John

Robert H. Mounce, Tremper Longman III, David E. Garland

• Publisher: Zondervan Academic
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9780310532026
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Studies

Continuing a Gold Medallion Award-winning legacy, the completely revised Expositor's Bible Commentary puts world-class biblical scholarship in your hands.

A staple for students, teachers, and pastors worldwide, The Expositor's Bible Commentary (EBC) offers comprehensive yet succinct commentary from scholars committed to the authority of the Holy Scriptures. The EBC uses the New International Version of the Bible, but the contributors work from the original Hebrew and Greek languages and refer to other translations when useful.

Each section of the commentary includes:

• An introduction: background information, a short bibliography, and an outline
• An overview of Scripture to illuminate the big picture
• The complete NIV text
• Extensive commentary
• Notes on textual questions, key words, and concepts
• Reflections to give expanded thoughts on important issues

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• Represent geographical and denominational diversity
• Use a balanced and respectful approach toward marked differences of opinion
• Write from an evangelical viewpoint

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Text and Exposition

I. THE COMING OF THE ETERNAL WORD (1:1–18)

OVERVIEW

The first eighteen verses of the gospel of John are usually referred to as the prologue—a somewhat misleading designation in that it tends to suggest that the material covered in the verses is introductory rather than substantive. But John’s presentation of “the Logos” in the initial paragraphs of the gospel serves as an historical and theological summary of the entire book. It tells of Jesus’ preexistence, his work in creation, his incarnation, and his rejection by the world, but also of his gift of eternal life to all who will receive him. In addition to these and other obvious parallels, there are others of a more subtle nature. The prologue is a poetic overture that combines the major theological motifs that make up the entire gospel. The view that it was an early Christian hymn (Brown, 1) is unlikely, in part because material on John the Baptist is interwoven throughout. Barrett’s description, 150, of the prologue as “rhythmical prose” is accurate.

A. His Origin (1:1–5)

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was with God in the beginning.

3Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4In him was life, and that life was the light of men. 5The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.

COMMENTARY

1 John opens his gospel with a majestic declaration: “In the beginning was the Word.” Before human history ever began, even before creation itself, “the Word already was” (NEB). The Word was not, as Arius would later claim, a created being—first in the order of creation, but nevertheless part of it.

The concept of logos (“word,” GK 3364) has an extensive and varied background in Greek religious and philosophical thought. As far back as Heraclitus (fifth century BC), the logos was understood to be the unifying principle of all things. For the Sophists, the logos was predominantly human reason. Philo, a prolific writer and leading citizen of the Jewish community in Alexandria, used the term more than thirteen hundred times as a mediating figure linking the transcendent God and the world (cf. TDNT 4:88). In general, Greek speculation viewed the logos as the principle of reason or order in the world (Bruce, 29).

In Hebrew thought, the word of God was a dynamic concept. God spoke and the world came into existence (Ge 1:3, 6, 9, 11, 14 et al.; Ps 33:6 [“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made”]; cf. Heb 11:3). In Proverbs 8:22–31, wisdom is personified and its role in creation is described.

While it is helpful to be aware of Greek and Semitic backgrounds, John’s doctrine of the logos is only incidentally related. John does not begin with a metaphysical concept but with the person and work of the historical Christ. W. F. Howard (IB, 8:442) notes that “Jesus is not to be interpreted by Logos: Logos is intelligible only as we think of Jesus. At the same time it is true that the broad and varied usage of the term provided an excellent link to contemporary thought and allowed John the opportunity to redefine logos in terms of the incarnate Son of God.

Having established the eternal nature of the Word, John now proceeds to declare that the Word was both “with God” and at the same time “was God.” Never has so much christological truth been compressed into such a brief statement. Contrary to the later teaching of Sabellius (a third-century Roman theologian), the Word was personally distinct from God the Father. The common use of pros (“with,” GK 4639) followed by the accusative expresses motion toward. In this context it pictures the Word in a face-to-face relationship with the Father. BDAG, 875, cites John 1:1 as an example of the preposition meaning “(in company) with.”

Not only was the Word with God; the Word was God. Tasker, 42, notes that the unique contribution of the prologue is that “it reveals the Word of God not merely as an attribute of God, but as a distinct Person within the Godhead.” The lack of an article before theos (“God,” GK 2536) does not allow it to be translated “divine” (as some have suggested), for the lack is simply common practice for predicate nouns. Had John wanted to say that the Word was divine, he had at hand a perfectly good Greek term (theios [GK 2521]; cf. Ac 17:29). The tendency to regard the Word as somewhat less than God gave rise to the sixteenth-century heretical movement known as Socinianism, which held that the historical Jesus was a good man but only a man. He became God after his resurrection when the Father delegated to him certain divine powers. Socinus’s position laid the foundation for later Unitarian movements. All such heresies overlook the clear teaching of the fourth gospel that the Word was God, or, as the NEB so aptly translates, “What God was, the Word was.” In essence, God and the Word are one.

2 John restates the fact that the Word was “with God in the beginning.” Essential truths bear repetition! The verb ēn (“was,” GK 1639) has no particular temporal boundaries and should be contrasted with another verb (egeneto, “became,” GK 1181) in v.14. The Word as eternal Son stands outside time but in the incarnation became the historical Jesus. As in the previous verse, the preposition pros implies personal relationship and communication.

