Ioan 1:1-4
La inceput era Cuvantul, si Cuvantul era cu Dumnezeu, si Cuvantul era Dumnezeu.
El era la inceput cu Dumnezeu.
Toate lucrurile au fost facute prin El; si nimic din ce a fost facut, n-a fost facut fara El.
In El era viata, si viata era lumina oamenilor.
Ioan 1:14 Si Cuvantul S-a facut trup, si a locuit printre noi, plin de har, si de adevar. Si noi am privit slava Lui, o slava intocmai ca slava singurului nascut din Tatal.
V-ati intrebat vreodata de ce Ioan Il numeste pe Isus Cuvant?
Incepand azi sa studiez Evanghelia dupa Ioan dupa planul unei carticele .. am gasit urmatoarea intrebare:
La cine se refera termenul “Cuvantul” din primele propozitii ale cartii lui Ioan si de ce crezi ca a ales apostolul acest termen?
Raspunsul la prima parte a intrebarii .. a venit de la sine .. direct din verset … clar, direct ..
.. insa raspunsul la a doua parte … “de ce crezi ca a ales apostolul acest termen” .. s-a lasat asteptat ..
Insa am gasit un comentariu interesant pe internet :
John 1:1-18 - The Prologue
The prologue is marked by the themes of the Word and the witness of John. Clustered around the “Word” are a series of abstract words and concepts. They include: beginning, creation, light, life, truth, grace, glory, and the world. This is the high language of theology and philosophy. Yet moving among these terms is a man sent from God who testifies (i.e. gives evidence) about this “Word.”
John’s use of these abstract terms is part of his scheme to paint a picture of Jesus that is very different from that found in the Synoptic gospels. Mark introduces Jesus at the beginning of his ministry. Matthew places Jesus in the context of Jewish history by his opening genealogy and birth narrative. Luke sets Jesus at the intersection of Judaism’s pious hopes and the Roman Empire’s march through history. As valid and interesting as those introductions may be they all allow the reader to say, “All that’s very nice, but Jesus doesn’t really concern me and my life.”
John, however, sets Jesus in the context of the creation and meaning of the world. Verse 3 indicates that reality is dependent upon Jesus. The meaning of life (v. 4) and truth (v. 14) are somehow connected to Jesus. No one can accept John’s picture of Jesus and walk away saying, “That doesn’t matter to me.” But to really understand John’s picture of Jesus we need insight into his use of the word, “Word.”
John 1:1-5 - The Word Introduced
The most significant word in the prologue is “Word” which is used as a title for Jesus. The Greek word for “Word” would be written in English letters as logos (from which we get logic, logo, and related words). But a Greek dictionary would not have given all that John means to say about Jesus when he called him the logos.
Jesus is rarely called the “Word” outside this prologue. Perhaps its unusualness is proportional to its significance. To describe Jesus as the Word of God points to a basic truth. A word is a message, a communication. Jesus is the communication of a message from God. A word expresses the thoughts of the innermost person. Jesus is the expression of the heart of God. A person’s word is a statement of that person’s nature or character. Jesus is the perfect expression of the nature and character of God.
That much is common to the way every culture understands a word. The author and first readers of the fourth gospel would have understood much more by designating Jesus as the Word. In Jewish thought a word was a powerful and effective thing. Words accomplished things. Genesis 1 describes God as creating simply by means of a word. To say a blessing was to create a blessing. Likewise, to pronounce a curse was to actually bring evil upon the cursed one. In Genesis 27:30-40 when Esau asked his father, Isaac, to retract the blessing given to Jacob Isaac refused - the blessing had already been spoken and was effective - it could not be retracted. To call Jesus the “word” was to attribute to him the ability to make things happen.
Intertestamental Judaism and especially the Targums (paraphrases of the Old Testament from the Hebrew language into the Aramaic language) used the expression “word of God” as a circumlocution for the name of God. Because of their extreme reverence for the name of God they avoided pronouncing it and would use substitutions instead such as “heaven” or “the word of God.” This meant that the phrase, “Word of God,” did not mean Scripture for the Jews of Jesus’ time as it does for us. Rather, it was a reference to God himself.
Another clue to the meaning of the word logos in John’s prologue comes from the Wisdom literature of the Old Testament (Proverbs, Job, Ecclesiastes) and the Wisdom literature of the intertestamental period (Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom of Solomon especially). This Wisdom literature often personified wisdom. Wisdom was spoken of as a person who was present with God in creation, providing life and light for the world. The apocryphal book of Ecclesiasticus even describes Wisdom as being created before all things (created before creation). Wisdom was seen as almost eternally pre-existent with God. The intertestamental book, The Wisdom of Solomon, actually identified the Wisdom of God and the Word of God (Wisdom of Solomon 9:1-2). Thus, for Jews in the time of John, the phrase, “Word of God,” would have pointed to the personified Wisdom of God who was eternally co-existent with God and God’s active co-worker in Creation. Even though the Jews were ferociously monotheistic “the Word of God” spoke to them of a person who was with God and almost was God.
