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John 1:1 meaning
There is no apparent parallel Gospel account of John 1:1.
The Gospel of John was the last of the four Gospels to be published. It was not written for any one group or persuasion of people. John’s Gospel was written for everyone—Jews and Gentiles, believers and unbelievers—and it sharply focuses on the deity of Jesus. This is in contrast to the other Gospel accounts:
Thus, John introduces his Gospel account with a prologue that describes Jesus’s existence in eternity past, His divine identity (v 1), His role in creation, His incarnation, and the grace of His salvation (John 1:1-18). Jesus is identified in v 1 as the Word.
The purpose of John’s Gospel is clearly expressed near the conclusion of his Gospel,
“Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.”
(John 20:30-31)
According to this statement, there are two purposes of this Gospel.
Therefore, The Gospel of John was written for both unbelievers and believers. And as we will see, it seems to have been written for both a Greek (Gentile) audience as well as a Jewish audience. Biblically speaking, Jews + Gentiles includes all of humanity, so John’s Gospel was intended for everyone.
The author of this Gospel was John, one of Jesus’s twelve disciples (Matthew 10:2). John was a fisherman from the district of Galilee before being called to follow Jesus, alongside his brother James (Matthew 4:21-22). John was one of Jesus’s closest followers. John appears to refer to himself in his Gospel account as “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 19:26, 20:2, 21:7, 21:20).
Growing up in Galilee, and likely going to synagogue (a Jewish meeting place similar to a modern church), John would have been taught and become familiar with the Old Testament scriptures. John boldly taught to the Jews within Jerusalem during the days immediately following Jesus’s death, resurrection, and ascension (Acts 3-4:31). Years later, when Peter reported that the Roman centurion, Cornelius, believed in Jesus, it appears that John may still have been in Judea preaching and teaching the Gospel (Acts 11:1).
Decades later, perhaps after the execution and martyrdom of Peter and Paul in the 60’s A.D., church tradition places John pastoring as the elder of the Greek-Roman city of Ephesus. While in Ephesus, John would have encountered and likely become familiar with the concepts of Greek philosophers such as Plato, Aristotle, and others. Thus, John’s background gave him a comprehensive capacity to speak uniformly to both Jews and Greeks.
Eventually John was exiled to the isle of Patmos because of his faith. This exile was possibly toward the end of the Roman Emperor Domitian’s reign which ended in 96 A.D. This might mean John was on Patmos in 95 A.D. It was while John was at Patmos that he received a vision and wrote it down as the Book of Revelation (Revelation 1:9).
It is believed that John wrote his Gospel account somewhere around this same time. This would mean that his Gospel account has the full benefit of his life experience spanning the complete spectrum of being a Jewish follower of Jesus in Israel all the way to being a minister to Greek converts in the Roman Empire.
John also authored three epistles (letters): 1 John, 2 John, and 3 John.
The time John lived with and was discipled by Jesus played an essential role in telling his Gospel. John’s (likely) upbringing in Galilee (northern Israel), his evangelism in Judea (southern Israel), and his role in the Jewish church (Jews who believed in Jesus as their savior and Messiah) seasoned him with understanding of his fellow countrymen. Likewise, John’s two or more decades of leading the church in Ephesus gave him insights into the Greek heart and mind.
From the very first sentence, the Holy Spirit seemed to use both John’s Jewish and Greek experiences in communicating this Gospel account.
The Gospel according to John opens with a three-phrased sentence:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (v 1).
The Bible Says commentary will analyze each of these three phrases in turn, beginning with its dynamic first phrase. This commentary will begin by analyzing the first phrase one expression and term at a time:
1a. In the beginning…
1b. …was...
1c. … the Word.
1a. In the beginning…
The first three words of the opening phrase of John’s Gospel are: In the beginning.
This expression is an overt allusion to the first verse of Hebrew scripture, Genesis 1:1, which also begins with the phrase: “In the beginning.”
The beginning which both the book of Genesis and the Gospel of John are referencing is the beginning of the world’s creation,
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
(Genesis 1:1)
The expression, “the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1), describe the totality of what was created (Colossians 1:16-17). The “heavens and the earth” describe the physical universe, with all of its matter, its vast space, its principles and laws such as gravitational forces, mathematics, and time. They also encompass all living creatures and beings apart from the Creator. “The heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1) describe the spiritual universe of the heavens, with all its angelic beings, moral laws, and love. This would include spiritual beings as well as “thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities” (Colossians 1:16).
Genesis describes this creative moment of coming into existence as “the beginning” (Genesis 1:1).
In opening his Gospel with the phrase—In the beginning—John harkens back to Genesis 1:1 and draws to mind all the implications and presumptions of the Genesis account. There is every indication that Jesus and His followers took this creation account as a literal occurrence. For example, Jesus describes a literal creation in Mark 13:19. Luke 3:38 includes Adam in the lineage of Christ and refers to Adam as being created by God.
John’s Jewish readers would have instantly recognized the parallel reference to Genesis 1:1 and its theme of creation and divine authority. They also would have understood and sensed the meaningful freight that these three words bore.
John’s Greek readers would likely have had a similar, albeit different, experience when they encountered his opening expression—In the beginning
Just as the words In the beginning are a perfect parallel to Genesis 1:1 and ground John’s Gospel in the beginning of creation, it also employs identical terminology the Greeks used in their quest to discover “the Arché”—the Founding Principle or Element that establishes all things.
The Hebrew scripture of Genesis 1:1 would not likely have come to mind to John’s Greek audience, unless they had read or heard it. (Greek Christians likely would know Genesis 1:1. Unbelieving Greeks would have been less likely to know it).
But believing and unbelieving Greek readers alike would have been able to recognize that John was describing the creation of the cosmos from their familiarity with Greek mythology and philosophy.
Greek mythology and Greek philosophy had many versions concerning creation, but they were essentially two competing accounts. John’s Gospel better aligned with the philosophical account.
The Greek’s mythological account of the beginning starts with Chaos. Chaos was a disordered, primordial void or chasm from which powerful entities emerged, including Gaia—mother earth. Gaia gave birth to Uranus (the heavens). Uranus became Gaia’s consort and the two produced the Titans who in turn both produced the Olympian Gods, who eventually overthrew them, and created and refashioned various ages of men. This brief summary is one Greek account of the beginning. From chaos (disorder) comes cosmos (order).
The mythological account is false. Nothing in all known human experience supports the idea of chaos creating order. Further, this chaos account runs counter to the Bible’s claim that God (the perfectly ordered and all-powerful Being) created the beginning of the cosmos.
