John

Willard M. Swartley

• Publisher: Herald Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780836196672
• eBook ISBN: 9780836198379
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Biblical Commentary

The gospel of John’s “from above” orientation transforms our human “from below” assumptions and habits. It draws us into union with God and into unity with one another. It communicates who Jesus is, in both intimate and profound dimensions. The book of John shapes Christian identity, invigorates worship, and implants eternal hope.

“John’s gospel defies description,” marvels Swartley, professor emeritus at Anabaptist Mennonite Biblical Seminary. “It soars like the eagle, links heaven and earth, and both comforts and convicts the human heart. Its Christology is rich, with a plethora of titles for Jesus-even the divine eternal I AM.”

Though commentaries on the book of John abound, this volume follows the unique Believers Church Bible Commentary Series format, providing sections on The Text in Biblical Context and The Text in the Life of the Church. According to Swartley, this format serves well “the interests of seminary as well as other graduate students, and pastors especially.”

Volume 26 in the Believers Church Bible Commentary series.

Free downloadable supplement available here.

Prologue

John 1:1-18

Overture to the Gospel

The glory of the Lord shall be revealed,
and all people shall see it together,
for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

—Isaiah 40:5 (also Handel’s Messiah)

The voice of the mystical eagle
sounds in … [our] ears.
Let our exterior sense
catch the sound that passes;
let our mind within
penetrate the meaning that abides.

—Eriugena, introducing John’s prologue, around 860 (trans. O’Meara, via Brodie: 133)

PREVIEW^w

Darkness? Yes darkness! Thirty-three students are going through Hezekiah’s tunnel with water coming up to some shoulders and candles burning out due to lack of oxygen. Would the group make it out alive? The leader decides it is not safe to move through the “stopper” point (two-thirds of the way through), where the ceiling drops a foot, leaving only six inches of space between the water and stone. He orders the group to turn around and exit from the entrance. With full bodies now blocking the water flow, the water keeps rising. Candles flicker out, one by one, then … darkness.

One wise student passes along a saving word: walk sideways to let the water pass. With that counsel the group barely makes it to safety, emerging into the light.

In God’s creation through the Word, light overcomes darkness. As this group stands in the glow of the bright sun, drying off, a ray of God’s glory shines, with the sun analogous to the Son, whose glory explodes our imagination. This is a tiny window into the creation, salvation, and glory that marks John’s prologue. The Son tells the story of God’s salvation. “In John 1:1-18 the Fourth Evangelist gives the Gospel reader the theological road map of God’s self-revelation in Jesus. John 1:1-18 does not allow readers to distance themselves from that revelation, but instead draws the reader into the theological claims of the text” (O’Day 1995: 524).

The majestic soaring eagle symbolizes John’s Gospel in the early church. John’s prologue begins its flight beyond time and history and descends to earth so that the Word can live among us. The Word- Logos tones the prologue, but acts as subject only in verses 1 and 14.

The prologue is a work of art! It begins with the preexistence of the Word, a coparticipating agent in creation, bringing forth life and light, to whom John witnesses. The Word shines as a light in the darkness, enlightening human beings coming into the world. The Word coming into the world elicits both negative and positive responses. The Word makes its abode with humans through incarnation. The incarnate Word’s brilliant glory credentials the “one and only” Son of the Father. He is full of grace and truth. His fullness of glory, enhanced by John’s witness to the light, extends God’s former gift of grace in the law given by Moses—thus, grace upon grace (1:16). The epiphany of the only God-Son as Word-Speech tells “God’s Story” (Moloney 1998: 47). The “story of Jesus is not ultimately a story about Jesus; it is, in fact, a story of God” (O’Day 1995: 524).

OUTLINE

A The Preexistent Word, Agent of Creation, 1:1-5

B John: Witness to the Light, 1:6-8

C The True Light, 1:9-11

D God’s Gift to Those Who Receive the Logos, 1:12-13

C′ Word Made Flesh, Resplendent in Glory, 1:14

B′ Witness to the Word Made Flesh, 1:15-17
John’s Witness, 1:15
Fullness, Grace upon Grace, 1:16-17

A′ The Incarnate Word, Revealing God, 1:18

EXPLANATORY NOTES

Even though the John portions in the prologue provide a coherent separate introduction and the didactic hymnic portions are also a coherent unit, they may indeed have been composed as side-by-side components, integrated by the Gospel author (see “Authorship” in the introduction and essays).

Unity of the Prologue with the Gospel Narrative^w

The prologue functions as an unfolding drama of the Logos’s preexistence with God onward to the incarnate God-Son, who reveals God. It is an overture to the main topics of the Gospel’s narrative. This commentary regards the prologue as essential to the Gospel.

