{"id":44230,"date":"2023-05-25T18:58:34","date_gmt":"2023-05-25T23:58:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/?p=44230"},"modified":"2026-05-14T07:28:52","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T12:28:52","slug":"how-john-1-was-intelligible-in-the-first-century","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/how-john-1-was-intelligible-in-the-first-century\/","title":{"rendered":"How John 1 was intelligible in the first century"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

A competent writer needs to pitch his message so that his readers can, at least with some effort, discern his meaning. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Did the author of the fourth gospel do this? I think he did! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This post is a portion of a handout I gave to the audience at my 2021 lecture “What John 1 Meant<\/a>.” Here I illustrate how earlier and contemporaneous literature would have enabled this gospel’s original recipients to understand what was being taught about God and Jesus in John 1:1-18. (Most but not all of the references here pre-date the gospel; all are ancient.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

John 1 (NRSV)<\/strong><\/td>Ideas and Texts<\/strong><\/td><\/tr>
1 In the beginning was the Word [logos<\/em>], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God [theos<\/em>]. 2 He was in the beginning with God.<\/td>\u201cSomeone\u201d with God in the beginning who is really just him. Proverbs 8:27-30; Wisdom 9:4,9; Sirach 1:9, 24:3 (Wisdom personified: Proverbs 1:20,22; Proverbs 4:6-9; Wisdom 8:2. God\u2019s word personified: Psalm 147:15; Isaiah 55:11; Wisdom 18:14-16)<\/td><\/tr>
3 All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being.<\/td>God creating through \u201canother.\u201d (Genesis 1:1-3; Psalm 33:6,9; Psalm 148:5; Dead Sea Scrolls<\/em> 1QS 11:11; Proverbs 3:19-20) Wisdom 9:1-2,4; Wisdom 7:21-22. But it\u2019s really just God. Isaiah 45:12; Isaiah 44:24; Genesis 1:26-27; Mark 10:6; Mark 13:19; John 17:24; Romans 1:20; Acts 4:24, 14:15, 17:24-31; Hebrews 11:3; Ephesians 3:9; 1 Timothy 4:3-4; Revelation 4:11, 10:6, 14:7.<\/td><\/tr>
What has come into being 4 in him was life,<\/td>God\u2019s word or wisdom as source of life. Proverbs 8:35; Sirach 4:12. John 14:24; John 6:67-68; 1 John 1:1-3.<\/td><\/tr>
and the life was the light of all people.<\/td>God\u2019s word or wisdom as source of light. (Genesis 1:3-4; Psalm 36:9); Psalm 119:105,130; Wisdom7:25-26; Isaiah 49:6; Philo On Dreams <\/em>I.75; Targum Neofiti<\/em>, \u201cHomily on the Four Nights\u201d; John 5:35, 8:12, 9:5. God\u2019s word or wisdom as source of light and life. Baruch 4:1-2; John 12:44-50, 11:25, 3:16, 4:41, 6:63. For all people. Proverbs 8:4; Wisdom 7:23-24; Sirach 24:4-6; John 11:25, 3:16, 4:41, 6:63.<\/td><\/tr>
5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.<\/td>Light shines in darkness, darkness doesn\u2019t overcome (or comprehend) the light. Wisdom 7:29-30; Matthew 5:14; Ephesians 5:8; Luke 1:76-79.<\/td><\/tr>
6 There was a man sent
from God, whose name
was John. 7 He came as
a witness to testify to
the light, so that all
might believe through
him. 8 He himself was
not the light, but he
came to testify to the
light. 9 The true light,
which enlightens
everyone, was coming
into the world.<\/td>		(This is a sort of historical interlude, an interruption of the recounting of the career of God’s personified Word\/Wisdom.)<\/td><\/tr>
10 He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.<\/td>God\u2019s word or wisdom is in the world. Wisdom 8:1. But they don\u2019t know her. Proverbs 1:22-31; Sirach 24:5-7.<\/td><\/tr>
11 He came to what was his
own, and his own people did not accept him.<\/td>		God\u2019s word or wisdom comes to his own people. Sirach 24:8-10; Baruch 3:37-4:1. With limited success. Enoch 42:2, Psalm 105:24-25, John 3:19-21, 9:38-40.<\/td><\/tr>
12 But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.<\/td>God\u2019s word or wisdom as able to make children of
God. Wisdom 2:12-13,16; Wisdom 7:27.<\/td><\/tr>
14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us,<\/td>Non-literal incarnation of \u201csomeone\u201d to live with us on earth.
Sirach 24:23; Baruch 3:35-4:1; Wisdom 18:14-16; Philo Life of Moses I.162. God tabernacles\/tents among us. Exodus 40:34; Numbers 9:15; 2 Samuel 7:4-6; Sirach 24:10.<\/td><\/tr>
15 (John testified to him and cried out, \u201cThis was he of whom I said, \u2018He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before [protos<\/em>] me.\u2019\u201d)<\/td>God\u2019s Son > John because the Son is \u201cbefore\u201d John.
John 1:20-34; Matthew 3:11 (Mark 1:7-8; Luke 3:15-16).<\/td><\/tr>
16 From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.<\/td>Abundant grace from the Son\u2019s \u201cfullness.\u201d Colossians 1:17-19, 2:9-10; Ephesians 1:22-23.<\/td><\/tr>
17 The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son [or: the only Son], who is close to the Father\u2019s heart, who has made him
known.<\/td>		Christ >Moses: glory. Exodus 33:18. Christ > Moses: closeness to God.
Exodus 33:23. Christ > Moses: seeing God. Exodus 33:20; Sirach 43:31; Proverbs 30:4; John 3:11-13<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here is a colorful, printable pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We know that trinitarian, oneness (modalist), and logos-theory readings would not have been available to the original recipients. And it seems to me that we can’t show that they would have understood this passage in a “Socinian” way<\/a> either. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You’ll have to view the lecture<\/a> to weigh my arguments for this sort of interpretation. But here is the interpretive paraphrase that I offer at the end:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

When the world was created, God\u2019s Word was with him; not that \u201che\u201d was someone else. All things came into being through him; not a single thing came into being apart from God\u2019s Word. He was the source of life, a guiding light for all people. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness didn\u2019t overcome it. God sent a man named John, who came as a witness to testify to that light, so that all might trust in God through his Word. John came to testify to the light, but isn\u2019t himself the Light. The True Light which enlightens everyone was yet to come. Then God\u2019s Word, so to speak, turned into a man and lived with us. And we\u2019ve seen his glory, that of the unique Son of the Father, one who is full of grace and truth. (John the Baptist testified to him, proclaiming, \u201cIt was about him that I said, \u2018The one coming after me surpasses me, because all along he’s been greater than me.\u2019 \u201d All of us have benefitted from Jesus\u2019 fullness, grace on top of grace. God gave us the law through Moses, but now he\u2019s given us grace and truth through Jesus the Messiah. You can\u2019t see God, but his unique Son who\u2019s close to his heart has shown him to us.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Could the original readers have understood it?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[21,15,14,33,92,95,43],"tags":[104],"class_list":["post-44230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bible","category-christology","category-history","category-incarnation","category-oneness","category-uca","category-unitarianism","tag-john-1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44230"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44230\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45067,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44230\/revisions\/45067"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trinities.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}