What has come into being through him was life… the light for all people. John 1:4
John’s Gospel opens its presentation of Jesus with a communication metaphor, the Word. And it employs the Hebrew Bible paradigm of Wisdom the communicator.
The Hebrew Bible, notably Proverbs chapter 8, presents Wisdom as a female figure who exists “in the beginning” with God. She comes from God to communicate divine presence and purposes among humans. She seeks to draw people into relationship with God as God’s friends. Among people she experiences acceptance and rejection.
John’s Gospel borrows this paradigm. It presents Jesus as the definitive word who reveals or communicates divine presence and purposes among people.
What does Jesus communicate? “What has come into being through him was life…the light for all people” (John 1:4). Jesus manifests the life-giving, liberating, and loving purposes of God. The word becomes flesh and lives among us (John 1:14). Jesus lives in solidarity with victims of dominating and life-depleting power. He opposes the damage caused by indiscriminate and self-serving power. He pursues justice that honors the dignity of all people and their access to just societal structures and requisite resources for good life.
Communication, though, can be ambiguous. A long tradition has preferred to spiritualize and individualize this “life.” Some interpretations emphasize life that “saves souls” but ignores bodies, that focuses on the future but not the present, that concerns individuals but not societal structures and practices. Such claims ignore that the Word becomes flesh, lives among us, and offers life to all.
Dr. Warren Carter
LaDonna Kramer Meinders Professor of New Testament
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