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THE GOSPEL OF JOHN
A Commentary
By Frederick Dale Bruner
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company
Copyright © 2012 Frederick Dale Bruner
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8028-6635-6
Chapter One
JOHN 1 John the Evangelist's and John the Baptist's Jesus Sermons How Jesus Came
The Gospel according to John, in our present first chapter, begins with the Evangelist's majestic Prologue, explaining Jesus' coming cosmically; it continues with the Baptist's Inaugurating Sermons, introducing Jesus' coming historically; and it concludes with Jesus' gathering of his first disciples and, so, with a description of the birth of the Church.
I. JOHN THE EVANGELIST'S PROLOGUE TO THE GOSPEL, 1:1-18
One feels on holy ground when entering the Prologue to the Gospel. Here we have the overture to the symphony of the whole gospel, the preface to the greatest story ever told, the introduction to history's central fact, the foreword to the Last Word, and the preamble to the realities most trusted by the worldwide Church.
We can see the Prologue as nine consecutive interlocking paragraphs. I will accompany the translation with an outline. In the translation I will place within parentheses the words that are not in the Greek text but that convey the sense.
The Prologue: The History of the Word ("We Get the Picture") 1. The Word in Pre-Creation (The Long View) 1a "In the beginning was the Word, 1b and the Word was with God, 1c and the Word was God. 2 This One was in the beginning with God." 2. The Word from Creation to the Cross-Resurrection Church (The Big Picture) 3a "All things were made through him, 3b and apart from him was not one single thing made. 4a When what had been made was in (union with) him, there was Life, 4b and this Life was the Light of the human race. 5a And this Light shines on in the darkness, 5b and the darkness did not put it out." 3. The Word of John the Witness (A Close Picture) 6 "There was a man, sent from God, whose name was John. 7a He came to be a witness, to bear witness to the Light, 7b so that all might come to believe through him. 8a He was not himself the Light; 8b no, he came to bear witness to the Light." 4. The Word of Revelation to an Unwelcoming World (The Sad Picture) 9a "The true Light, who enlightens every human being, 9b was in the process of coming into the world. 10a He was already in the world (of course) — 10b the world was made through him. 10c But the world did not recognize him (in creation). 11a (So) he came down into his own (human) home, 11b but his family (of human beings) did not welcome him." 5. The Word to the Welcoming Children of God (The Glad Picture) 12a "But whoever did welcome him, 12b to them he gave the privilege of becoming the very children of God — 12c to those who are (simply) believing (entrusting themselves to) his person. 13a They were born (children of God) — 13b not by a confluence of bloods (biologically), 13c nor by the willpower of the flesh (psychologically), 13d nor by the willpower of a strong person (spiritually) — 13e but by (the sole power of) God." 6. The Word Became Flesh (The Closest Picture of All) 14a "And so the Word became flesh 14b and moved into the neighborhood. 14c And we saw his glory — 14d it was like the glory of an Only Son from a Father— 14e full of grace and truth." 7. The Word of John the Witness Again (Another Close Picture) 15a "John bears witness to him, 15b and we can still hear him crying out and saying, 15c 'This is the One I was telling you about when I said, 15d "The One coming after me (as my successor) 15e actually ranks above me (as my superior) 15f because he came way before me (as my predecessor)."'" 8. The Word of the Grateful Church (The Glad Picture Again) 16a "Because out of his fullness we have all received— 16b one grace after another grace. 17a For while the Law was a gift through Moses, 17b (deep) Grace and (deep) Truth came through Jesus Messiah." 9. The Word of God (The Picture) 18a "God? 18b No one has ever seen (God). 18c (But) God the Only Son, 18d whose Being is back at the heart of the Father— 18e he (came down and) explained (God)."
