Page 1 of 1
Musing upon the prologue to the Gospel of John
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2022 3:05 am
by lsayre
1st muse: Might Philo have been the originator of the words inserted at the forefront of John's Gospel as verses 1-5?
2nd muse: Why do many seem to conceive of "in eternity past", or "pre-time", or effectively "pre the beginning", when the prologue distinctly uses the word "beginning"?
3rd muse: Does the "beginning" mark the moment at which God brought into being the "Word". And might this also mark the moment when "time" began?
Re: Musing upon the prologue to the Gospel of John
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2022 5:31 am
by GakuseiDon
I thought it was a call back to Gen 1.1?
Genesis:
Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
John:
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Part of ancient thought was that God was perfect and acted through an intermediate process that didn't diminish Himself. That was the Logos, which might have been anything that carried out God's actions: an angel, the Torah, Christ.
As Justin Martyr explained:
http://www.earlychristianwritings.com/t ... rypho.html
... that God begat before all creatures a Beginning,[who was] a certain rational power[proceeding] from Himself, who is called by the Holy Spirit, now the Glory of the Lord, now the Son, again Wisdom, again an Angel, then God, and then Lord and Logos... For He can be called by all those names, since He ministers to the Father's will, and since He was begotten of the Father by an act of will; just as we see happening among ourselves: for when we give out some word, we beget the word; yet not by abscission, so as to lessen the word[which remains] in us, when we give it out: and just as we see also happening in the case of a fire, which is not lessened when it has kindled[another], but remains the same; and that which has been kindled by it likewise appears to exist by itself, not diminishing that from which it was kindled...
Re: Musing upon the prologue to the Gospel of John
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2022 6:44 am
by lsayre
Clearly our words are quite often an extension of our being. A reflection upon (or projection of) our inner-most soul. (equating here the terms 'being' and 'soul')
Re: Musing upon the prologue to the Gospel of John
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2022 10:02 am
by Charles Wilson
Teeple, Lit. Or. of Gosp. of John, p. 134 - 135:
"After the later insertions are stripped off, the remainder is not a unity but contains two types of material: poetry characterized by chain-linkage construction (word, word: God, God; etc.) and hynm-like material which lacks chain linkage. The single- source theories which have been offered fail to explain this phenomenon satisfactorily. If all but the editorial insertions come from a single hymn source, why is only part of the source written in chain-linkage style? On the other hand, if the source consisted only of the chain-linkage poem, and the rest was written by the evangelist, why did the evangelist write in his part of the Prologue terms and ideas which he never uses elsewhere in the gospel? The solution is that neither situation occurred, but rather the editor used a source, a Christian gnostic hymn, which in turn had incorporated a source, a Hellenistic Jewish poem..."
Re: Musing upon the prologue to the Gospel of John
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:24 pm
by lsayre
Charles Wilson wrote: ↑Fri Aug 12, 2022 10:02 am
Teeple, Lit. Or. of Gosp. of John, p. 134 - 135:
"After the later insertions are stripped off, the remainder is not a unity but contains two types of material: poetry characterized by chain-linkage construction (word, word: God, God; etc.) and hynm-like material which lacks chain linkage. The single- source theories which have been offered fail to explain this phenomenon satisfactorily. If all but the editorial insertions come from a single hymn source, why is only part of the source written in chain-linkage style? On the other hand, if the source consisted only of the chain-linkage poem, and the rest was written by the evangelist, why did the evangelist write in his part of the Prologue terms and ideas which he never uses elsewhere in the gospel? The solution is that neither situation occurred, but rather the editor used a source, a Christian gnostic hymn, which in turn had incorporated a source, a Hellenistic Jewish poem..."
Is the "stripped" version openly available to be read?
Re: Musing upon the prologue to the Gospel of John
Posted: Fri Aug 12, 2022 1:45 pm
by Charles Wilson
https://archive.org/details/literaryoriginof00teep
You have to sign up to "check-out" books on Archive.org but it's there.
I've Digitized the book except for the Bibliography+ pages, which I'll finish Any-Day-Now.
If you wanna copy, lemme know.
CW