The ancient mythological chaos account is in many respects an intellectual predecessor to the modern materialistic explanations of the cosmos. These materialistic explanations are also grounded in the notion that purposeless chaos and random chance will inevitably create order, information, and purpose.
Greek philosophy largely rejected this mythological account of the beginning.
With few exceptions, Greek philosophy insisted that there was a founding principle or substance that established the cosmic order in the beginning. The Greeks referred to this founding principle, their in the beginning, as “the Arché.” The Greek word for beginning is Arché.
Starting with the first pre-Socratic philosopher Thales (624-546 B.C.), Greek philosophy became an intellectual quest to discover the Arché principle or element. Thales proposed that the Arché element was water, in part because water is essential for life. Over the centuries, different Greek philosophers argued for many substances and ideas as the Arché—including air, fire/change, permanence/immutability, eros/desire, nous/mind, and eventually the “Logos.” The Greek word Logos occurs in verse 1 and is translated as Word.
Therefore, in verse 1, John is claiming that Jesus is God, and created all things, while also claiming that Jesus is the Logos, the Arché of all things. He is therefore claiming that Jesus is the creator and founding first principle in language that would resonate with a mixed audience of Jews and Greeks.
The philosophic quest to discover or determine the Arché principle was still being discussed by the Greeks well into the first century A.D. (see Paul at Mars Hill—Acts 17:16-34) while John led the church at Ephesus. It would seem John stepped directly into that conversation, asserting that “Jesus is the Logos,” therefore He is the first principle, “the Arché.”
In the opening phrase of John’s Gospel—In the beginning—the Greek word that is translated as the beginning is “ἀρχῇ” (G746—pronounced: “Ar-ché”). This word is the exact term which the Greeks used for Arché—the founding principle of all things.
When Greek-minded readers encountered John’s opening phrase—In the beginning—they would have instantly recognized that he was speaking from and/or into their philosophic tradition. John crafted a sentence that managed to encompass the founding philosophical tradition of both Jews and Greeks.
Moreover, John identified what this founding principle (Arché) was—the Word, which is the Logos.
From a Greek perspective, John’s phrase—In the beginning was the Word—is tantamount to saying: “The Arché Principle is the Word.” The Greek term that is translated as Word throughout John 1:1 is the word: λόγος (G3056—pronounced: “Lo-gos”).
We will discuss the Greek concept of Logos in much greater detail later in this commentary. For now, suffice it to say that Logos refers to the idea(s) of reason and speech.
When John identified the Arché Principle as the Logos, he was not saying anything altogether new to the Greeks. Since at least the time of Plato and Aristotle in the fourth century B.C., the belief that the Logos was the Arché Principle was the prevailing philosophic opinion. What is new in John’s Gospel is that he identifies Jesus, the Jewish Messiah, as being a tangible and human expression of the eternal Logos.
Over the course of the prologue to his Gospel account (John 1:1-18), John will put forth seventeen ideas and/or philosophic propositions concerning the Logos/Arché Principle.
The first kinds of ideas about the Logos/Arché Principle John presented would have been in general alignment with the standards of Greek philosophy at that time. Taken alone, these propositions would add little to nothing new to the conversation. But they would demonstrate John’s firm grasp of the subject and establish his credibility to contribute to it. And in establishing that credibility, they would lay a foundation for his incredible claim that a Jewish rabbi was actually the eternal “Logos” in the form of human flesh.
John winsomely begins with what would have been easy-to-accept statements for Greeks:
But the second kinds of statements John makes regarding the Logos/Arché Principle would have introduced modestly new concepts to the ongoing philosophic conversation. These new ideas would have been intriguing and likely sparked curiosity among the Greeks without being overly shocking. These ideas probably would have allowed the Greeks to explore things further within their existing framework.
John shares these types of propositions next, using them as stepping stones to lead to his more astonishing claims:
8. The light of the Logos/Arché Principle shines in the darkness and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:5)
9. A man (named John) came from God to testify about the Logos/Arché Principle to help people believe. (John 1:6-7)
10. The Logos/Arché Principle enlightens all men. (John 1:9)
But the third kind of statements John made about the Logos/Arché Principle would have radically transcended anything the Greeks had ever imagined. These claims would have forced them to reexamine their previously held conceptions about the Logos/Arché Principle and all that is.
Unlike the abstract and impersonal Logos/Arche Principle of Greek philosophy, John presents a Logos that is personal, incarnate, and central to not only creation but also the redemption of the world. This would have challenged Greeks to rethink the very nature of divinity and existence. John proposes that the Jewish Messiah, Jesus, was the eternal Logos in human form.
11. The Logos/Arché Principle came but was not received, even by His own. (John 1:11)
12. But whoever receives the Logos/Arché Principle by faith will become a child of God. (John 1:12-13)
13. The Logos/Arché Principle became flesh and dwelt among us. (John 1:14a)
14. And we have seen the glory of the Logos/Arché Principle. (John 1:14b)
15. In the fullness of the Logos/Arché Principle we have received grace upon grace. (John 1:16)
Finally, John concludes his prologue concerning the Logos/Arché Principle by returning to the second kind of comments—the more modestly new philosophic claims. These comments bolster his game-changing assertions, while easing his Greek-minded readers back into more familiar territory. John’s prologue gives his readers something to think long and hard about. But its concluding remarks craft a thoughtful closure which leaves his audience with something to ponder rather than being unnecessarily provocative.
16. The Logos/Arché Principle created the grace and truth upon which the moral universe is established.
(John 1:17)
17. The Logos/Arché Principle reveals God to man.
(John 1:18)
It is amazing how John so ably and fully gathers both the Hebrew and Greek traditions as he introduces the Gospel of Jesus. And he brilliantly starts this gathering with three words: In the beginning.
Whether Jew or Greek, John takes his readers back to the first beginning and the Arché Principle when God created all that is, that is not Himself—i.e. “the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1).
1b. In the beginning was…
We have seen how John’s opening phrase—In the beginning was the Word—conjures the moment of God’s creation of the heavens and the earth to introduce his Gospel of Jesus.
But John does not simply restate Genesis 1:1. After opening with the familiar expression In the beginning, John does not go on to quote the remainder of Genesis 1:1 as one might expect. John does not state the second half of the verse “… God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1b). Instead, John goes in a different direction and surprises his readers who were familiar with the Hebrew scriptures.
Instead of describing what God actively did in the beginning, John writes who God was in the beginning.
In the beginning, was the Word (God).
The Word (God) was already present in the beginning.
Thus, if we read his opening phrase carefully, we see that John does not merely begin at Genesis 1:1 and the creation of the world. John reaches even further back in time, beyond time itself, beyond the beginning, and into eternity past to establish the Gospel.
