João 1
Tony Garland · Citado em PreceptAustin
João 1:1
Garland comments: Like God’s literal word which He has magnified above His name (Ps. 138:2), God highly exalted Jesus and has given Him the Name above every name (Php. 2:9). Scripture informs us: “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made and all the host of them by the breath of His mouth” (Ps. 33:6 cf. Heb. 11:3; 2Pe. 3:5)… The Logos or Word is the expression of God’s nature in understandable terms, and whether those terms be mercy or judgment they are both equally the message of God. This title also emphasizes Jesus’ role in creation (John 1:1-3; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2; Rev. 3:14)—a key theme explaining why God has ultimate dominion to retake the earth at His Second Coming (Rev. 3:14; 4:11; 10:6). Wiersbe on the Logos, the Word - Much as our words reveal to others our hearts and minds, so Jesus Christ is God’s “Word” to reveal His heart and mind to us. “He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father” (John 14:9). A word is composed of letters, and Jesus Christ is “Alpha and Omega” (Rev. 1:8), the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. According to Hebrews 1:1–3, Jesus Christ is God’s last Word to mankind, for He is the climax of divine revelation. (The Bible Exposition Commentary) Words are important for words that convey thoughts. We don't truly know what another person is thinking unless they express their thoughts in words (and so it is with God - how could we possibly know what He is thinking if He did not express Himself in words!). It is by means of words that we communicate. It is by means of words that we reveal what is happening. John chooses the word, Logos, which was familiar in the minds of both Hebrew and Greek thinkers, and both groups to one degree or another had the idea of beginnings related to the word Logos. And so John's opening would remind the Hebrew thinker of Genesis 1:1 (In the beginning - Lxx = "en arche" just as in Jn 1:1) and Genesis 1:3 ("Then God said, “Let there be light.”) God spoke and all came into existence (Heb 11:3-note) To the Greek mind Logos was "regarded in a multi-various and ambiguous fashion. The word Logos has a unique capacity to convey God's ultimate Self disclosure in the Person of His Son." (Alistair Begg) Thomas Whitelaw on the Word - The theme of the evangelist’s discourse was not a metaphysical abstraction, or a poetical personification, but a veritable Person. Webster says that the noun "word" means "something that is said, talk, discourse, living speech, oral expression or declaration." Word is an expression that communicates. In a parallel passage in Hebrews 1 we read that "God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son (THE WORD), Whom He appointed heir of all things, through Whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high." (Heb 1:1-3-note) While the OT frequently portrayed God's WORD in personal terms (Deut 32:47, Ps. 33:6; 107:20; 147:15, 18; Isa. 55:10-11), it was not until John's description that the Word was identified as an actual Person, a true living Word. By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host. (Ps 33:6)
João 1:3
Garland comments - This meaning of beginning here may be author or efficient cause and does not indicate that He was a product of creation: This is a favorite Arian proof text, cited to prove that Jesus is not eternal, but had a beginning, Jesus being understood by them to be the first-created creature of God, through whom God created all else in the universe. The underlying Greek word, arche, may be understood in a passive sense, and rendered “the beginning,” as the A.V., or more correctly understood in the active sense, and rendered “the beginner,” source, origin, or principle of creation. Since God is eternal, and Jesus is God, the passive sense is not suited to the context, as being out of harmony with the many representations of Christ John has already given, whereby he in citing or alluding to Old Testament passages has applied to Jesus Christ in the book of Revelation what is in the Old Testament spoken of Jehovah. Not he whom God created first, but as in Col. 1:15-18, the Beginner of all creation, its originating instrument. All creation would not be represented adoring Him, if He were but one of themselves. Having analyzed the use of archē (beginning) in the Septuagint and throughout the NT, Svigel concludes the meaning here is primarily that of governmental rule and the phrase here should be rendered, “the supreme Authority over the creation of God.” Jesus is the Beginning and End (Rev. 21:6; 22:13), both the author of and ruler over creation (Ge 1:1; John 1:1-3; 1Cor. 8:6; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:15-17; Heb. 1:2).106 Rev 4:11 (This passage appears to refer to the Father as Creator, not the Son) Worthy art Thou, our Lord and our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for Thou didst create all things, and because of Thy will they existed, and were created.” Ps 33:6 By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, And by the breath of His mouth all their host. Ps 33:9 For He spoke, and it was done; He commanded, and it stood fast. Ps 136:5 To Him who made the heavens with skill, For His lovingkindness is everlasting; 6 To Him who spread out the earth above the waters, For His lovingkindness is everlasting; Ps 146:5 How blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, Whose hope is in the LORD his God; 6 Who made heaven and earth, The sea and all that is in them; Who keeps faith forever; Ps 148:4 Praise Him, highest heavens, And the waters that are above the heavens! 