Excursus: The Understanding of the Logos in the First Century CE
The first-century Jews treated the Logos as Wisdom and the Law in their pre-existence with the Creator (Prov 8:22–31; Sir 1:1–10; 24:3; Prov 3:19–20; Wis 9:1–2; Bar 3:9–4:4; 1 En. 42; Sir 15:1; 19:20; 39:1; 24:23; 34:8; 39:1; 4 Macc 1:16–17) and as the creative word used by God in creation (Gen 1; cf. Ps 33:6, 9). For them the Logos accomplishes God’s mission (Isa 9:8–9; 55:11) and brings healing and deliverance (Ps 107:20), a means by which God’s will and message were communicated (Jer 1:4; Ezek 1:3; 6:1; Amos 3:1, 8). They understood the Logos as the Aramaic memra, a periphrasis for God and his powerful acts (e.g., Tg. Exod. 19:17; 31:13; Tg. Onq. Gen. 3:8; Tg. Isa. 48:13).
The Greeks understood the Logos as reason or the rational principle that is behind the world to keep it in order and within every human being. For the Stoics, the Logos controls the stars and seasons and pervades all things. Although one can be united with God through the Logos (Corp. herm. 13.6–7), reason can be built up in a person only after the immortal soul gets rid of bodily senses by escaping from the prison of the body. This is called “rebirth” (Corp. herm. 13.7–8).
The Hellenistic Jewish understanding of the Logos is known from Philo’s writings. For Philo the Logos is a real being distinct from God and an intermediary between God and the world (Her. 2–5). Logos is the divine reason (Cher. 36), the second God (QG 2.62), God himself (without the definite article; Somn. 1.229–30). To perceive the Logos is to perceive the invisible God, for the Logos is that by which God draws the perfect man from earthly things to himself (Sac. 8). The unknowable God is knowable as Light through the Logos (QE 68; cf. Mos. 2.95–100). As the Logos belongs to the intelligible world (Opif. 4, 16; Mos. 2.127), it never descends to the sensible world, but one should move to the intelligible world to encounter the Logos.22 For Philo, mystical union with God in terms of indwelling within the soul’s life is possible through the Logos (Post. 122, by interpreting Num 14:9).
Although people would have understood the Logos in different ways, the underlying common theme is that the Logos is God and in the Logos one can apprehend God. However, John’s insight that the Logos became flesh is missing. No wonder first-century Christians meant by the Logos the “Christian message” (e.g., Mark 2:2; 4:14; Acts 14:25), the content of which is Christ and his glory (2 Cor 4:5–6) or “Christ crucified” (1 Cor 1:23; 2:2; Gal 3:1), in whom one can see God.
Fusing the Horizons
Several years ago, one of my friends confronted me saying that Christianity came into being by the birth of Jesus about two thousand years ago, whereas other major religions had been in existence even before that time. This is an example of how the world thinks of Christ and the time of his existence. The proclamation of Jesus’ story as beginning from his pre-existence with the eternal God as God would make it clear that Christ lived even before the time of creation and that God’s plan to create a new community in Jesus Christ was in him before anything was created. This message will lead hearers, particularly those from other religious faith, to perceive Jesus as the unique revelation of God.
There is a deep aspiration among many religious groups today to see the one true God. People try to see God by spending a huge amount of money or even by subduing and wounding one’s body. The Fourth Gospel proclaims that the one true God revealed his character in Jesus, who is the place in which one can see God now. God’s new community is called to bear witness to this by words and deeds.
Foundation of the Community of Faith (1:19–51)
Witness of John the Baptist (1:19–28)
The narrative of Jesus’ life and ministry begins with the witness of John the Baptist to Jesus (cf. Matt 3:1–12; Mark 1:1–8; Luke 1:1–17). The commencing word “and” in 1:19 marks the continuity between the prologue and the whole Gospel story, by having the testimony of the Baptist as the starting point for the formation of new covenant community around Jesus. There was an apprehension among the religious leaders in Jerusalem about the Baptist’s ministry, which drew many to become his disciples. Therefore they sent a delegation of priests and Levites to John the Baptist to gather firsthand information about his real identity and the purpose of his mission. The delegates met the Baptist at “Bethany beyond Jordan,” where John was baptizing (1:28).23
The term “the Jews” in 1:19, in conjunction with 1:24, indicates “the Pharisees,” the “separated ones.”24 These religious leaders had separated themselves politically from Hasmonean rule and religiously from others who were not observing the priestly laws of purity (Lev 1–15). They had vast political and social influence in Jesus’ time,25 but rejected Jesus as the Messiah. Therefore they are identified in John with “the world,” which, in general, rejected Jesus (John 1:10; 7:7; 15:18; cf. 8:23). In response to their question, “Who are you?,” the Baptist answers, “I am not the Christ” (1:19–20). Probably the leaders suspected that the Baptist could be the long-awaited Messiah, the King and deliverer from the house of David. However, they did not dare to ask him whether he was the Messiah. The Baptist’s unreserved denial (cf. 3:28) could be a polemic against those who claimed that he was the Messiah.
In Jesus’ time, the scribes taught that Elijah should come first in order to prepare the way for Christ’s appearance (Mal 3:1; 4:5–6; Mark 9:11–12). That is why the priests and Levites asked the Baptist, “Are you Elijah?” (John 1:21). After the Baptist’s denial that he was Elijah, they asked him, “Are you the prophet?,” perhaps having in mind Deut 18:15 and 18, which speak of a prophet like Moses whom God will raise up. It is unlikely that the delegates had in mind the prophet mentioned in Qumran writings (4QTest 5–8; 1QS 9.11), as the Qumran community separated itself by revolting against Jerusalem priests and their cultic practices. There is no evidence that, besides Elijah and a Moses-like prophet, the Jews were expecting any other figure as the eschatological prophet. Nor do we have evidence that John’s community identified Christ with a prophet-like figure.26 After stating that he was not the prophet either, the Baptist explains his mission as preparing the way for the coming of the Lord (“Christ”). He was nothing but a voice that cried out in the wilderness in order to purify and prepare a group of people for God by declaring the coming of Christ, as the Scripture testifies (Isa 40:3; cf. Matt 3:3 par.).
The enquiry of the agents gives an opportunity for the Baptist to project Jesus’ greatness as the Christ who is present among them but hidden to their eyes (1:26–27).27 Without comparing his baptism with that of Jesus (Matt 3:11 par.), the Baptist discloses the spiritual blindness of the religious leaders, who, by this time, should have rightly understood such scriptural passages as Isa 40:3 and Mal 3:1; 4:5–6. Although Jesus came to the human scene chronologically after the Baptist (cf. 1:15), the latter acknowledges Jesus’ greatness by stating, “the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” In a teacher-disciple relationship in rabbinic circles, a menial job such as untying the thong of a teacher’s sandals was not assigned to any of his pupils and still less to a slave.28 The Baptist acknowledges his unworthiness even to be a slave to Jesus, who is the Christ, the Son of God (1:34), for Jesus’ mission of bringing salvation to humankind by his death and resurrection surpasses any human enterprise.
Content of the Baptist’s witness (1:29–34)
In 1:29–34, the Baptist unveils who Jesus is and implicitly what he will accomplish. For the first time the name “Jesus” appears in 1:29 after 1:17. The day after the enquiry of Jerusalem leaders, John gives a picture
