John 1:1-18 (N11IV)

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God - children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

John testified concerning him. He cried out, saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’” Out of his fullness we have all received grace in place of grace already given. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known."

Each of the gospels begins with an account of Jesus’ origins. Mark introduces Jesus to us as an adult, telling us that Jesus was “a man from Nazareth” whose advent fulfills the arrival of God’s salvation as foretold by the prophet Isaiah.

Matthew and Luke’s narratives begin earlier still, rooting Jesus’ very conception and birth in the prophecies of old and God’s will to deliver humanity.

John, however, pushes his account of Jesus, the Word, back to the beginning of time itself. Matthew, Mark, and Luke proceed by telling about the words and deeds of Jesus, which by the end of those gospels with the resurrection and great commission, lead the reader to believe that Jesus is God. The gospel of John, however, begins with a proclamation of the deity of Jesus Christ. Then proceeds to prove it, not only with the deeds of Jesus, but also with very detailed exposition of the words of Jesus that pertain directly to his claims of deity.

One time, I saw a post on Face book that said, "If God is real, why doesn't he just speak out of heaven and tell us what he wants us to know?" Well, God did just that when Jesus was baptized, God spoke from heaven and said to Jesus, "You are my Son, whom I love; with you I am well pleased.” (Mark 1:11). Now this is a very important statement because this makes Jesus the perfect example of how to live. The relationship that Jesus has with God also makes him the perfect teacher as God said in Mark 9:7, “This is my Son, whom I love. Listen to him!”

In the gospel of John, this revelation goes even further. The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory that comes from the father.

There have been claims of seeing God in the Bible before. Jacob claimed to see God face to face. Moses saw God face to face. Yet, noone had ever seen the full glory of God.

Did Jesus reveal to us the full glory of God? Is Jesus fully God? John 1:1-18 is one of the key passages that deals with this topic. It has implications for the Christian faith and how we should view life as a Christian, and how we should proclaim the gospel. What did Jesus mean by claiming to be the 'Son of God' or claiming to be the 'Son of Man?' What does this special relationship to God mean? If God created Jesus with special abilities and gave him all power and authority in heaven and earth, does this make Jesus another God? How does this sit with all the claims in the Bible that there is only one God? If Jesus is truly fully God, then why?


There has been much discussion about the Translation of John 1:1 in regards to whether it really says that the Word is God.

The most popular translation of this verse is as follows:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

The Greek of this verse is as follows:

En arche en ho Lógos, kaì ho Lógos en pròs tòn Theón, kaì Theòs en ho Lógos.

Very literally, the English should read as follows:

In beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the God, and God was the Word.

It has 3 parts. Let's break down each part with the Greek 1st and than the English.

En arche en ho Lógos,
In beginning was the Word,

kaì ho Lógos en pròs tòn Theón,
and the Word was with the God,

kaì Theòs en ho Lógos.
and God was the Word.

A controversy appears when you get to the 3rd part.  In the 2nd part, it says very explicitly that the Word was with "The God." This seems to be very specifically pointing to the Father, the One God.

The third section fails to specifically use the article "The."  This gives us 3 possible ways to translate this section:

1) "A God was the Word." (Meaning one of multiple Gods)
2) "God was the Word." (Implying The God was the Word)
3) "Divine was the Word." (Implying God-Like was the Word)

The grammar of the sentence heavily favors translation #2 because it just said "The God" in the previous phrase, then with the word 'and' joins this "The God" to the 3rd phrase. Now look at the context of the verse.

The first thing we see about context is that the first 3 words "In the beginning," throws us back to Genesis 1:1-3.

"In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light."

Here we see that "In the Beginning" God creates the heavens and the earth.  The word for God here is "Elohim," which is the plural form of the general word for God.
We also see that the Spirit of God is hovering over the waters.
We also see that there is the Word of God, as God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light.

Are we to surmise that Genesis 1:1 is saying that there are 3 Gods? This conclusion cannot be drawn for two reasons. First, The rest of the creation passage often reverts to the singular when referring to God. Second, the rest of the Pentateuch which are all written by Moses, according to tradition, emphatically proclaims there is one God, YAHWEH. The plurality of Elohim, must refer to a different aspect of God rather than a numerical number of gods.

The next place of context to look in in the rest of John chapter 1. Verse 3 says,

"Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made."

Remembering what we learned from Genesis 1:1, The ONE God made all things. Now we are being told that the Word made all things.

In verse 14, we begin to see who is going to be identified as the Word:

"The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth."

Verse 17 pinpoints who the Word is.

"For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

Then in verse 18, we see a conclusion of what is being said about the Word, in this passage.

"No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known." (NIV)

Verse 18 also gives us another challenge.  There are a few variant texts.  It centers around the words "the one and only Son." More manuscripts, and earlier manuscripts actually have "the one and only God," or "the only begotten God." For a good explanation of this go to: http://www.forananswer.org/John/Jn1_18.htm

The NIV translation does a paraphrase here by adding "who is himself God."  The NIV translators are taking the position that the majority text reads "only begotten God" and it is meaning that is being relayed here, do this is the net effect of this verse.