The effective meaning of the word—was—in this expression is enormous. It may be the most consequential use of was ever written.
In John’s phrase In the beginning was, the verb—was—serves as a linking verb indicating existence. In this context, was suggests an eternal state of being that is continuous and timeless, unbound by the constraints of creation or time. This use of was implies that something existed before and during the beginning, emphasizing eternal existence.
This eternal something is the Word.
In John’s complete expression In the beginning was the Word, the verb was establishes the Word's existence at the time of the beginning. This signifies that the Word (Logos) existed before “God created the heavens and the earth” (Genesis 1:1b).
The verb was subtly, but powerfully, underscores the pre-existence and eternality of the Word. That means that the human Jesus pre-existed the creation of humans.
The Word was not a created entity but was already present when everything else began. By linking the Word to the beginning, the verb was emphasizes the foundational and infinitely ancient nature of the Word, setting the stage for Christ’s divine and eternal character in the unfolding narrative of the Gospel.
The beginning of the Gospel of Jesus, therefore, begins even before the beginning.
The Apostle Paul echoes this point with less subtlety when he writes how the good news of Jesus began “before the foundation of the world” (Ephesians 1:4).
1c. In the beginning was the Word…
The most important term in John’s opening expression, John 1:1, and indeed within the entire prologue to his Gospel is the term: the Word.
The Word is God (v 1c) the Son. The Word became human (John 1:14). His human name was Jesus and He was the Christ (Messiah) (John 1:16). Before He became human, Jesus eternally existed before the creation of the world. As the Word, Jesus always was.
The word Jesus is a transliteration of the Hebrew name “Joshua” which means “Yahweh is salvation.” Jesus is God in human flesh, and salvation in human flesh. He who always was took on the form of flesh in order to redeem His creation from sin (Philippians 2:5-8).
Readers may recall that the Greek term which is translated as Word is the term: “λόγος” (G3056)—pronounced: “Log-os.”
Just as the phrase In the beginning drew from both Genesis 1:1 and the Arché Principle, so also does the term the Logos encapsulate both the Jewish and Greek worldviews.
We will explore both aspects of Logos—beginning with the Hebrew conception of the Word.
The Hebrew concept of the Word
The three most significant aspects about the “the word of the LORD” in Hebrew scripture were its
All three aspects of “the word of the Lord” from Jewish scripture are manifest in John’s account of the Word.
The Bible Says commentary, in describing the Hebraic roots of the Logos, will primarily reference the Hebrew scriptures of the Old Testament themselves, but it will occasionally make use of the Jewish Targums.
The Jewish Targums are the Aramaic translations and paraphrases of the Hebrew scriptures. (Targum means “translation”). In the first century A.D., many Jews in Judea were not fluent in Hebrew, but they were in Aramaic. Following the Hebraic scripture readings in synagogue, the Targums were often read and used extensively to help instruct those less fluent in Hebrew about what the scriptures said and meant.
The Targums were oral until they became written during the second and first centuries B.C. They continued to be in wide circulation throughout Judea during the first century A.D. Therefore, the Targums give keen insight into how the Jews in Jesus and John’s era interpreted and understood the Old Testament.
One of the more fascinating insights from the Targums is the Aramaic term “memra.” “Memra” means “word.” It is the term that is most often used to describe “the word of the LORD.” The Logos and the Word are both synonyms of “the Memra.”
Some believe that John’s conception of the Word as described in the prologue to his Gospel account was initially derived from his interaction and understanding of the “Memra” as the “Memra” was described and employed in the Jewish Targums.
We acknowledge this potential connection between the “Memra” in the Targums and the Logos in John’s Gospel. We will mention possible connections between the “Memra” in the Targums and the Logos when they can be straightforwardly seen throughout The Bible Says commentary of John’s prologue.
Now we will cover the three most significant aspects about the “the word of the LORD” in Hebrew scripture, beginning with the creative power of the word of the LORD.
i. The Creative Power of word of the LORD
The Logos and the word of the LORD had a significant role within the creation of the world,
“By the word of the LORD the heavens were made,
And by the breath of His mouth all their host.”
(Psalm 33:6)
Psalm 33:6 points to how the LORD spoke creation into existence by using His word.
According to Genesis 1, over the course of the six days of creation the expression “Then God said” is used seven times before an utterance of creation (Genesis 1:3, 1:6, 1:9, 1:11, 1:14, 1:20, 1:24). Every time “God said” something He spoke His word(s). And after each of these “God said” expressions, God says “Let there be…” or “Let [this or that creative act happen]…” and it is done exactly according to His word.
Moreover, the creative power of God’s word is also seen as He names different features within His creation. Genesis 1 uses the expression “God called” three times before God names something (Genesis 1:5, 1:8, 1:10). In this context, the idea of calling something a name goes beyond how something is referenced. It concerns how God defines and establishes its nature—what it is—including its potential and its limitations. Whenever God called something in Genesis 1, He called it by means of His word(s).
God demonstrated the creative power of His word when He spoke the world into existence and form.
John directly ties the creative power of “the word of the LORD” to the Logos,
“All things came into being through Him [the Word], and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”
(John 1:3)
The Greek term Logos is much broader than the modern concept of “word.” It encompasses understanding and knowledge. It is inferred that when God created the world, He infused it with knowledge and order. And that is what we find in nature. An example is DNA. DNA is a cellular blueprint for building animal tissue. It is like a computer program but infinitely more complex and capable than any program ever designed by humans.
God not only spoke things into existence, He created the information and order from which creation could thrive. This would include what we call physical laws. These are patterns we can observe that create repeatable patterns. However, what we find in each case is that our ability to describe what we call “physical laws” is always incapable of fully describing nature, which speaks of the infinite intelligence behind the creations.
An example is perpetual motion. The second law of thermodynamics observes that in all expenditures of energy there is a resulting decay of useful energy. This means that there can be no such thing as a perpetual motion machine. However, when we observe nature at the nuclear level this principle no longer seems to apply. It seems that the atoms and atomic particles that make up matter are mini-perpetual motion machines.
Accordingly, we have the paradox that a creation made up of mini-perpetual motion machines is incapable of perpetual motion. These sorts of paradoxes abound, and likely reflects the reality of a super-intelligence whose existence transcends all that He created.
The second of the three most significant aspects about the “the word of the LORD” in Hebrew scripture is the moral authority of the LORD and the Law.
ii. The Moral Authority of the word of the LORD and the Law of Moses
The word of the LORD established the Law through Moses; but the moral elements of which the Law consisted were created by the Logos.
