Daniel's Commentary on John's Prologue

Daniel's Commentary on John's Prologue
By Daniel Gregg


KJV John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

The essential nature of God is Spirit (John 4:24) which is unseen and does not have physical manifestation (Luke 24:39). No one has seen God in his Spiritual Essence at any time (John 1:18). In order to relate to His creation, God manifests an image of himself or what John calls logos. The meaning of logos in the best English is "expression". The logos is God's expression of himself in physical form.
The Scripture commands us to make no image of God. Being sinful, if we were to make an image of God, it would be corrupt. However, God does make an image of himself whenever he manifests himself to Israel. He speaks 'face to face' with Moses (Exodus 33:11). He appears to Abraham (Genesis 18:1). God does not frequently appear to men because of our sinfulness, however, when He appears he does it through his image, or expression of himself, His Word. Even in Isaiah 6, where the prophet sees YHWH high and lifted up, he is seeing God expressing himself.
Jacob says, "For I have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved" (Genesis 32:30). Why was Jacob concerned about seeing God? For the Scripture says, "And he said, Thou canst not see my face: for there shall no man see me, and live" (KJV Exodus 33:20). Yet we have just observed that Moses spoke "face to face" with YHWH (Exodus 33:11). If there was ever an apparent contradiction to be explained, then this is it. The explanation is that God manifests himself in different ways. In the fire on Mt. Sinai, He appeared in such a way that a sight of His face would kill Moses. However, at other times he manifested in such a way that speaking with him "face to face" would not result in death.
The two statements are made in the same chapter of Exodus. The difference between the two manifestations is that God manifested all his "goodness" and "glory" that could be manifested in a physical form when he let Moses see his back. The knowledge of sin that would be communicated to Moses and righteousness in God's glorified manifestation would cause guilt to rise up and slay oneself – if he had let him see his face at that time.
God is Spirit in his nature, and no one sees the Spirit. Even in heaven God manifests himself with an image, but this manifestation is chosen to reflect his glory, his righteousness, his goodness and his mercy. Man is not to create an image of God, however, in heaven, and at infrequent intervals on earth, God manifests an image of Himself, and through this image he receives worship and relates to His creation.
The image of God's own creation, therefore, is identified with Himself because it is communicating what the Spirit that wears the image is like. Much in the same way that you look at a person in real life and gain a knowledge of what they are like by how they act and express themselves, so also we gain a knowledge of God by the way he expressed himself in human form. The Person or Spirit in the Word of God (Expression of God) is God Himself. It is not some other created spirit or some other created person. It is the Spirit of YHWH. Therefore, John says, "the Word was God."
Why does he say that the Word was in the beginning? Because God has always expressed himself. Why does he say that the Word was with God? He says this because the only God also manifests himself in a multipersonal way that we do not yet fully understand.

KJV John 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

John emphasizes that the Word/Expression was with God in the beginning. All things were made by the Word of God. The Word is not wisdom detached from God. Wisdom is knowledge like mathematics. 1+1 = 2. That is eternal wisdom. It always was true and always will be true. And it was always with God. However, detached mathematics or wisdom did not create all things. God created all things. For he is living wisdom in Himself.

KJV John 1:4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

In the Word was life. This is because God Himself is in God's Expression of Himself, and He is Eternal Life. This life gives light to men. Light is a metaphor for truth. It is the truth of what life is, and how things are. The truth helps us to see how to live. It is said that God's "Torah" or instruction is His Word. When it is written on Torah Scrolls it is the "word" detached from God. However, in God's Expression of Himself, he is the living "torah" or living manifestation of righteousness. God Himself is the Eternal living righteousness that is described in the Scripture. For this reason the Word of God is called YHWH our Righteousness (Jer. 23:6).

KJV John 1:5 And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

This is better translated, "and the darkness grasped it not". This means that the truth was shown to sinful man, but sinful man did not "grasp," the truth, either by pulling it down, or by understanding it. It is also an allusion to Genesis where God created light, just as vs. 1 is an allusion to Genesis. However, this light transcends the created light. It is in fact a metaphor for the eternal truth that in the Word.

John 1:6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might faithfully trust.

His Hebrew name was "Yokhanan". He was a prophet in the Spirit of Elijah, which was actually God's Spirit upon him. He was not Elijah himself. For Elijah himself, the prophet, still comes at the end of days. But like Elisha who received a double portion of God's Spirit upon him, so also Yokhanan received God's Spirit upon him. Yokhanan was the prophetic witness to the Light. So also at the end of days, Elijah will be one of the prophetic witnesses to the light.

KJV John 1:8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. 9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.

John says "he was not that Light" because there were followers of John the Baptist (Immerser) that did not listen to his message about Yeshua. John also emphasizes that the "light" or "truth" made the world because some were gnostics who despised the creation and claimed that the light did not make the world. Likewise, the gnostics said that the light was only for the select few, but John says that the light gives light to every man who is exposed to it.

