John

Gary M. Burge

• Editore: Zondervan Academic
• Anno: 2009
• ISBN:
  9780310559023
• Argomento: Theology & Religion
• Categoria: Biblical Studies

The NIV Application Commentary helps you communicate and apply biblical text effectively in today's context.

The Gospel of John tells us the story that is the foundation of the distinctive teaching of Christianity. It provides all the elements necessary to see the full picture of the person and work of Jesus: a human Christ to redeem us, a divine Christ to reveal God's nature, and a powerful, Spirit-filled Christ to help us lead holy lives. This commentary unveils, in today's terminology, the deeply satisfying portrait of Christ painted in the Gospel of John.

To bring the ancient messages of the Bible into today's context, each passage is treated in three sections:

• Original Meaning. Concise exegesis to help readers understand the original meaning of the biblical text in its historical, literary, and cultural context.
• Bridging Contexts. A bridge between the world of the Bible and the world of today, built by discerning what is timeless in the timely pages of the Bible.
• Contemporary Significance. This section identifies comparable situations to those faced in the Bible and explores relevant application of the biblical messages. The author alerts the readers of problems they may encounter when seeking to apply the passage and helps them think through the issues involved.

This unique, award-winning commentary is the ideal resource for today's preachers, teachers, and serious students of the Bible, giving them the tools, ideas, and insights they need to communicate God's Word with the same powerful impact it had when it was first written.

Text and Commentary on John

John 1:1–18

IN 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.

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. 9The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.

10He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. 12Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—13children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.

14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

15John testifies concerning him. He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ ” 16From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another. 17For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.

Original Meaning

ONE REASON WHY the Gospel of John was symbolized in the ancient church by the eagle is the lofty heights attained by its prologue. With skill and delicacy, John handles issues of profound importance. It comes as no surprise that this prologue has been foundational to the classic Christian formulation of the doctrine of Christ. Here divinity and humanity, preexistence and incarnation, revelation and sacrifice are each discussed by John with deceptive simplicity.

This prologue may well have been an ancient Christian hymn. We know of other hymns extant especially in Paul’s writing, and here too there is an artful flowing of language and theology.1 In the medieval church the prologue was so venerated that it was sometimes worn in an amulet around the neck to ward off disease and evil spirits. The Roman church read it over the sick and newly baptized. It was even the final prayer of the Roman mass.

Many scholars have attempted to give some literary form to the hymn, and it is impossible here to survey their results.2 I have found a satisfying structure that combines a number of scholarly insights and breaks down the prologue into four theologically distinguishable strophes. In Greek literature a strophe was a turn (as in dance) or a choral poem or lyric used with dance. In poetry we might call it a stanza. Here John offers four artful “turnings,” which give us separate glimpses of the Word and his relation to God and the world.

This prologue is also an overture to the story of the rest of Gospel. Themes mentioned here will be picked up later and given fuller development: the preexistence of Christ (1:1; 17:5), divine light entering the world (1:4, 9; 8:12; 9:5), the opposition of light and darkness (1:5; 3:19), the visibility of glory (1:14; 12:41), Jesus as the only Son (1:14, 18; 3:16), divine birth (1:12–13; 3:1ff.), and the place of John the Baptist in Jesus’ work (1:7, 15; 1:19, 30).3 More precisely, 1:11–12 reflect the layout or the emphasis of the Gospel’s entire structure: “He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God.” The first half of the Gospel (chs. 1–12, the Book of Signs) describes the rejection of Jesus by Judaism, “his own people.” The second half of the book (chs. 13–21, the Book of Glory) describes the “flock of Jesus,” those who have embraced his messiahship and followed him.

In its earliest edition, John’s Gospel may have begun at 1:19 with the story of John the Baptist.4 This hymn was presumably later added by John about the same time he wrote his letters (cf. the opening verses of 1 John and the Gospel) to serve as a literary preface or prologue. In order to knit this section to his Gospel, John added material from the story of John the Baptist (1:6–8, 15) as well as his own personal commentary on the hymn (1:13, 17–18). Of course, any reconstruction such as this is speculative; but when examined closely, it enhances our understanding of the theological message of the prologue.5

The First Strophe

In the beginning was the Word,

And the Word was with God,

And the Word was God.

He was in the beginning with God.

The Second Strophe

All things came into being through him,

and without him not one thing came into being.

What has come into being in him was life,

and the life was the light of all people.

The light shines in the darkness,

and the darkness has not overcome it.

[There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light.]

The Third Strophe

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.

He was in the world, and the world came into being through him;

yet the world did not know him.

He came to what was his own people,

and his own people did not accept him.

But to all who received him, who believed on his name,

he gave the power to become children of God.

[Who were {who was} born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.]

The Fourth Strophe

And the Word became flesh and dwelt

among us, full of grace and truth.

And we have seen his glory,

the glory as of a father’s only son.

[John testified to him and cried out, “This is he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’ ”]

From his fullness

we have all received grace upon grace.

[The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is {God} the only Son, who is close to the Father’s bosom, who has made him known.]

The First Strophe: The Logos and God (1:1–2)

THE FIRST VERSES of John’s Gospel are a triumph of Christian theology. John begins by establishing the preeminence of the Word existing before the creation of the world. The initial allusion to Genesis 1 cannot be missed (John 1:1). This is a Gospel that will record the re-creation of men and women, the giving of life in darkness where there is no hope. This parallels the thought of Genesis 1, in which God breathes life into the nostrils of Adam and provides new possibilities for the world.

