John 1:1-16
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.  There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.  He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.  He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.  The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.  The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.  We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John testifies concerning him.  He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”  From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.

John 1:1-16, New International Version Translation


The creation myth of reason – a new interpretation.  I will begin by saying that no one can interpret this passage in a truly reasonable and literal way.  Some part of this passage has to be romanticized language; some of it has to be allegory.  Most would choose the idea of the Word as an allegory for God’s speech.  I choose the idea of a Father God as pointing to a concept that could not be understood by the audience in a way that was not concrete.  But I choose to believe that the truth of this passage lies unblemished beneath the expressions.

“In the beginning was the Word”.  What if the word literally means the word?  What would scientists point to as the creation of man, from an evolutionary perspective?  There had to be a moment along the way where the groveling ape-man became something besides an ape.  What pushed man into manhood?  Language, I would say.  The ability to form ideas and to communicate those ideas is what elevated man from an animal to something we’d like to think is more than that.  The fact that we’d like to think at all lends weight to this idea.  And the fact that I can consider ideas makes my point.  In the beginning was the word.  The concept.  The idea.  The language.  The snippet of a communication that existed in our heads.

“And the Word was with God; and the Word was God.”  Not only did there have to be a first “moment” for language – there had to be a first cause of it as well.  It is unlikely that it spontaneously arose in multiple forms.  There was a first guy there who had the first “thought”.  I think this guy (or girl) would have been considered pretty great.  Pretty astounding.  God-like, in fact.  A man who could control that which had not been controlled before.  A man.  I’ll stop there.  What separates the first man from the others?  He created the concept of immortality.  The fact that something of oneself may live on after one is no longer here.

“He was with God in the beginning.  Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.  In him was life, and that life was the light of men.  The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it.”  The first conversation took place.  Gather round, children, we’re going to tell you about the first conversation again.  That moment when it all happened.  Though there was a first person there to come up with the thought, the first person to have understood it would be there in the beginning.  The dawn, literally, of man.  The life of man is dependent upon his ability to express what he thinks and feels.  The light of man is the ability to understand himself and the world around him.  This light that is manhood exists among what must have seemed an endless wilderness of beings that would never be capable of understanding anything at all.  For those first two, there must have been enormous efforts paid to the desire to make anything and everything understand what they were attempting to communicate.  The first men would not understand that there were not many other things that were not like they were.  The first men would have to learn through an incredibly disheartening trial-and-error.  When they had finished talking to the plants and the animals and their ancestors, all to no avail, they would be convinced of their solidarity.  The light of what they had made shines in an endless darkness.  In spite of the attempts, the darkness has no understanding of it.  

“There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John.  He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe.  He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.  The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world.  He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.  He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.  Yet to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God – children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.”  John was the third man to understand what was going on and, though generations, mating was favoring those who could communicate with each other.  John brought the light of this realization to others.  To show that they were not alone.  To teach what had already been learned.  In this way, the others became children of God.  Through the power of the word.  Literally, the Word of God.  What hath God wrought?  Enlightenment produced something greater than the mere existence that had been all that was beforehand.  There is a natural self-importance in realizing that you and those around you are the first to understand what is happening and to infect others with your gift is to achieve the status of godhood.  That others could learn your gift would make them your children, your followers, forever.  Though it was a rather arbitrary relationship you would have with your talent, there is still a kind of selection taking place there.  You would be special because there would be no other way of seeing things.

“We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.  John testifies concerning him.  He cries out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”  From the fullness of his grace we have all received one blessing after another.  For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.  No one has ever seen God, but God the One and Only, who is at the Father’s side, has made him known.”  And the passage into myth becomes complete.  That first man is no longer a man.  He is God.  And no one knows of him.  He merely understood, but “John” was the one who spread things around.  The time-scale is skewed, I know, but for the same purposes that I would argue the timescale of the Genesis myth is skewed.  The romantic interpretation of both makes it not matter so much.  This was written to not bore the reader, not to be a factual account of history as it took place.  

- Matt @ 9:24 PM