Without any introduction, here are the words the Apostle John chose to begin his gospel:
EN ARCHi HN hO LOGOS KAI hO LOGOS HN PROS TON QEON KAI QEOS HN hO LOGOS
Roughly translated: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John realized the staggering implications of his opening verse, so much so, that he virtually repeats himself in the very next verse:
hOUTOS HN EN ARCHi PROS TON QEON
Translated: “This one was in the beginning with God.”
As you can see, this verse seems painfully redundant. But now the reader must stop. The perceptive reader of the first century most assuredly would be in total shock after only partially grasping the implications of this dynamic passage. For in less than fifteen words, the Apostle John completely redefines God.
With no introduction, with no “Get ready; this might be hard to understand,” the Apostle John thrusts his readers helplessly into the very being of God. However, no mortal can withstand such an exposure for too long, so John will leave this mystery as quick as he introduced it, almost without warning. But let’s stop to take a glimpse of this verse.
I want to take a look at some of the mind-boggling implications of these opening words by a brilliant theologian, John, who earlier in his life was, off all things, trying to eke out a living as a Galilean fisherman.
Let me state at this time that these words would surely be considered the highest form of blasphemy by any orthodox, first century Jew. You may recall that Jews are theologically Monotheists. That simply means that they believe that there is only one being/individual who alone is God. This was the most sacred of all Jewish doctrines.
And they held this view not without reason. Notice this passage in Deuteronomy 6:4:
“Listen, Israel: As for the Lord your God, the Lord is one.”
Well, at least that’s how most Bibles translate it and how most Jews understand it. But as you can see, there is nothing in this verse that helps you fully comprehend what the word “one” means. Now I’m not trying to pull a Bill Clinton here, but how we understand “one” is absolutely critical to how we understand God.
And shortly after we take a closer look at John 1:1, you will see why it would be considered blasphemous… and probably why John repeats himself in the next verse, verse 2. The idea seems to be something like, “That’s right, you understood what I just wrote in verse 1. In fact, just to show you I didn’t make a mistake, I’ll repeat it again in verse 2.”
Here is where I am headed: the belief in “one God” would have to be completely redefined, if not abandoned altogether, based on John 1:1.
Let’s look at these verses a little closer. (That’s a good idea for any verse of Scripture, I might add.)
John opens with a prepositional phrase:
John wrote: EN ARCHi “in the beginning”
To help us understand which “beginning” John refers to, notice what he writes in verse 3: “All things were created by him…”
Here we see that the Word created all things, so we have to go to a “beginning” that is PRIOR TO the creation of all things. In fact, that would be before the famous “beginning” that we read about on the first page of the bible (Genesis 1:1):
“In the beginning God created the heavens and earth.”
So, we might want to paraphrase so far what this verse implies. Give me a little leeway, but I’ll try to go behind the scenes and paraphrase John 1:1a in this manner:
“In the beginning, a beginning that precedes the creation of all things, the Word already was…”
Now, here is where John catches the readers off guard. The verb used here would cause the reader to wrinkle their eyebrows. The verb he uses is HN, which is the Imperfect Tense of EIMI, translated “was” in most bibles. But we need to be a little more specific, since the Greek reader would not have missed this.
The Imperfect Tense denotes action in progress PRIOR TO the point in time being discussed. What is the point in time under discussion: the beginning. What beginning? The beginning of the creation of all things (not just on earth but in heaven also, which would include angels). So, let’s state the implication very clearly here. First look again at the translation:
“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.”
The implication: The Word was in existence PRIOR TO the beginning of the creation of all things!
Folks, you only have two types of beings/individuals: created ones and non-created ones. That exhausts all possible options (since a self-caused being is irrational).
EN ARCHi HN hO LOGOS KAI hO LOGOS HN PROS TON QEON KAI QEOS HN hO LOGOS
Roughly translated: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John realized the staggering implications of his opening verse, so much so, that he virtually repeats himself in the very next verse:
hOUTOS HN EN ARCHi PROS TON QEON
Translated: “This one was in the beginning with God.”
As you can see, this verse seems painfully redundant. But now the reader must stop. The perceptive reader of the first century most assuredly would be in total shock after only partially grasping the implications of this dynamic passage. For in less than fifteen words, the Apostle John completely redefines God.
With no introduction, with no “Get ready; this might be hard to understand,” the Apostle John thrusts his readers helplessly into the very being of God. However, no mortal can withstand such an exposure for too long, so John will leave this mystery as quick as he introduced it, almost without warning. But let’s stop to take a glimpse of this verse.
I want to take a look at some of the mind-boggling implications of these opening words by a brilliant theologian, John, who earlier in his life was, off all things, trying to eke out a living as a Galilean fisherman.
Let me state at this time that these words would surely be considered the highest form of blasphemy by any orthodox, first century Jew. You may recall that Jews are theologically Monotheists. That simply means that they believe that there is only one being/individual who alone is God. This was the most sacred of all Jewish doctrines.
And they held this view not without reason. Notice this passage in Deuteronomy 6:4:
“Listen, Israel: As for the Lord your God, the Lord is one.”
Well, at least that’s how most Bibles translate it and how most Jews understand it. But as you can see, there is nothing in this verse that helps you fully comprehend what the word “one” means. Now I’m not trying to pull a Bill Clinton here, but how we understand “one” is absolutely critical to how we understand God.
And shortly after we take a closer look at John 1:1, you will see why it would be considered blasphemous… and probably why John repeats himself in the next verse, verse 2. The idea seems to be something like, “That’s right, you understood what I just wrote in verse 1. In fact, just to show you I didn’t make a mistake, I’ll repeat it again in verse 2.”
Here is where I am headed: the belief in “one God” would have to be completely redefined, if not abandoned altogether, based on John 1:1.
Let’s look at these verses a little closer. (That’s a good idea for any verse of Scripture, I might add.)
John opens with a prepositional phrase:
John wrote: EN ARCHi “in the beginning”
To help us understand which “beginning” John refers to, notice what he writes in verse 3: “All things were created by him…”
Here we see that the Word created all things, so we have to go to a “beginning” that is PRIOR TO the creation of all things. In fact, that would be before the famous “beginning” that we read about on the first page of the bible (Genesis 1:1):
“In the beginning God created the heavens and earth.”
So, we might want to paraphrase so far what this verse implies. Give me a little leeway, but I’ll try to go behind the scenes and paraphrase John 1:1a in this manner:
“In the beginning, a beginning that precedes the creation of all things, the Word already was…”
Now, here is where John catches the readers off guard. The verb used here would cause the reader to wrinkle their eyebrows. The verb he uses is HN, which is the Imperfect Tense of EIMI, translated “was” in most bibles. But we need to be a little more specific, since the Greek reader would not have missed this.
The Imperfect Tense denotes action in progress PRIOR TO the point in time being discussed. What is the point in time under discussion: the beginning. What beginning? The beginning of the creation of all things (not just on earth but in heaven also, which would include angels). So, let’s state the implication very clearly here. First look again at the translation:
“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God
and the Word was God.”
The implication: The Word was in existence PRIOR TO the beginning of the creation of all things!
Folks, you only have two types of beings/individuals: created ones and non-created ones. That exhausts all possible options (since a self-caused being is irrational).