5 Let them praise the name of the LORD, For He commanded and they were created. Proverbs 8:26 While He had not yet made the earth and the fields, Nor the first dust of the world. 27 “When He established the heavens, I was there, When He inscribed a circle on the face of the deep, 28 When He made firm the skies above, When the springs of the deep became fixed, 29 When He set for the sea its boundary, So that the water should not transgress His command, When He marked out the foundations of the earth; 30 Then I was beside Him, as a master workman; And I was daily His delight, Rejoicing always before Him, Isaiah 42:5 Thus says God the LORD, Who created the heavens and stretched them out, Who spread out the earth and its offspring, Who gives breath to the people on it, And spirit to those who walk in it, Isaiah 44:24 Thus says the LORD, your Redeemer, and the one who formed you from the womb, "I, the LORD, am the maker of all things, Stretching out the heavens by Myself, And spreading out the earth all alone, Isaiah 45:18 For thus says the LORD, who created the heavens (He is the God who formed the earth and made it, He established it and did not create it a waste place, But formed it to be inhabited), "I am the LORD, and there is none else. Isaiah 48:13 "Surely My hand founded the earth, And My right hand spread out the heavens; When I call to them, they stand together. Jer 10:12 It is He who made the earth by His power, Who established the world by His wisdom; And by His understanding He has stretched out the heavens. Jer 32:17 'Ah Lord GOD! Behold, Thou hast made the heavens and the earth by Thy great power and by Thine outstretched arm! Nothing is too difficult for Thee, Scripture reveals that all three persons of the Trinity participated in creation: God the Father created everything, but He did it through Jesus Christ. God’s statement (Ge 1:26), “Let Us make man in Our image” implies the involvement of the Trinity in the creation of human beings. The Father - Ge. 1:1-31; Isa. 40:21-28; Isa. 43:1, 7; Isa. 45:12, 18; 48:13; 51:13; Acts 14:15; 17:24 The Spirit - Ge 1:2; Job 26:13; 33:4; Ps. 104:30; Isa. 42:5 The Son - John 1:3; Eph. 3:9; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:3; Rev. 3:14 Related Resource: A Call to Preach the Trinity - Roger Pascoe Adrian Rogers comments that "by Jesus were all things created that are in heaven and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or powers, all things were created by Him and for Him and He is before all things (Col 1:16) and then He says this, and by Him all things consist (Col 1:17). That is, all things hang together, that without Jesus, everything would come apart. Jesus is the glue of the galaxies, all things were made by Him, all things were made for Him, all things are coming to Him and through Him it all holds together. You see, dear friends, if you take Christ out of your life, your life will fly apart. If you take Christ out of your home, your home will come apart. All things are made by Him, and it is only through Him that things hang together. Application of the truth that Jesus is our Creator - The Psalmist shows us how to apply Jn 1:3 declaring "I Will lift up my eyes to the mountains; From where shall my help come? My help comes from Jehovah, Who made heaven and earth. (Ps 121:1-2) Jesus is my Creator. He is my Help (note personal possessive pronoun). Therefore I will choose to lift my eyes to Him (enabled His Spirit) when trouble comes. He is able because all things were made through Him! If He can create everything then surely He can give help in my distress. Nothing is too difficult for Him! The next time you are in distress, will you humble yourself and lift up your eyes to your Creator Who made heaven and earth? John
João 1:3
Garland explains below, the use of the same Name for Father and Son should not be surprising in view of the fact that Jesus and His Father are One (Jn 10:30). Tony Garland's comment on Rev 21:6 and the phrase "I am the Alpha and the Omega" - I am is egō eimi : I, am. Great emphasis is placed upon the One speaking and His uniqueness. This unique title of God is applied both to the Father (here) and the Son (Rev. 22:13). The phrase is also applied to the Son in two parts (Rev. 1:11; 2:8). See commentary on Revelation 1:11. The same title, with the addition of “the First and the Last,” is taken by Jesus (Rev. 22:13). Jesus and the Father are One (John 10:30)! Jesus is “the Beginning of the creation of God” (Rev. 3:14-note). (15) C H Spurgeon in his devotional on Isaiah 7:14 writes "Let us to-day go down to Bethlehem, and in company with wondering shepherds and adoring Magi, let us see him who was born King of the Jews, for we by faith can claim an