Smoodock's Blog

I cannot leave John 1:14 with merely one posting. There is so much more here than is apparent with a mere reading of the words. Probably such should have to be the case, if one wished to claim that the Creator of the universe and all that is in it was coming into the world. How does one say that in an effective and clear manner?

I chose the title from 1Timothy 3:16, but this doesn’t properly explain John 1:14, because the verbs are in different moods. The fact is, in order to know what Paul is saying in 1Timothy 3:16, one has to understand John 1:14 properly. John says: “And the Word was made flesh…” The verb is in the aorist tense, middle voice and indicative mood. This is a little difficult to translate into the English because we don’t have a middle voice. But basically, the aorist middle means the subject is acting upon itself. In John 1:14 it means the Word made himself flesh. It was an action completed in the past; that is, the Word was not continually making himself flesh. Once he did what he did, he was flesh, just like you and me. So, 1Timothy 3:16 becomes clear in that God was indeed manifest in the flesh, in that Jesus was God in the flesh.

John 1:14 KJV  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.

He, Jesus, dwelt among us “full of grace and truth.” He was full of the mercies of God, performing acts of kindness throughout his ministry, raising the dead, healing the sick and those wounded in the spirit. He defended the poor and the oppressed against the authorities, the very ones who should have been helping the weak and helpless, but who had long ago corrupted their walk in that they used their high office to care only for themselves. Nevertheless, he, through whom all things were created, took note of the weak and the helpless and was for them full of mercy and acts of benevolence.

He declared the truth as it should be and was an example to all, and this in contrast to how the powerful of this world lived. In him was no darkness, because as the Truth, he was the Light of the world

John says that he and his companions beheld the glory of Jesus (the Word made flesh), and what they witnessed was a glory befitting the one who was the only begotten of the Father. That is, Jesus lived out the dignity of Deity in the flesh. What he was before his birth was fully manifest in his human spirit—in the kindness of his deeds, in his defense of the weak,  in his binding the wounds of oppressed and in the raising of the dead. Jesus brought God out of his hiding place and made him visible to the world.