Scripture reading
1 John 1:1-4
Introduction
John wrote to believers in Asia Minor towards the end of the first century AD. The churches have existed for 50+ years and false teaching has arisen that denied that Jesus was God incarnate and the significance of His death and resurrection. Some have abandoned the churches.
The letter begins by affirming Jesus as both eternal and human, emphasizing that he could be heard, seen, and touched. John presents three major tests of genuine faith: practicing righteousness, loving one another, and believing the truth about Jesus Christ. The letter also emphasizes the importance of having a right attitude toward sin and reflecting God's holiness in our lives.1
The influences of Second Temple Judaism are very evident as in Jude’s and Peter’s letters and less explicitly in Paul. To grasp the context, we must see John as an aging apostle writing 60+ years after the life of Jesus on the land. John is a Second Temple Jew who embraced Jesus with all his being, and remained faithful to him for decade after decade, and has seen the first 60+ years of church history.
John wrote his gospel earlier2. The dating of Revelation is less settled3.
Questions
1 What [masc.] was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and our hands have touched, concerning the word of life
Who is described as being “from the beginning” in 1 John 1:1?4
What is the “word of life” in the context of John’s writings?5
2 and the life was revealed, and we have seen and testify and announce to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was revealed to us what we have seen and heard, 3a what we have seen and heard
What was revealed and testified to by John and others?6
What senses does John mention to emphasize the reality of Jesus’ incarnation?7
Why does John emphasize that he and others have seen and heard Jesus?8
Who are the “we” that testify? Hint: when was the letter written?9
3b we announce to you also, in order that you also may have fellowship with us, and indeed our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ. 4 And these things we write, in order that our joy may be complete.
How does John connect fellowship among believers to fellowship with God?10
Answer:
The prologue of John’s gospel
John 1
1a In the beginning was the Word [ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος],
John here is hyperlinking to Genesis 1:1 to teach that the λόγος was present with God “in the beginning”. He is not a creature. The creatures, both inanimate and living, appear in Genesis 1:6+ff. Thus…
1b and the Word was with God,
The λόγος was with God “in the beginning”…
1c and the Word was God.
The λόγος was God! He is not a creature. Thus, in the opening verse of the Tanakh and elsewhere, Second Temple Judaism identified “two powers in heaven”11. Glimpses of this run through the Hebrew bible with “the angel of YHWH” who is both YHWH and, yet somehow, distinct from YHWH. In the writing of the exile we are given glimpses of one “like a son of man”, i.e. like a human, in the heavens…
13 “I continued watching in the visions of the night, and look, with the clouds of heaven one like a son of man was coming, and he came to the Ancient of Days, and was presented before him. 14 And to him was given dominion and glory and kingship that all the peoples, the nations, and languages would serve him; his dominion is a dominion without end that will not cease, and his kingdom is one that will not be destroyed.
Daniel 7:13
And there I saw One who had a head of days,
And His head was white like wool,
And with Him was another being whose countenance had the appearance of a man,
And his face was full of graciousness, like one of the holy angels.
1 Enoch 46:1
2 This one was in the beginning with God.
John 1:2
Again, the λόγος was with God “in the beginning”. He is not a creature.
3 All things came into being through him, and apart from him not one thing came into being that [or “which”] has come into being.
God created all things through the λόγος. Again, the λόγος is not created. He is the creator!
4 In him was life, and the life was the light of humanity [τῶν ἀνθρώπων].
Humans have life because of the λόγος. This is another way of telling the story of the creation of humans [cf Gen1:26-30, 2:7]. We were created with the light of the λόγος within us! But…
5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it [οὐ κατέλαβεν].
John 1:1-4
That light has been extinguished by sin [Genesis 3-11] so that humans outside of Eden are in darkness. In fact, by nature, we are so darkened that we do not understand who the λόγος is!
More
BibleProject Guide: The Books of 1-3 John
John D. Barry et al., Faithlife Study Bible (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2012, 2016), 1 Jn 1:1–4. Robert W. Yarbrough, “1 John,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1991. Tyndale House Publishers, Holy Bible: New Living Translation (Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers, 2015), 1 Jn. William W. Combs, “The Meaning of Fellowship in 1 John,” Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal Volume 13 13 (2008): 11–12.
Andreas J. Köstenberger, “John,” in CSB Study Bible: Notes, ed. Edwin A. Blum and Trevin Wax (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2017), 1662. James Stuart Bell, ed., Ancient Faith Study Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bibles, 2019), 1283. D. A. Carson, The Gospel according to John, The Pillar New Testament Commentary (Leicester, England; Grand Rapids, MI: Inter-Varsity Press; W.B. Eerdmans, 1991), 86.
