Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
John 1:1-18, The Word made flesh
John begins before creation with the Word who was with God and was God, through whom everything was made, and who became flesh and lived among us.
John 1:1-18, in every translation this tool compares.
John opens his Gospel the way Genesis opens, and places Jesus there as God's Word, present before creation, sharing God's own life, the one through whom everything came to be. This Word brings a light darkness cannot overcome, is turned away by many of his own people, and makes those who receive him God's children. Then John states his central claim: the Word took on human flesh and lived among people, who saw God's glory in him.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/word-and-wisdom\/","n":"The Word and Wisdom","s":"Greek thinkers spoke of the logos, the reason that ordered the world, and Jewish teachers spoke of God's Word and Wisdom, through whom he made everything. John opens his Gospel with that language and then says the Word became flesh.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/temple-and-courts\/","n":"The temple and its courts","s":"Herod's huge rebuilt temple in Jerusalem, believed to be God's dwelling, laid out in courts that kept Gentiles, women and Jewish men at set distances.","r":""}
The verb for the Word living among us means pitching a tent, a reminder of God's dwelling with Israel in the tabernacle (the ESV and CSB Study Bibles). Keener and Carson, Moo and Morris take 1:18 to call Jesus God, while some manuscripts read the only Son (the ESV Study Bible). The word often rendered only begotten means one of a kind: Heiser and the ESV Study Bible point out that Hebrews 11:17 calls Isaac Abraham's unique son although Ishmael was also his son. The Gospel is anonymous. Carson, Moo and Morris conclude that "it is highly probable that John the son of Zebedee wrote the fourth gospel," noting that a large majority of contemporary scholars reject that view. The church fathers place it at Ephesus. Carson, Moo and Morris tentatively suggest AD 80 to 85, and papyrus 52, a scrap of John 18 they date about AD 130 and Price and House no later than about 125, rules out second-century dates. Most scholars think the first readers included Jewish believers made unwelcome in their synagogues (the cultural backgrounds article on the Jews in John); Carson, Moo and Morris think of Diaspora Jews and proselytes the book meant to persuade.
- ESV Study Bible, study notes on John 1:14, 1:16-17 and 1:18
- CSB Study Bible, note on John 1:14
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, on John 1:9-10, 1:18 and 3:16-18
- Michael S. Heiser, The Unseen Realm, ch. 4, God Alone
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 5, John, sections Author, Provenance, Date, Purpose and Text
- J. Randall Price and H. Wayne House, Zondervan Handbook of Biblical Archaeology, ch. 12, John 18:37-38 John Ryland Papyrus P52
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, article The Jews and Jewish Leaders in John's Gospel
