The Prologue

 

The Prologue of the fourth Gospel is a splendid symphony with which John introduces the story of the Lord Jesus, Savior of the world, revealer of the Father. The Prologue is a characteristic element of the fourth Gospel. In the Gospel of Luke, we have some verses that he presents as the method that he followed in drafting his narrative.

Yet a poetic and theological text like that of St. John is unique among the Gospels; and is a poetic text that synthesizes, with a lyrical language, the fundamental message and then expressed it in prose in the text. The style of this synthesis is like the opening of a lyric opera, and the opening symphony is composed by the author at the end of the work. Because by gathering the best pieces and harmonizing them, the symphony that announces the grand musical themes are created and followed up during the opera.

The Prologue, therefore, is composed as a gist at a later time, if not at the end of the draft of the whole test. It responds to a need for clarification as well. For years, the young Johannine community went through a crisis and a beginning of a heresy. Some Christians followers of John exaggerated the field of Christology and arrived at the formulation of a very high Christology (as it is called in technical theological language). The low Christology is the one that considered Jesus only as a prophet and an exceptional human being.

On the other hand, high Christology proposes Jesus as God, Son of God, at the same time maintaining the human reality. Some exaggerated this position and, influenced by Greek philosophy, a thought that later evolved into Gnosticism, affirmed Jesus was only God and appeared to be human.

This was precisely the heresy of Docetism which took root in the initial Christian preaching maintaining that the human nature of Jesus was only an appearance. It sounds strange for us but for the ancient Hellenistic thought, it was easier to imagine a God who would assume a fictitious human form than to admit a genuine incarnation. That there were numerous gods and that they would appear occasionally was something many Greeks believed. So, if the preachers proclaimed that Jesus is God and made himself visible, they would accept him willingly. However, it would be an extraordinary message to announce that God has indeed become man and Jesus of Nazareth is a man that is simultaneously true God and true man, truly human and truly divine.

To correct this infringement, the evangelist worked the text within a theological frame with which he affirms that the ‘Logos’ became flesh, and we have seen his glory. The first letter of John begins: “What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we looked upon and touched with our hands concerns the Word of life and was made visible to us.”

The first letter of John was probably written before the Prologue, and when the Prologue was written, the theme of the first letter was taken up again, reprimanding those ‘who have left us.’ They left the group, but they were not part of it. They left because they have picked just one part of the truth that John narrated, not the whole truth. Therefore, John places together this synthesis together with the narration of the Gospel.

We can structure it in three central moments, as three poetic waves take up three times the same theme. The term ‘logos’ is used initially. It is used in an absolute sense, and this term was then never used to denote Jesus in the Gospel. Logos is the formula coined at the end to synthesize better all that was narrated. Λόγος – ‘Logos’ is a Greek term meaning Word. It is a widespread terminology and can mean much more than just ‘word.’ It can be a thought, reason, project… think of how often we use it. There are so many terms formed from this root, like theo-logy, cardio-logy, etc. Logos is the study of God; it is the study of the heart; it is research about everything about the science of a particular reality.

John might have adopted the literary schema of the wisdom poem in the 24th chapter of the Book of Sirach. Wisdom praises itself and presents itself as ‘the Word coming out of the mouth of the Most High which traveled the whole world and set its tent in Israel.’ This is the ‘Sophia,’ the Wisdom of God. John probably chose to use a masculine vocabulary. He had to present the incarnation of human Jesus and did not want to risk confusing the genre of presenting Wisdom as a feminine figure who became a man can provoke misunderstanding.

So, he chose the term ‘logos,’ which was common in the Greek language; at the same time, it was corresponding to an important Hebrew term ‘Word,’ especially in the Aramaic language, translators for the people of Hebrew biblical texts, often used the formula ‘memrad Adonai’ – ‘Word of God’ in the place of the divine name itself. Therefore, the Word of God was already habitually personified. It did not cost a great effort to present the Word of God that becomes flesh in the human Jesus.

The beginning is formulated with short expressions that are linked to each other. “In the beginning was the Logos.” I prefer not to translate the Greek term. Even if written with a capital letter, the Latin word ‘Verbo’ is not precise. In our languages, ‘verb’ is a part of the speech. To eat and to sleep are two verbs. And therefore, we risk using a somewhat technical idiomatic language that is not understood or can be misunderstood. ‘Logos’ is an even more complex word that is not immediately understood, and it is better that way because if one perceives that he does not understand, he can look for an explanation.

“In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God.” The expression: ‘was with,’ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν – pros thon Zeon, means the relationship, the movement towards. The Word is not ‘near,’ but it is addressed to someone; I speak to you; the Word speaks to God. The Word at the beginning was addressed to God, and God was the Word. Dia-logos is presented as the Logos of God addressed to God. At the beginning of everything, there is talking to each other. God speaks to God. God is a word addressed to God. Everything was made through him, and without him, nothing was made.

It is the Semitic parallel system; it means coming from the same thing with an inverse formula. At the origin of everything, says the wisdom texts of the Old Testament, there is Wisdom. It is the beginning. The Logos is the beginning of creation, of history. The Logos have made everything. Not simply created things, but also the events of history. Everything that has happened was through the Logos.

