In the Beginning Was the Word
The Teaching
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.
The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Commentary
The Greek ‘Logos’ had been used for centuries before John, by Heraclitus to mean the rational principle underlying all existence, and by the Stoics for the divine reason permeating the cosmos. John’s Prologue deliberately maps Christ onto this existing philosophical tradition.
The Tao Te Ching opens: ‘The Tao that can be named is not the eternal Tao.’ John’s Logos is strikingly parallel, the generative principle before all things, immanent in creation yet transcending it.
The Sikh Mool Mantar begins: ‘Ik Onkar’, one creative reality, and the Guru Granth Sahib is called the Word (Shabd) made manifest. The Logos/Tao/Brahman/Shabd/Nous, all names for the same generative intelligence.
Themes
Connections 20
Arose apart
No known transmission between Christianity and Taoism while these teachings took shape. The Church of the East reached Chang’an in 635 and described itself in Taoist and Buddhist terms (Xi’an Stele, 781), long after both took shape.
Unsure
Hermeticism and Christianity were in contact, but no influence of Christianity on Hermeticism is documented. Tertullian named ‘Mercurius Trismegistus’ (c. 200–210), Lactantius (c. 300) quoted Hermes Trismegistus as a pagan prophet. Ficino translated the Corpus Hermeticum for the Medici (1463).
Travelled
Judaism reached Christianity by 30 CE. Christianity began as a movement within Judaism.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Christianity and Sikhism while these teachings took shape. Contact came under British rule in the 19th century.
Arose apart
Both took shape before Christianity and Neoplatonism were in documented contact (from 355 CE).
Travelled
Stoicism reached Christianity by 50 CE. Paul debates Stoics in Athens (Acts 17:18), and Stoic ethics runs through the Church Fathers.
Arose apart
No known line from Christianity to this scientific work.
Unsure
Hermeticism and Christianity were in contact, but no influence of Christianity on Hermeticism is documented. Tertullian named ‘Mercurius Trismegistus’ (c. 200–210), Lactantius (c. 300) quoted Hermes Trismegistus as a pagan prophet. Ficino translated the Corpus Hermeticum for the Medici (1463).
Unsure
No documented reading of Christianity by Terence McKenna.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Christianity while these teachings took shape. Christians lived in Kerala from early centuries, but exchange of ideas begins only with the Jesuits: Akbar’s court debates (from 1580), Roberto de Nobili writing on Hindu doctrine in Tamil (from 1606), then Wilkins’s English Gita (1785), the Upanishads in Latin (1801–02) and Vivekananda (1893). All long after either’s formative teachings.
Arose apart
Both took shape before Christianity and Sufism were in documented contact (from 700 CE).
Unsure
Christianity grew in Egypt while the old temples still stood (Philae traditionally closed c. 535–537). Borrowings, such as Isis and Horus in Madonna imagery, are argued.
Unsure
Hermeticism and Christianity were in contact, but no influence of Christianity on Hermeticism is documented. Tertullian named ‘Mercurius Trismegistus’ (c. 200–210), Lactantius (c. 300) quoted Hermes Trismegistus as a pagan prophet. Ficino translated the Corpus Hermeticum for the Medici (1463).
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Christianity while these teachings took shape. Christians lived in Kerala from early centuries, but exchange of ideas begins only with the Jesuits: Akbar’s court debates (from 1580), Roberto de Nobili writing on Hindu doctrine in Tamil (from 1606), then Wilkins’s English Gita (1785), the Upanishads in Latin (1801–02) and Vivekananda (1893). All long after either’s formative teachings.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Christianity and Shinto while these teachings took shape. Francis Xavier reached Japan in 1549.
Unsure
No documented reading of Christianity behind this teaching, or against it.
Travelled
Christianity reached Sufism by 700 CE. Early Muslim ascetics wore wool and learned from Christian monks, and early Sufi literature is full of meetings with them. The extent is argued.
Arose apart
No known transmission between Hinduism and Christianity while these teachings took shape. Christians lived in Kerala from early centuries, but exchange of ideas begins only with the Jesuits: Akbar’s court debates (from 1580), Roberto de Nobili writing on Hindu doctrine in Tamil (from 1606), then Wilkins’s English Gita (1785), the Upanishads in Latin (1801–02) and Vivekananda (1893). All long after either’s formative teachings.
Travelled
Greek thought reached Christianity by 50 CE. The New Testament is written in Greek. John’s Logos is a Greek idea, and the Church Fathers read Plato.