I am very sympathetic to the early dating required of the partial preterist view [Kenneth L. Gentry , Before Jerusalem Fell: Dating the Book of Revelation (An Exegetical and Historical Argument for a Pre-AD. 70 Composition)] and others [Grant R. Osborne, John: Verse by Verse, ed. Jeffrey Reimer et al., Osborne New Testament Commentaries (Bellingham, WA: Lexham Press, 2018), 6; Donald Guthrie, New Testament Introduction, 4th rev. ed., The Master Reference Collection (Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1996), 956; Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset, and David Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1997), 548.].
The prologue hyperlinks to the prologue of John’s gospel and becomes a prerequisite to understanding the beginning of the 1 John. See the Prologue to John’s Gospel above.
In his gospel John refers to Jesus as the divine λόγος. This designation is unique to John.
Eternal life, which was with the Father and revealed to them in Jesus, is what they have seen, testify to, and proclaim.
John mentions hearing, seeing with their eyes, looking at, and touching with their hands to emphasize that Jesus was truly human and physically present.
John is opposing Docetism which is the belief that Jesus is only divine and any human appearance is illusionary.
The “we” are the original witnesses of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection and more specifically the “apostolic band”. It is now 60+ years since the resurrection before the birth of most of the believers. Much of the NT had been written and various parts of would have made it to the various churches along with other writings and teachings. What were the Christians to believe? What they had received from the apostles.
John states that true fellowship among believers is grounded in their shared relationship with the Father and the Son, echoing Jesus’ prayer for unity in John 17:20–211.
Barker, Margaret. The Great Angel: A Study of Israel’s Second God. Louisville, KY: Westminster / John Knox Publishers, 1992. Bauckham, Richard, “The Throne of God and the Worship of Jesus” Pages 43-69 in The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism: Papers from the St. Andrews Conference on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus. Edited by C. Newman, J. Davila, and G. Lewis. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999; Bauckham, Richard, God Crucified: Monotheism & Christology in the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998; Boyarin, Daniel. “The Gospel of the Memra: Jewish Binitarianism and the Prologue to John,” Harvard Theological Review 94:3 (July, 2001), 243-284; Boyarin, Daniel, “Two Powers in Heaven; or, The Making of a Heresy,” Pages 331-370 in The Idea of Biblical Interpretation: Essays in Honor of James L. Kugel. Leiden: Brill, 2003. Fossum, Jarl E. The Image of the Invisible God: Essays on the Influence of Jewish Mysticism on Early Christology. Göttingen: Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, 1995; Gathercole, Simon. The Pre-Existent Son: Recovering the Christologies of Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2006; Hannah, Darrell D. Michael and Christ: Michael Traditions and Angel Christology in Early Christianity. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 109. Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 1999. Hurtado, Larry W. “What Do We Mean by ‘First-Century Jewish Monotheism’?” Pages 348-368 in Society of Biblical Literature 1993 Seminar Papers. Edited by E. H. Lovering Jr. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1993; Hurtado, Larry W. One God, One Lord: Early Christian Devotion and Ancient Jewish Monotheism. Philadelphia: Fortress, 1988; Hurtado, Larry W. Lord Jesus Christ: Devotion to Jesus in Earliest Christianity. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003; Hurtado, Larry W. “First-Century Jewish Monotheism.” Journal for the Study of the New Testament 71 (1998): 3-26; Hurtado, Larry W. “Jesus’ Divine Sonship in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans,” Pages 217-233 in Romans and the People of God. Edited by N. T. Wright and S. Soderlund. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1999; Hurtado, Larry W. “The Binitarian Shape of Early Christian Worship.” Pages 187-213 in The Jewish Roots of Christological Monotheism, Papers from the St. Andrews Conference on the Historical Origins of the Worship of Jesus. Edited by Carey C. Newman, James R. Davila and Gladys S. Lewis, Supplements to the Journal for the Study of Judaism, ed. John J. Collins. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999; Hurtado, Larry W. How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?: Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2005; Lee, Aquila H. I. From Messiah to Pre-existent Son. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 192. Tübingen: Mohr-Siebeck, 2005; reprinted Wipf and Stock, 2009; Segal, Alan F. Two Powers in Heaven: Early Rabbinic Reports about Christianity and Gnosticism. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1977.