A. Introduction to the Prologue, 1:1-18 O that you would tear open the heavens and come down, ... to make your name known! Isaiah 64:1-2 A certain Platonist once said that the beginning of this Gospel ought to be copied in letters of gold, and placed in the most conspicuous place in every church. Augustine, The City of God, chap. 29, in C.A., 4/1:23 For while the other Gospel writers treat principally of the mysteries of the humanity of Christ, John, especially and above all, makes known the divinity of Christ in his Gospel.... Still, he does not ignore the mysteries of his humanity [v. 14]. He did this because, after the other Evangelists had written their Gospels, heresies had arisen concerning the divinity of Christ, to the effect that Christ was purely and simply a man, as Ebion and Cerinthus falsely thought. And so John the Evangelist, who had drawn the truth about the divinity of the Word from the very fountain-head of the divine breast [13:23], wrote this Gospel at the request of the faithful. And in it he gives us the doctrine of the divinity of Christ and refutes all heresies. Thomas Aquinas, Prologus, 10, in John, 1:26 In this prologue [John] declares Christ's eternal divinity, to teach us that He is the eternal God, manifest in the flesh.... Now the knowledge of this doctrine is of the first importance. For since we should on no account seek life and salvation outside God, how can our faith rest in Christ if the certainty of this teaching is not established? In these words, therefore, the Evangelist asserts that we do not forsake the one eternal God when we believe in Christ. John Calvin, John, 1:7 "In the beginning" — John's style, especially in this passage, is pre-eminent for its simplicity, subtlety, and sublimity.... In this [Prologue] stronghold of the faith, in this most sure center, we stand unshaken, and fortify ourselves against all enticements which try to draw us off to everything but the subject. Johannes Albrecht Bengel, John, 540 and 543 The notion of the person of Christ which is contained in the Prologue is of decisive importance for the Church. If the supreme dignity ascribed to Jesus is denied Him, however worthy of admiration this Christ may be, humanity may and should always "look [for] another"; ... Faith is not faith — that is to say ... without reserve, except so far as it has for its object that beyond which it is impossible to go. Frederick Louis Godet, John, 1:298 The solution [to] the riddle of life in space and time lies outside space and time. Ludwig Wittgenstein, Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus [1922], 6.4312 If John has been described as the pearl of great price among the New Testament writings, then one may say that the Prologue is the pearl within this Gospel. In her comparison of Augustine's and Chrysostom's exegesis of the Prologue, M. A. Aucoin points out that both [Church Fathers] held that it is beyond the power of man to speak as John does in the Prologue. The choice of the eagle as the symbol of John the Evangelist was largely determined by the celestial flights of the opening lines of the Gospel. Raymond E. Brown, John, 1:18
B. Interpretation of the Prologue, 1:1-18
In the Prologue's first paragraph ("The Word in Pre-Creation," vv. 1-2) we learn the subject of the Gospel — the Person of the Word of God in this Word's eternal dimensions. We are not dealing with a demigod when we deal with the subject of the Gospel; we are dealing with no one less than the very God. Wherever the loss of the conviction of the full deity of Jesus Christ occurs, the Church and world lose their center and meaning.
In the Prologue's second paragraph ("The Word from Creation to the Cross-Resurrection Church," vv. 3-5) we learn that the Word is not only divine but is also the agent of both the world's creation and the world's salvation. Here this salvation is called the world's "Life," and its revelation the world's "Light." We even get intimations in this compact paragraph of how this saving Life and Light came classically into effect and view—in the Crucifixion ("the darkness did not put it out") and in the conjoined Resurrection ("this Light shines on in the darkness"). This Light continues to "shine on" in the faithful witness to Jesus Christ by his embattled, crucified, but constantly resurrected Church.
The third paragraph ("The Word of John the Witness," vv. 6-8) is taken up, suddenly and almost parochially, with "a man whose name was John," known in the other Gospels as "the Baptist" (but never given this title in our Gospel, interestingly). This John is Jesus' pre-ministry "witness" par excellence in all four Gospels. The name "John" in this paragraph may also wish to suggest Jesus' major post-ministry witness, the Beloved Disciple, John the Evangelist, the writing author and/or the oral source of the Fourth Gospel (see John 21:24 and the discussion there; and compare, as we will below, the remarkably similar mission statements given both to the Baptist here in 1:7 and to the Evangelist in 20:30-31).
In the Prologue's fourth paragraph ("The Word in Revelation to an Unwelcoming World," vv. 9-11), looping back again (as is John's "interlocking" style) to creation Revelation before incarnate Revelation, we get the tragic picture of the world's majority's nonreception of divine Revelation, one of the most puzzling facts in life. Can God do no better than this? Why hasn't the Creator been more often observed in and worshipped by his creation? What is our problem as creatures? But then, to deepen the mystery and, indeed, the horror, when the creative Word finally does make his most personal visit into creation in his Incarnation here as Jesus of Nazareth on planet earth as a human being with human beings, who are his most intimate creatures, they conspired to eliminate him by Crucifixion. The problem of evil, tragedy in its deepest form, indeed the absurdum — the Creator crucified by creatures — is summarized (and, as we later learn and now know, is resolved) by one human life, death, and sequel.