John begins by introducing Jesus as “the Word” (logos) and is building here on much contemporary Jewish thought, where the word of God took on personal creative attributes (Gen. 1; Ps. 33:6, 9).6 In the New Testament period it was personified (Wisd. Sol. 7:24; 18:15–16) and known by some as the immanent power of God creatively at work in the world (Philo). John identifies this Word as Jesus Christ. As such John can attribute to him various divine functions, such as creation (John 1:3, 10) and giving of life (1:4, 14, 16).

But John goes further. He is ready to infer some personal identity between the Logos and God. “And the Word was God” (1:1). John often employs similar Greek verbs in order to develop a contrast of themes. The Greek words ginomai (to become) and eimi (to be) have similar nuances, but John frequently uses them together to make a point. For instance, in 8:58 Jesus says (lit.), “Before Abraham was [ginomai], I am [eimi].” The first verb suggests “coming into being,” such as Abraham’s birth; the second implies ongoing existence. Thus in 1:6 John writes, “There came [ginomai] a man sent from God.” In 1:1 John carefully writes, “In the beginning was the Word”—“the Word was with God”—“the Word was God.” In each case he uses eimi. John is making an absolute affirmation about the eternal existence of the Word. It did not come into being nor was there ever a time when “the Word was not.”7 Whatever we can say about God, we can and must say about the Word.

But who is this Word? “The Word was God.” Attempts to detract from this literal translation for grammatical reasons (e.g., “the word was a god [or divine]”) run aground when we consider the number of other times when such a divine ascription is made for Jesus. For example, Jesus employs the divine Old Testament title “I Am” (8:24, 28, 58, etc.), he is “one with God” (10:30), and he is even addressed by Thomas in the Gospel’s final scene as “my Lord and my God” (20:28).

Some have argued that because theos (God) does not have a definite article, the better translation would be, “The word was divine,” thereby limiting any absolute claim for the Logos. But this cannot be the case. Greek has another common word for divine (theios), and in other passages, John omits the article but does not imply a change in meaning.8 In Greek the word order is even reversed (“and God was the Word”), emphasizing not that the Word contains the entirety of the Godhead, but that the divinity possessed by God is also possessed by this Word.

This is John’s overture to Christology and the beginnings of his Trinitarian thought. Indeed, “John intends that the whole of his gospel shall be read in the light of this verse. The deeds and words of Jesus are the deeds and words of God.”9 This is the theme that will be echoed throughout the Gospel. We will be introduced to Jesus time and time again, and in each case we will be forced to picture Jesus with increasingly profound images. He is the greatest of all people; he is the Messiah of Jewish expectation; but more (this is John’s unique message), he is the Son of God, the divine messenger from the Father. Any reading of the Fourth Gospel that omits this supreme and ultimate claim for Jesus misses its central affirmation.

The Second Strophe: The Logos and Creation (1:3–8)

ONCE JOHN HAS identified the Logos with God, he continues to mark the relation of this Logos to the world. As God’s creative agent, he was responsible for the creation of the world. John’s language here is careful and specific: The Logos was not one preeminent creation that went on to create others. In fact, the Logos was never created. Nothing came into being without him (v. 3).10 This is another parallel with the thought world of Genesis. In Genesis 1 we are introduced to the God of Israel, Creator of the universe. Now we learn more. The creative capacity of God was Logos. Therefore John stresses not merely that who God is, the Logos is (Strophe One), but that what God does, the Logos does. Therefore in the Gospel, what Jesus does is divine activity. When he heals or speaks—when he gives eternal life (v. 4)—this is God at work, just as God worked at the foundation of the world.

The entry of the Logos into the world (his incarnation) is described as light shining in the darkness (v. 5). Even though John the Baptist’s testimony was clear (vv. 6–9), still, Jesus experiences rejection (vv. 10–11). But there is more. The darkness is hostile. There is enmity. The NIV translates 1:5 that the world cannot understand the Word, following the traditional KJV reading. But the verb used here has a double significance: to grasp with the mind and so to comprehend; and to grasp with the hand and so to overcome or destroy. Both ideas are at work in John, but the second meaning seems foremost here.11

John suggests that the darkness cannot defeat or overcome the Word. This theme gives us some hint of the struggle between light and darkness that will sound throughout the Gospel. The opposition to Jesus will be severe. The world that the Logos enters and God loves is a place of remarkable unbelief. Those opposed to him will try to defeat this Word. But they will fail. John is thinking of the cross—the place of attempted defeat. But as this Gospel will show, the cross is not a place of defeat, but of glory. Jesus overcomes the world (16:33; cf. 12:31; 14:30).

I have set apart verses 6–9 to distinguish them from the prologue itself. This section (as well as v. 15) may come from materials John has added into the prologue in order to weave it into the body of the Gospel. In fact, these tie in nicely with the story that begins at 1:19.12 John emphasizes the true nature of the Baptist’s ministry and shows how he came as a witness to Jesus; this theme is clear in the other “Baptist” sections of the Gospel (1:19–34; 3:22–36; 10:40–42). What does the writer say? John the Baptist was not the Messiah (1:20) or the light. Instead, he came as a witness to tell the truth about what was happening in the world.

This is the first time we see the word group for “witness” (Gk. martyreo, martys, martyria) in the Gospel. This group is important because it communicates what happens as the Word enters the world.13 As if in a courtroom, evidence...

Indice dei contenuti

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• How to Use This Commentary
• Series Introduction
• General Editor’s Preface
• Author’s Preface
• Abbreviations
• Introduction
• The Structure of John’s Gospel
• Bibliography
• Text and Commentary on John
• Scripture Index
• Subject Index
• Notes