The Law was good because the words of God are a source of life. The concept of life in scripture is much greater than the notion of maintaining a pulse and brain wave. It includes fulfilling God’s design for humans to thrive in mutual collaboration with one another.
Moses taught the words of the LORD so that his people might live (Leviticus 18:5, Deuteronomy 4:1, 30:19-20, Psalm 119:144). The core commands God gave so people might live/thrive are relational in nature: to love God and love others (Matthew 22:37-39). The source and capacity for this kind of relational fellowship comes from God. The Law is a reflection of the Word. The book of James calls it the “law of liberty” because it sets us free from sin and deception that we might live according to God’s design and live (James 1:25).
John appears to claim in the prologue that the Logos was the source of life:
“In Him was life…” (John 1:4a)
The Law was also good because the words of God were a source of illumination. It not only reflects the Word, it also shows us the path that leads to life.
The psalmist testifies to this when he describes how God’s word provides moral guidance and light,
“You word is a lamp to my feet
And a light to my path.”
(Psalm 119:105)
John describes the Word in similar terms. The Logos’s “life was the light of men” (John 1:4b). In this context, the Logos’s “life” includes His instruction through His teachings and the example of His actions.
John then goes on to describe how the Word’s teachings and example illuminate reality:
“The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.”
(John 1:5)
Both the Logos and the Law illuminate reality and provide light to live by. They show the way to live according to our design, which will lead to our greatest fulfillment.
It is also worth noting a simple but important truth, namely that the Law of Moses consisted of written words.
The Law was not primarily conveyed by means of pictures, images, or dreams. It was conveyed from God to man, and from person to person through words. And not just anyone’s words. The Law consisted of God’s words.
The Law was enunciated and put forth by the word of the LORD. God transmitted His Law to Moses through His own words. These words were written for our instruction (1 Corinthians 10:6, 2 Timothy 3:16). Therefore, the Law of Moses has absolute moral authority because it came directly from God.
“Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice and said, ‘All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do!’ Moses wrote down all the words of the LORD.”
(Exodus 24:3-4a)
This passage in Exodus not only describes how the Law was delivered to Moses and then recounted to the people in words, it also describes how the people entered into its covenant by the voice of their own words. Moses then wrote down the words of the Law.
Thus, the entire Law delivered through Moses was conveyed and confirmed through words.
Moreover, the Jewish Targums of Exodus 20:1 specify that it was the Word of the LORD who spoke the Ten Commandments,
“And [the Word of the LORD] spoke all [the excellency of] these words saying:”
(Targum Jerusalem, Exodus 20:1)
The Targum’s teaching in this passage is [bracketed and boldfaced]. It is an interpretation of what the Hebrew scriptures originally said, which was, “Then God spoke all these words saying…” (Exodus 20:1).
Notice how the Targum switches “God” (“Elohim”) for “the Word of the LORD.” In this Targum teaching that was widely accepted by the Jews of Jesus’s era, the “Memra” (the Aramaic term for Logos/Word) appears to be equated with God.
Towards the end of his Gospel’s prologue, John writes about the Law and its relationship to the Logos. John begins with a straightforward fact:
“For the Law was given through Moses” (John 1:17a).
But after stating this fact, John immediately goes on to assert that the Word created the grace and truth upon which the Law of Moses was based and toward which it was aimed:
“grace and truth were realized through Jesus Christ [the Logos]” (John 1:17b).
Two brief analogies can help us better understand the relationship between the Logos (identified as Jesus, the Messiah) and the Law of Moses as revealed in John 1:17.
The first analogy is the mailman-author analogy. Moses was the mailman who delivered the letter of God’s Law to His people. The Logos is the Author of that letter.
The second analogy is the atomic elements analogy. Moses could be thought of as a craftsman who fashioned a table of stone. But the Logos created the atomic elements of which all stone, including the stone of the table, consists. The atomic elements of the Law are grace and truth. The elements of grace and truth were called into being by the Logos.
Moreover, the Logos also created Moses, who delivered the Law.
John 1:17 connects the Logos to the Law by demonstrating how the Word created both the Law and lawgiver. Therefore, John 1:17 pertains to both the Creative Power of the word of the LORD discussed in point i and the word of the LORD’s Moral Authority discussed in this point, ii.
The third and last significant aspect about the “the word of the LORD” in Hebrew scripture, is its prophetic nature.
iii. The Prophetic Nature of the word of the LORD
The word of the LORD and the Logos prophetically reveal God’s heart and truth about the world He created.
The word of the LORD was prophetic in the fullest meaning of “prophetic.” Prophecy does not only mean predictions of the future. Prophecy also reveals hard-to-see truths about all reality—including the past and present.
The word of the LORD is prophetic in its very nature, because it reveals truth about reality.
When the LORD declares something—whatever He declares is true and upright (Psalm 19:9b, 33:4). What God’s word declares simply is. This is why God’s word is a light (Psalm 119:105). Light is required to be able to see. And we have already seen how John will describe the Logos as “the Light of men” (John 1:4-5).
The word of the LORD is prophetic in nature because it expresses God’s will for our lives. The Word is an expression of God’s will. Throughout the Old Testament, the Hebrew scriptures demonstrate how the word of the LORD is an expression of God’s will.
But all the words of the divine messages and prophetic utterances combined were not as revealing of God as when the Logos revealed God Himself to humanity,
“No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
(John 1:18)
As the Word, Jesus Christ perfectly expressed the heart of God to the world. Jesus expressed God’s word directly to the people through the agency of God becoming flesh. God promised this to the people through Moses (Deuteronomy 18:18). He delivered it through Jesus.
These Hebraic concepts of the word of the LORD as an instrument of creation, the establishment of the Law and its moral authority, and as an expression of God’s will are clearly present within John’s account of the Word in the prologue to his Gospel account (John 1:1-18).
There are many more fascinating links between the Word in John’s prologue and the word of the LORD from the Hebrew scriptures. Next, we will cover the Greek concept of the Logos.
The Greek concept of the Word
The Word not only had deep connections with the word of the LORD in the Jewish scriptures, the Logos also had a rich tradition within Greek philosophy. Centuries before Jesus was born, Greek philosophers had been using Logos to describe the Arché Principle, the Greek version of in the beginning.
The first philosopher known to propose Logos to be the Arché Principle which underpins and governs the universe was Heraclitus (535 B.C.—475 B.C.). Heraclitus was from Ephesus, which was the same city where (church tradition says) John lived and guided the church in the latter first century A.D. John may have learned about Heraclitus and the Logos tradition within Greek philosophy during his residence in Ephesus.
