Re: Johannine ARCH (was Jn.1:1b word order)

From: Jeffrey Gibson (jgibson@acfsysv.roosevelt.edu)
Date: Tue Feb 10 1998 - 19:39:58 EST


On Tue, 10 Feb 1998, Jonathan Robie wrote:

>
> In Genesis 1:1 or John 1:1, there is no hint of a transition leading up
to > the time that Jesus was there at the beginning, and since all things
were > created by means of the LOGOS, I have to assume that the LOGOS
existed when > the first thing was created. >

Whatever the meaning of ARCH in Jn 1:1, I must once more draw attention
to an error that is exemplified in Jonathan's post [snipped above] and
similar threads. It is NOT *Jesus* who was with God "in the beginning", it
was the LOGOS - which, whatever the LOGOS is (God's Wisdom, his eternal
purpose, etc.) is *not* a person, let alone Jesus of Nazareth existing in
some pre-temporal, disembodied state. Nothing within the prologue - even
the claim that the word became flesh and "dwelt" among us (which actually
is making a claim about where God's purpose can be seen most concretely,
not that a divine soul took on a body) - nothing within the prologue
suggests that the LOGOS is a center of consciousness and volition, and
nothing after it suggests that the LOGOS is what occupies in Jesus the
space that would normally be taken up by a human soul, even assuming John
countenaced such an anthropology. Further Thomas' confession of Jesus as
his Lord and God is, in the light of the fact that Domitian made his
subjects procalaim this to him to establish their loyalty, is an act of
allegiance not an ontological statement.

Jeffrey Gibson
jgibson@acfsysv.roosevelt.edu



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.4 : Sat Apr 20 2002 - 15:39:03 EDT