J.
PHILIP SCHAELLING x
The
Prologue of John (John 1:1-18) has long been favored as a jewel in the crown of
biblical scholarship. One author has written: "If John has been described
as the pearl of great price among the NT writings, then one may say that the
Prologue is the pearl within this Gospel. In her comparison of Augustine's and
Chrysostom's exegesis of the prologue, M. A. Aucoin points out that both held
that it is beyond the power of man to speak as John does in the Prologue. . . .
All these attestations of sublimity, however, do not remove the fact that the
eighteen verses of the Prologue contain for the exegete a number of bewildering
textual, critical, and interpretative problems." [1]
Modern revelation can help us with some of these
problems, but the Prologue of John is still one of the most intriguing,
exciting, challenging, and absolutely transcendent passages ever written. Let
no one feel that these eighteen verses carry no depth. They not only have
depth—they transcend both time and space to reveal to us the purpose of
Christ's ministry. These verses crystallize, in the testimony of one who knew,
not only our heritage but also our eternal destiny as children of the living
God.
John is a witness. His stress is on those things he
had seen and experienced himself: "That which was from the beginning,
which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at
and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life."
(1 John 1:1, NIV.) The first eighteen verses of his Gospel serve as a prologue.
Before John started his actual story, he wanted to give a preview to define the
parameters of his account. His purpose was not to catalog all of the deeds and
works of the Savior during His mortal life: "If they should be written
every one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books
that should be written." (John 21:25.) The Gospel of John is not a
hodgepodge of randomly remembered recollections, but a carefully constructed
historical account with design and purpose. "That which we have seen and
heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and truly
our fellowship is with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ." (1 John
1:3.) A fundamental purpose of John's Gospel is to show us how we can have
fellowship with the Father and the Son. The purposes of the Prologue are to
summarize that process of achieving fellowship so that we will not miss it as
we proceed through the account of the Savior's ministry, and to set the stage
for this story of eternal sweep by introducing us to the Savior in his eternal
context.
Setting the Stage
"In the beginning" (1:1). This phrase is identical in
the Greek of the Gospel of John with the beginning of the book of Genesis in
the Septuagint. There are many "beginnings" in our span of forever.
Though we have always existed, there was a "beginning" when we became
children of our Heavenly Father; there was a "beginning" when the
great premortal council was held and plans for this earth were laid; there was
a "beginning" as the creation of this earth was initiated.
"Was the Word" (1:1). The word was does not
do justice to the Greek verb tense. In Greek, the author could have chosen from
either the aorist or the imperfect verb tense. While the aorist
refers to a single, completed occurrence, the imperfect defines an ongoing,
continuous state. The use of the imperfect tense here defines that which lies
beyond time. "In the beginning, place it where you may, the Word already
existed. In other words, the Logos is before time, eternal."[2]
John is telling us that when time began, the Word not only already existed, but
the Word already existed in a timeless state, and existed as the
"Word."
Next we must deal with "Word." In verse 14,
the "Word" is identified as the Savior. Would it not have been easier
to have said, "In the beginning was Jesus Christ"? Why use the
personification? What was John trying to tell us by identifying the Savior as
the "Word"? In the English translation, "Word" is probably
the best translation of logos, but it
is also a very limited translation. Logos
is a word replete with nuances and great depth. It can refer to a single word,
a phrase, a discussion, or even a whole book. Hugh Nibley uses it in this broad
sense when he translates John 1:1 as, "In the beginning was the Logos [counsel, discussion], and the Logos was in the presence of God, and
all things were done according to it."[3]
Many useful articles and books are available that discuss logos. For our purposes, and for the sake of brevity, let us simply
note a few aspects of this intriguing word.
1. Logos "is never
the mere word as an assemblage of sounds, but the word as determined by a
meaning and conveying a meaning."[4] In other words, it is the outward form that
expresses the inner thought.
2. While logos
does not represent the mere "assemblage of sounds," neither does it
represent the thought itself. Logos
is tangible, whether it represents "a phrase or sentence, or a prolonged
discourse, or even a book."[5]
3. Logos
from God is always dynamic. It does not just exist as a static lump. "The
Word is seen to be a heavenly force which creatively accomplishes its work on
earth."[6] Isaiah referred to the
word of God in this same way when he said: "For as the rain cometh down,
and the snow from heaven, and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth,
and maketh it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and
bread to the eater: so shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it
shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and
it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it." (Isa. 55:10-11.) Logos from God always has purpose and
always has power.
