"In the beginning was the Word,
And the Word was with God,
And the Word was God."
~~ Gospel of John 1:1
Even when I was an orthodox believer, this first verse of the Book of John,
considered the most mystical of all gospels, always stumped me.
Some interpret the Word as the Bible,
but this is arguably wrong since the Apostle John
only knew the Old Testament when he was writing.
And the Old Testament can't be the Word
because it wasn't even written yet when the world was created.
It also can't be our current Bible - Old + New Testament,
simply because John couldn't have known that his gospel
was going to be part of the accepted canon.
Even if he knew prophetically that what he wrote
would be recognised, it still wouldn't make sense
because our Protestant Bible - 66 books -
didn't exist before the creation of the world.
Some would disagree. "God has already known in his mind
- even before the creation of the world -
what the 66 books would be," they would argue.
But here's the question - how do we know that
the 66 books in his mind are the same 66 books
that we have now? If fact, how do we know the number is 66?
I came from the Protestant tradition, but I feel
we need to spare a thought for our Catholic brothers.
What does God think about the Apocrypha?
If you're Muslim, then the argument goes on.
God was thinking of the Quran before the creation of the world.
There should only be One Holy Book, with 114 chapters.
So the question will always be:
How do you know that the Word of God
is your version of the Word of God?
Many Christians who feel instinctively that
the 'Bible' interpretation was wrong would turn
to the idea that the Word was simply Jesus Christ.
"The Word was made flesh & dwelt among us."
This is the best orthodox view.
The above 2 views are the most commonly held
interpretations of the meaning of 'Word'.
The Word, translated from the Greek 'Logos',
refers to reason, order and the principle of creation.
This in fact should be the most accurate understanding
of what the apostle John was trying to say.
John's way of expressing the origin of creation
was borrowed from early Greek philosophers
like Heraclitus, Plato & Aristotle.
'Logos' was not an orthodox Jewish way of
depicting the process of creation.
The reason why he chose this word
was perhaps because he wanted to
use this phrase to evangelise to the Greeks.
"To the Jews I became like a Jew.
To those outside the law I became one outside the law."
~~ 1 Cor 9:20,21
The apostle Paul preached to the Greeks:
"What you worship as unknown,
this I proclaim to you." ~~ Acts 17:23
In the original Genesis creation account,
God spoke the world into existence.
"Let there be light. And there was light." ~~ Genesis 1:3
Christians interpret this God as God the Father,
or Jehovah / Yahweh.
There was no mention of Logos, or Jesus in this Genesis account.
John added Jesus and made him represent God's Voice
that spoke the Word, or rather Words.
I've always wondered about this:
Why did Jehovah need Jesus to be his voice
to create the world? He isn't dumb.
Doesn't he have his own voice?
"The Spirit of God was hovering over the waters." ~~ Genesis 1:2
Christians interpret this as the Holy Spirit.
It seems that the Apostle John might have wanted to
insert Jesus into the equation both to promote the Trinitarian God
as well as to appeal to Greek philosophers,
which was a clever way of killing 2 birds with one stone.
The Gnostic Christians have an alternative understanding.
They agree that Jesus was absent from the creation
because he existed in another dimension, a dimension
far higher and more powerful than Jehovah / Yahweh.
This, of course, to many Christians, is blasphemous.
I am personally more sympathetic of the Gnostics' point of view.
However, it is difficult to understand what the Gnostics
actually believed because the majority of their teachings and books
had either been burnt or lost.
The current fragments of manuscripts that were dug up
are too obscure and vague for us to form a comprehensive doctrine.
Many scholars have tried to decipher it,
but they are just bits and pieces here and there.
Hopefully, one day, all will be revealed.