The logos also was a word that would communicate very profound concepts to the Greek world. Greek philosophy had come to use logos for some profound ideas. Logos meant more than just single words; it also referred to Reason and to the principle of order that held the Universe together. In some ways the Logos was the mind of God that controlled the totality of the world. It was logos that made the world orderly rather than chaotic. Further, Logos should control individual persons. The Reason of the Universe should enable the individual to reasonably decide between right and wrong. Philo of Alexandria, writing at the very time of Jesus, described Logos as the tiller with which God, the Pilot of the Universe, steers all things. In that sense the “Word” was an intermediary by which God related to the world and worked in it.
Thus both the Greek and Jewish patterns of thought attributed profound significance to the “Word.” In both the Word was associated with God in the creation or maintenance of the world. In both the Word was almost a substitute expression for God Himself. In Greek thought the Word related God and the world to the individual. We can draw further conclusions about the way logos would have communicated in the first century world. Perhaps no other concept could have been chosen by the gospel writer to so broadly express the awesome significance of Jesus.
Verse 1 describes the Word in three ways. The existence of the Word at the beginning is affirmed. The relationship of the Word to God is described. Finally, the actual character or nature of the Word is declared. The first affirmation is of the existence of the Word in the beginning. By doing this the gospel echoes almost exactly the opening words of Genesis 1:1, “In the beginning God . . . .” Thus Jesus is paced at God’s side as far back in time as the Bible goes. The next phrase, however, refines the relationship between Jesus and God. “The Word was with God” does not pick up a significant implication of the Greek text. It might be better translated, “The Word was face to face with God.” The relationship of Jesus and God was more than side-by-side; it was a face to face relationship indicating far more intimacy than that of simply being co-workers. This prepares for the final phrase, “The Word was God.”
The affirmation that Jesus is God is not a startling or difficult thought for present day Christians. It may not have been for John’s readers, but it was difficult for many first century Christians of Jewish heritage. Every Jew began every morning with these words in prayer, “Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God is one.” To claim that Jesus was God would be a very difficult idea for Jews to assimilate. Perhaps the point that we should understand is not just that Jesus was (and is) God, but that when Jesus is seen, God is seen. The Logos provides us access and understanding into the very nature of God.
That does not mean that the Logos exhausts the being of God. John does not say God was the Logos. We struggle with the mystery of this verse. Jesus is said both to be with God and to be God. That speaks of Jesus being distinguishable and yet identical with God. Our minds cannot hold the ultimate logic of both statements together. We believe, but there is a limit to our understanding. John could have easily said as Paul did in Ephesians 5:32, “This is a great mystery.”
Verses 2 and 3 return to the eternal existence of the Logos with God and the role of the “Word” in creation. “And apart from Him not even one thing was made.” This emphasis on Christ as creator reflects an important insight from Jewish thought. To affirm that nothing was made apart from Christ is to affirm that His imprint is stamped on all creation. All creation owes a certain accountability to the Creator. As modern science pursues the mystery of life in physical and chemical terms, the Bible-believing Christian cannot evade the meaning of John 1:2-3. We are responsible for the life we live to Christ as our Creator. The meaning of our life will never be embraced by DNA studies. The imprint of Christ on our neighbor and our universe will always be a part of our pursuit of understanding. The creation can never be considered evil from a Christian standpoint, but we must be the people most concerned that evil does not corrupt it.
Verse 4 introduces the terms, “life” and “light,” in relation to Jesus. Life was in the logos. The energy and vitality, the creativity and feeling that we call life has its source in Christ. If life has its existence in the logos then if there is no logos there is no life. John wants to make Christ absolutely the essence and meaning of life. No Christ - no life. We are too tempted to spiritualize this truth. No Christ - no spiritual life. For John the difference between life and mere existence is Christ. If we agree with John the way we spend our time and money, the things we think important and funny, and commitments of our energy and interest will all be changed. We have let the world define life for us too long. Life is in Christ.
Verse 4 goes on to declare that this Life was also the light of mankind. Verse 5 declares that Jesus is involved in a great struggle against darkness. Here is an example of John’s black and white thinking that we may not be able to appreciate like the people of the first century did. The flick of a light switch has made light so easy for us that most of us do not really understand darkness. We do not have to deal with its terror, its unknown character, its evil-cloaking nature.
The people of the first century understood the fearfulness, the insecurity, the lurking of evil that went with darkness. Darkness was a metaphor that spoke very realistically to them of the way sin worked. In contrast light dispelled darkness; light overcame darkness; light exposed and defeated sin. And John tells us that Jesus was that light. Darkness struggled to overpower the light, to hold it down, to extinguish it, but the darkness failed. The Greek text notes that the Light we know as Jesus continuously shines and the darkness cannot knock it out.
Domnul sa va binecuvanteze!!
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