John 1:14-18 Jesus is God

Introduction

 Here we are, at last, the final portion of John's prologue. We have walked through the Evangelist's introduction, seen that Jesus was God, was with God, created all things, and was the reasoning men needed to believe in Him. Now, John introduces his readers to something completely new. In another way, John threw a curve ball to his audience. He claimed something of Jesus that neither Jew nor Greek would have believed of the Logos. This was that Jesus, God, became flesh. That meant that God became both human and God at the same time. This is why John can say of the Logos, [n]o one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father’s side, he has made him known. John tells us that Jesus is God and only He can make God, the invisible, known. 

And the Word Became Flesh...

To Hellenistic Greeks, the Logos was an abstract thought. Their gods could be seen in human form, but were never human. In a similar fashion, the Jewish understanding of God was that he was a spiritual being and, therefore, you did not worship any created thing. This verse is the key argument of the divinity and humanity of Jesus. The Gnostics misunderstood (still do to this day) this verse to mean that Jesus was divine while the later heresy of Arianism believed that Jesus was not divine, but human.

The Greek word for dwelt among us, which in the NRSV is lived among us and in the NIRV as made his home with us, was skenoo.  This word meant to tabernacle or to dwell. For John's readers, they would have seen this word skenoo and would have immediately understood the image of the OT Tabernacle in the Exodus period. For John's community, as well as for us today, Jesus was the NT version of the Tabernacle. Jesus was God's presence in human flesh among His people (Barton, et al., John, 12).

The word for glory in Greek is doxa. According to David Seal's article in the Faithlife Study Bible, "[d]oxa essentially describes manifestations of supernatural splendor or divine glory." It's used 42 times in the Gospels, which is translated differently in the many English versions of the Bible. For this context, glory is used in the NASB, NIV, KJV, ESV, and NLT. John's purpose for using doxa here is to get his audience to see Jesus as the visual and physical glorification of Yahweh just as He resided in the tabernacle in the days of Moses. Barton says it best: "Underneath Jesus' appearance as an ordinary Jewish carpenter, the disciples saw the indwelling glory of God" (Barton, et al., John, 12). 

John's Parenthetical Statement

In English grammar, a parenthetical statement is one that is inserted to explain something, yet it could be taken out of the prose without creating any confusion on the meaning. John's parenthetical, here, is simply to restate Jesus' eternal divinity (Barton, et al., John, 14). Some think that the insertion is justified with the following of verse 16. J. Ramsey Michaels believes this, making the Baptist the first actual messenger of Christianity, at least in John's community (Michaels, John, 23-24). John Barclay has verses 15-17 connected together (Barclay, John, 70-73). However, Malina and Rohrbaugh see this statement as a way of making Jesus better than John--e. g. "[t]he implied defensiveness on this topic may be an indication of rivalry between the disciples of Jesus and John" (Malina and Rohrbaugh, John, 33). Haenchen on the opposite end holds that these subordinations of the Baptist to Jesus was not due to any rivalry, but in fact showing the fulfilling of John's role as the one who proclaims Jesus' coming (Haenchen, John, 120). 

Grace Upon Grace...

Grace upon grace, in most English translations, sounds like John is saying grace added to grace. Yet, in the Greek it is read "grace in place of grace" (Barton, et al., John, 15; Barclay, John, 71). Grace is an important theological term in the New Testament. John is saying that in Christ's fullness we have grace, which could be interpreted as grace restoring grace (Barton, et al., John, 15). This is why John can say that "the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." The Law introduced us to God's justice while Christ brought us God's grace (Barton, et al., John, 16). Christ is the New Covenant that God made with His people. 

When John says that "[n]o one has ever seen God" he does not mean a physical (there were 'theophanies' or special visions of God in person throughout the OT), but in a characteristic way (Barton, et al., John, 16). What is really being said here, is that Jesus is the only one able to show the true representation of God to His people. In fact, the Greek says that Jesus describes God (Barton, et al., John, 17). God is made clear through the knowledge of Christ. Jesus is God, and who better to explain God than God Himself. 

How did you interpret this portion of the text? How was this helpful for you? How did God speak to you in these last few posts? Leave your comments in the section below or questions if you have any. Thanks guys for reading and be blessed.

C. Bohall

Bibliography

Barclay, William. Gospel of John. vol. 1. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1975.

Barton, Bruce B. Philip W. Comfort, David R. Veerman, and Neil Wilson. John. 1993. 

Haenchen, Ernst. John 1. Trans. Robert W. Funk. Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1984.

Malina, Bruce J. and Richard L. Rohrbaugh. Social-Science Commentary on the Gospel of  John. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1998. 

Michaels, J. Ramsey. John. Peabody: Hendrickson Press, 2005.