What became of him was life, and life was the light of humanity. “The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness did not welcome it.” It is a series of pressing phrases where the last Word becomes the subject of the next. Life is linked to the Word, and life is explained by light, and light is opposed to darkness. The Greek verb that John uses in verse 5 is ambiguous, i.e., it can have several meanings.

The verb κατέλαβεν – kattelaben can mean to grasp, to understand, but also to welcome. Let us try three different translations. The darkness has not understood the Word, which is the light. The darkness has not welcomed the light; it has not received that Word. But, third meaning, the darkness has not suffocated the light; it has not taken it as overwhelming dominion. It is an announcement of a battle, of the clash between light and darkness, but also it is an announcement of victory. Darkness failed to extinguish the light.

Second movement: “A man named John was sent from God.” His name was John the Baptist. We are again at the beginning. The first verse presented the absolute origins—the beginning. At the beginning is the Word, the talk of God, the light, life. At the beginning of the historical moment, it all begins with the preaching of the Baptist that he is not the light, but he has come to bear witness to the light. The true light is the Logos, and it is the light coming into the world.

It is important this emphasis. Upon entering the world, the Word becomes light. He came to what was his own. The world was made through him, humanity, the people of Israel. And yet, the world, humanity, his people did not welcome him. But it did not end there. Someone welcomed him, and whoever welcomed him received the power to become children of God. It is another fundamental synthetic formula. To accept the Logos means to have the ability to become a child of God. It is not an automatic fact. The power is given, the possibility is given. And the possibility becomes an act slowly; becoming a child of God is the believer who welcomes the Word.

And the Logos became flesh. He did not cease to be Logos and became flesh. For John, ‘flesh’ means concrete humanity in its limited created reality. “And he pitched his tent in our midst.” John uses the same verb as Sirach 24, ἐσκήνωσεν – eschenozen, he planted the schené, the tent. The dwelling reminds the tent of presence where the glory of God was present amid the camp of Israel.

The Word of God has been tented (camped) in us, within humanity, amidst humanity. Which is the abode of God? The tent of presence, the temple, and the humanity of Christ. The flesh of the Logos is the tent of the presence of God, and we saw, we contemplated his glory.

The Gospel ends with the ‘we.’ We know that the witness disciple gave a faithful witness. The Gospel begins with ‘we.’ We, disciples, eyewitnesses, contemplated his glory. It is an important word for John, the glory and the powerful working presence of God. We disciples, eyewitnesses, have contemplated the very presence of God in that man, in the flesh of the Logos, because that man is the only begotten Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.

It is necessary to clarify these words to interpret them. Grace, in this case, means ‘gift,’ and ‘truth’ for John is the revelation. The technical expression is called ‘endiad’; that is, two terms indicate a single concept. Grace and truth are one thing, the gift of revelation. The gift consists of revelation. The man Jesus, the Logos made flesh, is full of the gift of revelation, that is, all that he says, all that he does, all he is, is a revelation. In his historical human earthly existence, the Logos has gifted the revelation of God, has made known who God is, how God is.

Here ends the second part and begins the third movement, starting again from John, who continues to announce, “The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me. From his fullness, we have all received.” The fullness is the fact that the Logos become flesh, is full of the gift of revelation. From his fullness, we all, not just the eyewitnesses, but all of us, even those who were not present in Jerusalem, who did not see Jesus with the eyes of the flesh, we all. Even we, who live two thousand years after, all have received “grace in place of grace.” It is not a trivial and insignificant translation.

It is not a bunch of graces, one on top of the other. It is a gift in place of a gift. The Greek preposition used is χάριν ἀντὶ χάριτος· – charin anti charitos. It does not mean one on the other, but one opposed to the other. By the fullness of Jesus, the fullness of the revelation of God, we all received a gift in place of a gift.

The gift of the Old Testament was a revelation, but we have received even more excellent a gift, which does not contrast but completes and realizes it. The revelation brought by Jesus is the fullness of the gift. And the following verse explains it. The law or the revelation of the Old Testament was given through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

In Greek, there is a verb in the singular, making a grammar error. ‘Grace and truth happens’ because grace and truth is a single concept. The gift of revelation came about through Jesus Christ. The law given by Moses is the first gift, but the complete revelation is the gift brought by Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, not even Moses, not even Isaiah, not even the great people of the Old Testament have been able to see God. The only one who knows God and who makes him known is the begotten Son. God, who is generated in the womb of the Father, is a revelation.

The Prologue says that Jesus is the revealer of the Father. The following prose narrates how Jesus revealed his Father. After listening to the initial symphony, we can resume the reading of the Gospel and see how this revelation is presented in the text.

We have already done the presentation work, and I wish the viewers who have listened to these conversations that you may have the desire to take up the Gospel in hand and listen to the testimony of the beloved disciple, to see with your own eyes the gift of revelation. The flesh of the Logos, to touch with one’s own hands that presence, that glory of God in our midst, and to be able to say as the disciples at Easter: ‘My Lord and my God,’ and put your life in his hands.

Thanks for your attention and best wishes so that you too can be like Thomas, the twins of the Lord who, after intently looking at him, become like him.