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Word for the following verses.23 John then repeats his claims that the Word existed in the beginning in relationship with God. The Word is thus identified with God, yet at the same time a distinction is preserved between the Word and God. Gift and giving are not
mentioned in these opening verses in John’s Gospel, yet the foundation these verses lay of the simultaneous distinction and unity of God and the Word is vital to building a proper interpretation of the gift in Johannine terms.
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things came to be, for “all things came to be through Him” (v. 3; emphasis added).27 John restates his thesis negatively in the second half of verse 3, emphatically declaring that nothing that was created was brought into being apart from the Word’s creative work.28 In this restatement, however, the Evangelist makes one important change to the previous statement by changing from the aorist e˙ge÷neto to the perfect ge÷gonen.29 The perfect tense moves the reader past the initial creation event to view all of creation as it exists in its present condition as the creative work of the Word.30 The Word therefore is not only the one who created all that exists but also the one who sustains all that exists.31 Whatever exists in creation is the product of the Word’s creative work. As Keener has written, “‘All things’ (pa¿nta) emphasizes Jesus’ priority, hence supremacy, over
whatever is created (3:35; 13:3; cf. Rev 4:11), hence over all humanity (17:2), whether or not humanity acknowledged it (1:10-11).”32
The significance of the Word’s creative work for the gift is monumental. The creation itself comes from Him as He brings it into existence. The very being of any
27Contra Köstenberger, John, 29, it is not clear that the preposition “conveys secondary agency on the part of the Son.” As Ridderbos, John, 36-37, explains, dia¿ is used other places generally of God (cf.
Rom 8:31; Gal 4:7), and the only conclusion one can draw from John 1:3 is that the Word brought all created things into existence. A precise theology of the pre-incarnate relationship of the Word and God is not here explicated.
28Köstenberger, John, 30, notes that this is a common Johannine literary device to emphasize an important point.
29The punctuation of v. 3 is disputed. Does the sentence end with eºn or with ge÷gonen? The NA28/UBS4 put the full stop after eºn so that ge÷gonen begins a new sentence. Most English versions translate v. 3 as a single sentence (NASB, ESV, NKJV, NIV, etc.). Barrett, St. John, 156-57 lists four convincing reasons for putting the period after ge÷gonen. So also Köstenberger, John, 29-30. On the whole, Barrett’s reasoning makes more sense of the text, contra Brown, John 1-12, 6.
30Morris, John, 71, comments, “‘Were made’ (aorist) pictures creation in its totality, as one act, but ‘has been made’ is perfect, which conveys the thought of the continuing existence of created things.”
Similarly Carson, John, 118.
31For a similar thought but in different language, see Heb 1:1-4 and Dan Nässelqvist, "Stylistic Levels in Hebrews 1.1-4 and John 1.1-18," Journal for the Study of the New Testament 35 (2012): 31-53.
32Keener, John, 1:381.
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created thing is therefore a gift from the Word, who does the work of God.33 The Word gives life to all that lives, and He gives it unilaterally. The creation does not ask to come into existence and it does not consent to God’s creative work through the Word.
Moreover, as Keener noted above, even when people refuse to acknowledge that the Word is the Giver of life, the gift is not nullified. They receive it because He gives it.
They live because He has given life and brought them to be. The gift is therefore not dependent in any way upon the attitude or response of the recipient. When God creates, which He does when the Word creates, He gives being unilaterally, receiving no return gift, inexplicably giving both being and reception of being at creation.
Summary
John 1:1-3 explores the relationship of the Word to God and to the created universe. The Word is timeless as He was when time began in the beginning.34 The Word was in relationship to God, having fellowship and communion with God in eternity. The Word was not only distinct from God but was in union with God. He was the Word of God, so that His words and works were the words and works of God. As the Word of God, He brought creation into existence and sustains creation in its present condition. He is the Word who gives all things their being but who received being from nothing,
standing as the unilateral divine Giver. When the Word gives, God gives. What the Word gives, God gives. The Word’s gifts are unilateral, giving not only existence but the reception of the gift so that what He gives is gift, pure and free, received simply because He has given it.
33This fact does not escape Köstenberger, John, 22-23, who recognizes that “God’s creation gifts through the Word were life and light” (emphasis added). The themes of life and light will be explored in the next section of the current chapter.
34To say the Word existed before time is nonsense because terms like “before” only make sense in the context of time.
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