"In the beginning, the logos already existed." The
reason for the personification is to help us understand that Christ was to be
the outward expression of the Father's inner nature, having the same purpose
and the same power. This principle helps us to better comprehend the
Savior's statement to Philip, "He that hath seen me hath seen the
Father" (John 14:9) and gives new depth to the following passage:
"Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? the
words that I speak unto you I speak not of myself: but the Father that dwelleth
in me, he doeth the works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father
in me." (John 14:10-11.)
John's introduction helps us understand
that Jesus, in fulfilling his destiny in the eternal plan of salvation, was the
dynamic expression of the Father's
inner being. He was and is, since before the beginning, the actor and doer of
the Father's will, filled with his purpose and power. While on earth, he was
the visible expression of his
Father's inner nature. If we wish to learn more about the Father, we merely need
to learn more about his Son. Through Joseph Smith much of this concept was
revealed in modern times: "He was the Word, even the messenger of
salvation." (D&C 93:8.) The Plan of Salvation is eternal, and for us,
the embodiment of that plan is Jesus Christ.
"And the Word was with God" (1:1). "The
word with (in the Greek), while
emphasizing the communion of the Logos
with God, yet safeguards the idea of his individual personality: it expresses nearness combined with the sense of movement towards God, and so indicates
an active relationship. The Logos and
God do not simply exist side by side, but are on terms of living intercourse,
and such fellowship implies separate personality."[7]
"And the Word was God" (1:1). In the Greek,
the word God comes first in this phrase, which gives it special emphasis.
Though it comes first, it is predicative and without an article. This means
that John wanted us to know that in the beginning, the logos had already achieved Godhood: He had developed within himself
the divine nature. By this we do not merely mean that he developed a divine
nature. The absence of the article implies that he has acquired the very same character and divine
attributes as The God with whom he
associated in the previous phrase. The emphatic arrangement of this word gives
special stature to the logos. Not
only was Jesus to be the one who would actively implement the plan of our
Father, not only did he have a close and personal fellowship with the Father,
but "in the beginning" the Savior had already developed the very same
attributes and character of the Father, thus attaining Godhood.
"The same was in the beginning with [the]
God" (1:2). I have placed a bracketed the here simply to mirror John's
emphasis; the word the exists in the
Greek text. John has wanted to communicate clearly that while the logos has developed the qualities of the
Father, he is also a distinct and separate individual. The repetition and
structure of this phrase is so emphatic that it may imply an attempt by John to
address any misunderstanding or confusion on the doctrine of the trinity within
the early church. This is a very difficult thing to translate because the
absence or presence of articles (that is, the)
in English does not communicate the same thing as it does in Greek.
Thus we can see that there are three things that John
wanted to establish in these first two verses:
1. Jesus Christ was to be the
outward and dynamic expression of both his Father's essence and his Father's
will.
2. 2. Jesus was eminently
suited to this task, for he had developed the very same character and
attributes as His Father.
3. 3. We should not
confuse the issue and think that they are the same individual. They are clearly
separate.
Achieving
Fellowship
After John established the majesty of the logos in its premortal eternal state, he
gave us a brief outline of how the logos
fits into the plan of salvation. This is divided into three stages:
1.
John 1:3-9: The existence of light as a fundamental part of the logos, which he shares freely with all
who come into the world.
2.
John 1:10-13: Our free agency to accept him or reject him, and the
right and power given to those who accept him to become children of God.
3.
John 1:14-17: The actual achievement of that relationship, together
with an emphasis on the Savior as role model and the very embodiment of those
principles which develop our capacity to be sons and daughters.
The Light
"And the light shineth in
darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not" (1:5). As soon as John
identified light with logos, he informed us that a great
rivalry exists in the universe between the logos
and "the Prince of Darkness." Light
and darkness are active elements and
are personified, as was logos. John
did this to help us identify certain basic principles that pertain to the
individuals thus personified. In this very powerful verse, he encapsulated one
of the fundamental dramas of his entire narrative, the struggle that inherently
exists between good and evil.
