Featuring: Paul Anderson (George Fox University), Stephen Chester (Wycliffe College), Michael Dauphinais (Ave Maria University), Joseph Mangina (Wycliffe College), Ben Reynolds (Tyndale University)
The Prologue of John’s Gospel (John 1:1—18) has been viewed by some scholars as the programmatic key to understanding the rest of the Gospel and the fullest revelation of God himself. Others, however, have viewed the Prologue as a later addition to the narrative parts of John (1:19 onwards), like a veranda built on to an existing house. Another way is to think of it is that even if an addition it might be just as old in its material, or if newer it could be a deep reflection on the message of the narrative of John.
Questions of the extent to which John was written for a community or for the whole Church many decades after the time of Jesus continue to be important for grasping the meaning of the Fourth Gospel. How does that ‘context’ illuminate our take on the Prologue, or how much does the Prologue cast its own illumination on how the eternal being of God relates to historical humanity?