Greeks believed that understanding the Logos as the first principle of the beginning was key to comprehending the world, as it serves as the framework that rationally orders, connects, and explains everything.
Logos embodies the rational structure and natural order inherent to all things and holds the cosmos together. And Logos is the expression of reason through thought and speech.
Within Greek philosophy, the themes of order, reason, and speech are all intertwined in the idea of Logos. We will cover three aspects of the Logos:
i. The Logos as the Architect of Cosmic Order
ii. The Rationality of the Logos
iii. The Logos as Speech and Language
We will explore how John weaved these themes throughout the prologue to his Gospel account (John 1:1-18) after each theme has first been explained in fuller detail.
i. The Logos as the Architect of Cosmic Order
Unlike the Greek poets, who described a chaotic world that men suffered to make sense of, the Greek philosophers observed an undeniable pattern within nature. This pattern in the natural world was a reflection and a result of the harder-to-see cosmic order that governed the universe. The Greeks called this order the Logos.
Some of its philosophers, like Heraclitus, Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, and others thought of the Logos as the Arché Principle. As the Arché Principle, Greeks saw the Logos as the underlying principle that structures both the cosmos and human life. Logos was the blueprint of the cosmos and everything within it.
The Greek philosopher Cleanthes (c. 330 B.C.—c. 230 B.C.) expressed this concept of the Logos when he said:
“Zeus, through your Logos, you harmonize all things, you rule with justice, and through Logos, you govern the whole universe."
(Cleanthes. “Hymn to Zeus”)
John agrees with the Greek philosophers concerning the Logos (who is Jesus) as the underlying principle that organizes the universe when he writes:
“All things came into being [order and existence] through Him [the Logos], and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being.”
(John 1:3)
We should acknowledge that for John, the Logos is much more than an impersonal principle that underpins the cosmos (more on this later). But before John reveals the full identity of the Logos to his Greek audience, he first introduces the Logos with concepts they already understood about Him.
When a Greek-minded person read John 1:3, they likely nodded in agreement with the sentiment that everything in the world (seen and unseen) was called into being and perfectly organized by the Logos. All the order embedded throughout the cosmos was the result of the Logos.
As the blueprint for everything within the universe, the Greeks believed that the Logos contained the mystery of life. John writes of the Logos that “In Him was life…” (John 1:4a).
Thus, Greek readers would concur that the principle and secret order for life is embedded in the Logos.
ii. The Rationality of Logos
Greek philosophers believed this order was at least somewhat knowable through reason.
Reason is ordered thought. It is an arrangement of ideas in a logical pattern.
In Greek philosophy, the term Logos is sometimes translated to English as “reason.” Reason is the capacity for rational thought, allowing individuals to analyze, understand, and make judgments based on logical principles. The Greeks recognized a logic underpinning the world. The English word “logic” comes from “logos” and reflects the rationality and order of Logos.
This underlying logic, this pattern, this ordering principle, was perceived not through physical sight, but through reason. The Logos could not be seen by physical eyes. It could only be observed in the mind. Rational thought was believed to be the conduit through which the Logos could be understood.
For the Greek philosophers, reason was a kind seeing. It was a kind of vision. Reason was mental perception. Light makes physical reality visible to the eyes. Likewise, truth makes all of reality visible to the mind. This is why light is a common metaphor for truth. Truth consists of thoughts or reasoning that accurately correspond to reality. A true statement is a statement that accurately corresponds to reality.
The Logos was believed by the Greeks to be the principle of rational order that permeated the universe, reflecting an inherent logic and coherence in all things. This rationality provided the foundation for understanding both the natural world and human existence.
But the philosophers found understanding the Logos to be difficult. Heraclitus of Ephesus ( 535 B.C.—475 B.C.) lamented:
“Although this Logos is eternally valid, yet men are unable to understand it…That is to say, although all things come to pass in accordance with this Logos, men seem to be quite without any experience of it.”
(Heraclitus. Fragment 1)
The Logos is supremely ordered thought that governs all things, but it requires having ordered thoughts (reason) that are accurate and true for us to perceive the Logos. What the Greek philosophers were encountering is the reality that we as humans are created beings within the creation seeking to understand a creative work of an eternal and infinite super-intelligence.
In the prologue to his Gospel account, John describes the Logos as “the light of men” (John 1:4) and “the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man” (John 1:9). Given our limitations, to gain true understanding requires a guide. The Word provides that guide. When we receive that Word through faith, we gain insight that can guide us into the truth. New Testament believers have an additional resource of the indwelling Spirit of God to guide us.
John’s Greek audience reading his prologue (vv 1-18) would likely have nodded again in agreement that the human capacity for rational thought and all our understanding of the world is derived from the Logos.
The Logos in John's prologue encompasses the rational order that Greeks recognized, yet it is revealed as an active, personal force with a direct relationship to God—the Word was with God.
Moreover, until the time of John, throughout the seven-hundred-year development of Greek philosophy, different philosophers described the Logos in various ways. For some philosophers, Logos was a kind of Mind, for others it was an idea or principle. But they generally agreed that the Logos was eternal and immaterial. However, as influential as the Greek Logos was, according to their philosophies the Logos consistently seemed to be only an ordered pattern or rational principle. It was never a person.
But John introduces the Logos as a person.
And the Word was God.
When John said this, he asserted that the Logos was not merely a principle, but an Entity imbued with divine reason and wisdom. For a Greek reader, this would resonate with their understanding of the Logos as the principle of rationality while revealing a deeper, more personal dimension.
And after John reveals that the Logos became human (John 1:14a), he goes onto identify the Logos as Jesus, the Jewish Messiah (John 1:17).
iii. The Logos as Speech and Language.
The Greek philosophers also believed that Logos was a kind of speech or language.
Logos represents the rational structure of language and discourse, enabling humans to articulate thought and reason.
Language, like reason, is ordered thoughts. We think and reason our thoughts through words. We communicate them to others through speech. Logos is the medium through which the rational order of the cosmos is expressed and understood.
It is for this reason that Logos is sometimes translated as “speech” in Greek philosophy. Aristotle (B.C.—3 22 B.C) writes that Logos as “speech” is what separates man from the animals and that Logos as “speech” “serves to reveal…the just from the unjust” (Politics 1. 1253a 15).
The Logos is the divine language that instructs, orders, and guides the cosmos into being, and establishes what is good and morally right. Logos is the expression of God’s perfect thought.
Similarly, John reveals the Logos to be the expression and complete manifestation of God and His will, both within the prologue and throughout his entire Gospel account.
