John. Jey J. Kanagaraj

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John - Jey J. Kanagaraj


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emphatic denial that John the Baptist himself was the Light. The Baptist was only a lamp whose witness was temporary (5:35). This is to rebut communities that regarded the Baptist toward the end of the first century as the Redeemer sent by God (cf. Luke 3:15) or even as the Light.

      The Baptist’s testimony prepares the way for the Logos to come in flesh to reveal God’s character and to offer eternal life for those who believe. The Baptist confirms that Christ was pre-existent and that he is greater than the Baptist in status and rank (1:15). In fact, 1:15 does not interrupt the flow of thought between 1:14 and 1:16–18. Whereas 1:14 narrates the witness of the believing community to the glory revealed in the Logos-Son, 1:15 expresses the witness of the Baptist to the same glory, which was pre-existing as the Logos, even though temporally the Logos became flesh after the Baptist was born (cf. 1:26–27, 29–30; Matt 3:11 par.).

      New humanity Enlightened by the Light (1:9–13)

      Even though the Light in the Logos came into the world, the world failed to know him (1:10). “Knowing” is a key word used in the Gospel to mean not so much the Hellenistic and Gnostic notion of intellectual perception as an active relationship between God and his people (see Amos 3:2 for God knowing his people in terms of choosing them and caring for them, and Jer 31:33–34 for the humans to know God in terms of their humble obedience and trust in him). The word “world” in John refers mainly to those who reject Jesus and his followers because of their hostility towards them (e.g., 15:18–19; 17:14). God’s provision to humankind to become children of God and the world’s rejection are prefigured in the prologue (1:9–10).

      The Logos-Light was rejected, notably, by his own people. In John, the term “my own” denotes the people chosen by Jesus (or those given by God to Jesus) to be his followers (17:6, 10). The parallel phrase “his own people” (1:11b) confirms that those who did not receive the Light were Jesus’ own people, the Jews. It is noteworthy that only those who keep the covenant made by God are his “treasured possession” (Exod 19:5). However, the Jews who received God’s covenant belonged to the old and fallen humanity, and therefore they could not perceive the Logos-Light as the Messiah. John, in contrast, will declare in his Gospel that it is the people of God, under the new covenant, who will be “his own possession” (cf. 1:12).

      In spite of the world’s rejection, God offered opportunity to the Jews and Gentiles to receive the Logos and to become his children. “Receiving” is the receptive aspect of believing. The object of faith is “his name.” In the OT, God manifests his character and work by revealing, or sometimes by concealing, his name, YHWH or “I am that I am” (e.g., Gen 32:27–30; Exod 3:13–14; 6:2–3; Isa 42:8). The Johannine Jesus bears this name so that he may manifest it to those who believe in him (17:6, 26). By revealing God’s name, Jesus reveals God himself. This powerful name of God enables those who receive him and believe in his name to be born in the family of God as his children, that is, to become members of new covenant community (1:12).

      Dwelling of the Logos-in-flesh among humans (1:14, 16–18)

      This section constitutes the fifth strophe of the hymn (1:1–18) and is the climax of what John wants to say in the prologue. His statement “the Word became flesh” (1:14a) would have kept many in astonishment in the late first century, since no philosophical or religious thought understood the concept of Logos in this way. The birth narratives of Matthew and Luke are summed up by John in one sentence: “And the Word became flesh.”


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