Key themes are in both the prologue and the entire Gospel:

• The divinity of the Logos in the prologue and numerous “divine” christological titles (cf. the absolute I AMs)
• Jesus as source of (eternal) life (cf. chs. 3; 5-6; 11)
• Jesus, bringing light into the world (cf. 8:12-9:41)
• Faith and unbelief (passim)
• Glory and glorification (passim)
• Grace and truth, mostly on truth (cf. chs. 8; 14; 19)
• Jewish law subservient to Jesus as revealer of God
• Polemic re John’s role, always only a witness (cf. chs. 1; 3; 5)
• Many witnesses to Jesus’ claims dotting the Gospel landscape
• Jesus’ coming into the world (kosmos) and the world rejecting him

(For listing themes in John, cf. Valentine 293-303; Barrett 1978: 126.)

The prologue introduces three important themes of the Gospel’s narrative. First, Christology and discipleship are intertwined. The opening verses emphasize Jesus’ essential unity with the Father as agent of creation. The Word’s oneness with God embraces both being and action (works and signs in the Gospel’s narrative). This distinctive Christology is reiterated throughout the Gospel. At the same time, the center of the chiastic structure (D in the outline for this chapter) describes those who believe as receiving the power (or authority) to become children of God. This is the new identity of disciples who respond positively to the Word. Their belief says yes to the distinctive Christology of the Gospel (see John’s purpose statement in 20:30-31).

Second, while salvation is offered, it is also refused: His own … did not receive him (1:11). This anticipates the Gospel’s prominent theme of unbelief. Summary responses throughout the narrative emphasize unbelief—just as sharply or even more sharply as belief. The concluding chapter of Jesus’ public ministry focuses on unbelief as an issue requiring special explanation (12:37-50).

Third, virtually all commentators emphasize that the Word (Son/God in v. 18) is Jesus, the incarnate Revealer of God, in the Gospel’s narrative. The Son is the exegete of the Father (1:18 AT). Commentators differ on whether this revelation is supremely disclosed through Jesus’ being lifted up on the cross or through Jesus’ glory, by which Jesus reveals a victorious God. Larsson (84) rhetorically queries, “Does the uplifted Revealer sail above the earth as a kind of radiant hovercraft or is he uplifted because he is executed? And is he glorified in spite of or because of dying on the cross?” Larsson (84-88) documents these two streams of emphasis appearing through the early church fathers, the Reformers, and current expositors of John’s Gospel.

A motif that recurs throughout the Gospel and that interacts with these themes is witness or testify. In verses 6-8 and 15, John, known in the Synoptic Gospels as “the Baptist,” is introduced as witness to Jesus. This—and this alone—is his role in John’s Gospel. Hence this commentary identifies him as John the Witness. He testifies to Jesus. In the Gospel’s recurring mention of John, he is always witness. Other witnesses punctuate the Gospel narrative also, advancing the main themes that permeate the Gospel.

The Preexistent Word, Agent of Creation 1:1-5

1:1-2 Eternal Preexistence

Each of the four Gospels has its own distinctive opening. Mark begins with Jesus’ fulfilling OT prophetic texts pregnant with messianic expectation; Matthew, with a genealogy linking Jesus to the Abrahamic and Davidic covenant promises; and Luke, certifying the historical witnesses of the narrative he writes about Jesus. John begins by locating the One of whom he writes with God as the eternal Word, cocreator, and life-giver and light-giver. Only John begins with Jesus’ preexistence.

The opening verse locates the Word temporally, spatially, and ontologically. The Word was in the beginning, was with God, and was God. John’s prologue has greatly influenced the historical development of Christian theology, and 1:1 together with 1:14 and 18 have played significant roles in that influence.

The prologue never mentions Jesus; the accent falls rather on the Logos-Word coming into the world that God-Logos created. The term Word has multifaceted meaning. In Greek thought Word/Logos is a philosophical term denoting the rationality and structure of the cosmos and of the systems that order the cosmos, such as the interrelation of the galactic bodies, gravity, the seasons, space and time, and the species. John’s prologue leads the reflective reader to soar to the metaphysical, universal, cosmological realm, with Logos/Word the subject! John’s prologue connects to both the Greek philosophical and Hebrew prophetic traditions.

The significance of the Hebrew tradition cannot be overestimated. The opening phrase, in the beginning (en arche), echoes precisely the first words of Genesis 1:1 (LXX). John shapes his Logos-creation story to reflect Genesis 1, both in this opening phrase and in choosing Logos/Dabar to designate the Agent of creation who was in the beginning, was with God, and was God.

