Christ's Life Prior to His Ministry I: Sections 1 & 2

Luke 1:1-4
Luke dedicated Acts and Luke to Theophilus, of whom not much is know except is was Greek and of a high official rank. Luke's preface, reassures all who seek hard evidence, facts.  His account promises to be faithful, to the documentation and first-hand experiences:

The careful language of Luke here really pays a tribute to those who had preceded him in their narratives concerning Christ.-Robertson's Word Pictures

The certainty (tēn asphaleian). Make no slip (sphallō, to totter or fall, and a privative). Luke promises a reliable narrative. “Theophilus shall know that the faith which he has embraced has an impregnable historical foundation” -Plummer cited RWP

 This Preface by Luke is in splendid literary Koiné and is not surpassed by those in any Greek writer (Herodotus, Thucydides, Polybius). It is entirely possible that Luke was familiar with this habit of Greek historians to write prefaces since he was a man of culture. -RWP

Koine Greek was a common form of Greek dialect.  It was used in most of the NT and early Christian writings and is still the liturgical language of the Greek Orthodox Church.

John 1:1-18

In the past, I've thought of John as more "big picture" mystical, free-wheeling in contrast to Luke's meticulous doctor-like approach.  However, reading through Robertson's Word Pictures for the beginning verses of John, it's evident that John was quite careful in his word choice, refuting bad schools of thought and understanding very intentionally.  He was precise in his globalism:

There is no argument here to prove the existence of God any more than in Genesis. It is simply assumed. Either God exists and is the Creator of the universe as scientists like Eddington and Jeans assume or matter is eternal or it has come out of nothing.-RWP

The power that creates and sustains life in the universe is the Logos. This is what Paul means by the perfect passive verb ektistai (stands created) in Col_1:16. This is also the claim of Jesus to Martha (Joh_11:25). This is the idea in Heb_1:3 “bearing (upholding) the all things by the word of his power.” -RWP

"The Word (ho logos). Logos is from legō, old word in Homer to lay by, to collect, to put words side by side, to speak, to express an opinion. Logos is common for reason as well as speech. Heraclitus used it for the principle which controls the universe. The Stoics employed it for the soul of the world (anima mundi) and Marcus Aurelius used spermatikos logos for the generative principle in nature." -RWP? or BI?

The Concept of Life in Christ

Joh 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.

In him was life (en autōi zōē ēn). That which has come into being (Joh_1:3) in the Logos was life. The power that creates and sustains life in the universe is the Logos. This is what Paul means by the perfect passive verb ektistai (stands created) in Col_1:16. This is also the claim of Jesus to Martha (Joh_11:25). This is the idea in Heb_1:3 “bearing (upholding) the all things by the word of his power.”


The Concept of Light and Darkness

"The Gnostics often employed these words and John takes them and puts them in the proper place."
-RWP

Joh 1:5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.

Shineth (phainei). Linear present active indicative of phainō, old verb from phaō, to shine (phaos, phōs). “The light keeps on giving light.” -RWP

What a beautiful tense---progressively "keeping on giving light," in contrast to the shadow.

In the darkness (en tēi skotiāi). Late word for the common skotos (kin to skia, shadow).

The imagery here reminds me of James 1: 17:

"Every generous act and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights; with Him there is no variation or shadow cast by turning."


More on Light

John 1:9  That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

Lighteth every man (phōtizei panta anthrōpon). Old verb (from phōs) to give light as in Rev_22:5; Luk_11:35.  -RWP

Revelation 22:5  And there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light: and they shall reign for ever and ever.

Luke 11:35 Take heed therefore that the light which is in thee be not darkness.

On "Becoming Flesh"

Joh 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us,

One is at liberty to see an allusion to the birth narratives in Mat_1:16-25; Luk_1:28-38, if he wishes, since John clearly had the Synoptics before him and chiefly supplemented them in his narrative. In fact, one is also at liberty to ask what intelligent meaning can one give to John’s language here apart from the Virgin Birth? What ordinary mother or father ever speaks of a child “becoming flesh”? -RWP

1. Where was Jesus in the beginning?
In the beginning, Jesus was with God (v1).

2. What part did Jesus have in the Creation?
All things were made through Him (v3).

Christ as the Creator

1 Corinthians 8:6 We have only one God, and he is the Father. He created everything, and we live for him. Jesus Christ is our only Lord. Everything was made by him, and by him life was given to us.

1Co 8:6  yet for us there is one God, the Father, from whom all things come and for whom we exist; and one Lord, Yeshua the Messiah, through whom were created all things and through whom we have our being. -CJB

John 1: 10  He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him.