This is seen in John’s profound assertion:
“And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
(John 1:14)
Jesus, the incarnation of the Logos (John 1:14a), manifests God’s glory to humanity (John 1:14b). Glory (“doxa” in Greek) is the idea of something or someone’s true essence being observed (1 Corinthians 15:41). Through the Logos, humans can observe and understand the true essence of God.
John concludes the prologue with a description of what Jesus, as the Logos and the Word of God, has expressed to the world,
“No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him.”
(John 1:18)
As the perfect expression of God, Jesus—the Logos—explained what was previously unknown about God to humanity. As the Word, Jesus is God’s perfect statement expressing Himself to and His love for the world (John 3:16).
Jesus would later say that His teachings were from God, His Father (John 7:16), and that He came to accomplish the will of God, His Father (John 8:28, 12:49).
Jesus, the Logos, is the perfect manifestation of God. He is God’s speech, His Word to us.
In utilizing and describing the Word as he introduces his Gospel, John extensively draws from the Hebraic concept of “the word of the LORD” and the Logos of Greek philosophy. Consequently, the Word encompasses the creative power, moral authority, and expression of God’s will as revealed in the Old Testament, and it entails the sense of order, reason, and speech as surmised by Greek philosophy.
2. …and the Word was with God…
After saying how the Word was in the beginning, the next two things which John says about the Logos is that the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
We will dive deeper into the specific meanings of these subsequent phrases further down in this commentary, but at its most basic level these two statements testify the following:
Taken together these two statements speak to the founding paradox of Christianity—the Triune nature of God.
God is Three Persons: the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit.
God is One Person.
Logically, those two statements should not be able to exist side by side. And yet they do.
God is three and He is one. The Word was with God, and the Word was God. Human logic only applies within a logical system. God is outside any system that He created. The fact that God is paradoxical to us serves to validate that there is a God who is the creator of all things.
The Word is God the Son. The main subject of John’s Gospel is Jesus of Nazareth—who was the human that the Word became (John 1:14-17, 1:45). Jesus was fully God and He was fully human. This too, is another manifestation of the founding paradox of Christianity.
This middle phrase of John 1:1—and the Word was with God—speaks to the extremely close relationship the Word shared with God.
The use of the preposition with in John 1:1 may be the most consequential use of that preposition ever stated. (This is similar to the significance of the verb—was—in the first phrase of John 1:1—In the beginning was…).
The Greek term for with is the preposition “πρός” (G4314—pronounced: “pros”). Typically, πρός is translated as “to” or “toward” and describes the directional movement from one noun approaching the other. That is, “pros” normally describes a motion or intention toward something.
But pros has an interesting usage in this context. Instead of describing directional movement of the Logos toward God, πρός describes the Logos’s eternal relationship with God. Stated more simply, πρός, in John 1:1 describes relationship, not movement.
The grammatical reason for translating πρός as with instead of “toward” is because of the word was in this phrase. The inclusion of was converts πρός from describing the direction of a motion into describing a state of being.
Moreover, the word and at the beginning of John 1:1’s middle phrase directly connects it to the first phrase of John 1:1 and all that it meant.
In the beginning was the Word—and—the Word was with God…
This and means that πρός is describing an eternal state of being. Πρός describes the eternal relationship between the Logos and God that extends before there ever was a beginning.
The Word was eternally with God. The Word was always with God. There was never a time when the Word was not with God. And there was never a time when there was no God.
John’s elegant phrase—and the Word was with God—suggests a close, intimate relationship or face-to-face interaction. It indicates a distinct, yet profoundly intimate relationship between the Logos and God.
The use of with (πρός) implies both presence and fellowship. The Word and God existed with One Another in a dynamic communion together. The Word shared perfect harmony and fellowship with God.
Jesus later described this fellowship in His so-called “High Priestly Prayer” to His Father before He was betrayed by Judas and arrested by a cohort of soldiers sent by the religious leaders. Jesus’s prayer was recorded by John,
“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.”
(John 17:22-23)
In this prayer, Jesus prayed for His disciples to have oneness and perfect unity, just as He (the Word) and His Father (God) have oneness (John 17:22) and perfect unity (John 17:23).
And as Jesus continued to petition His Father on His disciples’ behalf, He describes the eternal glory and love shared between Him (the Word) and His Father (God):
“Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.”
(John 17:24)
Jesus’s prayer in John 17:22-24 only begins to unpack the immense meaning and significance of the word—with—in John 1:1.
And the Word was with God highlights the distinct personhood of the Word, separate from God, yet fully participating in the divine nature and essence.
This phrase establishes the identity of the Word in relation to God. It affirms that the Word is not a mere attribute or emanation of God but a distinct Person who exists in eternal relationship with God.
The relationship between the Logos and God is not one of division, domination, or competition for control. The Word was not against God. The Word was with God. And John’s phrase depicts the oneness of their relationship as full of unity, harmony, and love. The phrase underscores the harmonious aspect of the divine nature.
At the same time, the Word was with God indicates the paradox that even as the Word is distinct from God He is not separate or alien from God. The Word shares in the divine essence and glory while maintaining personal distinction. Essentially, this phrase establishes the groundwork for understanding the Trinitarian nature of God, where the Word, later revealed as Jesus the Messiah, is fully divine and eternally existent with God.
When we consider how Jesus is the Word who was with God alongside scriptures, we see that Jesus, the Logos, is an intermediary between God and man.
(Matthew 1:23)
(Colossians 1:15a)
(Hebrews 4:12)
As the Word, Jesus was always with God. But when “the Word became flesh” (John 1:14), Jesus became God with us. Jesus is the embodied intermediary between God and humanity.
How 1st century Jews might have understood the middle phrase of John 1:1
For a Jewish audience, the phrase and the Word was with God would resonate with the understanding of God’s Word as an active and dynamic agent of creation and revelation.
In the Hebrew Bible, “the word of the LORD” is often portrayed as a powerful expression that not only announces God's will but actively accomplishes it. Here is one example from Isaiah:
“So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth;
It will not return to Me empty,
Without accomplishing what I desire,"
And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it.”
(Isaiah 55:11)
This verse highlights that God's Word is not only purposeful but also effective in achieving His divine will, acting as an extension of His presence and authority.
And the Word was with God aligns with the Jewish conviction that “the word of the LORD” was and is eternally and intimately linked with God. It affirms that the LORD’s will and purpose—His Word—was always active and with God from before the beginning of time (Proverbs 8:22-23, Isaiah 46:9-10).
This phrase and the Word was with God and the broader context of John’s prologue (John 1:1-18) alludes to Isaiah 42:9 where it describes both “the former things” (creation and the old covenant) that the word of the LORD had previously spoken into existence and the new things His Word was about to “declare” (the new song—Isaiah 42:10) which describes the covenant and the sending forth of the LORD Himself as the Messiah (Isaiah 42:13).
