Gospel of John

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

These are the opening lines of the Gospel of John and the beginning of the theological prologue (which runs through verse 18), depicting Jesus in his relation to God the Father. Here, he is presented in the terminology of “the Word” (in Greek, the Logos), which implies a role as the personification of divine wisdom and the active, creative principle behind all things. The description of Jesus as being both with God and simply being God illustrates the complex and interwoven nature of John’s portrayal of both the discrete personhood and yet the united identity of Jesus and God the Father, a portrayal which formed part of the basis of the Christian doctrine of God as Trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). These lines further introduce the symbology of light and darkness, which is used frequently throughout the gospel.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

This is another quotation from the gospel’s theological prologue, where it becomes clear that John is using “the Word” as a descriptor of Jesus’s divine pre-existence. The depiction of the doctrine of incarnation here—“the Word became flesh”—uses a somewhat coarse, visceral term for embodiment, emphasizing the physical reality of Jesus’s human body.