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FINDINGS III By Harry T. Cook
Christmas: December 25, 2011
John 1:1-18
 | | Harry T. Cook |
The first 18 verses of the Gospel according to John (known as the gospel's Prologue) are among the most remarkable in scripture for what they say and what they leave unsaid. Compare them to Matthew 1: 18-25 or Luke 2:1-20. Most research supports a working hypothesis that portions of the passage are strophes or movements of a poetic hymn the origins of which are unknown. A good case can be made that the Prologue is a Greek translation from a primary Aramaic text, as some of Luke's infancy hymns may have appeared originally in Aramaic. The extant Greek of the Prologue, however, is redolent of Hellenistic thinking. The use of several potent Greek terms such as αλήθεια (disclosure), λόγος (life power), ζωή (psychic and material existence), κόσμος (world), χάρις (loveliness or grace), σάρξ (flesh, earthiness), σκοτία (darkness or absence of light) and φως (light).
First and second strophes: While "in the beginning" (Έν άρχή) is reminiscent of Genesis 1:1 ("in the beginning"), John doesn't mean "at the inception," but "before the beginning of time" or "during the formation of what would become time" (and space). Robert Alter translates the Hebrew at Genesis 1:1 as: "When God began to create . . ." /1 The λόγος (creative potency?) was considered part and parcel of that pre-time so much so that it was what Paul Tillich would later call "the Ground and Source of All Being." This creative potency is the source of the impetus of the entirety -- so John says.
In the λόγος was ζωή and φως, the latter the illumination of all human beings. Arrayed against ζωή was σκοτία, the malign absence of light and therefore of life. Here John is at his most dualistic, virtually positing the opposing poles of good and evil. It is John's dark matter. But the light that proceeds from life (which proceeds from λόγος) is not to be overcome by darkness. Other interesting translations are: "The darkness did not lay hands upon it" and "The darkness couldn't touch it."
At v. 6 the evangelist makes a sharp turn from timeless philosophy to an identifiable time and person of "history." The time is now toward the end of the fourth decade of the first century C.E, and the person is John, no doubt the one called "Baptist." Virtually all who study this text agree that vv. 6-8 and 15 represent editorial additions to or interruptions between the second and third strophes and splitting the fourth. The purpose of the first interruption is to tie the "historical" figure of Jesus to the eternal λόγος. The interruption is faithful to the Jewish tradition that "the one who is to come" will have before him both in time and space a herald or announcer.
The evangelist takes pains to make clear that the Baptist was not the true light. His point may have been to blunt any movement of late first century C.E. gentiles or Jews to choose the tradition of the dead Baptist over that of the dead Jesus.
So why did not the κόσμος know the one coming into the world? Perhaps because he was not what the world expected. That one was the דבר that would "stand forever" (Isaiah 40:8b) despite rejection. Those who did recognize and receive him would become his τέκνα (spiritual offspring). The λόγος becomes σάρξ and pitches a tent among its potential spiritual offspring. A clan gathering, in other words.
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Given the cultural three-ring circus that Christmas has become, only the homilist who wishes to be ignored will dilate on John 1:1-18 at Christmas Eve or Christmas Day liturgies. But she or he should have "done the reading" and "done the work" on the appointed gospel text so that whatever is offered to the holiday congregation will have integrity. Hence this post.
A simple way to put it is that the Judeo-Christian religion that springs from the literature of the Bible is as much σάρξ as anything. It is a real-time enterprise that calls on living human beings to respect one another's dignity and to care for the "fragile earth," their "island home."/2 Even though the fourth gospel has nothing to do with Bethlehem, mangers and angel choirs, it is clear that in the author's imagination divinity came into the life of humankind, and that to make a difference. The obvious homiletic tack is now to say that human beings exist to make a positive difference in the life of their world. Surely if members of a congregation have been looking out into the κόσμος and σκοτία beyond the church doors, already they will have been engaged in the making of positive differences. Christmas is as good a time as any to dwell on that good work and encourage its continuance.
/1 The Five Books of Moses New York, 2004, W.W. Norton & Company, 17
/2 Prayer of Thanksgiving C, Book of Common Prayer 1979, 370
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