1 "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 In him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him.8 He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.
9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. 11 He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him.12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.15 (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”)16 And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. 17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.18 No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known."
John 1:1-18
The Prologue of the gospel, as it is called, consists of the first eighteen verses of the first chapter. To read it makes one think of Moses' experience at the Burning Bush. We are standing on holy ground. But when we say this, it does not mean that all we have is a solemn impression of awe, for there is both form and content in these wonderful words. Indeed, we may go as far as to say that they contain in embryo the essence of the record that John gives. There are good grounds for saying that what John unfolds in these verses is the seed-plot of his entire gospel. They divide into three sections, 1-4, 5-13, 14-18. The first of these, 1-4, speaks of the Eternal Word; the second, 5-13, of Jewish unbelief; the third, 14-18, of Christian faith. And these three sections are expounded and elaborated throughout the remainder of John's writing, for in 1:19-4:54 we have the manifestation of the Eternal and Incarnate Word; in 5:1-12:50 we trace the development of unbelief; while in 13:1-17:26 we see the growth and development of the new humanity in Christ, and the teaching here is exclusively confined to His own, the disciples. Thus does John in brief, summary form state what he is about to unfold to us in his gospel. But, brief and summary though it is, it is charged with enormous spiritual significance, and it is not possible to pass from it without spending considerable time studying it in detail. This we shall proceed to do in the next few Notes.