The work which Jesus (the Word) accomplished (John 19:30) is “the new song” Isaiah predicted (Isaiah 42:10).
John’s Gospel of Jesus explains these fulfillments of Isaiah 42 as the Word became flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14), revealing God and His love for the world to humanity. The phrase and the Word was with God frames his Gospel’s explanation of Isaiah 42’s prophetic fulfillments.
The phrase also intimates what will soon become abundantly clear. Namely, that the Word is a Person, Jesus, who shares a unified co-partnership with God.
In just a few short words, John is establishing credit with his Jewish audience by expressing truths which they readily accept, and at the same time he is also preparing them for the amazing claim and necessary reality for eternal salvation that Jesus is God (John 1:14, 3:16, 11:25-26, 14:6, 20:30-31a).
How first century Greeks might have understood the middle phrase of John 1:1
With these same words, John does something similar with the Greeks. He starts with things they already understand while preparing them for more astonishing and wonderful claims.
To a Greek-minded person familiar with the Logos tradition in Greek philosophy, the phrase and the Word was with God would resonate deeply with the understanding that the Logos is the rational principle that governs the cosmos.
As the Arché Principle of first principles, the Logos was the organizing force of all things. It was considered both immanent in the world and transcendent, possessing the ability to bring order and meaning out of chaos. Thus, hearing that the Logos was with God would suggest a profound unity and relationship between the Logos and the divine, implying that the rational principle that gives structure to the cosmos is intimately associated with a Prime Mover or Creator.
Furthermore, for the Greek audience, this association would affirm or assign divine qualities to the Logos. On its own, the phrase and the Word was with God would be unlikely to assign personhood to the Logos, but it opens the door to this possibility for the Greeks.
The idea that the Logos was with God would indicate to them that the ordering principle of the universe was not distant or detached but actively engaged in a purposeful (and potentially relational) existence alongside God. At minimum, the phrase implies to the Greeks that the Creator used the Logos in forming the cosmos. John was describing more than this minimalist interpretation. He was describing (and opening the door for the Greek to realize) the eternal and harmonious cooperation between the Person of the Logos and God, reflecting their unity of purpose and will.
John was deftly introducing a significant departure from purely philosophical conceptions of the Logos as an impersonal force and presenting a relational and personal dimension that enriches and expands the understanding of the divine nature and its interaction with the world.
Once again, this phrase—and the Word was with God—lays the groundwork for later developments in John's Gospel, where the Logos is not only associated with God but also takes on flesh in the person of Jesus Christ (John 1:14-17).
The Greek philosopher Plato (427 B.C.- 347 B.C.) believed the cosmos was divided into two realms—the immaterial, eternal, unchanging world of the Forms (the world of Being) and the physical world of change and imperfection (the world of Becoming). His school of thought would likely have understood John’s phrase—and the Word was with God—to mean that the Logos is a manifestation of divine reason, and/or that the Logos was the intermediary principle between the transcendent world of Forms and the material world.
Platonic Greeks would not have been far off if they understood and the Word was with God to mean those things. As the Logos become human, Jesus is the intermediary between heaven and earth.
Jesus described Himself to Nathaniel as Jacob’s ladder (Genesis 28:12) bridging heaven and earth:
“Truly, truly, I say to you, you will see the heavens opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.”
(John 1:51)
Jesus told Nicodemus that He is the only person to cross from heaven to earth:
“No one has ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of Man.”
(John 3:13)
And Jesus told His disciples that He is the only way to God:
“I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me.”
(John 14:6)
The implication of these verses is that the Logos is even more of an intermediary between the perfect world of Being (roughly heaven) and the imperfect world of Becoming (this earth) than Plato or his followers had likely dreamed.
3. …and the Word was God.
As mentioned above, the final phrase of John 1:1 paradoxically compliments the middle phrase and completes the opening statement of the prologue to John’s Gospel.
The middle phrase of John 1:1—and the Word was with God—revealed the distinct existence of the Word alongside God. But its final phrase—and the Word was God—reveals the essence of the Word as the very essence of God.
The middle and final phrases of John 1:1 present a profound paradox.
The middle phrase and the Word was with God suggests a distinction between the Word and God. It indicates that the Logos has its own unique existence and is in a relationship with God.
However, the final phrase of John 1:1, and the Word was God, reveals the essential identity of the Word as God. This assertion paradoxically challenges the initial distinction by declaring that the Word is not merely in the presence of God but is fully and entirely God Himself.
The paradox lies in these two truths: the Word is both distinct from God and yet fully God, embodying the mystery of the divine nature as both singular and plural. God is relational yet unified.
Other scriptures in the Bible allude to this mysterious paradox. God is relational yet unified.
When God created humanity, Genesis described God as both singular and plural:
“Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness…’”
(Genesis 1:26a)
Notice how God is singular: “Then God said” (Genesis 1:26). And notice how God refers to Himself as plural: “Let Us…in Our image…Our likeness” (Genesis 1:26).
The mysterious singularity and plurality of God’s paradoxical nature which Genesis 1:26 and John 1:1 allude to is revealed elsewhere in the Bible to be the Triune nature of God—the Trinity. (See Matthew 28:19, John 14:26, Romans 15:6, 2 Corinthians 13:14, Ephesians 4:4-6, 1 Peter 1:2).
When John writes and the Word was God, he reveals the Logos to be God.
The Logos is God. The Logos was God and has always been God from before the beginning. And the Logos will always be God, because God has no end.
Though John has not yet mentioned Jesus by name, the phrase and the Word was God is the first time John describes Him as God.
Demonstrating that Jesus is God is one of the major themes of John’s Gospel.
As Matthew demonstrated Jesus’s Messianic identity and Luke emphasized Jesus’s humanity, so John demonstrates His divinity. And John begins this demonstration in the first verse of his Gospel:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (v 1).
The first phrase—In the beginning was the Word—describes Jesus (the Logos) in terms of God’s eternity and God’s act of creation. The second phrase—and the Word was with God—describes Jesus (the Logos) in terms of His eternal relationship with God an alludes to His divinity. But the final phrase—and the Word was God—emphatically states that Jesus was fully divine.
How 1st century Jews might have understood the final phrase of John 1:1
For most first-century Jews, the phrase and the Word was God would be a profound and challenging statement, inviting deep reflection on the nature of God’s oneness and how the Word could be fully God while also being with God.
