John: The Prologue

I have been wrestling with what to do with Bible study.  It is easy to compile a bunch of data about the biblical text and even manage some good application and call it Bible study without ever having really processed the text at all or come to any thought through conclusion about it.  My solution is to sort of follow A. W. Pink's approach.  As he did Bible study he would write out thoughts, conclusions, application which he called "Gleanings on John" (for instance).  In other words, "what I learned as I studied through the Gospel of John."  So that is my plan here.  No real agenda, no definite structure, just working through stuff I learn as I study the Gospel of John.

The Prologue of the Gospel of John really goes from John 1.1-18, but my first block of study is John 1.1-4 which one might call the prologue to the prologue.  If I could use one word to describe vv. 1-4 it would be "profundity" (yeah, I'm a little weird).  Both Augustine and Chysostom, according to one commentator, were reported to have said that it was beyond the power of man to speak as John did in these verses.  I agree.  The depth contained here and the power implicit in the words are beyond the natural abilities of any human writer, more less one who started as a fisherman on the Sea of Galilee.  There is perhaps no better block of verses than these to prove the doctrine of inspiration.

The whole message of the Scriptures is contained here.  In the beginning was the Word [Christ was eternal with God] and the Word was with God and the Word was God [that seems pretty clear].  God created the world through Christ (vs. 3); in Christ was life and that life was the light of men [Men need Christ].

We could go on and on, but you get the point.  The prologue to the prologue has everything one needs in seed form to gain what John stated was the purpose of his writing about Christ: These are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name (John 20.31).