Georges said:
jgredline said:
Georges said:
Again....Greek words trying to define Hebrew concepts....oil and water....
Word = Logos = Memra.....Memra is the creative, active Word of God. Part of the Elohim but not El...
George George George
You do Know that the New Testiment was ALL written in Greek right ?
Yeh...thanks for clearing that up...
Did you know that the original Matthew and Revelation were in Hebrew? Do you really think James was written in Greek when it is addressed to the 12 tribes? or 1st Peter to the Jew's scattered across the world? Aramaic maybe, Greek not originally. Unfortuanately, Trinitarian history won the day, and along with anti-semetic Christianity no physical evidence for the Hebrew texts other than historic reference is to be found.
What then do you have to go by? If you are forced to use Greek, do you interpret the writtings according to Greek thought if the concept is Hebrew? Of course not, but that's what happened. Might as well have written the NT in Hindi.....wait a minute.....they have multiple gods too.....but I digress....might as well have written the NT in Hindi using Hindi thought and words to promote Hebrew concepts...the results would be the same...
Georges
I did a little research on your word. Its great news. It affirms even more so the Diety of Christ
IDENTIFICATION
The Gospel according to John introduces Him with three tremendous statements.
In the beginning was the Word
And the Word was with God
And the Word was God
“The Word†is one of the highest and most profound titles of the Lord Jesus Christ. To determine the exact meaning is not easy. Obviously the Lord Jesus Christ is not the logos of Greek philosophy, rather
He is the memra of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Notice how important the Word is in the Old Testament. For instance, the name for Jehovah was never pronounced. It was such a holy word that they never used it at all. But this is the One who is the Word; and gathering up everything that was said of Him in the Old Testament, He is now presented as the One “in the beginning.†This beginning antedates the very first words in the Bible, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.†That beginning can be dated, although I do not believe that anyone can date it accurately. It is nonsense to say that it is 4004 b.c., as Ussher’s dating has it. It probably goes back billions and billions of years. You see, you and I are dealing with the God of eternity. When you go back to creation He is already there, and that is exactly the way this is usedâ€â€Ã¢â‚¬Å“in the beginning was the Word.†Notice it is not is the Word; it was not in the beginning that the Word started out or was begotten. Was (as Dr. Lenske points out) is known as a durative imperfect, meaning continued action. It means that the Word was in the beginning. What beginning? Just as far back as you want to go. The Bible says, “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.†Does that begin God? No, just keep on going back billions and trillions and “squillions†of years. I can think back to billions of years before creation. Maybe you can go beyond that, but let’s put down a point there, billions of years prior to creation. He already was; He comes out of eternity to meet us. He did not begin. “In the beginning was the Wordâ€Ââ€â€He was already there when the beginning was.
“Well,†somebody says, “there has to be a beginning somewhere.†All right, wherever you begin, He is there to meet you, He is already past tense. “In the beginning was the Wordâ€Ââ€â€five words in the original language, and there is not a man on topside of this earth who can put a date on it or understand it or fathom it. This first tremendous statement starts us off in space, you see.
The second statement is this, “And the Word was with God.†This makes it abundantly clear that He is separate and distinct from God the Father. You cannot identify Him as God the Father because He is with God. “But,†someone says, “if He is with God, He is not God.†The third statement sets us straight, “And the Word was God.†This is a clear, emphatic declaration that the Lord Jesus Christ is God. In fact, the Greek is more specific than this, because in the Greek language the important word is placed at the beginning of the sentence and it reads, “God was the Word.†That is emphatic; you cannot get it more emphatic than that. Do you want to get rid of the deity of Christ? My friend, you cannot get rid of it. The first three statements in John’s Gospel tie the thing down.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1)
INTERPRETATION
Let’s move on down to verse 14 and notice the three statements there:
And the Word was made flesh
And the Word dwelt among us
He was full of grace and truth
The Greek philosopher probably would have stayed with us through verse one, but he leaves us here. He would never agree that the Word was made flesh. The Greek language allows us to put it more specifically and, I think, more accurately, “The Word was born flesh.†Turn this over in your mind for a moment. Here comes God out of eternity, already the Ancient of days; but He also came to Bethlehem, a little baby thing that made a woman cry. And notice that John’s Gospel does not even mention His birth in Bethlehem. Do you know why? He is talking about One who is too big for Bethlehem. Out of eternity, the Word became flesh.
