John's Good News

Continued from class on 09/11/05

A reading of John 1:4

In him life was and this life was the light of men. (Eger's translation)

Here John is probably making a reference to the Septuagint (LXX) translation of Genesis 2:7

Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

The Logos was life and when it entered man, man became an enlightened being with moral understanding. "The words of the Torah (Old Testament) are light for the world" (Midrash Dt Rabba 7.3).

In this verse the Apostle was striking a blow against Gnosticism which said that "light" was, among other things, one of the many aeons that were intermediates between the kosmos and the "unknowable God."

He also showed the connection between the teachings of the rabbis. They did have an understanding. In the following chapters of John's Gospel we will see that many people did believe in Jesus during his earthly ministy. And believing they had ...

posted by Bro Joe @ 7:46 PM