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 came to be through him, and without him nothing came to be. What came to be 4 through him was life, and this life was the light of the human race; 5 the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. 6 A man named John was sent from God. 7 He came for testimony, to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. 8 He was not the light, but came to testify to the light. 9 The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world came to be through him, but the world did not know him. 11 He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him. 12 But to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believe in his name, 13 who were born not by natural generation nor by human choice nor by a man’s decision but of God. 14 And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth. 15 John testified to him and cried out, saying, “This was he of whom I said, ‘The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.’” 16 From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace, 17 because while the law was given through Moses, grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God. The only Son, God, who is at the Father’s side, has revealed him.
John begins before creation, before history, before anything that can be measured by time. “In the beginning” deliberately echoes Gen. 1:1, but John is not retelling creation. He is showing that the One who entered history in Jesus Christ already existed “in the beginning.” John calls the Son “the Word” because the Son is God’s eternal self-revelation and self-expression. He is not a created message or a mere symbol. He is a divine Person who is eternally with the Father and is God. This is why John can say both that the Word “was with God” and that the Word “was God.” The Word is distinct from the Father, yet fully divine.
When John says that “all things came to be through him,” he is saying that the Word is not part of creation. Everything that exists was made through him. Nothing that exists is outside the Word’s creative act. This matters for the rest of the passage, because it means the Word who comes into the world is not a new religious teacher arriving late. He is the source of the world’s existence.
John then links the Word to “life” and “light.” Life is not only biological existence. It is a gift from God, and it is meant to lead us to God. Light, in John’s Gospel, exposes what is true and guides the way to God. Darkness, by contrast, is not just sadness or difficulty. It is the realm of resistance to God, marked by sin and unbelief, and it leads to spiritual death. Yet John’s point is clear: the light is shining, and darkness does not master it. The conflict is real, but the outcome is not in doubt.
At this point, John introduces John the Baptist. He is “sent from God,” but he is not the light. He is a witness. His role is to point away from himself and toward the One who is coming. This keeps the focus where it belongs. The center of the prologue is not the greatness of the Baptist, but the arrival of the true Light.
John says the true Light “was coming into the world,” and then he uses “world” in a layered way. Sometimes “world” means creation, the universe made through the Word. Sometimes it means humanity, fallen and in need of redemption. And sometimes it means the organized resistance to God, the sphere of darkness that hates the truth. John’s next lines show all three senses close together. The world exists through the Word, yet the world does not recognize Him. The human tragedy is not ignorance alone, but refusal to receive him.
This refusal becomes sharper when John says, “He came to what was his own, but his own people did not accept him.” In the first place, this points to Israel, the people of God’s covenant. The Word comes to the very people he created, and to the people shaped by revelation, worship, and expectation. Yet the rejection still happens. At the same time, the phrase widens to a larger truth: the Word comes to the world—that is, humanity that belongs to him as Creator—yet his creatures resist him.
But rejection is not the final word. John immediately turns to the gift given to those who receive Him: “he gave power to become children of God.” This is not a metaphor for human optimism. John is describing a real change in relationship. To become a child of God is to receive a new life from God by grace, not based on ancestry, human effort, or natural generation, but “of God.” John is stressing that natural birth does not create this supernatural relationship. It is God’s gift, received through faith, and expressed in the new birth God gives.
Then comes the line: “And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.” John does not say the Word merely appeared to be human. He became flesh. “Flesh” points to real humanity—earthly, vulnerable, and truly human. This rules out the idea that the Incarnation is only an outward disguise.
John also says the Word “made his dwelling among us.” The phrase carries the sense of “tabernacled,” like God’s presence dwelling with Israel in the wilderness tabernacle. John is quietly telling the story of God’s presence moving closer. The God who was worshiped as present among His people now comes in a new way, personal and visible, in the humanity of Jesus. The longing of Israel’s Scriptures for God to dwell with His people is answered here in the strongest possible way.
John adds, “and we saw his glory.” In Israel’s story, God’s glory is his manifest presence, the weight of his holiness made known. John claims that this glory has been seen in the whole public life of the Word made flesh. It is also shown in a concentrated way in moments like the Transfiguration. There the disciples see something of who Jesus is, and the Father’s voice identifies him as Son (Mt. 17:1-8; Mk. 9:2-8; Lk. 9:28-36). Jesus reveals the Father with a unique intimacy. The Son does not merely speak about God. He shows God.
John describes the Son as “full of grace and truth.” The phrase is not accidental. It echoes the Old Testament way of speaking about God’s covenant love and faithfulness, especially when the Lord reveals himself as ‘abounding in love and fidelity’ (Ex. 34:6), and when the Scriptures join ‘love’ and ‘faithfulness’ as marks of God’s saving presence (Ps. 85:10).
John the Baptist’s witness appears again: “The one who is coming after me ranks ahead of me because he existed before me.” This sounds paradoxical because it is. Jesus, who is fully human and fully divine, begins his public ministry after John, but in his divinity he existed before John. John is testifying to the preexistence of the Word. The prologue refuses to let Jesus be reduced to a merely human beginning.
John then speaks of what believers receive: “From his fullness we have all received, grace in place of grace.” The sense is abundance and continuity, like gift piled upon gift. It also points toward the transition from the old covenant to the new. John does not belittle the law given through Moses. He honors it as God’s gift. But he also insists that something greater has arrived: “grace and truth came through Jesus Christ.” The old was real, but it was preparatory. The new is the fulfillment, because it brings what the law could point toward but could not accomplish by itself: the definitive self-giving of God in the Son. Paul says the law was a ‘disciplinarian’ leading us to Christ (Gal. 3:24), and that what the law was unable to do, God has done by sending his Son (Rom. 8:3-4).
Finally, John reaches the summit: “No one has ever seen God.” God is invisible to human sight. Yet John immediately adds the answer: the only Son, who is at the Father’s side, “has revealed him.” The Son makes the Father known, not only by words, but by his presence. If you want to know what God is like, John is saying, look to Jesus Christ. The prologue is not only a poem about eternity. It is the doorway into the whole Gospel: the Word who is God has come near enough to be encountered.
Lord Jesus Christ, eternal Word of the Father, you have come near and made your dwelling among us. Give me light to receive you, humility to follow your truth, and faith to live as a child of God. Amen.
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Sources and References
- The Holy Bible, New American Bible, Revised Edition (2011).
- The Ignatius Catholic Study Bible: New Testament, commentary on Jn 1:1-18 (pp. 161-162).
- Faculty of the University of Navarre, The Navarre Bible: St John (Four Courts/Scepter), commentary on Jn 1:1-18.
- José Enrique Aguilar Chiu et al., eds., The Paulist Biblical Commentary (Paulist Press, 2018), commentary on Jn 1:1-18 (pp. 1113-1118).
- Raymond E. Brown et al., The New Jerome Biblical Commentary (Prentice Hall, 1990), John prologue notes (pp. 951-952, pars. 21-26).
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