The Prologue of the Fourth Gospel

Question 1

Meaning of Logos (word)

Answer 1

-in the Prologue, the Word (Logos, meaning word or breathed):
• created the universe
• shone in the darkness
• was before John the Baptist and was greater than him
• was in/coming into the world
• was rejected by his own
• became flesh
• enabled believers to become sons/children of God

The Word is not just Jesus, but Jesus was the word incarnate. The Word includes God.

Question 2

Meaning, Theological and Christological significance

Answer 2

-Meaning and theological significance: ideas about the nature and person of Jesus, the Word made flesh, concepts of life, light and dark, belief, children of God, flesh and spirit, law, grace and truthN
-God reveals himself to humanity through Jesus
-Jesus is fully human and divine, concept of trinity, source of light and life which cannot be extinguished, Jews rejecting the light

Question 3

Themes in the Prologue

Answer 3

-Life: Jesus brings life according to FG (6:68, 10:10, 17:2), Life is linked with light (17:2)
-Light Vs Darkness (1:5, 3:3, 8:12, 9:39-41), Witness is also lied with light (John the baptist is witness to the light)
• Darkness representing sin and judgement
-Glory
-Grace and truth
-Incarnation

Question 4

(themes) creation and salvation

Answer 4

-wedding at cana stone jars
-Exodus 3, I am first used in the context of salvation

Question 5

(themes) prophets and apostles

Answer 5

I am the True Cine, branches represent disciples

Replacement of Moses

Suffering Servant Fulfilment

Question 6

(themes) History and Beyond

Answer 6

Replacement Theology, Jesus replaces the history of Israel

Question 7

(themes) Time and Eternity

Answer 7

New covenant to last forever

eternal relationship with Jesus, eschatology and eternal life

Question 8

(themes) Law and Grace

Answer 8

Pharisees claiming Jesus to have broken the law

Jesus overriding law, Bread of life and Feeding of the 5000

Jesus bestows grace upon those who believe, grace sometimes being healing

Question 9

(themes) Death and Life

Answer 9

Every sign/saying links to eternal life through Jesus

Raising of Lazarus shows Jesus’ power over death

Question 10

(themes) faith and unbelief

Answer 10

• purpose of the fourth Gospel (evangelist)
• Blindness of the Pharisees
• through belief people become children of God, spiritual/physical birth
• grace given to believers
• “God has taken up residence among his people”
• pre existence
• RT Morna Hooker “gigantic takeover bid”
• God becomes flesh so humans may know God

Question 11

(purpose of the prologue) Inclusion of John the Baptist

Answer 11

-John the Baptist as witness: he demonstrates what a good Christian should do (evangelism, baptism), fulfils prophecy and makes testimony valid (two witnesses)

Question 12

Jewish links to the Prologue

Answer 12

• Essenes (dualism, Sons of Light, final battle between good and evil)
• Use of OT and Jewish Scriptures, e.g. significance of light and life
• Jewish festivals (e.g. light)

Question 13

Significance of the Prologue for Greeks and for Jews

Answer 13

-For Greeks: the idea that God incarnate would have been dramatic for Greek thinkers who saw the Logos as a rational principle rather than a living being

-For Jews: the Word/Logos was God’s creative force, but it could not become incarnate as a human being

Question 14

Significance of the Prologue for Johannine Christology

Answer 14

—Titles of Jesus from synoptics
• Christ, Messiah, Lord, sir, Master, Saviour
• Rabbi,Teacher
• Son of God/Man
• Son of David, King of the Jews/Israel
—New titles for Jesus in the FG
• Logos/Word of God, Only begotten son
• one who comes from above
• one sent from the father
• Lamb of God, Passover lamb
• Equal to God, I AM

Question 15

Structure of the Prologue

Answer 15

Chiasm: A,B,C,B’,A’ structure. In John this is A, B, C, D, C’, B’, A’.
D is the focus and this corresponds to the purpose of the Word made flesh: ‘he gave us the right to become children of God’. Salvation is made into a key theme.
B refers to John the Baptist and his testimony.
Marsh (on V12): “The centre of the prologue, as of the whole Gospel, is John’s conviction that ‘the Son of God’ has come. There is one certain and saving truth that Jesus Christ, the Son and Logos of God, has indeed come in the flesh as the saviour of the world”

Question 16

Purpose of the Prologue (scholarly opinions)

Answer 16

-Reid: “The Prologue contains elements of both Greek and Stoic philosophy which would make the Gospel story meaningful not only to Jews and Christians, but also to the Hellenistic thinkers and the educated minds of the Greek and Roman worlds”

-Hooker: sets out the truth about Jesus and his glory, explains so that it may be comprehended. Jesus is not understood by those who don’t understand that he came from above, so we need the prologue. “Before Abraham was, I am”: Jesus was nearly stoned after saying this, but would not have been if the Jews understood.

