The first chapter of the Gospel of John includes some of the most famous lines in all of scripture: the “prologue” in 1:1-18. Scholars debate whether the prologue was part of the original materials that comprised this Gospel or whether it comes from a source who had a different theological outlook than other narrative parts of the book. Many scholars think the Gospel writer adopted an existing hymn for the prologue. You might say that the prose of the prologue sings, and is meant to be sung.
Karoline Lewis suggests that the prologue identifies eight themes that are unpacked in the narratives throughout the rest of the Gospel:
- Jesus’ connection to God’s creative activity in creation, new creation, and rebirth.
- The origin of Jesus and his relationship to God.
- How the incarnation — “the word made flesh” — reveals God’s character.
- How the divine and the human are held together in Jesus.
- Contrast between “light” and “darkness.”
- Witness.
- What it means to be in relationship with God.
- Abundance.
On this last theme of “abundance,” Lewis notes that the word “grace” (charis) appears only four times in the Gospel of John, and only in the prologue (1:14, 16, 17). The rest of the Gospel narratives “show the reader what grace looks like, tastes like, smells like, sounds like, and feels like.”
Some questions for discussion on the prologue:
- What do you think is the significance of the connection between Jesus and creation?
- What does the term / title “Word” (Logos) suggest to you?
- What do you think about the themes of “light,” “life,” and “darkness” in this passage?
- Who are the ones who “received” Jesus and “believed in his name?” Why does the text emphasize this here?
- Why does verse 18 emphasize that “No one has ever seen God” but that the Son has made God known?
The section from 1:19-34 demonstrates that Jesus is superior to John the Baptist. There are similar materials later in John 3:22-36, where John the Baptist himself is depicted as saying “He [Jesus] must increase, but I must decrease.” (John 3:30.) Some scholars think these references suggest the Gospel of John might in part have been written to counter groups that continued to favor John the Baptist over Jesus and that did not understand Jesus was God. Some of these groups, those scholars suggest, might have also been attracted to Gnostic ideas. There is still a community today in the Middle East called the Mandaeans who hold such beliefs and trace their origins back to John the Baptist. Other scholars, however, think the evidence for this kind of connection is thin.
The section from 1:35-51 narrates Jesus’ call of his first disciples. Many commentators remark on what Jesus says to Philip in 1:50-51: “You will see greater things than these . . . you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” This is a reference to eschatology, that is, to God’s consummation of history. Scholars debate whether the eschatology in the Gospel of John is “realized” or “futurist.” In a “realized” eschatology, the Kingdom of God has already arrived and is operating in the present time. For the Gospel of John, this would mean that the coming of Jesus is the arrival of the Kingdom of God. In a “futurist” eschatology, the arrival of God’s Kingdom and its attendant blessings remains a future event. Many scholars see elements of both a realized and a futurist eschatology in the Gospel of John: the Kingdom is now present in Jesus, but also there are elements of the Kingdom that are just over the horizon.
The title Jesus applies to himself in verse 51 — “Son of Man” — appears about eighty times in the four Gospels, including in thirteen different passages in the Gospel of John, but occurs only four times in all of the rest of the New Testament. The original Greek literally translates “the son of the man,” a phrase that does not appear in any secular Greek literature and that makes no grammatical sense. Most scholars agree that this title must relate to Jesus’ humanity, but there is significant debate over what the title says about Jesus’ humanity and how this relates to the claim that Jesus is divine.
Some questions for discussion on these sections:
- What strikes you about the differences in how Andrew, Peter, Philip, and Nathanael come to follow Jesus?
- Notice the different titles used for Jesus in these sections: “Lamb of God” (by John the Baptist); “Rabbi” (Teacher) (by John the Baptist’s two disciples); “Messiah” (Christ, Anointed)(by Simon / Peter); “Him about whom Moses in the law and also the prophets wrote” (Philip); “Son of God” and “King of Israel” (by Nathanael); and “Son of Man” (by Jesus). What does the use of these titles here tell us about Jesus? What does it tell us about his followers (including us)?
- What is the significance of the name Jesus gives Simon in verse 42? (Cephas comes from kepha in Aramaic, and Petros (Peter) comes from petra in Greek — kepha and petra mean “rock.”)
- What sorts of events do you think the “greater things than these” in verses 50-51 foreshadow? What kind of eschatology does this suggest?