In King James's time, the
word comprehend could mean either
"to seize, grasp, lay hold of, catch," or "to grasp, take in, or
apprehend with the senses."[8]
The Greek word from which it is translated has the basic meaning of seizing
with hostile intent, or overtaking. In one verb voice, not used here, it can
also be used to express an ability to understand or perceive. Certainly it is
imperative that we develop the capacity to perceive the light. But in the only
other place where John used this word, it was again in relationship to
darkness, and assumes the active role of "to seize with hostile intent, to
overtake": "Walk while ye have the light, lest darkness come upon
you." (John 12:35.) "In these cases the sense cannot be doubtful. The
darkness comes down upon, enwraps men. As applied to light, this sense includes
the further notion of overwhelming, eclipsing. The relation of darkness to
light is one of essential antagonism."[9]
Another interesting contrast is offered in this verse. The verb shineth is given in the timeless present
tense, while the verb comprehended is
in a tense that is used for a given point in time. The effect of this contrast
is to say that this dispelling of darkness is an inherent and enduring quality
of light and of the One who is personified as light. On the other hand, there
was a time when the darkness, or the one of whom it is a personification,
attempted to seize and overcome the light. It refers to a specific attempt, a
single occurrence, not an ongoing, timeless quality. John was foreshadowing a main theme of his Gospel: a record of the
specific time when, as the light shone in the darkness that had come upon this
world, the Prince of Darkness attempted and failed to overcome and extinguish
that light. A major effort of his Gospel is to mirror and witness the
dynamic conflict between light and dark which was to culminate in the Savior's
dynamic victory.
"That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that
cometh into the world" (1:9). It is as though we are all in a huge arena,
in total darkness, searching for a way out. Some panic, some give up, many
search aimlessly, all are lost. Suddenly someone opens a door and the light
shines in. He is the light that shines in the darkness! Now we can find our way
out! Now we can go back home! He shows us the way and helps us be sensitive to
the light. He also places within each of us our own little light, so that we
can always see in the darkness. But it works only if we follow that light:
"And he that repents not, from him shall be taken even the light which he
has received." (D&C 1:33.) The
possession of light gives us the ability to see our way out of the darkness of
this world and find our way back to our Father in heaven. This
understanding of light harbors intriguing implications in the definition of intelligence as found in D&C
93:36-39a.
Becoming Children
of God
"And the world knew him not" (1:10). The word
translated knew can mean either perceive, realize or acknowledge, recognize.[10]
"And his own received him not" (1:11). The word
translated received, in this context,
means to accept. [11]
"To them gave he power" (1:12). The word
translated power "does not
describe mere ability, but legitimate, rightful authority, derived from a
competent source which includes the idea of power."[12]
"To become the sons of God, even to them that
believe" (1:12). The word tekna,
here translated as sons, is a neuter
form and simply means children,
without reference to gender.[13] A
contrast is here drawn between the first phrase and the last by the use of
different verb tenses. The phrase "to become" is in the aorist tense,
meaning that it is a specific event. The phrase "to them that
believe" is in the present tense, implying an ongoing condition. The
thrust of the passage is that becoming a child of God occurs only to those for
whom belief has become an ongoing part of their very nature.
A word or two about the word believe is also appropriate. In the New Testament, the words belief and faith are used as translations for a single Greek word, pistis. Pistis in this sense is a "faith in the Divinity that lays
special emphasis on trust in his power and his nearness to help, in addition to
being convinced that he exists and that his revelations or disclosures are
true."[14]
This describes what happens when we trust him to such an extent that we simply
do whatever he tells us and refuse to do that which he tells us not to do. It
is to such people that he gives both the right and the power to become
"children of God."
"Which were born . . . of God" (1:13). Verse 13
amplifies the principle of belief or faith and causes the term to apply only to
those who so thoroughly reconstruct their lives that they are no longer
children of this world, but children of God. Elder Bruce R. McConkie described
it as follows: "Those who are sons of God (meaning the Father) are persons
who, first, receive the gospel, join the true Church, obtain the priesthood,
marry for eternity, and walk in obedience to the whole gospel law. They are
then adopted into the family of Jesus Christ, become joint-heirs with him, and
consequently receive, inherit, and possess equally with him in glorious
exaltation in the kingdom of his Father."[15]
"And the Word was made flesh" (1:14). As a mortal
man, the Lord Jesus was subject to all of the trials, tribulations,
temptations, and vicissitudes of mortality.[16]
"And we beheld his glory" (1:14). The word
translated beheld means more than merely to see. It means that one has
carefully observed. For this reason, one translator, attempting to bring out
the full meaning, has rendered it: "And we gazed with attentive and
careful regard and spiritual perception."[17]
"The glory as of the only begotten of the Father"
(1:14). Glory is being used here to
describe the relationship that John had observed to exist between the Father
and the Son. The Greek word used here, doxa,
has as one of its base meanings opinion.