-R.H. Lightfoot: “the key to the understanding of this Gospel “

Question 17

Philo (Greek thought)

Answer 17

Jewish contemporary of Jesus, linked Greek thought with Judaism.
• This included the Jewish idea of a persona God with the Greek idea of reason in all things, as he defined Logos as the image of God the whom the whole world was formed.
• Logos is not God, but enabled God to be revealed to mankind.
• Logos as breath isn’t literally God or Jesus, just a means of understanding them
• the aim of religious people was to bring life into relationship with reality and achieve immortality by bridging the gap between divine ideas and the world
The author of the prologue presents Logos as the image of God in which we were made, enabling us to see the truth and reach a relationship with God

Question 18

Stoicism (Greek thought)

Answer 18

developed 300BC by Zeno
• the world depends on reason (Logos) and to live a good life you must follow conscience (inspired buy reason). Reason/Logos = God and the universe
• Logos was the mind of God guiding, controlling and directing the essence of the human soul
• to become a child of God, a stoic was to live with the Logos and subject one’s material nature to rational nature

Question 19

Gnosticism (Greek thought)

Answer 19

two worlds: the world of the spirit where God is (pure and holy) and a world of physical matter where humanity is (evil and corrupt)
• in death, the soul leaves the physical world behind. Those with divine light (which comes through knowledge or Gnosis) will reach the spiritual world
• these were not included in the Bible because the Church wanted to assert that salvation is through faith
• FG uses ideas of light and dark, evil and good, physical and spiritual and above and below. However FG is not a gnostic Gospel because it states that humanity is saved by Jesus, not knowledge

Question 20

Essenes (Jewish thought)

Answer 20

Essenes (dualism, Sons of Light, final battle between good and evil)

Question 21

Light (Jewish thought)

Answer 21

• Use of OT and Jewish Scriptures, e.g. significance of light and life
• Jewish festivals (e.g. light)

Psalm 119 “my light to my feet” (referring to the law)

Question 22

First century Jewish literature (Jewish law)

Answer 22

the apocryphal works in NT such as the Wisdom of Solomon, where Sophia, the female incarnation of Wisdom, can be viewed as parallel to Logos. Jewish audiences in the Johannine community may have made an implicit connection to this.

Question 23

Word (Jewish thought)

Answer 23

Psalm 33:6: relates Logos and creation

Targums: (Aramaic oral tradition) ‘memra’ (word) used as a designation for God

Question 24

Links to FG V1-5

Answer 24

V1- Jesus’ intimate relationship with the father, he stops to pray etc
V2-3- Wedding at Cana, six stone Jars linking to creation (Russel)
V5- 20:31 “life in his name”/light of the world

Question 25

V6-13 links to FG

Answer 25

V6-8- John1 19:51 John the Baptist

V9-11- light of the world, especially the blindness of the Pharisees
V12-13- John 4 Samaritan woman won’t have to worship in Jerusalem or on the mountain, John 8:42 “If God were your father, you would love me”

Question 26

V14 links to FG

Answer 26

emphasises that he was a man, although God, and not a phantom, similar to bread of life (Jesus’ flesh being edible substance is proof of his humanity and how he has reduced himself for us)

Question 27

V15-18 links to FG

Answer 27

V15- Jesus fulfilling prophecy (like the one that there would be a messenger before the Messiah) e.g. Isaiah 25:6
V16-17- links to all examples of replacement theology e.g. bread of life
V18-“Son of Man” came down from heaven in Daniel 7

Question 28

V1-9 Jewish background

Answer 28

V1-2 creation by command with spirit present, preexistent Logos and is an agent in creation, Hebrew ‘Word’ ‘dabar’ used in Psalm 33:6 “Word of the Lord
V3-5 life and light linking to Torah (law), Qumran describes war between sons of light and darkness (dualism)

V6-9 indicates existence of JtB worshippers, Chp 20 refers to such a group in Ephesus, associated with Elijah as forerunner to the Messiah in other Gospels

Question 29

V10-18 Jewish background

Answer 29

V10-14 “came to his own” may mean humanity and the Jewish leaders reject him, rejected Messiah triumphs, creator comes to dwell on Earth (“dwell” used in Septuagint as ‘pitch’, tent of Lord’s presence)

V16-18 context of Jewish salvation history and the Torah, contrasts the giving of law with the giving of grace and truth

Question 30

V1-5 Greek background

Answer 30

V1-2 Stoic Logos is the name of the rational principle by which existence can be, Plato:”Logos of God” (the world with everything in its perfect form
V3-5 Hellene idea of light as a symbol for truth and goodness, Plato talks of iving as “being in the light”, Zoroasrianism was a Persian religion with light/dark dualism representing good/evil

Question 31

V10-14 Greek background

Answer 31

V10-14 could mean all men not just Israel, gnostic idea of dualism of flesh and blood / spirit perhaps reflecting gnostic idea of salvation through leaving physical world (however the preexistent creator means the world cannot be completely evil), the gnostic redeemer myth told of divine being assuming human form to bring redemption an salvation

Question 32

V1-2 scholarly opinions

Answer 32

• Carson:he word is “God’s powerful activity in creation”. Idea of Logos isn’t developed later, suggesting its purpose is foremostly creative. Dismisses Bultmann’s theory as there is little evidence for a full-blown gnosticism before the writing of John.
• Bultmann: Logos is “spoken of in mythological language as a divine figure”, seeking earhly dwelling etc. Rejects Judaic tradition as the source of the Prologue. ClaimedLogos was used by Stoics as a technical term, ot in the personal way it is used in FG. Instead “intermediary between God and the world”. Logos (in gnosticism) is disguised in human form to save humans from demonic powers. gnostic myths predate Christianity

Question 33

V3-9 scholarly opinions

Answer 33

V3-5
• Bulltmann: Logos is shown as the revealer (as a light). He suggests light is another word for gnosis or knowlesge

v6-9
• Burney: “the Prologue is the key which opens the fourth Gospel”. To relate this to John the Baptist, JtB is the forerunner who clarifies (in V15) that Jesus was before and surpasses him

Question 34

V10-14 scholarly opinions

Answer 34

V10-14
• Bultmann: this doesn’t refer exclusively to the Jewish race. Also made the point on the Gnostic redemption myth. The evangelist deliberately uses mythological gnostic language, although he asserts that John isn’t trying to present Logos as a Gnostic redeemer.

V16-18
• “And of His fullness” in John 1:16 connect with John 1:14, referring to all we have received, the revelation of God through Jesus.