interest in him, and can sing, “Unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.” Jesus is Jehovah incarnate, our Lord and our God, and yet our brother and friend; let us adore and admire." (Morning and Evening-Morning, December 25) (16) Jay Adams in an article entitled "Outwitnessing the Witnesses" gives a suggestion for making a tract to hand to JW's - Pastor, how have you equipped your people to handle Jehovah’s Witnesses when they come to the door? Sure, you have some members who can take them on. But probably most of your members can’t. So, what do they do? They close the door saying, “No thanks.” Or, worse, they allow them in to peddle their wares. Neither of these responses is acceptable. I’m offering an alternative. It’s a brief tract that you can reproduce for your people to have on hand to give to them when they call. On the cover are the words: You are NOT Jehovah’s Witness! Then, as the Jehovah’s Witness opens it, on the left hand page are these words: You are NOT! There are good reasons for saying this. Consider just two: 1. Scripture shows that Jesus is God. In Isaiah 43:10 we read, Before me there was no God formed, and after me there continued to be none. I–I am Jehovah, and besides me there is no savior. The verse appears in the context of God putting idols and false gods on trial (v. 9). He calls them to witness to their true existence. They fail. Then, He calls His people to take the stand and witness for Him (v. 10). In doing so, He not only refers to Himself as Jehovah, but says that no god was formed before or after Him. Yet, YOU SAY JESUS IS “A GOD.” So He must be Jehovah since there is no other. Also, in verse 10, Jehovah says that He is the only Savior. But Luke 2:11 plainly calls Jesus the Savior! [On page two he reads:] 2. According to Isaiah 44:6, Jesus is Jehovah. Jehovah said … I am the first and the last, and besides me there is no God. In Revelation 1:18, and in 22:13, 16, Jesus referred Isaiah 44:6 to Himself. Clearly, then, this indicates that Jehovah died and rose from the dead as the passage indicates! Instead of spending time discussing John 1, try to focus on these pivotal verses from Isaiah, verses from which you took your name! Having considered them, can’t you see that you have been led astray since these verses refer to Jesus’ Deity? (The verses cited are quoted from your New World Translation). Well, pastor, there you are. A short thrust aimed at the very passages they claim to believe in so strongly. It’s short because it goes to the heart of things, and because they probably wouldn’t read much more. If your church member can wring a promise out of them that if he reads their literature, they will read his—all the better. But, at any rate, if you prepare your members with a tract that you run off on your computer and printer, you will prepare them for the next onslaught of the Jehovah’s Witnesses best wishes! (The Journal of Modern Ministry, Volume 6, Issue 1, Winter, 2009) (17) William MacDonald has the following comment on Luke 1:76, 77 - The mission of John, the Savior’s herald. John would be the prophet of the Most High, preparing the hearts of the people for the coming of the Lord, and proclaiming salvation to His people through the forgiveness of their sins. Here again we see that references to Jehovah in the OT are applied to Jesus in the New. Malachi predicted a messenger to prepare the way before Jehovah (Mal 3:1). Zacharias identifies John as the messenger. We know that John came to prepare the way before Jesus. The obvious conclusion is that Jesus is Jehovah. (Believer's Bible Commentary) (18) Morton Smith in his comments on kurios (used some 6000 times in the Old Testament to translate the Hebrew Name Jehovah) writes "This word, which thus carried the full weight of the Old Testament name kurios, was also applied to Jesus. Paul speaks of this in connection with his humiliation and subsequent exaltation, “Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and gave unto him the name which is above every name; that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven and things on earth and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord (kurios ’Iesous Christos ), to the glory of God the Father.” The name to which Paul referred with the definite article is kurios. This is saying that Jesus is Jehovah. Peter had affirmed the same thing in Acts 2:36, “Let all the house of Israel therefore know assuredly, that God hath made him both Lord and Christ, this Jesus whom ye crucified.” In Revelation John speaks of him as King of Kings and Lord of Lords (Rev 17:14; 19:16). No more exalted language is known to the human tongue to praise God." (Systematic Theology) (19) Robert Picirilli in his commentary on Second Corinthians comments on 2Cor 4:5 (For we do not preach ourselves but Christ Jesus as Lord, and ourselves as your bond-servants for Jesus’ sake.) - "In the original Greek, “Lord” (kurios) has no definite article “the.” Probably, then, we should understand Paul to say, “We preach Christ Jesus as Lord.” Once again, he says this with all the Jewish consciousness that “Lord” was the regular Greek word (in the Greek translation of the O.T.) for Jehovah. As