First, I want to say something about the word, gospel.
Gospel is defined in the Bible as good tidings or good news. Compare the word
substitution between the following New Testament and Old Testament verses.
First, from the New Testament with Jesus speaking and
quoting Isaiah, chapter 61;
Luke 4:18a The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he
hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor…
Then, from the Old Testament with Isaiah writing;
Isaiah 61:1a ¶ The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me;
because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek…
This is the gospel or good news about Jesus Christ and the
salvation of mankind from the eternal suffering which is man’s due after
physical death as we are genetically, socially, culturally, mentally, and in
every other way in rebellion to God from the moment we are born and are held
accountable for it when and if we have the capacity to make a choice between
God’s way or our own.
Cross referencing like words, phrases, and verses that are
either quoted or alluded to or paraphrased between the Old and New Testaments
is a fundamental way of getting meaning from the Bible. You cannot trust
commentaries necessarily to provide you all of the cross references and all
lexicons are notoriously known by lexicographers for being unreliable.
Therefore Strong, Danker, Thayer, etc. etc. will probably not give you an
accurate idea of what a word passage means. You must learn them yourself by
reading and re-reading the Bible from cover to cover and making notes.
I will normally not attempt to harmonize the four gospel
accounts. Two of them are eyewitnesses who tell what they saw from their own
point of view and their perspectives. One, Matthew, focused mainly on Christ’s
relationship with the Jews and one, John, more a universal declaration of
Christ’s life and mission. The other two gospels don’t appear to be eyewitnesses
as Luke is an historian/physician who has conducted many interviews and read
many accounts and because he is in the Bible we know his work is given by
inspiration, God’s gift of understanding and wisdom to a Bible writer. Mark is
also considered to be a version of events derived from others but given by
inspiration. So, God has made the testimony sure by two eyewitnesses and two
historical accounts, placing His seal of inspiration on all four. When there
are variations in the account we know that four accounts of any event will
produce some differing statements because each of us see things from our own
view. Matthew is more Jewish, Mark is more Roman, Luke is more Greek, and John
seems to reach out through history to us, or so it appears to me.
John 1:1 ¶ In the beginning was
the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 The
same was in the beginning with God.
In the beginning is a reference to time. The Word preexisted
time and was in the beginning of time. The Holy Spirit uses Greek and Hebrew in
often unique ways, creating a Biblical language through the writers that rises
above everyday speech. Here, John, uses the word, Logos, which is translated
into Word, uppercase W.
Some philosophies of the Greek world used the word, Logos,
to describe the creative force of the universe. John here makes it clear that
the Logos is not an impersonal force but a person, an entity, also linked to
the use of the English word and Greek logos as speech and a decree. A
knowledgeable Greek or Roman, who had heard Sophist preachers speak on this,
would have understood what John was saying, at least in part, even if they did
not agree.
So, the Word was here in the beginning of time. It was with
God, coexisting. In fact, it was that very God, here in the beginning with Him.
How could this be you ask? The Bible, rather than traditional theology which
talks of three persons in one that sounds vaguely polytheistic, makes this
clear. These three parts acted in unison.
Genesis 1:26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have
dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the
cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth
upon the earth.
Genesis 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is
become as one of us, to know good
and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of
life, and eat, and live for ever:
Genesis 11:7 Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not
understand one another’s speech.
A self-conscious, aware being is composed of three parts; a
spirit, which is our very mind with its reasoning, emotions, and inclinations,
a soul, which is the seat of its will and self-identity, and a body, which is
how it interacts and knows the physical world around it. There are overlaps in
all of these parts. I not only am but I know that I am because I have a soul. I
think and understand to my capacity because I have a spirit. I exist in
space-time and interact physically with my surroundings because I have a body.
God interacts with us in all three of these locations.
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