We will need to connect John 1:18 with the rest of the gospel of John, to finalize the contest of this verse and the meaning of John 1:1, but first let's examine John 1:18 in the Greek.

Theon oudeis heoraken popote
God   no one has seen ever yet

monogenes      Theos (Uios)
only begotten  God   (Son)

ho  on    eis ton kolpon tou    Patros
the being in  the bosom  of the Father

ekeinos  exegesato
the same has revealed.

I have noted in parenthesis where the word "God" is replaced with the word "Son" in some manuscripts. The word "God" is in most and earliest manuscripts, do that is to be preferred. Some translators prefer to use "Son" because other than this verse, monogenes is used in conjunction with the word "Son." The Monogenes God works perfectly here for what John is trying to convey. Notice we have 4 parts to the sentence here. The first part says that no one has seen God. The remaining parts are in contrast to that. The first part has the subject of God (Theon in Greek).  The subjects in the remaining parts are different. We have these subjects:

1) The God no one has seen yet.
2) The one and only (monogenes) God.
3) The being in the bosom of the Father.
4) The same. The word ekeinos is not your ordinary pronoun. Sometimes it is translated he, she, or it. It is an emphatic meant to draw your attention to the one you are talking about. Here is ties in "The Only Begotten God" with "The one being in the bosom of the Father."
 

"The God no one has seen yet." Now Jacob made a claim that he saw God face to face. We also know that Moses saw God face to face. But the claim that God has been seen in all his glory seems to have been unclaimed up to this point.

Now, only begotten here does not refer to "born," but rather to "kind." Whether this is followed by "God" or "Son," you cannot mistake the next phrase.

 

"The being IN the bosom of the Father." Not, "the being ON the bosom of the Father." The being IN the bosom of the Father. You cannot be any more God than being IN the bosom of the Father. If you are INside the bosom of the Father, you are there. You are the Father.

The same. The same as what was described as "The God no one has seen yet," and "The Only Begotten God," and "The being in the bosom of the Father."

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English translations of the New Testament often change the words and grammar to get to the meaning, to what the author is trying to say. Verse 18 is an instance where although the NIV translation is true to the meaning, it is better to take the words literally because not just the words, but the structure carries meaning. It should read as follows:

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"The God that no one has seen yet, The one and only God, The one being in the bosom of the Father, The same HAS REVEALED!!!"

 

Has revealed is at the very end of the sentence for shock and awe. It should be "HAS REVEALED in ALL CAPITALS!!!" HAS REVEALED ties in the first part with the later 3 parts. Whether you have the word "God" or "Son" in the second part, you cannot separate that from the third part, being in the bosom of the Father. Now that the same HAS REVEALED!

We must keep in mind that the Disciple John, who wrote this gospel, was a Jew.  Like Moses before him, who although he wrote "Elohim" in Genesis 1:1, proclaimed there was only One God; that John also could only conceive of One God. Like "Elohim" referred to the nature of God to Moses, the "Only Begotten" could not be another God. Instead, the "Only Begotten" HAS REVEALED his nature!!!

As we read throughout the Book of John, we find what the Word, the Only Begotten, the being in the  bosom of the Father, Jesus Christ HAS REVEALED!!!

"The God that no one has seen yet, the one and only God, the one being in the bosom of the Father, the same HAS REVEALED!"

This revelation was called the true light in verse 9. God also sent another witness to testify about this true light.  Yet, though the world that was made by this true light did not recognize him.

What has God revealed? Did he reveal a million angels slaying mankind for their sin? Did he reveal the earth opening up with hellfire below or brimstone coming down from heaven? Did he reveal the power and immensity of creation with countless galaxies forming and colliding? Did he reveal how loud he could speak from heaven? Is that what the world wants?

In Jesus Christ, we find a revelation of grace and truth. To those that believe in his name, God gave the right to become the children of God and enter into a new relationship with God.

This is a gift. To be a child of God means that he will take care of us. We have a new relationship with God. We can ask God for things like we would ask our earthly father. It also means that we have a new family. We have brothers and sisters to fellowship with and we can help each other too.  

When I was married for the second time, I inherited 5 stepchildren. And guess what? The 5 stepchildren inherited me. Although we weren't very well off during that time, I always did my best to supply their every need.  I remember one day we didn't have much food left and it was going to be a couple days till there was money for food. Everyone came to me and asked what we should do. I looked around and found some eggs, a couple cans of vegetables, and some noodles. So, I whipped up the eggs really good, threw in what else we had and baked it. The suflee expanded and there was enough to last till we could buy some food.

These 5 children always took care of each other as well. They all had chores, but the youngest had severe asthma, so the other children would always do his chore. They were afraid his asthma would flare up. The youngest kept coming to me asking for another chore because the others would do his. I tried making the chores appropriate for him too. They just kept doing his chores for him. Well, I found a way to get things done as well.