Smoodock's Blog

Did you ever wonder why the Gospel of John refers to Jesus before his birth as the Word? Many folks think that John was borrowing from Philo the Jew, who was a philosopher living in Alexandria, Egypt, about the time of Jesus’ public ministry. While Philo did, indeed, live during and after the time of Jesus’ public ministry, there is a more appropriate explanation that comes out of the Jewish writings called the Jewish Targums, Aramaic paraphrases of the Old Covenant books of the Bible.

After the Jews returned from captivity in Babylon, most of them no longer understood Hebrew. Their native tongue was Aramaic, so the Levites would orally translate what the teacher would read out of the Hebrew Scriptures in the synagogue (cp. Nehemiah 8:5-8). Later the oral translations would be written down and eventually revised and authorized as an official translation. The freer the translation is, the earlier tradition it probably represents. What is interesting about the Targums is the apparent embarrassment of the targumist with the many anthropomorphisms of God. That is, when God appears to man or when references are made in the text that God has a body. During such times, instead of giving a literal translation of God’s name, the targumist replaced it with Memra (the Word). For example, instead of God walking in the garden in Genesis 3:8, the targumist has the Word of God walking in the garden; and instead of God being with Ishmael (Genesis 21:20), it is the Word of God, who was with Ishmael. Other substitutions are Shekinah and Glory.

Understanding this gives new meaning to what John says about Jesus coming into the world:

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.

“The Word was made flesh…” He didn’t just appear to us; he became one of us. “…and dwelt among us,” Shekinah means ‘dwelling’! The Word, the very presence of God, became one of us, so he could ‘dwell with’ (Shekinah) us! “…and we beheld his Glory…” we beheld, the Glory of God in the flesh—not in vision—but as it were, one of us. “…the Glory as of the Only Begotten of the Father—full of grace and truth!” John and every Jew who read his Gospel in the 1^st century AD knew exactly what these words meant. John was claiming Jesus was God in the flesh.

When Jesus spoke with Nicodemus,[1] he told him that God so loved the world, that he gave his Only Begotten Son (John 3:16). This is in the context of being “lifted up” as Moses “lifted up” the serpent in the wilderness (John 3:14). The Jews understood this as a reference to death (John 12:32-34); so Jesus told Nicodemus from the beginning that he must die, and that in his death eternal life would be brought to light. God gave his Son, so we could have everlasting life.

Eternal life does not come to us in any other way except to look to and trust in Jesus. His death fleshes out the length to which God will go to retrieve us from our own rebellion that will inevitably end in eternal death. He accepted death—our death—so we could live forever. Trusting in Jesus’ death allows us to be forgiven for all our sins—this is the meaning behind the ceremonial animal sacrificial system in the Temple. The crucifixion of Jesus is the love of God fleshed out so we could see how far God will go to bring us back to him. This love—fleshed out in Jesus—is something that transcends the barriers of language. The Word of God became flesh and dwelt (Shekinah) with us. We beheld his Glory fleshed out upon a tree, “lifted up” to give us life. Such is the Love of God.

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[1] Later, I reconsidered the third chapter of the Gospel of John. I’ve decided that Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus ends with verse-12. Verse-13 and following is commentary by the writer of the Gospel of John. If Nicodemus didn’t understand spiritual matters (John 3:12), why would Jesus tell him things he knew he didn’t understand? Moreover, if Nicodemus balked at, “Except a man is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God” (John 3:3), why did he say nothing, when Jesus implied he ascended to heaven and came down from heaven or that Messiah would die (John 3:13, 15)? John 3:13-21, therefore, makes sense as commentary by the Gospel writer, but not so, if Jesus is still speaking with Nicodemus.