A Study of John's Gospel

John 1:1-2: He Who Was in the Beginning

A study of John 1:1-2

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

‭‭John‬ ‭1‬:‭1‬-‭2‬

Definitions of the original language in the context of this passage:

-The Beginning: "ἀρχή", "archē"; feminine noun - beginning, origin; used absolutely, of the beginning of all things.

-Word: "λόγος", "logos"; masculine noun - specifically, the doctrine concerning the attainment through Christ of salvation in the kingdom of God; In several passages in the writings of John "ὁ λόγος" denotes the essential Word of God, i. e. the personal (hypostatic) wisdom and power in union with God, his minister in the creation and government of the universe, the cause of all the world's life both physical and ethical, which for the procurement of man's salvation put on human nature in the person of Jesus the Messiah and shone forth conspicuously from his words and deeds.

Observation/Summary(short explanation of what the passage says in your own words):

While there are 4 gospel accounts in the Bible written by Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, they can be better understood to be a single "four-fold" gospel. It is likely John's account was the last one written in about A.D. 85. John's account differs from the other three "synoptic (see together) gospels" in that he left out many significant events in Jesus' life that the other three gospels include, and this makes sense considering John wrote his account after them and decided to focus on different aspects of Jesus' life and nature.

Firstly, while the other gospels are centered on the ministry of Jesus in Galilee, John centers his account on Jesus' ministry in Jerusalem. Also, while Matthew's gospel explains Jesus was descended from Abraham and King David, Mark's gospel explains Jesus was raised in Nazareth, and Luke's gospel explains Jesus is the perfect human man descended from Adam, John's gospel demonstrates that Jesus is God Himself who came to us from heaven. While John skips over significant events such as Jesus' birth, baptism, temptation in the wilderness, and other events, he instead tells us who Jesus is by giving an account of seven different miracles or "signs", seven powerful "I am" statements from Jesus Himself, and by providing the testimony of multiple witnesses who spoke openly of who Jesus' was and is.

John wrote this gospel account so that we who read it "may believe Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in the name" (John 20:31). This gospel of John has accomplished that very purpose for many people just as God intended. The oldest fragment we have today of the gospel of John was discovered in Egypt and is dated long before A.D. 150 which is evidence of its broad circulation by even that early time.

It is important to note this gospel was written by John the apostle, one of the original 12 disciples of Jesus, not John the Baptist, the cousin of Jesus. John the apostle was the son of Zebedee, and his mother was Salome, one of the women who went to the tomb of Jesus when it was first discovered He had been resurrected, just as He had foretold He would be. John's brother James was also one of the original 12 and is not to be confused with James the brother of Jesus who wrote the book of "James" in the New Testament. John also partnered with the apostle Peter in a fishing business and John and his brother James were nicknamed "The Sons of Thunder."

In these opening 2 verses of John's gospel he tells us about "the beginning," "the Word," and that the Word was "with" God, "was" God, and was "in the beginning with God."

Implication (what does this mean to us):

"The beginning" John writes of is the beginning of creation; of all time and space. It is a clear reference to Genesis 1:1 which opens with "In the beginning..." and any Jew in John's day would have immediately caught the reference. Interestingly John speaks of the beginning and the Word who already "was." This is not contradictory, he says this to declare the pre-existence of the Word before the beginning of time and space. This speaks of the existence of the Word from eternity past. The Word had no beginning, He is the "Is" that always "Was". He has always been and always will be.