The Forgotten Trinity by James R. White Read Free Book Online Page A

familiar. Many see this
as a purposeful reference to Genesis 1:1, "In the beginning God created
the heavens and the earth." Just as Genesis introduces God's work of
creation, so John 1:1 introduces God's work of redeeming that people,
and that work has been going on just as long as creation itself. Yet we
do not need to focus solely upon the same point of origin in creation
that is found in Genesis 1:1, for John is yet to give us some very important information about the time frame he has in mind.
    THE WORD
    We must keep foremost in our thinking the purpose of John's prologue. It can be summed up rather simply: Who is the Word? From
verse 1 through verse 18, John is telling us about the Word. We dare
not take our "eye off the ball," so to speak, and miss the fact that
throughout this passage, the identity of the Word is at issue. Right at
the start we must ask why John would use such a term as "the Word."
What is he attempting to communicate?
    The Greek term translated "Word" in this passage is logos. It is certainly not an unusual term. It appears three hundred and thirty times
as a noun in the Greek New Testament alone. It has a wide range of
meanings, from the basic "word" to merely a "matter" or a "thing." So why would John choose such a word for such an important task?

    The Greeks had used the term logos in their philosophical explanations regarding the functioning of the world. The logos was for them
an impersonal ordering force, that which gave harmony to the universe. The logos was not personal in their philosophy, but it was very
important.
    In the Old Testament there are dim reflections upon a similar concept. The "Word of the Lord" came to have deep significance to the
Jewish people. Such passages as Psalm 33:6, "By the word of the LORD
the heavens were made, and by the breath of His mouth all their host,"
lent themselves to the idea that there was more to the "word" than one
might see at first glance. During the few centuries prior to the coming
of Christ, Jewish theologians and thinkers would see in such phrases
as "word of the Lord" and in the "wisdom of God" references to a
personal rather than an abstract concept.
    But John went beyond everything that came before in his use of
the term logos. In fact, as we proceed, we will see that it would be better
to write Logos than logos, for John is using the word as a name, not
merely a description. He fills the impersonal logos that came before
him with personality and life, and presents to us the living and personal Logos, the Word who was in the beginning.
    THE LITTLE WORD "WAS"
    The English word "was" is about as bland a term as you can find.
Yet in Greek, it is most expressive. The Greeks were quite concerned
about being able to express subtleties in regard not only to when something happened, but how it happened as well. Our little word "was" is
poorly suited to handle the depth of the Greek at this point. John's
choice of words is deliberate and, quite honestly, beautiful.
    Throughout the prologue of the Gospel of John, the author balances between two verbs. When speaking of the Logos as He existed in
eternity past, John uses the Greek word rlv, en (a form of eimi). The
tense' of the word expresses continuous action in the past. Compare this
with the verb he chooses to use when speaking of everything elsefound, for example, in verse 3: "All things carne into being through Him," eyeve ro, egeneto. This verb2 contains the very element missing
from the other: a point of origin. The term, when used in contexts of
creation and origin, speaks of a time when something came into existence. The first verb, en, does not. John is very careful to use only the
first verb of the Logos throughout the first thirteen verses, and the second verb, egeneto, he uses for everything else (including John the Baptist in verse 6). Finally, in verse 14, he breaks this pattern, for a very
specific reason, as we shall see.

    Why emphasize the tense of a