The first readers of the gospel of John were shocked, but not by the verses that shock us modern readers.
I’m shocked by “the word was God” and “through him all things were made.” But John’s readers had heard things like this already. In Proverbs 8, God’s Wisdom speaks to us, a person, firstborn of creation:
“The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be.” (Proverbs 8:22-23)
True, “the word was God” would raise some eyebrows, but the language allows for this to be “a god” rather than “THE God.” This way of reading is in line with Psalm 82 – as Jesus himself argues about halfway through John’s gospel! (John 10:34.) A first-century reader would be a little cautious, but intrigued. They may think John was too enthusiastic, but most would keep on.
Then John 1:14 would hit that reader like a flash of lightning: “The word became flesh and dwelt among us.” This is no mere metaphor. These words have become dangerous, and you have to choose how to respond.
The most shocking may be the little word “dwelt.” I pass right by it, but a reader with the Torah in his head would stop short. This is not a word used for a wise sage or a good teacher. This is a word used for a unique, holy place. It points like a signpost to the holiest place on earth, the place you sing about and journey toward, the very home of God. In a sense, it’s God’s home address.
The word “dwelt,” in Greek, means “made a tabernacle,” or even “tabernacled.” More than thirty chapters of the Torah describe how Israel built and consecrated the tabernacle in great detail. First-century readers knew the tabernacle so well because they loved it, and they loved its successor, the Jewish Temple.
They loved the tabernacle’s geometric precision, the precise dimensions and colors of its curtains and posts, its courts within courts. It was a place of darkness and light, of heavy tentskins enclosing burning lamps and the golden Ark of the Covenant. It was a place of life and death, filled with the smoke of animal sacrifice and of incense. The worship of the nation focused on the heart of that structure, where the God of Israel dwelt, where the untouchable God shone on stones and weavings you could touch.
The Israelites knew that structure could not contain the Lord of the Universe. Yet the Lord of the Universe had chosen them, and chosen it, as His earthly home. In the Torah, God’s glory filled the Tabernacle tent as the culmination of the book of Exodus:
“Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle, and Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation.” (Exodus 40:34)
The Uncreated light filled and suffused the Tabernacle from the inside out, and humans could not step inside. John takes this image of unapproachable glory and says, that glory has returned, not to the Temple, but to a man.
This man could be approached, even by children, who could be touched, who could be embraced – and who could be struck and bruised. We have seen this glory, full of grace and truth, not in the overwhelming sensory overload of the tabernacle, but in humble human flesh.
“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life.” (1 John 1:1)
John leaves it to the other gospels to tell how that human flesh was born to his mother, just like us, and grew up as a human, just like us. You know the story of the tabernacle? John says. Here is one who is greater than that, who started as small as a baby in a manger. That child’s very flesh, overlooked by the empires of the day, is now glorified above all emperors. Jesus is one with the Eternal God, higher than the highest heavens, holier than the Holy of Holies.
John starts his Gospel by recalling God’s words, summed up in God’s Word, this man who is more than human. John starts by recalling how God’s words spoke the world into being (in less than a chapter of Torah) and spoke the instructions for building the Tabernacle (in thirty chapters of Torah). That story continues with a new creation and a new home for God: for unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.
IMAGE: Curtain of the Tabernacle, one of six illustrated leaves from the Postilla Litteralis (Literal Commentary) of Nicholas of Lyra French ca. 1360–1380 https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/479483