When applied to another, it means "the opinion which others have of one,
estimation, repute."[18]
In the New Testament it is also used to represent radiance or splendor, but its
use here refers to the esteem that the Father holds for His Son. John wrote
that during the mortal life of Christ, he (John), along with others, was able
to observe the special relationship that existed between the Father and the
Son, along with the esteem and honor given to Jesus by the Father. This is
reinforced often in his account: "For the Father judgeth no man, but hath
committed all judgment unto the Son: that all men should honour the Son, even
as they honour the Father" (5:22-23). "As the Father hath life in
himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; and hath given
him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man"
(5:26-27). "The Father hath not left me alone; for I do always those
things that please him" (8:29). "I and my Father are one"
(10:30). "Father, I will that they also, whom thou hast given me, be with
me where I am; that they may behold my glory, which thou hast given me: for
thou lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (17:24).
In the first verse of his Gospel, John tells us about the
strong and special relationship between the Father and the Son. In this phrase
he desires us to know that he personally witnessed this special relationship.
"Full of grace and truth" (1:14). When John
observed that the Savior is full of
grace and truth, it of course means that nothing exists in him that is not
composed of these elements. There is no untruth in him, and there is nothing
that does not partake of grace. The Greek word translated as grace is a challenging word to grasp,
with many meanings and nuances. In the secular usage of this period, this word charis was employed as "a fixed
term for demonstrations of a ruler's favour."[19]
In earlier antiquity it represented "the 'favour' of the gods."[20]
Some help in understanding this verse is given in verse 17 as John contrasted
the law of Moses with the grace and truth that comes by Jesus Christ. The law
of Moses was strict justice. Through Christ we receive the benefit of his love
for us as a free gift. Though we must qualify for that gift, we in no way earn
it; this gift is so glorious that it is far beyond our capacity to earn. In
describing the Savior as being "full of grace," John wanted us to
know that there exists in him nothing but pure, selfless love for us, which he
gives freely and with joy whenever he can. Being "in His grace" also
implies that we have special access to him and that he is readily available to
listen to our needs.
"And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for
grace" (1:16). This phrase described the process by which we acquire the
same qualities and character as the Savior. It can be translated to mean that
we can receive either "grace upon grace" or "grace in exchange
for grace." In the Doctrine and Covenants we find this same phrase applied
to Jesus and including both meanings. "And I, John, saw that he received
not of the fulness at the first, but received grace for grace; And he received not of the fulness at first, but
continued from grace to grace, until
he received a fulness." (D&C 93:12-13, emphasis added.)
In the phrase "grace for grace," we understand
that as we reach out with love and joy to bless freely those around us, we are
blessed freely and with joy from above. As we give grace, we receive grace.
In addition, we move
from "grace to grace." The Lord does not wait until we have developed
the quality of grace fully before bestowing blessings upon us, but lets us move
from level to level. We are always in his favor, but as we develop we are
blessed accordingly. When no feeling exists within us except the desire to
bless and bring joy, then he can reach out and bestow upon us that fellowship
which brings a fullness of joy. "Neither pray I for these alone, but for
them also which shall believe on me through their word; that they all may be
one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us." (John 17:20-21.)
As we have seen, verses 3 to 17 of chapter 1 take us through
our eternal development in three stages:
1.
Our
relationship with the Light,
2.
The
rebirth and our use of agency, and
3.
The
process of "grace for grace" as we partake of his fullness.
The same sequence is mirrored in the actual record of John's
Gospel. It begins with the witness to the Light (John the Baptist) that is so
strongly stressed in verses 6 to 9 of the Prologue, then continues with the
great rebirth discourse given to Nicodemus. John expands this with
illustrations of how some reject the light and others accept it with faith.
This section makes up a large portion of his record and includes stories of
great faith as well as some of the great discourses and discussions with the
Pharisees and Sadducees. John vividly portrays the love and compassion of the
Savior and his greatness as a teacher, as he records the Savior's discourses on
the choices that exist for all of us in this world. This section is followed by
the only detailed account of the proceedings of the Last Supper, in which the
Savior revealed to his disciples the great law of love: the foundation of
grace. The structural organization of the Prologue mirrors the structural
organization of John's Gospel.
Knowing the Father
Through Christ
"No man hath seen God at any time" (1:18). Joseph
Smith added, "except he hath borne record of the Son" (JST, 1:19).