As we have already seen, most Jews would have been familiar with the idea that the Logos as “the word of the LORD” was associated with God's creative power and self-expression. For instance, the creation account in Genesis 1 reveals that God created the world by speaking it into existence. It was created through His spoken word,
“Then God said, 'Let there be light'; and there was light.”
(Genesis 1:3)
Genesis 1:3 is the first of many examples of God using His word to create and form the world in the Bible’s first chapter.
But as we have also seen, John’s statement and the Word was God was far more than an attribute of God or divine effect. The Word was not a mere attribute or emanation of God but was fully God. Therefore, for a 1st century Jew, the phrase and the Word was God would likely have been a startling shock because it plainly asserts that the Logos is God.
The final phrase of John 1:1 might have challenged unbelieving Jews’ current understanding of the relationship between God and His Word. For Jews who were challenged by John’s statement and who were willing to consider, it had the potential to lead them into a new understanding of God's nature and into personal relationship with their Creator.
However, if we consider how “the word of the LORD” was described and explained within the Jewish Targums, then John’s claim would perhaps have seemed less shocking to the 1st century Jews than we suspect.
The Targums were the Aramaic translations of the Hebrew scriptures. They were used in synagogues to teach the masses of first century Jews who did not know Hebrew. The Targums often inserted interpretive teachings within the scriptures themselves.
And one of the most developed concepts that was expanded in the Targums was “the ‘memra’ (word) of the Lord.” The Targums expand the role and identity of God’s “memra” (word). At times, the Targums seem to equate or almost equate “the ‘memra’ of the Lord” with God Himself.
Consider the following English translation of the Genesis 28 Hebrew scripture alongside the Targum Aramaic translation and inserted explanations. (The inserted explanations within the Targum are [bracketed and bold faced]).
Here is the translation of the Hebrew scripture.
“Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will keep me on this journey that I take, and will give me food to eat and garments to wear, and I return to my father’s house in safety, then the LORD will be my God.’”
(Genesis 28:20-21)
And here is the translation of the Aramaic Targum.
“Jacob made a vow, saying, If [the Word of] Elohim will be with me [my support], and guards me on this path that I am going, and gives me bread to eat and clothing to wear; And if I return in peace to my father’s house, and [the Word of] Adonoy will be my God.”
(Targum Onkelos: Genesis 28:20-21)
Notice how in the Targum teaching of this passage, Jacob equates “the Memra” (Word) of Elohim (God)” with God Himself. Jacob personifies the “Memra” as One who will support and guard his path. Jacob later says the “Memra” of Adonoy (the Lord) will be his God.
This expanded interpretation was widely circulated and its validity was broadly accepted across the 1st century A.D. Most Jews who spoke Aramaic as their primary language (i.e. Jews who lived in or near Judea and Galilee) during that time would have heard or read this teaching about the “Memra” of the Lord being Jacob’s God. They would have encountered many other teachings from the Targum that said similar things attributing divine aspects to the Word of God or seeming to equate the “Memra” with God.
Another example is from the Targum Onkelos translation and teaching of Genesis 3:8. It says that after their disobedience, Adam and Eve hid themselves from the “Memra” of the Lord as the “Memra” walked in the garden.
“They (Adam and Eve) heard the voice of [the Word of] Adonoy Elohim (the Lord God) moving in the Garden at the breeze [in the evening] of the day. The man and his wife hid themselves from [the Presence of] Adonoy Elohim (the Lord God) among the trees of the Garden.”
(Targum Onkelos: Genesis 3:8)
Here the Targum teaches that Adam and Eve literally hid from the Word of God, and it describes the Word of God as “the Presence of the Lord.” This aligns with not only John’s teaching that the Word was with God and the Word was God, it also describes who Jesus is and was as God with us (Matthew 1:23) and Who is the image of the invisible God (Colossians 1:15a).
Therefore, because of the broad use of the Targums and the general acceptance of their teachings about the “Memra” among the first century Jews, John’s equating the Logos to God may not have been as radical to Jewish ears as previously suspected.
It seems that John was building off Jews’ existing understanding about the “Memra” when he wrote: and the Logos was God. In other words, John was writing within the widely accepted Memra-tradition of the Jewish Targums.
How 1st century Greeks might have understood the final phrase of John 1:1
John’s claim—and the Word was God—would have signaled to the Greeks that the Logos was not only the Arché Principle of beginnings, and the Logos was not merely a manifestation of divine reason or rational intermediary between the worlds of Being and Becoming, but the Logos was, in essence, God.
The Logos was not merely a principle, but a Person. The Logos was not only the means by which the cosmos was formed and organized; the Logos was the personal Creator of all things.
And the Word was God would likely have been a novel development within Greek philosophy. But even though it was new, it would not necessarily have been shocking to the Greeks.
The Greeks had long associated the Logos with the divine.
“The Logos is eternal and remains constant…”
(Heraclitus. Fragment 2)
“the world has been framed in the likeness of that which is apprehended by reason [Logos] and mind…”
(Plato. Timaeus. 29)
"The first principle and cause of everything is the divine intellect, which moves and orders all things in accordance with its own contemplation."
(Aristotle. Metaphysics. XII.9)
Plato describes the mind (which has the capacity to see logos) as the chariot driver of the human soul drawing it up toward the world of Being from the world of Becoming (Plato. Phaedrus. 246a-254e).
When Aristotle describes intellectual virtues, he describes the soul as having logos which enables it to make sense of both the material world and deliberate about ideas (Nicomachean Ethics. VI.1-2)
Building from the Greek’s previously held notions, John’s statement—and the Logos was God—was a gradual and logically compatible development of thought. Perhaps the primary new thought which Greeks would have to accept is the notion that there is a true God that makes the false gods of Greek mythology obsolete. Paul made this point during his sermon in Athens (17:23-24).
And John himself seems to follow this development with his Greek readers through each of the three phrases of John 1:1,
Aristotle's concept of the Prime Mover as the ultimate cause of motion and existence in the universe aligns with the phrase and the Word was God. The Prime Mover, according to Aristotle, is the eternal unchanging source of all that is and comes into being. In Aristotelian terms, the Logos was the Prime Mover. Just as Aristotle’s Prime Mover is pure actuality, existing beyond time and change, the Logos in John’s gospel is eternal, pre-existing all things, and is fully identified as God—the ultimate source of life and being.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The opening statement of John’s prologue was designed to resonate with both his Jewish and Greek audiences. And it still resonates with his readers today. All three phrases of John’s opening statement establish the tone for the prologue and the entire Gospel which presents Jesus as both human and God. In many respects, much of the prologue is an explanation or a commentary on the immensely rich and profound words of John 1:1.