The Gospel of John was composing by one of Jesus ‘ adherents by the name of John ( therefore the rubric of the book ) . It was written around A.D. 80-95 and the subject of the book is Jesus as the Son of God. We notice in the other Gospels, known as the Synoptics because of the close similarities in each history, that Jesus is portrayed in many different ways. In Matthew he is seen as the King of the Jews and was really much directed to a Judaic audience. In Mark he is seen as the Suffering Servant, which meant a batch to the Romans, to whom this text was directed to. In Luke he is the Perfect Man, an great accomplishment in the eyes of the Greeks and other Gentiles. Although all these facts are true and can be seen in all the Gospels, John, whose history was written long after the others, was drawn to compose an history directed to all trusters. John goes into the deity of Christ and we see this from the really first chapter. In this book, Jesus is the Logos and he is the I AM. In this essay I will merely look at the first chapter of John, in peculiar poetries 1 through to 18 and we will foremost and first discuss Christ as the Logos, afterwhich we will look at the three chief features of the Logos in footings of his relation to the Father, his relation to the World and his relation to humanity. We will so reason.

The first thing we notice when we start reading the Gospel of John is it ‘s close similarity to Genesis chapter one poetry one and that he introduces his book really otherwise to the other adherents turned apostles. All the authors begin with a different expression to the narrative of Jesus. Matthew begins with the geneology of Jesus from Joseph ‘s line, Luke besides uses a geneology get downing point, but from Mary ‘s line, Mark goes directly into Jesus ‘ baptism. But John decided to get down from the ‘beginning ‘ . Note nevertheless that this is non the same beginning as mentioned in the Book of Genesis. Although Genesis starts with the beginning of creative activity, John goes beyond that. A.M. Hunter says ‘no book of all time opened more excellently. [ … ] John goes back to the really beginning of history, even beyond it, as to state ”There is merely one true position in which to see this narrative – you must see it in the visible radiation of infinity ” . ‘[ 1 ]. Therefore, although the Gospel begins in the same manner as Genesis, they speak of two different creative activities. Genesis speaks of the old creative activity, whereas John speaks of the beginning of a new creative activity. For John to state ‘in the beginning was the Word ‘ already starts turn outing Jesus ‘ immortality. One might believe that he was so a portion of Creation. John goes on to state ‘and the Word was with God and the Word was God ‘ which non merely proves his immortality but goes beyond that to turn out his deity. To travel on to state that ‘He was in the beginning with God ‘ seems to be a repeat of poetry 1, but John really reinforces what he is stating to demo us that Jesus was non a portion of creative activity, but he was a portion of the creative activity procedure. He was really the Word that spoke creative activity into being. This is shown in two ways: Jesus is foremost referred to as the Word or in Greek, the Logos. What does this mean? A ‘word ‘ can be defined as ‘a agencies of communicating, the look of what is in one ‘s head ‘[ 2 ]. Therefore the poetry can be translated ‘in the beginning God expressed himself ‘ . However, some still find the interlingual rendition of Son to word inadequate. One writer explains that:

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To a Jew therefore the Word meant God demoing himself in power, wisdom and love. On the other manus, to a Grecian, particularly if he had read the Stoic philosophers, the Logos meant the Rational Principle permeatting all world.[ 3 ]

Even so, in utilizing the term Logos to depict Christ, John presents him as the really Word of God that God himself speaks. Jesus is so referred to as the individual through whom ‘all things were made ‘ . Jesus is hence, as we have said before, the really word that brought creative activity into being. God continue to talk to us through his Son, who is the Word as explained in Hebrews 1:1-3. The construct of the Logos is really deep nevertheless, which has brought much argument. In this transition, we see the chief features of Jesus runing as the Word. We see his relation to the Father number one of all. One commentary says ‘He was the individual bing from infinity, distinguishable from but in ageless family with the Father ‘[ 4 ]. Next we go on to see Christ ‘s relation to the World in that through him the universe was created. And so eventually when we go on to read farther down in verse 14, we see his relation to humanity. He became flesh and dwelt among us. For the remainder of this essay, we will look into these three features.

Looking at the first few poetries, in peculiar poetries 1-5, we see the Word ‘s relation to God the Father. This is seen in the fact that the Word has ever been in pre-existence with the Father. He was non merely in pre-existence with God, but he is God himself. This is besides seen in the fact that he possesses properties of God such as being the Light. God is seen has the visible radiation in Old Testament scriptures such as Psalm 4:6 or Isaiah 2:5. Jesus is ‘the Light of the World ‘ ( Matt. 5:14 ) . In his relation to the Father, Christ can hence be seen as Godhead. Their relationship is so strong that ‘through him all things were made ; without him nil was made that has been made ‘ ( v.3 ) . We therefore learn that God created through his agent the Word and there is nil at all that was or could hold been created without him. To deny his being therefore is to deny that of God. John hence affirms the pre-existence, the personality and the deity of Christ in showing him as the Word.

