John 1:1

John 1:1

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The Eternal Word

1 In the beginning ^awas the Word, and the ^bWord was ^cwith God, and the Word was ^dGod.

2 ^aHe was in the beginning with God.

3 ^aAll things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.

4 ^aIn Him was life, and ^bthe life was the light of men.

5 And ^athe light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not¹ comprehend it.

John’s Witness: The True Light

6 There was a ^aman sent from God, whose name was John.

7 This man came for a ^awitness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might ^bbelieve.

8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that ^aLight.

9 ^aThat¹ was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and ^athe world did not know Him.

11 ^aHe came to His¹ own, and His own did not receive Him.

12 But ^aas many as received Him, to them He gave the¹ right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name:

13 ^awho were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

The Word Becomes Flesh

14 ^aAnd the Word ^bbecame ^cflesh and dwelt among us, and ^dwe beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, ^efull of grace and truth.

15 ^aJohn bore witness of Him and cried out, saying, “This was He of whom I said, ^b‘He who comes after me is preferred before me, ^cfor He was before me.’ ”

16 And of His ^afullness we have all received, and grace for grace.

17 For ^athe law was given through Moses, but ^bgrace and ^ctruth came through Jesus Christ.

18 ^aNo one has seen God at any time. ^bThe only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him.

A Voice in the Wilderness

19 Now this is ^athe testimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?”

20 ^aHe confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.”

21 And they asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you ^athe Prophet?” And he answered, “No.”

22 Then they said to him, “Who are you, that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?”

23 He said: ^a“I am
^b‘The voice of one crying in the wilderness:
“Make straight the way of the Lord,” ’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

24 Now those who were sent were from the Pharisees.

25 And they asked him, saying, “Why then do you baptize if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?”

26 John answered them, saying, ^a“I baptize with water, ^bbut there stands One among you whom you do not know.

27 ^aIt is He who, coming after me,¹ is preferred before me, whose sandal strap I am not worthy to loose.”

28 These things were done ^ain Bethabara beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

The Lamb of God

29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold! ^aThe Lamb of God ^bwho takes away the sin of the world!

30 This is He of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who¹ is preferred before me, for He was before me.’

31 I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, ^atherefore I came baptizing with water.”

32 ^aAnd John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him.

33 I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, ^athis is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’

34 And I have seen and testified that this is the ^aSon of God.”

The First Disciples

35 Again, the next day, John stood with two of his disciples.

36 And looking at Jesus as He walked, he said, ^a“Behold the Lamb of God!”

37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they ^afollowed Jesus.

38 Then Jesus turned, and seeing them following, said to them, “What do you seek?” They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which is to say, when translated, Teacher), “where are You staying?”

39 He said to them, “Come and see.” They came and saw where He was staying, and remained with Him that day (now it was about the tenth hour).

40 One of the two who heard John speak, and followed Him, was ^aAndrew, Simon Peter’s brother.

41 He first found his own brother Simon, and said to him, “We have found the¹ Messiah” (which is translated, the Christ).

42 And he brought him to Jesus. Now when Jesus looked at him, He said, “You are Simon the son of¹ Jonah. ^aYou shall be called Cephas” (which is translated, A Stone).

Philip and Nathanael

43 The following day Jesus wanted to go to Galilee, and He found ^aPhilip and said to him, “Follow Me.”

44 Now ^aPhilip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.

45 Philip found ^aNathanael and said to him, “We have found Him of whom ^bMoses in the law, and also the ^cprophets, wrote—Jesus ^dof Nazareth, the ^eson of Joseph.”

Commentaries:

Robertson's Word Pictures (NT)

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In the beginning (en arxh). Arxh is definite, though anarthrous like our at home, in town, and the similar Hebrew be reshith in Genesis 1:1. But Westcott notes that here John carries our thoughts beyond the beginning of creation in time to eternity. There is no argument here to prove the existence of God any more than in Genesis. It is simply assumed. Either God exists and is the Creator of the universe as scientists like Eddington and Jeans assume or matter is eternal or it has come out of nothing.