“And [the Word] dwelt among us†is the second statement in John 1:14. “Dwelt†is from skenoo; it means He pitched His tent among us. Our human bodies are merely little tents in which we live. The apostle Paul used the same imagery, “We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved… †(2 Corinthians 5:1). This house in which we live is a tabernacle, a tent, that can be blown over in a night; it can be snuffed out in an instant. Because you and I live in these little tents, the God of eternity took upon Himself a human body and thus pitched His tent down here among us. Such is the second tremendous statement.
Notice the third, “And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.†Now John is saying something else. The observation I would naturally make at this point is, “If He was made flesh, He certainly limited Himself.†John says, “Wait a minute. He was full of grace and truth.†The word full means that you just could not have any more. He brought all the deity with Him, and He was full of grace and full of truth when He came down here.
ILLUMINATION
Now we move to verse eighteen to find three statements again:
No man hath seen God at any time The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father He hath declared him
Notice the first, “No man hath seen God at any time.†Why? He will explain it in this Gospel. The Lord Jesus will tell the woman at the well, “God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truthâ€Ââ€â€for God is spirit. No man has seen God at any time. What about the appearances in the Old Testament? God never revealed Himself in the Old Testament to the eyes of man. What, then, did they see? Well, go back and read the record. For instance, Jacob said that he saw God, but what he saw was the angel of the Lord who wrestled with him. That was a manifestation, but he did not see God, because God is a spirit. “No man hath seen God at any time.â€Â
The second statement is, “The only begotten Son.…†The best Greek text is that of Nestle, the German scholar. He has come to the definite conclusion that it is not the only begotten Son, but the only begotten God. I prefer that also. “… Which is in the bosom of the Father†tells us a great deal. He did not come from the head of God to reveal the wisdom of God; He did not come from the foot of God to be a servant of man. (Have you ever noticed this? Although we speak of the fact that He was a servant, whose shoes did He ever shine? Did He ever run an errand for anybody? He did not. He said, “I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will but the will of Him that sent Me.†He was God’s servant. He came to serve Him, and as He served the Father, He served men.) He did not come from the foot; He did not come from the head; it was from the bosom of the Father that He came. He came to reveal the heart of God. He was “the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father.â€Â
The third statement completes verse eighteen, “He hath declared him.†The Greek word here is exegesato. Ago is “to lead†and ex is “out.†It means that what Jesus Christ did was to lead God out into the open. Do you know anything bigger than that? A little trip to the moon is nothing in comparison. Here He comes out of eternity past, the God of this universe, the Creator of everything, taking upon Himself human flesh and bringing God out into the open so that men can know Him. My friend, the only way in the world you can know God is through this One, Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ came to reveal God because He is God.
I am not through with these statements; there is something else here. Let’s put together the first verse in each of these three groups and see what we come up with:
In the beginning was the Word (verse 1)
And the Word was made flesh (verse 14)
No man hath seen God at any time (verse 18)
You could not see God; God is spirit. He had to become flesh; He had to become one of us in order for us to know Him. We could not go up there to understand Him; He had to come down here and bring God down where we are.