The Gospel begins when, where, and how God begins. To know more would deny God’s Godness. The same holds for Word/Logos. Humans cannot fathom the profundity of this opening claim. Word/ Logos connects to the key Hebrew word dabar (speak/speech). The word (dabar) brings events, deeds, and the visible world into being. Logos denotes the dynamic, creative power of the word, spoken by God as in Genesis 1:1-2:3 (LXX) to create the world and all that is in it. Genesis 1, liturgically arranged, portrays creation as coming into being by word/command, the word of God. God said, “Let there be light,” and light came into being. So goes the seven-day drama of God’s creating power and action. Further, at the end of Day 6, “God saw all that he had made, and … it was very good” (Gen 1:31a). Genesis 1 narrates creation as fulfillment of the word, the word of God. This is also the view of the psalmist, “By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and all their host by the breath of his mouth” (Ps 33:6, emphasis added). In these Word-speech/Logos narratives, God creates a peaceable home for humans in which light shatters and overcomes darkness. John is a Gospel of life, light, and love!

Second, God calls forth a covenant people and discloses to Moses the divine name YHWH (Exod 3:13-15). Speech/word brings a people into existence by God’s calling Abraham and Moses. God’s special name (Exod 6:2-3) releases power to deliver the people from bondage, thus fulfilling God’s promises to Abraham. This same word/ power continues in the prophetic tradition, where prophets in the tradition of Moses are God’s mouthpiece. Similarly, Isaiah 55:10-11 declares that God’s word goes forth to accomplish that for which it is sent. In the prophetic literature “the word of the Lord” initiates the prophet’s call and mission (Jer 1:4; Isa 9:8; Ezek 1:3; Hos 1:1; Amos 3:1; see the last part of “Gathering Disciples” in the TBC after 2:12). God’s spoken word creates; the prophet is God’s mouthpiece.

A third arena for understanding Logos within the Hebraic tradition is God’s gift of the Torah. Torah was/is the word of God that directs, sustains, and empowers the life of God’s people, as Exodus 24 and 34 disclose. Many psalms extol the Torah as word of God. Virtually every verse of Psalm 119 (176 of them structured as an acrostic of the Hebrew alphabet) owns and celebrates God’s Torah, statutes, commandments, law, precepts, judgments, or word. “The Lord exists forever; your word is firmly fixed in heaven” (v. 89).

A fourth and fifth context for understanding Logos in the Hebraic tradition are two companions of word in God’s self-disclosure: glory and wisdom (cf. these five themes with Lee’s three; 2002: 30-32). These are companions to the dabar-speech tradition. See comments on 1:14 for Glory [Glory, p. 516]. One apocryphal text, Wisdom 9:1-2, puts word and wisdom in synonymous parallelism:

[You] have made all things by your word,

and by your wisdom have formed humankind. (1b-2a, emphasis added)

Much said of the Word in John’s prologue is analogous to that said of wisdom in the OT (including Sirach and Wisdom). In Sirach 24:1-3, wisdom speaks of her glory. Later rabbinic literature associated word, wisdom, and glory as well (cf. Gen Rab. 1:1, where God consults Torah and creates wisdom). John’s Gospel often speaks of glory but never mentions wisdom (sophia)—one of the puzzles of the Gospel. The manifestation of God’s glory is dramatically linked with Word in John 1:14:

The Word became flesh,…

and we have beheld his glory. (RSV)

Some OT texts in which God’s name-word and glory are interconnected are Exodus 33:17-23 (note the YHWH name in v. 19) and Isaiah 6:1-8 in Isaiah’s call. Lord of hosts (YHWH Sebaot) is in synonymous parallel with glory:

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts;

the whole earth is full of his glory. (Isa 6:3)

In addition to the Greek and Hebrew contexts, another linguistic-theological dimension must be considered to understand John’s use of Logos/Word. Aramaic, the common language of Palestine in the first century, was the language of the synagogue. The synagogue Scriptures were the Targums, the OT text in Aramaic, the cultural language of the Jews in the time of Ezra. The Aramaic for Logos/Word is Memra. Boyarin (2001) has persuasively argued that John’s Logos theology is derived directly from...

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Abbreviations
• Table of Contents
• Series Foreword
• Author’s Preface
• Introduction
• Prologue: Overture to the Gospel, 1:1-18
• Part 1 Acceptance and Rejection: The First Passover
• Part 2 Rejection and Acceptance: The Second Passover
• Part 3 Denouement: Final Passover, Passion, and Resurrection
• Outline of John
• Essays
• Map of Palestine in New Testament Times
• Bibliography
• Selected Resources
• Index of Ancient Sources
• The Author