the visible expression of the invisible God (2Cor 4:4), Jesus is Jehovah. Thus Paul preached Him. (Randall House Bible Commentary) (20) J. Vernon McGee in his comments on Hebrews 2:9 says “Crowned with glory and honor” He wasn’t crowned with glory and honour by His death but because He came to this earth and died on the Cross for you and for me. Let me emphasize again and again that there is a Man in the glory. He wasn’t there some twenty-five hundred years ago. Instead He was the second Person of the Godhead—let’s call Him Jehovah, for Jesus is Jehovah. And He was and is God, very God of very God. But today He is also very man of very man. He took upon Himself humanity, and because He did this, He was given glory and honor in heaven that wasn’t there before. (Thru the Bible with Dr. J. Vernon McGee) (21) In the 1902 edition of Bibliotheca Sacra, we find an entire article enititled Jehovah-Jesus-Messiah which addresses to the issue of Jesus as Jehovah - Along with seeing Jesus of Nazareth as the Messiah of the Old Testament prophets, Saul also saw him as Jehovah incarnate. As he gazed upon Jesus standing in the midst of that “great light” “above the brightness of the sun,” even the Shechinah of God, “the glory of that light” flashed into his deepest soul, as a revelation from God, the conviction that He upon whom he was gazing, and whose voice he heard declaring, “I am Jesus of Nazareth whom thou persecutest,” was also the human embodiment of the very Jehovah of the Old Testament; and that this was how he was “the Son of God.” In that glorious, blinding vision it was disclosed to Saul, that to Him upon whom he was gazing there really belonged the threefold character rightly expressed by the threefold name, Jehovah-Jesus-Messiah; and at once he realized that he had been persecuting, and was now on his way still further to persecute, the disciples of that very being whom he and all Israel had worshiped as Jehovah from the beginning of the nation; and whom the prophets had foretold should come as the Messiah. And it was the direct sight of this to him astounding, manifold reality, which completely overwhelmed his soul.....As our third passage we will examine Phil. 2:9–11, which may be rendered as follows: “Wherefore also God highly exalted him, and of his free grace bestowed upon him the Name which is above every name: in order that in the name of Jesus every knee should bow (Isa. 45:23), of those in heaven, and those on earth, and those under the earth; and every tongue should confess, Kurion Ieson Christon, to the glory of God the Father.” Here again both kurios and Christos are without the article, just as in the heralding by the angels to the shepherds; the former standing, as there, for Jehovah, and the latter for Messiah. Hence the translation should be either, “confess Jehovah-Jesus-Messiah,” or “confess that Jehovah is Jesus-Messiah, to the glory,” etc. Thus in this passage again is the view that Jesus is Jehovah shown to be the spinal cord of all Paul’s conception of Christ and Christianity. (Excerpt from the article Jehovah-Jesus-Messiah = A very intriguing 27 page article by an anonymous author. It is worth perusing.) (Bolding Added) (See a related article from Bibliotheca Sacra, Volume 70, July, 1913, page 486, by Rev William M Langdon - Bibliotheca Sacra - "Some Merits of the American Standard Bible" - scroll down to subsection "The Restoration of the Memorial Name, Jehovah") (22) Henry Alford commenting on Romans 10:13 - "for (Scripture proof of this assertion - [Ed: Referring to Ro 10:12; cf for = a term of explanation]) every one whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord (JEHOVAH,—but used here of Christ beyond a doubt, as the next verse shews [Ro 10:14]. There is hardly a stronger proof, or one more irrefragable by those who deny the Godhead of our Blessed Lord, of the unhesitating application to Him by the Apostle of the Name and attributes of Jehovah) shall be saved. (Romans 10 Commentary - Greek Testament Critical Exegetical Commentary) (23) Richard Shepherd has a short study on "Jesus is Jehovah" - "In the Old Testament the word YHWH is translated Jehovah or Yahweh in its literal rendering, but is most often translated LORD (spelled with all capital letters) in our English versions. The Greek translation of the Old Testament (the Septuagint) uses the Greek word kurios (“Lord”) when it translates YHWH. Kúrios, from its root word kuria, translated “Lord” or “Master,” literally means “having power or authority.” Kurios is used of an owner of anything, a master over many servants, or of a king or emperor. Jesus referred to Himself as Lord (John 13:13), and the disciple Thomas declared when he saw the resurrected Jesus, “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28). Paul spoke often of the Lord Jesus Christ (1Corinthians 1:3; 8:6; 12:3; Philippians 1:2). Elohim and Adon or Adonai, two other names for God in the Old Testament, are sometimes translated with kúrios as in the quotes from the Old Testament in Matthew 22:44 and 1 Peter 1:25. (See also Psalm 34:8 with 1Peter 2:3.) Jesus is YHWH, Elohim, and Adonai, the sovereign Lord. (Life Principles for Praying God's Way) (24) C H