John 1:11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that faithfully trust on his Name: 13 Which are born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

"His own" means Israel, and particularly the tribe of Judah out of which he was born of the line of David, but they did not recognize the LORD's appearance among them. Nevertheless, many did accept him. To us he gives "power" or the "right" to become "the children of God". This does not mean that this is fully realized yet. For we do not receive the fullness of our inheritance until the end of days. However, we have the promise if we are faithful and endure to the end.
What does it mean to trust in his Name? The concept of "name" means God's reputation, his glory, is character, and all the goodness that he caused to pass by Moses. For Yeshua has the Name above all names. To "faithfully trust in his Name" is one and the same act as Abraham's "faithfully trusting in YHWH". It is to believe God's promise, and to put your trust in the LORD.
God's name is not just a mere identification label. We do not just know God by the way we call his Name, but we know God by obeying his commandments (1 John 2:3). For His commandments express who God is. To know God, we must take on His righteousness. We must trust Him to transform us into the likeness of his image. This is what it means to faithfully trust in the Name of Yeshua. We must acknowledge Him as the one to trust, and the one who deserves our faith and loyalty. This the same faith and trust that Abraham gave to YHWH, a faith and trust that only God has a right to receive.
In vs. 13, the translation should better be "Which are born" rather than "were born". The Greek aorist tense is really the "undefined" tense, which is what "aorist" means in Greek. The will of God is to write his laws on our hearts, and this is a process until the end of days. Therefore, the English present better captures the sense, and avoids the need for the excesses of Calvinism.

KJV John 1:14 And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

This titanic verse slays all forms of Gnosticism. The Word became flesh. God expressed himself by taking on a human fleshly body. He became Yeshua. How is it possible for the Eternal Infinite God to become a man? This involves the ability of God to self limit Himself and yet remain in Spiritual Essence the Eternal God. Christianity and Judaism have made this difficult by adopting Hellenistic or Greek concepts of philosophy. It is the philosophy that results in the apparent contradictions, and not the Scripture. Sometimes the translation of a text here or there is motivated by the philosophy.
John states, "we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only unique one of the Father". This word monogenes was for a long time misunderstood until better Greek research uncovered the original meaning. Although Yeshua was born of a Virgin, that is not the focus of this word. The focus is that Yeshua is the unique expression of God our Father taking human form. I mentioned before that God is mysteriously multipersonal. Scripture gives us hints. It speaks of the seven Spirits of God. These are not just aspects or characteristics of God, but personal conscious expressions of God's character, which are identified as YHWH, and represented as "eyes" in the Scripture.
This is possible if we understand the Shema rightly, "Hear O Israel, YHWH is our Elohim, YHWH only" (Deut. 6:4). The statement at the end of the confession, "YHWH alone" is not meant to define God as "one person". That is, it is not meant to limit him to expressing himself as one person. Rather, it is external to God, and meant to limit only YHWH to being the Eternal God, without trying to define an absolute philosophical internal oneness in a Hellenistic sense. The one Lord YHWH can subsist and express Himself as He wishes. In English the adjective comes before the noun. In Hebrew it comes after. Therefore, YHWH echad may be "one YHWH" in the context and not "YHWH [is] one" which is trite in the context and does nothing to exclude idolatary. In idiomatic English, "YHWH only" is probably best.

KJV John 1:15 John bare witness of him, and cried, saying, This was he of whom I spake, He that cometh after me is preferred before me: for he was before me.

Here, John the Baptist is acknowledging Yeshua's divinity. He was before John, because He appeared to Abraham (Genesis 18:1) and spoke face to face with Moses. This is what many Jews at this time would have understood him to be saying. They knew that YHWH might show up in human form or angelic form to Israel. For he had done it before. He had so appeared to Jacob, to Moses, to Samson's parents, and to Gideon. Judaism in its modern form did not exist. Judaism was much less Hellenized at the time, and had not incorporated reactionary philosophy to inoculate itself from the followers of Yeshua. Later, Judaism mutated – adopting principles designed to prevent an understanding of Yeshua as YHWH taking human form. This was in rebellion against the truth. One of the things that Judaism does is to say that when Israel saw YHWH they only saw a vision. This is a transparent attempt to remove any Scriptural precedent or basis for Yeshua being YHWH manifesting himself in human form. This point of view has saturated the thinking of unbelieving Jews. In order to truly trust the LORD Yeshua they have to be released from this error.

KJV John 1:16 And of his fulness have all we received, and grace for grace. 17 For the law was given by Moses, but the grace and the truth came by Jesus Christ.

The conjunction "but" here is appropriately in italics. It does not belong. The contrast is not meant to be oppositional. We must also put back into the text the definite article that was left out in the translation, "the grace," and "the truth". What is the grace and the truth? The Torah (Law) contains, "the grace" and "the truth", but where did this grace and truth come from before Moses received it? It came from Yeshua the Messiah, because this was the one on Mt. Sinai that the elders of Israel did see with their eyes, and yet he did not lay a hand on the sons of Israel (Exodus 24:10-11). We must not look with the antinomians to a new grace and truth given to contradict the Torah, but to the grace and truth that was the source of the Torah in Messiah Yeshua whom they saw on Mt. Sinai before he was born of a Virgin.


John 1:18 No man hath seen God at any time; the only unique God, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath expressed him.

Here it is necessary to correct the KJV. Better Greek texts read "the only unique God" which is actually a stronger statement of who Yeshua is than the word "Son". We should recall that in Exodus 33:11 that YHWH speaks "face to face" with Moses, but that in vs. 20 Moses is not allowed to see YHWH's face. This is what John is explaining. When YHWH expresses himself in a form we can see face to face, then Yeshua Messiah is the one who expresses him. But God in his glory, sinful man is not allowed to see without paying the penalty, nor can anyone see God in his essence as Spirit.
There is another sense of Yeshua and the Father being "one" expressed in John 10:30, 17:11, 21, but this is not the same "ekhad" as in the Shema. There is means only YHWH is Elohim. What Yeshua is saying is that He relates to the Father with a oneness that we also can experience with Him.