John 1:14 | |
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← 1:13 1:15 → | |
![]() The Latin inscription "Verbum Caro Factum Est" meaning "the Word was made flesh" taken from John 1:14 at the pulpit of Ribe Cathedral (1597) | |
Book | Gospel of John |
Christian Bible part | New Testament |
John 1:14 is the fourteenth verse in the first chapter of the Gospel of John in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. It asserts that "the word became flesh". [1]
In the original Greek according to Westcott-Hort, this verse is:
In the King James Version of the Bible, the text reads:
The New International Version translates the passage as:
Theologian René Kieffer records that "the evangelist finally shows how the Word become flesh has revealed the Father", [4] while Eric Huntsman suggests that a single phrase in this verse, "and the Word was made flesh", can "take the place of the infancy narratives of Matthew 1–2 and Luke 1–2". [5]
Kieffer contrasts the "carnal will" mentioned in verse 13 with the term logos (λόγος; "the Word") introduced in verse 1. It is combined with the concrete term sarx (σὰρξ; "flesh") probably to refute Docetic views (which believe Jesus as only an 'appearance') as in John's letters (1 John 1:2-3:4:2; 2 John 7). [4]
The word "flesh" denotes "human nature" (as opposed to the "divine") or "material nature" (as opposed to the "spiritual"), and is used here rather than "body," because it could be confused with "spiritual body" (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:40-44), nor rendered as "man" (cf. John 5:27; John 8:40), who has "body" and "spirit". [6] Methodist writer Joseph Benson emphasizes sarx as referring to "the whole human nature", citing Bishop Horne that “as the Divinity is an object by no means within the grasp of the human understanding, it were absurd to expect an adequate idea of the mode of its union with flesh, expressed in the text by the word "made" (εγενετο, egeneto)," although it suffices to maintain the 'general truth' against "four capital errors" on the point of the incarnation, proposed in different ways by (1) Arius (denying Jesus to be truly God, because he became man); (2) Apollinaris, (stating Jesus was not really man, because he was also God); (3) Nestorius (dividing Jesus into two persons); (4) Eutyches (confounding two natures into one person of Jesus) in opposition to which, the four ancient general church councils of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon were called. [7]
'Dwelt among us' (literally 'put up his tent among us') is used in Wisdom of Sirach 24:10. [4] The Greek word for 'dwelt' (ἐσκήνωσεν; "eskēnōsen" [8] ) also means "tabernacled, sojourned", with a similar sound to "Shekhînah", a term not found in the Old Testament but frequently occurring in the Targums or Chaldee Paraphrases, as the 'visible symbol of the divine Presence which appeared in the Tabernacle and the Temple'; the Targums, moreover, frequently identify the Shekhînah with the "Memra" or "Word" (cf. Excursus A). [6] The physical presence of the Word in the flesh replaces the temple in Jerusalem which replaced the tabernacle in the desert as a dwelling place for God, to represent God's Wisdom in Israel. [4] The phrases 'among us' and 'we have seen' represent the Johannine witnessing to God's initiative. Ellicott sums it up that 'Man came to be a son of God, because the Son of God became man.' [6]
The Word's glory is dependent on the Father's presence in his monogenes Son (cf. John 17:5); monogenes (μονογενοῦς, monogenous [8] ), meaning 'only', 'unique', 'precious' (cf. Hebrew 11:17 about Isaac), or 'born from the one', used four times in the Gospel of John (1:14,18; 3:16, 18), and once in 1 John 4:9 to demonstrate the 'very special relationship between Jesus and his Father'. [4] The expression 'full of grace and truth' is best connected with 'only son', rather than with 'glory', to reflect God's revelation to Moses as 'merciful and gracious' (Exodus 34:6), that is, 'full of loving initiative and of fidelity', so 'in the "Word made flesh" humanity can meet God's glory'. [4]
"The Word was made flesh" was a pivotal verse for the Council of Chalcedon where it was hotly debated whether Christ had one or two natures or wills, the one being divine and the other human. Lapide explains it as, "not in the way in which water became wine when it was changed into wine, nor as food becomes our flesh, when it is changed into it, nor yet again as gold becomes a statue, by the addition to the material of gold of the accidental form of a statue, but after a similar manner to that in which soul and flesh being united become one man." [9] Athanasius therefore states in his Creed: "One, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of Person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ." The New Annotated Oxford Bible notes in this verse that 'Jesus was fully human (the Word became flesh) and fully involved in human society (and lived among us)'. [10]
Thomas Aquinas assembled the following quotations regarding this verse from the early Fathers of the Church:
Preceded by John 1:13 | Gospel of John Chapter 1 | Succeeded by John 1:15 |