial truths can be found in many places, even if they must be refined.

In what ways can we learn from thinkers of the past, or people in our own lives who are not Christian, as we try to understand God’s nature and role in the world?

How can you decide when drawing from non-Christian sources is appropriate and when it will lead you to error?