John 1:1-5

Okay as a person just in beginning to learn how to break down scripture on my own please be easy on me...

I have written a short paper on breaking down and understanding John 1:1-5...how badly did I do?

(just to let you know i'm too lazy to put in all the accents into the words in Greek)

A Look at John 1:1-5

These four verses that open up the Gospel of John are of great importance to understanding the deity and nature of Christ. We will look at each verse and the Greek roots of several of the words to understand what John was telling his readers.

John 1:1
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” NIV

Huh? Words are God? The Bible is God? What is this saying?

First let’s look at “Word”. Word refers to an old philosophical term going back to the sophos. This word is “Logos”. It is a very rich and complex term in history and in this instance John uses Logos as referring to “the Divine Expression”, which refers to Christ.

Second, the word “God”. God here is “theos” translated a deity. There are no tricks in the meaning behind the word. It simply refers to the triune God.

So understanding the meanings of these terms we can understand that the passage here could be read: “In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with theos, and the Logos was theos.” Or more simply put: “Jesus Christ was with God and was God in the beginning.

John 1:2
“He was with God in the beginning.”

Though there is nothing here to break down into its Greek root, it is interesting to note that Logos here is referred to as “He.” This very clearly tells us that Logos referred to Christ.

John 1:3
“Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.”

Through him? Through Jesus Christ that is. This verse also tells of the divinity of Christ and his foundation of the world. Christ was there in the beginning- and without him nothing was made! We know that Christ was crucial in the creation of the whole world.

John 1:4
“In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”

“Life” here literally means life and is comparable to “psucho” Greek for breath. So we are told that Jesus Christ was alive, but this life has a deeper theological meaning as it says that life was the light of men. In other words the life of Jesus Christ is the light or salvation of men. He is our beacon of hope.

“Light” is broken down as “phao” and translated “shine”, “rays”, or possibly “luminousness.” Again, this asserts that Jesus Christ is our light.

John 1:5
“The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”

The only term here we should understand the Greek root of is darkness. It is “skoteinos” in Greek and translated “dimness” or “obscurity”.

We know that Jesus Christ is the light of the world, and thus shines through the darkness of the world- the sin that enslaves us and unbelievers and the worldly king- the devil.

These 5 verses are very powerful in that they alone establish Christ’s divinity, the triune nature of God, Christ as the light of the world, and Christ as our Savior.

 

WOW! look at all the responses. Was it something I said???

Until Next Post, The budding theologian

 

nevermind. i'm obviously not asking my question right. i just went through it with my college teacher and he helped me work through some of it.

Until Next Post, Adam

 

Yes it is techinically copyrighted,
you have my permission to you use it

For more information on copyrights:

What is copyright?

Until Next Post, Adam

 

I'm interested to know how it goes. let me know.

Until Next Post, Adam

 

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Davidf:
Well, Just one thing.... I perosonally think the NIV missed the mark when it says that all things were made "through Him."
The King James Version says "all things were made by Him". Jesus is God, so all things were made by him. Water flows through a pipe, but is not produced thereby.
There are many places where the modern translations (the modern per-versions) of the Bible miss the mark, or leave out important things.
Use the KJV, the Holy Spirit will teach you the 1611 English as you read and pray for His help. It's the preserved Word of God for the English-speaking people.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

People like you annoy me. Go out and do work for the Lord instead of wasting your time bickering about what transation to use. Arguments like these are a total waste of time when what you need to be doing is witnessing to the souls who do not yet know Christ as their savior. If you choose to use the Bible that was translated from earlier in 1611 by people who were not inspired, be my guest, but cut this c-r-a-p out.

Until Next Post, Adam

[ October 15, 2001: Message edited by: flyfree432 ]