3 It was through the Word that all things were made. He was the active agent in creation (cf. Col 1:16–17; Heb 1:2). Not a single thing that now exists was made apart from him. The universe with all its complexity and magnificence reflects his creative involvement. Matter is not eternal. It came into being ex nihilo, out of nothing. The author of Hebrews writes that “the universe was formed at God’s command” and that “what is seen was not made out of what was visible” (Heb 11:3). No better explanation of what we call objective reality exists. The human mind strenuously resists the idea of the eternality of matter—the only plausible alternative to creation ex nihilo. How much more satisfactory to embrace the truth that God the Creator carried out his task by working through his Son, the Word of God.

4 “Life” (zōē, GK 2437) is one of John’s favorite words. Almost half of the 134 occurrences of the word in the NT are found in his writings (thirty-six in the gospel, thirteen in his first epistle, and fifteen in Revelation). In contrast to another Greek word for life (bios, GK 1050), which occurs eleven times in the NT and normally refers to everyday life, zōē refers most often to the supernatural life that belongs to God and that the believer now shares through faith in Christ. Life is an essential attribute of God. In the course of his gospel, John will point out that God in his relationship to the believer is both the “bread of life” (6:35) and the “light of life” (8:12). He supplies the “water of life” (“living water,” 4:10), and his words are “spirit and … life” (6:63).

The life that was in the Son is said to be “the light of men.” It enables people to see that God is at work in the world. Lindars, 86, notes that it includes “the widest range of man’s intellectual apprehension of God and his purposes.” Life as “the light of men” makes revelation possible. Life and light are frequently associated in the OT (e.g., Ps 36:9).

5 The light “continues to shine” (Williams) in the darkness, but the darkness is unable to grasp its meaning or to put it out. The darkness about which John writes refers to the condition of the fallen race. It is personified as an active agent over against the light of Christ. The Greek katalambanō (GK 2898) means “to seize” or “to grasp.” If the action implied is physical, the verse means that the darkness did not “overcome” or “extinguish” the light (so RSV). If it is understood in the sense of a grasping with the mind, it means that the darkness did not “understand”—or perhaps “accept”—the light. There is no reason to limit interpretation to one or the other. When the life, which was in the Word, manifested itself as light, the world in darkness neither accepted it (cf. v.11) nor was able to put it out (ch. 20). The Living Bible translates, “His life is the light that shines through the darkness—and the darkness can never extinguish it.”

NOTES

1 Since θεός (theos, “God”; GK 2536) in the clause θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος (theos ēn ho logos, lit., “God was the Word”) is anarthrous, i.e., it does not have an article, some have taken it in the sense of “divine.” Ernest Cadman Cowell’s rule (“A Definite Rule for the Use of the Article in the Greek New Testament,” JBL 52 [1933]: 20–21) that a predicate nominative preceding the verb need not be taken as indefinite or qualitative is helpful but not determinative. Of course, if θεός, theos, did have an article, we would be faced with the theological problem that “no other divine being existed outside the second person of the Trinity” (Barrett, 156). The definite article before λόγος, logos (GK 3364), establishes the Word as the subject of the clause. The clause with its predicate nominative (θεός, theos) should be understood in the sense, “what God was, the Word was” (NEB).

3 A major question of punctuation occurs at the end of v.3. Should ὃ γέγονεν (ho gegonen, “that has been made,” GK 1181) complete v.3 or be moved to v.4? The argument that it belongs with v.4 is that when the Arians began to appeal to the passage to prove that the Holy Spirit was part of the creation, the church moved it to v.3. While its location in v.4 can be argued on the basis that it was the interpretation of the earliest Fathers and that it preserves “rhythmical balance,” the case for its location in v.3 is stronger. Taken together, John’s frequent use of ἐν (en, “in,” GK 1877) at the beginning of a sentence, his frequent repetition, and the fact that “in him was life” make much better sense than the rendering “that which was created [the created universe] was life in him.”

4 The word ἀνθρώπων (anthrōpōn, “men,” GK 476) here and quite often elsewhere should be taken in the generic sense of referring to the entire human race, not to males only. In all cases, context is the most reliable indicator of the intended meaning.

B. His Witness (1:6–8)

OVERVIEW

Suddenly the focus changes from the eternal Word to the historic beginnings of the incarnate Word. John the Baptist comes onto the stage of history to herald the arrival of the promised Messiah. Since the evangelist’s account of John the Baptist occupies more than 40 percent of ch. 1, it is not surprising to find him introduced so early in the prologue. More important, however, is that the text has just spoken of the light that shines in the darkness, and now we learn that John is the one who came to “testify concerning that light” (v.7). Throughout the gospel he is identified simply as John rather than John the Baptist (as in the Synoptic Gospels). On the assumption that John the apostle is the author of the fourth gospel, this way of referring to John the Baptist would cause no confusion. Some critics assume that the prominence given to John the Baptist at this point reveals the presence and influence of a large number of followers, but this is highly unlikely (cf. J. A. T. Robinson, “Elijah, John and Jesus,” NTS 4 [1958]: 278).

6There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. 7He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. 8He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.

COMMENTARY

6 John is identified as “a man who was sent from God.” His mission was divine i...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• Contributors
• Preface
• Abbreviations
• John
• Introduction
• I. THE COMING OF THE ETERNAL WORD (1:1–18)
• II. JESUS BEGINS HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY (1:19–5:47)
• III. JESUS’ CONTINUING MINISTRY AND THE RISE OF OPPOSITION (6:1–8:59)
• IV. THE CLOSING DAYS OF JESUS’ PUBLIC MINISTRY (9:1–12:50)
• V. THE UPPER ROOM DISCOURSE (13:1–17:26)
• VI. THE LAMB OF GOD IS SLAIN (18:1–19:42)
• VII. THE RESURRECTION OF THE LAMB WHO WAS SLAIN (20:1–29)
• VIII. CONCLUDING REMARKS (20:30–21:25)