If you were to sit down and write a gospel, how would you begin?

Well, you might begin with a genealogy (like Matthew did) as a way to show your readers that this Jesus was connected back to those like Abraham and David. Or (like Mark did) you might jump right in by letting your readers know exactly what type of story you’re telling. If it was requested that you write a gospel you might (like Luke did) begin by addressing the one to whom you were writing. Or, finally, you might (like John did) directly quote one of the most well-known sentences throughout the entire Old Testament.

John begins his gospel by quoting the first line of Genesis: “In the beginning….” That’s easy enough to see in English—the words are exactly the same. The really interesting thing, though, is that since John is writing his gospel in Greek, to Greek readers, he quotes to them the first line of Genesis from the Greek translation of the Hebrew. And I think he does this intentionally to show exactly what he believes about Jesus.

Notice the way Genesis begins in Greek: Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς. (In the beginning God created.)

Now, let’s look at how John begins in Greek: Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος. (In the beginning was the Word.)

Do you see the similarities and what John is saying?

It’s the exact same Greek wording that begins the Greek translation of Genesis that John uses to begin his gospel. The only difference is the use of ὁ λόγος (Word) instead of ὁ θεὸς (God). It seems to me what John is doing—and I think this becomes clearer as you continue reading his gospel—is to show that the “beginning” written about in Genesis for God is the same “beginning” for the Word. In fact, God and the Word have a unique relationship (Jn. 1:1-3).