Week 41 John 1
Genesis & John both start with the words “In the beginning”.
They’re good starting points if I need information about way-way-way-back-when. But they’re not necessarily simple starters.
John says in the beginning was the Word…
I have no idea why John decided to use this phrase the Word but the first thing that comes to my mind is the question: what is the Word? The Word doesn’t seem very helpful or descriptive.
Anyway John says several things about the Word:
In the beginning was the Word – so I know the Word was a Primary…Aboriginal (but so far the Word is just a thing…an entity or maybe an object or substance).
The Word was with God – so the Word was alongside God…accompanying God & right there with him.
The Word was God. Okay…at this point I have to retract my previous idea about the Word being just a floating abstraction. John identifies the Word as actually being God. The Word = God. John’s in the beginning was the Word is about equal to Genesis’ in the beginning God.
He was with God in the beginning. Okay…at this point I retract (again) my idea about the Word being an impersonal abstraction. The Word is a he…so not impersonal and not abstract.
I’m still not sure why John used the head-scratcher expression the Word in the first place. But I have to admit that he starts to fill-in some of the blanks right away.
Note: quotes from Genesis 1:1 John 1 2 (NIV)