The language here is nearly as wonderful as the thought. Observe its compact simplicity, its sonorousness—"the world" resounding in each of its three members—and the enigmatic form in which it is couched, startling the reader and setting his ingenuity a-working to solve the stupendous enigma of Christ ignored in His own world.  -JFB

Col 1:17  He existed before all things, and he holds everything together. Col 1:18  Also he is head of the Body, the Messianic Community—he is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that he might hold first place in everything.

 The third characteristic of Christ is that by Him all things were created. In fact all things were created by Him (di’ autou, instrumental Cause) and for Him (eis auton, final Cause), and in Him (en autō) they hold together (He is the constituting or conserving Cause). Christ is not only the One through whom all things came to be, but also the One by whom they continue to exist. Two other New Testament verses parallel this description of Christ: “Through Him all things were made” (Joh_1:3), and Christ the Son is the One “through whom [the Father] made the universe” (Heb_1:2). The Father, then, is the ultimate Source (efficient Cause), and the Son is the mediating Cause of the world. The Son was the “master Workman” of Creation, “the beginning (archē) of the Creation of God” (Rev 3:14 2, NASB).

The Son’s Creation includes “all” things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible. These indicate the entire universe, both material and immaterial. The hierarchy of angelic beings - thrones (thronoi) or powers (kyriotētes) or rulers (archai) or authorities (exousiai) - indicate a highly organized dominion in the spirit world, a sphere in which the Colossians were engaged in the worship of angels (Col_2:18) and over which Christ reigns supreme (cf. Eph_1:21; Eph_3:10; Eph_6:12; Php_2:9-10; Col_2:10, Col_2:15).

Paul goes to great lengths to emphasize that all things were created through Christ, whether things in heaven, or things on earth. This leaves no loopholes for anyone to suggest that although He created some things, He Himself was created originally. -BB

He is the beginning. We understand this to mean the beginning of the new creation (see Rev_3:14), the source of spiritual life. This is further explained by the use of the expression the firstborn from the dead. Here again we must be careful to emphasize that this does not mean that the Lord Jesus was the first to rise from the dead. There were cases of resurrection in the OT as well as in the NT. But the Lord Jesus was the first to rise from the dead to die no more, He was the first to rise with a glorified body, and He rose as the Head of a new creation. His resurrection is unique, and is the pledge that all who trust in Him will also rise. It proclaims Him as supreme in the spiritual creation.-BB

Heb 1:2  But now at last, God sent his Son to bring his message to us. God created the universe by his Son, and everything will someday belong to the Son.

To begin with (Heb_1:2), the Son is the designated Heir of all things. This is obviously as it should be since He is also their Maker - the One through whom He made the universe (tous aiōnas, lit., “the ages,” also rendered “the universe” in Heb_11:3). The reference to the Son’s heirship anticipates the thought of His future reign, of which the writer will say much.-BKC

3. For what purpose was John the Baptist sent?

• He was sent from God (v6)
• He came as a witness to the light (v7)

In SUM:

1. Jesus is Co-Creator of all visible and invisible.
2. Jesus sustains the creation, today.
3. Jesus is the 1st born of the new creation.

4. Of whom is it said "He was in the world...and the world did not know Him"?  Why was this said about Him?

It was said of Christ---because the world (the religious leaders, the Jews, even his own disciples) did not recognize who He was.

5. What did Jesus give to those who "received Him"?  What does that mean?

John 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name.

He gave them power "to become the sons of God." or more correctly "children of God," which is a mammoth concept to unpack.  John elaborates that these are "born of God," in contrast to being born of "blood, or the will of the flesh or the will of man." (v13)

There is a progress of thought in the three following clauses, describing the proper origin of a believer's new life. Children of God are begotten, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man. “The new birth is not brought about by descent, by desire, or by human power” (Westcott)  -Vincent's Word Studies

The efforts and exertions of our own human hearts and natures may reform, but can not regenerate, the life--Jn 3:6--Fourfold Gospel

6. What comparisons did John the Baptist make between himself and Jesus?

John says that Christ "ranks before me" because he precedes him (v 15).


7. In contrast to the law given through Moses, what is said to have come through Jesus Christ?

Grace and truth

It is grace in contrast with law as Paul sets forth in Galatians and Romans. Paul had made grace “a Christian commonplace” (Bernard) before John wrote. It is truth as opposed to Gnostic and all other heresy as Paul shows in Colossians and Ephesians. The two words aptly describe two aspects of the Logos and John drops the use of Logos and charis, but clings to alētheia (see Joh_8:32 for the freedom brought by truth), though the ideas in these three words run all through his Gospel. -RWP

The glory of Christ was not in pomp and worldly grandeur, but in the holiness, grace, and truth of his daily life.-Fourfold Gospel