The Bible has four biographies of Jesus, we call them Gospels, and they all begin in a unique way.

The Gospel according to Matthew begins with a genealogy that connects Jesus' birth all the way to Abraham.

The Gospel according to Mark, it begins right in the action with Jesus being baptized.

The Gospel according to Luke begins with a note.

From Luke about why he wrote the biography and how he went about writing it.

And of all the introductions, the Gospel according to John is the most unique.

John begins with a highly designed artistic poem that connects Jesus to the story of the Hebrew Bible and to Yahweh himself.

John's prologue is personal, poetic, and it's powerful.

I mean like John knew and loved this guy who got killed and then who he somehow had this crazy encounters with

and saw the empty tomb and it just blew the categories for everything.

And now he's trying to share with us the most important thing you could tell us before telling the story of Jesus.

And this is it.

The prologue introduces Jesus this way.

In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.

Which sounds depending on your view of reality, it could sound like a just a crass contradiction in logic.

How could something be with something and also that thing?

If it's with it, it's separate from it.

To which John I think we just say I'm inviting you into a different view of reality.

I'm John Collins. Welcome to Bible Project Podcast.

Today I talk with Dr. Tim McE and Dr. Chris Aquinn.

And together we look at the literary design of the prologue to the Gospel according to John.

Thanks for joining us. Here we go.

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