The Word

John is a disciple who has witnessed the ministry and crucifixion of Jesus, including seeing and speaking with him after his resurrection. To teach others about Jesus’s identity and purpose, John writes a gospel account, or biography, of Jesus’s life. Here, he opens by connecting the identity of Jesus with the eternal God who created all things. Jesus, the Word, is one with God the Father (“the Word was God”), but he’s also distinct (he was “with God”). Throughout the Old Testament, the “Word” of God refers to the self-expression or revelation of God. John carries that idea forward in identifying Jesus as the true and full revelation of God himself.