The Prologue, John 1:1-18, of the Fourth Gospel

MEDITATION ON JOHN’S GOSPEL # 1 & 2

John 1:1–18

The Prologue

  1. Find a quiet place, alone and apart from distractions.
  2. Be comfortably alert, still and at peace.
  3. Say the Lord’s Prayer. Sing or cant the Jesus Prayer.
  4. Pray for family, friends, neighbors, and yourself.
  5. Carefully read the passage of Scripture. Reread it.
  6. From memory, determine the central points.
  7. John the Apostle, brother of James, father Zebedee, mother Salome, who may be the sister of Mary, the mother of Jesus, writes about 95 CE a “Gospel” aimed at the Graeco-Roman world. John is an evangelist, pastor, and teacher, all at once. His name John means “the one whom Yahweh loves.”
  8. The prologue begins with a quote from Genesis 1:1 and announces that the Logos (Word), who is God, was at the very beginning (of creation), and is in fellowship with God.
  9. The Word was and is, for that is the intent of the Greek verb of being, “‘nv”, was. Impossible that God could be and then not be.
  10. The Stoics and the Gnostics, both popular philosophical schools at the point in time, employed the term Logos (Word) to refer to an ultimate, hidden, truth, wisdom, and reason. John announces that this Logos is no longer hidden.
  11. Salvation was then, and now is, the only great thing, and this comes to us in the person of the Logos. Indeed, salvation is only by means of the Logos, through believing in the Logos.
  12. The great event is that in Jesus, the Logos has become flesh, even dwelling among people in the real world. The Logos is the only Son of the Father. “Only Son” monogenous in Greek, refers to that which is utterly unique in that there is none other like Him. This Son is full of “grace and truth.”
  13. Tying the Logos to the Hebrew Bible, John the Apostle quotes John the Baptist, thus the weight of this witness who tied the Jewish Scripture to Jesus Himself.
  14. Jesus makes the God who has not been seen known.

 

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