In the Prologue's fifth paragraph ("The Word to the Welcoming Children of God," vv. 12-13), finally and explicitly we get the longed-for good news that some human beings — "Whoever"! — did welcome the visiting Word and did entrust and are actually entrusting themselves to the reality of his person. Moreover, we learn in this paragraph that even this welcoming trust is not the fruit of some meritorious inner or outer good work by the recipients; it is the gracious gift of the Giver. Human beings become children of God by the grace of God, who works trust and welcome in them. God not only comes to us, in grace, but brings us to him with his gift of faith.
In the Prologue's single–verse sixth paragraph ("The Word Became Flesh," v. 14) we come to the lowest explicit place in our text, and yet, in all of Christendom, to the most thrilling place in the Prologue — to the place where the eternal, divine, creating, seeking Word came, "down and dirty," into mortal human flesh in the historical person of Jesus of Nazareth. The mystery of the divine Incarnation in a real human being ranks with the mysteries of "the death of God" in the Crucifixion and with the "Resurrection-from-the-dead" wonder of Easter Sunday morning. Does God go down so low as to become a real human being? God is too great to do this, says Islam in reverence ("Allah akbar"). God is so great that he was willing to do this, says the Christian faith respectfully. Several texts like this in the New Testament have taught us this wonder of wonders.
In the Prologue's one-verse seventh paragraph ("The Word of John the Witness Again," v. 15) the Evangelist returns to the testimony of John the Baptist one more time, as if to emphasize once more that God is not ashamed to use quite undivine human beings (and their always very human witness) in the service of his divine Incarnation. Human ministry means a great deal to the Evangelist (he is performing this ministry himself in writing this Gospel and Prologue), and, in his conviction, human ministry means a great deal to the One he is now introducing in this Gospel. And so twice (vv. 6-8 and now again in v. 15) he gives space to this classic representative of human ministry, the sometimes seemingly crude and definitely rustic John the Baptist, right in the middle of divinity's regal coronation (and lowly immolation) in the Prologue.
In the Prologue's eighth paragraph ("The Word of the Grateful Church," vv. 16-17) we hear the Evangelist's Church speaking for the first time (in the plural "we"): "Because out of his [the Incarnate Word's] fullness we have all received — one grace after another grace." The Christ-believing Church, in fellowship with John the Evangelist, gets space in the Prologue as well — they are so grateful for what they received in their encounter with the incarnate Word. Some of them received the supreme human privilege of being actual eye-and-ear witnesses of this Visit of Visits — of the invisible God who came visibly to earth in the real human being, Jesus of Nazareth (one catches the excitement of the community's even physical contact with him in the fourteen "we" and "our" references in just the first four verses of the Prologue to the First Epistle of John).
In the Prologue's last, single-verse paragraph ("The Word of God," v. 18), we hear the wonderfully climactic truth that while, regrettably, "No one has ever seen God," directly, nevertheless — and therefore! — "God the Only Son ... (came down and) explained (God)." This flesh-borne revelation is the greatest thrill of the Prologue: the fact that the invisible God came down in and into the human life, Death, and Resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth and explained himself in this clearest and most credible way is itself Gospel, very good news.
The Prologue's nine paragraphs, introducing the Gospel's theme of saving Revelation, then can be most compactly outlined as follows:
The Divine Revealer: "In the beginning was the Word, ... [who] was God," 1:1-2
The Seeking Revealer: "His Life was the Light of the human race," 1:3-5
The Witnessed Revealer: "John came to bear witness to the Light," 1:6-8
The Resisted Revealer: "But his own family (of human beings) did not welcome him," 1:9-11
The Received Revealer: "Yet whoever did welcome him became children of God," 1:12-13
The Human Revealer: "The Word became flesh and moved into the neighborhood," 1:14
The Witnessed Revealer Again: "John cries out, 'This is the One!'" 1:15
The Received Revealer Again: "We have all received one grace after another grace," 1:16-17
The Divine Revealer Again: "God the Only Son explained the unseen God," 1:18
(Continues...)
Excerpted from THE GOSPEL OF JOHN by Frederick Dale Bruner Copyright © 2012 by Frederick Dale Bruner. Excerpted by permission of William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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