January 2, 2005

Mindekirken, January 2, 2005
Pastor Jens Arne Dale

John 1.1-18

The text that we have read is commonly considered the easiest text in the NT to read in Greek. If you ask a pastor about skills when it comes to the Greek language, I wouldn’t be surprised if she or he proudly would answer: En arche en ho logos kai ho logos en pros ton theon, In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God. The curriculum in Greek starts with John 1 because it’s so easy to understand.

But on the other hand, this is also one of the most difficult texts to translate in the whole NT. What does it mean when John says: In the beginning was the LOGOS? Goethe’s great drama Faust gives us a classical picture of the translator’s problem. In a famous scene we meet the truth-hunting Faust in his study together with his poodle. But where is he to find the truth? I’ll read from the nynorsk translation by Åse-Marie Nesse of 1993:

It’s not only Faust who has had problems translating logos. He tried with word, thought, power and deed, and all those words reflect parts of the meaning of the Greek word logos. But at the same time some of the meaning is lost when you have to choose one translation.

To the Greek, logos was a philosophical term with a variety of meanings. It was the great reason, kind of an impersonal principle which gave creation order. The Greek philosopher Heraclitus who lived in Ephesos 500 B.C. said that everything is in a state of flux. Step into a river, he said, step out and then step into it again. But you do not step into the same river, for the water has flowed on and it is a different river. In this way Heraclitus described that everything in life is in a state of flux. But why then is life not a complete chaos? To that, Heraclitus answered that everything is controlled by the reason of God. And this impersonal principle of order was the pattern of all things, not only in the physical world, but also inside man. The logos gives man the ability to think reasonably and to judge between right and wrong.

It’s one of history’s strange coincidences that John lived in Ephesos, the same city as Heraclitus, though 600 years later. And John uses the same term as Heraclitus, the term logos. "In the beginning was the logos," John says. In a genius way he takes over the most important term of Greek philosophy, but John gives it a new content! That is his way to transfer the Christian message to a new culture. John, so to speak, translates the Christian message into the terms of Greek philosophy.

Let me give another example of the same thing. In Chinese, logos is translated with Tao, that’s a basic term in Chinese and means something like way. For a Chinese person it makes sense to say: "In the beginning was the way." In that way the Christian message makes sense to someone who is familiar with Taoism.

It was acceptable to the Greeks when John said: In the beginning was the logos. But then he begins to fill the term logos with a new content. John is not pleased in describing logos as an impersonal principle. He connects to the story of creation in the OT. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth, says Gen. 1.1.When John says: In the beginning was the Word, he refers to God’s creative word. Words are not empty noise, but create what they mention. God spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm. Psalm 33.9. God’s words are powerful, creative and dynamic. Logos was a person, none less that Jesus himself. He was the one who spoke, and it came to be. Without him not one thing came into being, John says. In this way John describes Jesus' preexistence, the fact that Jesus was God before any material thing had been created.

He is the creator that provides us with days and nights, the changing seasons and the thoughts and consciousness of men. In this way, John gets started with something which was familiar to the Greeks. So far, they could follow his thoughts, but John would soon say unheard things about Logos. But before we go that far, we have to say some more about how the Greeks understood the world. Plato said that the material world in which we live, is only like a shadow of the perfect world, the world of ideas. The soul is captured in the prison of the human body. It needs to be freed from this. Only the invisible world is perfect, the material world was inferior. The body should be despised.

John does away with this way of thinking in what many regard as the most important verse in the NT. The Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father’s son, full of grace and truth. The logos became flesh, it says. That was totally unacceptable and limit-shaking in the environment in which John lived. God has become flesh and blood. Here, there is no trace of despising of the body. Creation is not inferior.

The beauty of nature mirrors the power of God, the Creator. The glory of God is visible in the baby in the manger and the man on the cross. Here, John uses a word that literally means see, it’s not in a spiritual way we may see the glory of God. We declare to you what was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the word of life. 1 John 1:1

So offensive was this thought that a teaching very quickly developed that said that Jesus only appeared to have a body. Docetism, of the Greek word dokein, to seem to be, said that Jesus was God, but not really a human. Jesus was a phantom, a skin body. They believed it was an insult of the godly to pull Jesus down to an earthly stage. But how then would Jesus be able to be a savior for us mortals if he had not been like one of us?, John would have asked.

And then he draws a picture of Jesus in his gospel that touches us, because it’s so human. Jesus got angry at those who traded in the temple, he got physically tired of travelling, he got hungry, and thirsty. Beside the grave of Lazarus, he wept like one of us, and from the cross he cried out that he was thirsty. In his letter, John says that it is the spirit of Anti-Christ who denies that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh and blood.1 John 4:2

The Greeks were concerned that the soul should be freed from the earthly prison and come to the perfect world. But John teaches us that the perfect life is here among us, in Christ Jesus. When Plato asks for the true world, it’s like Jesus protesting by saying that it’s he who is the true light, the true bread and the true vine. No one has ever seen God. On that, John and the Greeks agreed. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known, John says, and torpedoes the Greek world picture totally. John doesn’t only give us facts, for instance about the raising of Lazarus. He also tells what it means. I’m the resurrection and the life. All who believe get a part in the perfect life.

One little girl heard some of the most bloodthirsty stories of the OT and commented: That must have happened before God became a Christian. God has been a Christian all the time. But first from Jesus, we have learned fully how he is. The law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.

Glory be to God, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, one true God, now and forever. Amen.

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