President Spencer W. Kimball noted: "It is noteworthy that the Father,
God, Elohim came to the earth upon each necessary occasion to introduce the Son
to a new dispensation, to a new people; then Jesus Christ, the Son, carried
forward his work. This has happened again in our own dispensation when both
separate beings, the Father and the Son, came again to the earth in person and
appeared unto man. This holy occurrence was described by the devout and
prepared young man who was the principal recipient of the vision."[21]
This highlights the point brought out in verse 1, that we are to learn of the
Father through the Son.
"The only begotten Son" (1:18). The oldest and
best ancient manuscript read, "the only begotten God."[22]
"Which is in the bosom of the Father" (1:18).
"The image is used of the closest
and tenderest of human relationships, of mother and child (Num. xi. 12), and of
husband and wife (Deut. xiii. 6), and also of friends reclining side by side at
a feast (comp. xiii. 23), and so describes the ultimate fellowship of love. The
exact form of the words is remarkable. The phrase is not strictly 'in the bosom,'
but 'into the bosom.' Thus there is the combination (as it were) of rest and
motion, of a continuous relation, with a realization of it."[23]
"He hath declared him" (1:18). The Greek word
translated declared means to
"explain, interpret, tell, report, describe."[24]
John completed the Prologue with a restatement of the thought with which he
began it. The purpose of Christ's ministry was to reveal to us the essential
character of the Father and to dynamically bring about his plan. Through Jesus,
we can learn about the Father's plan, discover his design for our personal
destiny, see his power, and feel his love for us. Jesus is the visible
personification of the Father. Jesus is
the Word.[25]
z Studies In Scripture, Volume
5, pp. 127-140
x J. Philip Schaelling
is an instructor at the LDS Institute of Religion in McAllen, Texas.
[1] Raymond E. Brown, The Gospel
According to John, I-XII, Anchor Bible 29 (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday &
Co., 1966), p. 18.
[2] M. Dods, "The Gospel of
St. John," The Expositor's Greek Testament, W. Robertson Nicoll, ed.
(Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1974), 1:683.
[3] Hugh Nibley, Nibley on the
Timely and the Timeless (Provo, Utah: Religious Studies Center, Brigham Young
University, 1978), p. 282.
[4]
C. H. Dodd, The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel (Cambridge: Cambridge
University Press, 1965), p. 263.
[5] Ibid.
[6] O. Procksch,
"Lego," in Theological Dictionary of the New Testament, G. Kittel,
ed., 10 vols. (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1967), 4:98.
[7] G. H. C. Macgregor,
"The Gospel of John" in The Moffatt New Testament Commentary, James
Moffatt, ed. (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1949), 4:4.
[8] The Oxford English
Dictionary (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933), 2:741.
[9] Brooke Foss Westcott, The
Gospel According to St. John (London: John Murray, 1908), 1:9.
a D&C 93:36-39: The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other
words, light and truth. 37 Light
and truth forsake that evil one. 38 Every spirit of man was innocent in the beginning; and God having
redeemed man from the fall, men became again, in their infant state, innocent
before God. 39 And that wicked one cometh
and taketh away light and truth, through disobedience, from the children of
men, and because of the tradition of their fathers.
[10] Walter Bauer, A
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, trans. W. F. Arndt and F. W.
Gingrich, 2nd ed. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979), p. 161.
[11] Ibid., p. 619.
[12] Westcott, p. 16.
[13] Bauer, p. 808.
[14] Ibid., p. 665.
[15] Bruce R. McConkie, Doctrinal
New Testament Commentary, 3 vols. (Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 1965-73), 1:74.
[16] Ibid., p. 75.
[17] Kenneth S. Wuest, The New
Testament: An Expanded Translation (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1961), p.
209.
[18] Henry George Liddell and
Robert Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925), p. 444.
[19] Gerhard Friedrich,
"Charis," Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Grand Rapids,
Mich.: Eerdmans, 1974), 9:375.
[20] Ibid., 9:374.
[21] Spencer W. Kimball,
Conference Report, October 1977, p. 112.
[22] Dods, p. 691.
[23] Westcott, p. 28.
[24] Bauer, p. 275.
[25] For a discussion of the
mission of John the Baptist, see Robert J. Matthews, "A Voice in the
Wilderness: An Interview with John the Baptist," chapter 9 of Studied in Scripture, vol. 5, p. 160.
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