Now let’s put the second statements together from each of the three groups:
The Word was with God (verse 1)
And dwelt among us (verse 14)
The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father (verse 18)
Consider this One for a momentâ€â€the angels bowed before Him; He was with God, on an equality with God. The apostle Paul wrote of Him, that He “thought it not robbery to be equal with God†(Philippians 2:6). That is, He did not go to school to become God, it was not something He worked overtime to attain. It was not a degree that He earned. He did not try to be God; He was God. I do not mean to be irreverent, but He did not say to the Father when He came to this earth, “Keep Your eye on Gabriel; he is after My jobâ€â€watch him while I’m gone.†He did not have to do that; nobody could take His place. He was God. Here He comes, born in Bethlehem, a few little shepherds there, not many; He goes up to Nazareth; for thirty years He is hidden away in Nazareth. God, out of eternity, comes down and goes to Nazareth, working in a carpenter shop. Why? So you can know God. The only way you will ever know Him, my friend, is to know this One. “The only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father,†He is the only One who can reveal God to us.
Now notice the third statement in each group:
The Word was God
And we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only
begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth
He hath declared him
When He was down here, He was still God, full of grace and truth. And He declared Him; He is the only One who can lead Him out in the open where we can get acquainted with Him.
We are not through with this. I want you to see something else. How do you divide up this universe? I sat with a man who designed the shield that has been on all these spacecrafts to make their re-entry. He is a scientist who is an authority on heat. As we had lunch together in New Jersey, he said, “You know, this universe is made up of just three things. I believe that God has put His fingerprints on everythingâ€â€the Trinity is everywhere.†Then he explained what he meant. The universe is divided up into time, space, and matter. Can you think of a fourth? The very interesting thing is that time, space, and matter include everything that is in this universe as you and I know it. Then time can be divided into just three parts: past, present, and future. Can you think of a fourth? And what about space? Length, breadth, and height. Is there another direction? Also in matter there is energy, motion, and phenomena. Those are the three divisions of the three divisions. The universe in which we live bears the mark of the Trinity.
Now notice the way in which the Incarnation is geared into this observation.
Time: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.â€Â
Space: “The Word was made fleshâ€Ââ€â€became flesh, came down into space. Where? To Bethlehem, a little geographical spotâ€â€and even this earth was a pretty small spot for Him to come toâ€â€and He pitched His tent here among us, we beheld His glory, full of grace and truth.
Matter: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him.†Because He became matter, became a man, took upon Himself humanity, men could see and know God. This is the time, space and matter of the Incarnation.
Let’s divide each of these into three. First, let’s look at time.
Past: “In the beginning was the Word.â€Â
Present: “The Word became flesh†(in our day).
Future: “No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son … hath declared him.†The apostle Paul, at the end of his life, said, “That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection… †(Philippians 3:10). That will be for the futureâ€â€to really know Him; today we actually know so little because we are finite.
Then look at space, divided into length, breadth and height:
Length: “In the beginning was the Word.â€Â
Breadth: He came down to this earth and was made flesh.
Height: No man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has come from the heights to set Him before us.
Consider the divisions of matter: energy, motion and phenomena.
Energy: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with Godâ€Ââ€â€that’s energy. How did this universe come into existence? God spoke. Every rational person has to confront this problem of how the universe began. That is the reason evolution has been popularâ€â€it offers to the natural man an explanation for the origin of the universe. You must have an explanation for it, if you do any thinking at all. Where did it come from? Well, here is the answer, “In the beginning was the Word.†God spoke. That is the first thing that happened. When God speaks, when the Word speaks, energy is translated into matter. What is atomic fission? It is matter translated back into energyâ€â€poof! it disappears. Creation began with energy. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God, the Word was God.
Motion: The Word was made flesh. He came out of heaven’s glory, and He came to this earth.
Phenomenon: The greatest phenomenon in this world is Jesus Christ. The wonders of the ancient world and the wonders we see in our day are nothing in comparison to the wonder of the Incarnationâ€â€God became man!
These statements are bigger than any of us, and yet they are so simple. We have read them, probably memorized them, yet no man can plumb the depths of them.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.… And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.… No man hath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. (John 1:1, 14, 18)
These three verses are the great building blocks. Now let us consider some of the cement that holds them together.
All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. (John 1:3)
The Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator. Not only did He exist before Bethlehem, but He created the vast universe, including the material out of which man constructed Bethlehem. All things were made by Him. He is the instrument of creation. Nothing came into existence without Him.