Begin at the beginning

Morsels of food are delicious because of the little things, the subtle seasonings, the dash of salt, the sprinkle of garlic, the garnish of parsley, the touch of glaze, or the hint of lemon.  Ahhhh - so delicious!

The gospel of John starts with the beginning:  Εν αρχη.

What  follows  is a description in very abstract terms of a progression of events.  But, the progression is not complicated.  It’s just that it takes acceptance through believing it is true.  It’s not a scientific explanation.  It’s a series of statements that invite a person to believe without the usual method of scientific inquiry.  It’s not a hypothesis to prove with observation and replication.  It’s just offered for one to accept as it is.

The progression is: Εν αρχη Ο Λογος ην -> Ο λογος ην προς τον Θεον -> Ο Θεος ην ο λογος - > παντα δι΄ αυτου εγενετο -> εν αυτω ζωη ην -> η ζωη ην το φως     (verses 1-4).

The series of actions serves as the basis for going forward.  One cannot really continue to any other idea about John’s writings without accepting the above progression.  However, if accepted, the logical conclusion for John is what follows:

Το φως εν τη σκοτια φαινει          και          η σκοτια αυτο ου κατελαβεν       (verse 5).

Several ideas are worthy of discussion from the opening verses of John.  First, Jesus is not mentioned in these verses at all.  God is mentioned, but not Jesus.  If one follows John’s progression, then (s)he sees that in the beginning was λογος.  There’s really not a good English equivalent for λογος.   Translations in this day and age have favored the word word.  I certainly understand why word was used.   Jesus’s message is in words, so when these words were written and transmitted, the word word embodied the ideas of God through Jesus's words.  Others prefer the idea of message.  Certainly Jesus’s words carry God’s message.  Both ideas carry the idea of what God wants us to know and do.

But, it doesn’t appear to me to be sensible to say God’s words or his message was in the beginning. He didn't need his message at that time.   So, what was in the beginning?  It was the essence of God – the spirit of God that moved over the void and began the creation of the Earth.  God’s essence is the concept behind the message or the words of Jesus.  It’s what God is all about, his expression of himself.  That’s impossible to translate into a one word synonym.

Second, word order in Greek is many times not as important as it is in English because of case endings on nouns and adjectives, but even so, case languages have structure that includes some order.  Semantically that matters.  The third part of the progression above states that God was the expression of himself.  Many translations have reversed the terms to say that “the Word was God.”  In that view, the terms λογος and θεος are synonymous and equal in their coordination. Thus, it doesn’t matter which term is first.  The terms are reversible.  That leads people to say that God and Jesus are the same, because λογος is identified as Jesus in verse 14. 

However, since God is placed first in the text, the semantics could be very different.  The order is not reversible because it shows which noun is being reidentified as something else.  The orientation is different.  The noun following the verb is saying that God is reidentified (the function of predicate nominative) with his own essence, which is not the same as saying that God is Jesus. The translation would read, "God was the expression of himself" or "God and his essence were one and the same."  It would be the same idea as is expressed in the Old Testament for the name YHWH, "I am who I am." Only much later is Jesus brought into the picture.  John is doing the same thing Paul did in an earlier writing when he quoted the song to the Christians at Colossae about Jesus's being the image of God . 

Here's the tasty morsel.  God created everything through his spirit or essence because life was in himself.  The final statement in the progression then shows that life and light are identified together as synonyms since they are subject and predicate nominative as well.  The whole progression is a series of reidentifications to show that the essence of God in the beginning is the same God of life, the Jews's light in a dark world like they had always thought of him.  John was preparing them for accepting more of the progression of thought that would follow.



One might say that the first 5 verses, then, are a summary statement of the whole Old Testament.  That is where every good Jew would begin.  I doubt that John would have been an exception to that rule.

The next set of verses begin to weave  the Old Testament story into the New Testament story by bringing it up to date.  The first five verses are about the unmistakable virtues and attributes of God.  The following verses continue the progression begun in verses 1-5 by making the appearance of John the Baptist the point of transfer from God of the old to God of the new.  Verse 14 finalizes the progression by going back to the essence of God, λογος, then illustrating how  λογος wrapped itself in flesh and lived among humans.  God had reshaped himself into Emmaunel, God with us.