Was (hn). Three times in this sentence John uses this imperfect of eimi to be which conveys no idea of origin for God or for the Logos, simply continuous existence. Quite a different verb (egeneto, became) appears in verse John 1:14 for the beginning of the Incarnation of the Logos. See the distinction sharply drawn in John 8:58 "before Abraham came (genesqai) I am" (eimi, timeless existence).

The Word (o logov). Logov is from legw, old word in Homer to lay by, to collect, to put words side by side, to speak, to express an opinion. Logov is common for reason as well as speech. Heraclitus used it for the principle which controls the universe. The Stoics employed it for the soul of the world (anima mundi) and Marcus Aurelius used spermatikov logov for the generative principle in nature. The Hebrew memra was used in the Targums for the manifestation of God like the Angel of Jehovah and the Wisdom of God in Proverbs 8:23. Dr. J. Rendel Harris thinks that there was a lost wisdom book that combined phrases in Proverbs and in the Wisdom of Solomon which John used for his Prologue (The Origin of the Prologue to St. John, p. 43) which he has undertaken to reproduce. At any rate John's standpoint is that of the Old Testament and not that of the Stoics nor even of Philo who uses the term Logov, but not John's conception of personal pre-existence. The term Logov is applied to Christ only in John 1:1, John 1:14; Revelation 19:13; I John 1:1 "concerning the Word of life" (an incidental argument for identity of authorship). There is a possible personification of "the Word of God" in Hebrews 4:12. But the personal pre-existence of Christ is taught by Paul (II Corinthians 8:9; Philippians 2:6 f.; Colossians 1:17) and in Hebrews 1:2 f. and in John 17:5. This term suits John's purpose better than sofia (wisdom) and is his answer to the Gnostics who either denied the actual humanity of Christ (Docetic Gnostics) or who separated the aeon Christ from the man Jesus (Cerinthian Gnostics). The pre-existent Logos "became flesh" (sarc egeneto, verse John 1:14) and by this phrase John answered both heresies at once.

With God (prov ton qeon). Though existing eternally with God the Logos was in perfect fellowship with God. Prov with the accusative presents a plane of equality and intimacy, face to face with each other. In I John 2:1 we have a like use of prov: "We have a Paraclete with the Father" (paraklhton exomen prov ton patera). See proswpon prov proswpon (face to face, I Corinthians 13:12), a triple use of prov. There is a papyrus example of prov in this sense to gnwston thv prov allhlouv sunhqeiav, "the knowledge of our intimacy with one another" (M.&M., Vocabulary) which answers the claim of Rendel Harris, Origin of Prologue, p. 8) that the use of prov here and in Mark 6:3 is a mere Aramaism. It is not a classic idiom, but this is Koin‚, not old Attic. In John 17:5 John has para soi the more common idiom.

And the Word was God (kai qeov hn o logov). By exact and careful language John denied Sabellianism by not saying o qeov hn o logov. That would mean that all of God was expressed in o logov and the terms would be interchangeable, each having the article. The subject is made plain by the article (o logov) and the predicate without it (qeov) just as in John 4:24 pneuma o qeov can only mean "God is spirit," not "spirit is God." So in I John 4:16 o qeov agaph estin can only mean "God is love," not "love is God" as a so-called Christian scientist would confusedly say. For the article with the predicate see Robertson, Grammar, pp. 767f. So in John 1:14 o Logov sarc egeneto, "the Word became flesh," not "the flesh became Word." Luther argues that here John disposes of Arianism also because the Logos was eternally God, fellowship of Father and Son, what Origen called the Eternal Generation of the Son (each necessary to the other). Thus in the Trinity we see personal fellowship on an equality.

**Other Robertson's Word Pictures (NT) entries containing John 1:1:**

John 1:1
John 1:2
John 1:3
John 1:10
John 1:14
John 1:18
John 1:34
John 6:46
John 8:38
John 8:58
John 13:3
John 14:6
John 17:5
1 Corinthians 13:12
Colossians 2:9
Hebrews 1:3
Hebrews 1:11
2 Peter 1:1
1 John 1:1
1 John 1:2
Revelation 19:13

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John 1:2 >>

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