In the beginning was the word...

In case you hadn't noticed, the Bible is a big book. Most Christians I know haven't read it beginning to end, let alone anyone else. I'm not convinced that's particularly defensible (it's long, yes, but only as long as 3-4 novels - it's dwarfed by the Harry Potter series), but it's tough to get your head around any book written in a different era to a different culture, let alone one that makes such explosive claims as this particular book.

One part that almost every Christian has read, though, is the first chapter of the Gospel according to John and if you can really get your head round that bit, you're already well on the way to understanding what all the fuss is about.

Gospel, incidentally, means good news. That is, it's declaring something that's happened. It's not primarily 'good advice' about what you should do, it's 'good news' about what has already been done. You can receive the benefits of it or not, that's true, and whether you do so depends on what you do with that news, but we'll get to that later. It'd be good to get past the title, at least.

So, first off: Verses 1-5

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.
In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not mastered it.

So there's God. That is, there's this being who's not been made (so he's eternal) and who is the maker of all things (so he's unfathomably powerful). And he's a 'Him', not an 'It'. That is to say, we're not just talking about some kind of force here - he should be understood in personal terms. But then there's this 'Word' who is with him, and is 'Him' - so we've got one being (God), but (at least) 2 persons who are him. I know it sounds weird, but stick with me.

Anyway, while we're talking about persons, you need to know that doesn't mean human, or even anything much like a human. It says that he has in himself life which is the light of men - my life is most certainly not the light of men & I should also point out that I didn't make everything ever made. We're different in that way. By calling Him a person (persons) in this sense, I just mean that he is a being that thinks, acts, feels, relates, etc.

So whatever light we get (and I think light means understanding - you need to read a bit more to see that clearly), it comes from his life which he has in him. So if John's right (and I understand him correctly), not only were we made by God but (at least some of) our knowledge comes from Him too. That light (understanding) has to do with life in God as well. We'll look at what that life is later.

The idea that God can share light (understanding) weith us, incidentally, solves a horrible nightmare for philosophy students who can't work out if it's possible to know anything outside of their own existance (yes, it's a silly problem, but it's silly in a terribly sophisticated way).

Now this light (understanding) is surrounded by darkness (confusion or rejection of understanding), but the darkness hasn't mastered it.

This bit's tricky, because when this letter was written it was in Greek, and the word I've put down as 'mastered' can mean 'understood' (the darkness hasn't mastered the subject 'light') or it could mean 'defeated' (the darkness hasn't mastered it's opponent, light). But if the word 'light' represents understanding, it means basically the same thing anyway. Confusion was confused or beaten by understanding.

I should point out, after all this 'understanding' talk, the gospel has nothing to do with hidden mysteries that nobody could work out except for some elite group. You need to know the gospel isn't just for smart people. It really isn't.

Some people (called Gnostics) have made out it's about these hidden mysteries that nobody can understand. They're mostly hippyish folk who like reading star-signs, listening to whale music & thinking they're deep & spiritual while frankly, they're just ridiculous.

No, this is about people who see the light which gives life but prefer darkness, because it doesn't challenge them. I'm skipping ahead though.

I'll tackle some more verses in a future post.