St John’s Gospel: Introduction: The Prologue 1:1-18 (First Part)
Posted on January 31st 2010 in St. John's Gospel
This is the beginning of a series on the Gospel of St John that will appear over the next few months. This Gospel is read by the Church during Lent and Easter, but only in small parts. Through the Liturgy it is impossible to have a continuous reading of the Gospel unlike those of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These series of reflections will, I hope, assist you in a continuous reading of this Gospel.
The Gospel of St John is written on a number of levels, the historical, the symbolic and the spiritual. These levels cannot be separated, as the spiritual meaning emerges from the historical and symbolic, and draws out the deepest meaning of the life of Jesus Christ. Every word and every nuance expressed through the tenses of verbs has a meaning. There is no wasted language. Two overriding themes emerge throughout the Gospel, first the systematic replacement of the Feasts of the Jews with Jesus Himself, and second the inauguration of the final times through the birth of Jesus Christ. The end is already being realised. The effects of Christ’s victory over sin and death are felt now within the world.
The Gospel begins with the Prologue (1:1-18), which explains Jesus’ relationship with the Father, through the relationship of the Word to God. The Prologue is divided into three parts, the first (vv1-5) explains that the Word in God becomes the light for humanity.
The first line of the Gospel, ‘In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God’ (1:1) displays a conscious relationship with the opening of the Book of Genesis, ‘In the beginning’. This beginning is prior to time. The deliberate use of the imperfect tense by St John expresses the timelessness of the relationship between God and the Word. This relationship is dynamic rather than static. The English word ‘with’ does not do justice to the true meaning of the Greek word ‘pros’ which is best expressed as ‘turning towards’. So the Word is turned towards God. The literal meaning of the next phrase is ‘Everything that God was, so the Word was’. St John is setting the scene for a proper understanding of the Incarnation, which is to demonstrate that there is no lack of divinity in Jesus Christ.