John 1:1 says EN ARCHE (not just ARCHE!), a direct allusion to the LXX of Gen 1:1 and Proverbs 8:22-23. That is, God's knowledge = His wisdom = His logos (word) by which (not Whom) "the heavens were made" (Ps 33.6).
Catholic scholar Dr. Raymond Brown adds "one can scarcely imagine [the writer] would introduce John the Baptist after describing the ministry of Jesus and its effect. Clearly the [writer] thought that the references to the coming of Jesus began in vs. 10; he put the coming of John the Baptist in vss. 6-8 before the coming of Jesus, and used vs. 9 to connect John the Baptist to the moment of that coming."
So that if John 1:1 refers to the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, “then the clearer reference to his coming in John 1:9 and 10 seems tautological” (i.e., a needless repetition).
In other words, the writer John did not put the proverbial “cart before the horse”!
Other direct parallels to the Genesis Creation can be found through the opening prologue.
* Gen 1.4 God separates "light from darkness" = John 1.5 “the light (phos) shines in the darkness”;
* Gen. 1:3 “Let there be” (egeneto) = John 1.10, the kosmos, world “came into being” (egeneto).
Similarly, the Dead Sea Scrolls:
“By His knowledge everything has been brought into being, and everything that is He established by His purpose, and apart from Him nothing is done” (1 QS 11:11).
Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 36 Revised, Beasley-Murray.
“In all these God expresses himself through the Word, hence the dictum of Bultmann, ‘From the outset God must be understood as the one who speaks, the God who reveals himself’.”
Catholic scholar Dr. Raymond Brown adds "one can scarcely imagine [the writer] would introduce John the Baptist after describing the ministry of Jesus and its effect. Clearly the [writer] thought that the references to the coming of Jesus began in vs. 10; he put the coming of John the Baptist in vss. 6-8 before the coming of Jesus, and used vs. 9 to connect John the Baptist to the moment of that coming."
So that if John 1:1 refers to the beginning of the ministry of Jesus, “then the clearer reference to his coming in John 1:9 and 10 seems tautological” (i.e., a needless repetition).
In other words, the writer John did not put the proverbial “cart before the horse”!
Other direct parallels to the Genesis Creation can be found through the opening prologue.
* Gen 1.4 God separates "light from darkness" = John 1.5 “the light (phos) shines in the darkness”;
* Gen. 1:3 “Let there be” (egeneto) = John 1.10, the kosmos, world “came into being” (egeneto).
Similarly, the Dead Sea Scrolls:
“By His knowledge everything has been brought into being, and everything that is He established by His purpose, and apart from Him nothing is done” (1 QS 11:11).
Word Biblical Commentary, vol. 36 Revised, Beasley-Murray.
“In all these God expresses himself through the Word, hence the dictum of Bultmann, ‘From the outset God must be understood as the one who speaks, the God who reveals himself’.”
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