John 1:1

The Bible identifies many beginnings. The beginning that John spoke of was not really the beginning of something new at a particular time. It was rather the time before anything that has come into existence began. The Bible does not teach a timeless state either before Creation or after the consummation of all things. This was a pagan Greek philosophical concept. Origen and Plato held it, as do some modern eastern religions and some uninformed Christians, but it is not a biblical teaching. Time is the way God and we measure events in relationship to one another. Even before God created the universe (Genesis 1:1) there was succession of events. We often refer to this pre-creation time as eternity past. This is the time that John referred to here. At the beginning of this eternity, when there was nothing else, the Word existed.

"John is writing about a new beginning, a new creation, and he uses words that recall the first creation. He soon goes on to use other words that are important in Genesis 1, such as ’life’ (John 1:4), ’light’ (John 1:4), and ’darkness’ (John 1:5). Genesis 1 described God’s first creation; John’s theme is God’s new creation. Like the first, the second is not carried out by some subordinate being. It is brought about through the agency of the Logos, the very Word of God." [Note: Morris, pp. 64-65.]

Obviously the word "Word" (Gr. logos; Aram. memra, used to describe God in the Targums), to which John referred, was a title for God. The Targums are Aramaic translations of the Old Testament. Later in this verse he identified the Word as God. John evidently chose this title because it communicates the fact that the Word was not only God but also the expression of God. A spoken or written word expresses what is in the mind of its speaker or writer. Likewise Jesus, the Word (John 1:14), was not only God, but He was the expression of God to humankind. Jesus’ life and ministry expressed to humankind what God wanted us to know (cf. Hebrews 1:1-2). The word "word" had this metaphorical meaning in Jewish and Greek literature when John wrote his Gospel.

"To the Hebrew ’the word of God’ was the self-assertion of the divine personality; to the Greek the formula denoted the rational mind that ruled the universe." [Note: Tenney, "John,", p. 28.]

"It has not been proven beyond doubt whether the term logos, as John used it, derives from Jewish or Greek (Hellenistic) backgrounds or from some other source. Nor is it plain what associations John meant to convey by his use of it. Readers are left to work out the precise allusions and significance for themselves. John was working with allusions to the Old Testament, but he was also writing to an audience familiar with Hellenistic (Greek) thought, and certain aspects of his use of logos would occur to them. Both backgrounds are important for understanding this title as John used it in John 1:1; John 1:14." [Note: W. Hall Harris, "A Theology of John’s Writings," in A Biblical Theology of the New Testament, p. 190. See Beasley-Murray, pp. 6-10, for a brief discussion of the origin of the logos concept.]

John adopted this word and used it in personification to express Jesus as the ultimate divine self-revelation (cf. Hebrews 1:1-2). In view of Old Testament usage it carries connotations of creation (Genesis 1:3; Genesis 1:6; Genesis 1:9; Psalms 33:6), revelation (Isaiah 9:8; Jeremiah 1:4; Ezekiel 33:7; Amos 3:1; Amos 3:8), and deliverance (Psalms 107:20; Isaiah 56:1).

John’s description of the Word as with God shows that Jesus was in one sense distinct from God. He was the second person of the Trinity who is distinct from the Father and the Holy Spirit in the form of His subsistence. However, John was also careful to note that Jesus was in another sense fully God. He was not less God than the Father or the Spirit in His essence. Thus John made one of the great Trinitarian statements in the Bible in this verse. In His essence Jesus is equal with the Father, but He exists as a separate person within the Godhead.

There is probably no fully adequate illustration of the Trinity in the natural world. Perhaps the egg is one of the best. An egg consists of three parts: shell, yolk, and white. Each part is fully egg yet each has its own identity that distinguishes it from the other parts. The human family is another illustration. Father, mother, and child are all separate entities yet each one is fully a member of its own family. Each may have a different first name, but all bear the same family name.

Jehovah’s Witnesses appeal to this verse to support their doctrine that Jesus was not fully God but the highest created being. They translate it "the Word was a god." Grammatically this is a possible translation since it is legitimate to supply the indefinite article ("a") when no article is present in the Greek text, as here. However, that translation here is definitely incorrect because it reduces Jesus to less than God. Other Scriptures affirm Jesus’ full deity (e.g., John 1:2; John 1:18; Philippians 2:6; Colossians 1:17; Hebrews 1:3; et al.). Here the absence of the indefinite article was deliberate. Often the absence of the article stresses the character or quality of the noun, as here. (cf. Hebrews 1:1-2).

"As a rule the predicate is without the article, even when the subject uses it [cf. John 1:6; John 1:12-13; John 1:18, et al.]." [Note: A. T. Robertson, A Grammar of the Greek New Testament in the Light of Historical Research, p. 767. See also E. C. Colwell, "A Definite Rule for the Use of the Article in the Greek New Testament," Journal of Biblical Literature 52 (1933):12-21.]

Jesus was not a god. He is God.

"John intends that the whole of his gospel shall be read in the light of this verse. The deeds and words of Jesus are the deeds and words of God; if this be not true the book is blasphemous." [Note: C. K. Barrett, The Gospel According to St John: An Introduction with Commentary and Notes on the Greek Text, p. 156.]

John 1:1 is the first of many "asides" in this Gospel. An aside is a direct statement that tells the reader something. Asides are never observable events but are interpretive commentary on observable events. This commentary reveals information below the surface of the action.

"Some asides function to stage an event by defining the physical context in which it occurs. Other asides function to define or specify something. Still other asides explain discourse, telling why something was said (or was not said, e.g., John 7:13; John 7:30). Parallel to these are others that function to explain actions, noting why something happened (or did not happen)." [Note: Tom Thatcher, "A New Look at Asides in the Fourth Gospel," Bibliotheca Sacra 151:604 (October-December 1994):430.]

Thatcher identified 191 asides and charted them by type. [Note: Ibid., pp. 434-39.]