The Word is non merely seen as the visible radiation, but he is besides Life itself. Hunter explains that ‘the Divine Word was the beginning of life every bit good as the agent of creative activity ‘[ 5 ]. He goes on to state that the word ‘life ‘ can be referred to as a ‘quickening power ‘[ 6 ]and calls the light ‘moral and religious light ‘[ 7 ]. This brings us to the Word ‘s relation to the World, his really ain creative activity. It was through Christ that God the Father created and now sustains, as seen in Bibles such as Colossians 1:16 and Hebrews 1:2. In poetries 6-7, the writer starts by presenting the 1 who had been called to fix the manner, or to be the informant for the Light that was to come into the universe. The writer is certain to stress that he is the non the visible radiation but has merely come to attest about the visible radiation. As we look into poetries 9-10, we see how they tell of the Incarnation of Christ and what happened: ‘the Light was coming into the universe ‘ . In verse 11, we notice that the universe he came to did non acknowledge him. The word ‘own ‘ here appears twice in this poetry and could intend the followers: the first ‘own ‘ could mention to the universe in general and the 2nd to his ain people in footings of the Israelite who did non have him. However, when Jesus came to the Earth, he came to the people of Israel, who were God ‘s chosen people. Jesus would merely be taking to the World through the apostles ‘ work and throughout Church History. This is evidently problematic, but I believe Jesus came unto his ain as in his ain creative activity, but his ain ( as in the people ) did non react or accept. Bruce, who uses the English Standard Version in his commentary, backs this statement by explicating the Grecian term for the word ‘own ‘ :

‘His ain topographic point ‘ translated the neuter plural Ta idia ; ‘his ain people ‘ translates the masculine plural hoi idioi. [ aˆ¦ ] This is non a mere repeat of verse 10 ; it particularizes what was said more by and large at that place. The Word of God, which came to the universe of world in general, came in signifier of particular disclosure to the people of Israel [ aˆ¦ ] .[ 8 ]

Therefore we see how he relates to the universe in that he came into the universe and was amongst the people of universe, executing miracles, marks and admirations, demoing his love, and yet the relationship between Creator and creative activity is so ruptured to the point where the Creator is put to decease on a cross by his really ain creative activity. However, there is hope for the 1s who do desire to take to believe in him and he gave these 1s the power to be reconciled with him and reborn religious.

Let us now look at the word in relation to humanity on a whole. In going flesh ( v.14 ) he became merely like the creative activity. ‘In Jesus, God became a human being, holding the same nature as humanity, but without wickedness ‘[ 9 ]. Through the gateway of human birth, the Incarnation is farther explained in poetry 14a. The remainder of this poetry indicates his home among us. This home is translated as Christ doing his ‘tabernacle ‘ among us. One writer explained how the term Tabernacle could propose a impermanent stay, as the Tabernacle in the Old Testament was a collapsible shelter that was pitched up to idolize God. In this collapsible shelter, the people would travel to idolize and see the power of God. This same writer remarks that ‘the Greek verb eskenosen means literally ‘pitched his collapsible shelter ‘ [ aˆ¦ ] ‘ ; the consonants s-k-n would remind the knowing reader of the Hebrew Shekinah, the word the rabbis used for the Divine Presence among his people Israel ‘[ 10 ]. This would explicate the following the concluding portion of poetry 14, when the writer explains that ‘we have seen his glorification ‘ . The ‘we ‘ here most likely refer to the Disciples who were with him, but denotes the thought of the Shekinah Glory construct mentioned earlier.

The remainder of the poetries seem to transport on from where he left off, in the sense that verses 10-14 seems like a parenthesis between poetries 9 and 15, since in poetry 15 he goes on to talk about John the Baptist. The writer ends this prologue good in stating: ‘No 1 has of all time seen God, but God the One and Merely, who is at the Father ‘s side, has made him known ‘ ( v.18 ) . Here once more, the writer proves the divinity of Jesus Christ by interchangeably mentioning to him as God and as the Sent One, demoing marks of the Trinity construct, which we are non able to discourse in this essay.

In this essay, we look at the deity of Jesus Christ. He saw that He is God, he is Creator, He is ubiquitous and that he is Light and Life. We so looked at his relation to his Father, to the universe and to humanity in general. He was in every sense God but in order to salvage us he made himself human in every sense. The narrative of Jesus is now about to be unfolded in the remainder of this book, maintaining in head who he truly is.

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