Survey of the Autopic Gospel

Good evening, everyone. It is good to see you all here tonight. And before we get started I want to make a few preliminary statements. One I meant I meant to mention this in the last couple classes, and I think I have forgotten but in our last class a church a member of the class gave Copies of this Bible timeline, and I still have several copies left, so if anyone would like one.

They're over here. Just pick them up during the break if you would they're right here. But I definitely want to. I don't want them to just sit on my my shelf. They were meant to be given away, so I have several of them here and please feel free to take one.

We also have a handout for tonight, but because it's going to be in the second half of the class I'm not going to worry about handing it out yet. I want to dive right in we are. We are tonight going into our survey of the autopic gospel.

Now I don't say it that way just to make it sound strange. I'm trying to remind you when I call this the survey of the autopic gospel I'm trying to remind you that we have four Gospels, but there are three Gospels that are Very similar to one another.

In fact the word Synoptic is used for those three Gospels and the word synoptic means to view together. That's what that term means and then we have what is known as the autopic gospel or it means to view by itself and that is what we call the gospel of John.

I have been looking forward to tonight's lesson. I Love the gospel of John. I did say last week that the gospel of Luke is my favorite. Because it was the first that I had preached through. It's what I did my doctoral dissertation on but it is a very Easy thing to say that the gospel of John has certainly been the most beloved of the Gospels down through the ages particularly within the church because of what it tells us about the Lord Jesus Christ and the amount of Information that it gives us that the other Gospels simply do not give us the the the gospel of John is In many ways a Bible all to itself.

It contains a verse which has been considered by many to be the Bible in miniature. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. That whoever believes in him will not perish but have everlasting life.

That certainly is one way to give a synopsis of the gospel. And so we are going to be looking at the gospel of John tonight. I've been excited all day to have this time with you all and I'm really looking forward to our study.

But before we begin I want to ask how many of you received the email and or the Facebook post that I put out earlier Today about listening to the podcast today. Okay. The main reason I'm asking is I want to know if you're getting my emails and or my Facebook messages because if you're not then there are some times in this class where I'm going to be sending you things to do during the week and If I don't have your email address or whatever, I won't be able to do that.

So if you did not get an email email from me or you are not on Facebook because I do it on both. Then please during the break come see me so I can make sure that you get that because what I did Today's podcast and for those of you who don't know I do a podcast every morning at 630.

It's about a 20 to 30 minute lesson on some subject today. I talked about the Walter Bauer hypothesis, which has been very influential in the last 100 years in regard to the liberal understanding of the New Testament.

Particularly regarding the life of Jesus Christ. If you are not familiar with the Walter Bauer hypothesis I would recommend please go and listen to that podcast. And if you did listen to it, hopefully now you're at least more familiar with what I'm talking about.

It's very important particularly regarding. And basically the Walter Bauer hypothesis is this that in the first century there was not Christianity. But that there were Christianities. There were a lot of competing and various beliefs among Christians.

There was no orthodoxy. There was only diversity. There was no Unity and belief and Bauer essentially said what we believe is simply what one, you know. You've heard the old adage that the history is one is written by the winners and the only reason why we believe the things that we believe is because it won out and Had the Gnostics won then we'd all be Gnostics or had the whatever's won.

We'd all be that and it's a hypothesis that is not rooted in history. It's rooted in speculation and it really doesn't have any foundation in history at all. But you remember last week we talked about the historicity of the Gospels this is one of those areas where the Skeptical scholars which are I should have used this term last week the higher critical scholars.

That's usually the term more Adapt to those who are opposed to the historicity of the scriptures the higher critical scholars will cite things like the Bauer Hypothesis as the foundation as I said in preparation for this class I've been listening to a Yale professor teach a survey of the New Testament and it's absolutely atrocious.

He assumes the Walter the Bauer hypothesis without without giving any real Foundation for it. He just assumes it's true and he bases almost his entire presentation. All of his lectures on the idea that there is no real Orthodoxy in Christianity, but it's all diversity and so again, I didn't mean to spend this much time on it, but if you didn't listen to the podcast, please do it's very important and Also in the podcast I point you to a man by the name of Michael Kruger.

Michael Kruger is the name in Church history right now as far as regarding the history of the text and he has some very wonderful Teachings and books on the subject and I would point you to him as well.

So that being said let us look. Begin our look at John's gospel. Hopefully you did your homework. What was the homework for this week? Read that's the homework every week. Did you read? Good. Okay. So you've you've already gotten a step ahead.

Because what we are doing we are going to look at three things tonight regarding the Gospel of John. I wish we could just read the Gospel of John. We probably could in an hour and a half. But but we're not going to do that, but it but there's so much value and just hearing what it has to say.

But we're gonna look at three particular Aspects of the Gospel of John. Number one. We are going to look at authorship and purpose. Number two, we're going to look at theological insights and Number three, we're going to look at issues regarding harmonization.

Now I want to say something about Those things this is a survey and One of the things you will Realize if you ever take another survey of the New Testament, whoever the teacher is will probably teach different things than I do.

Because as surveys and I don't get my my stuff from from books. I write most of my curriculum myself now. I draw from tons of literature, but I write my own outlines. I write my own curriculum and so as I survey the New Testament it might be different than another professor would and they're going to be certain things that I focus on tonight.

That another professor might not and likewise another professor might focus on things that I that I wouldn't. And so when we get to the theology of John know this I have I have a handout for you. It is such surface level.

There's no way at the time. We have to dive into all of the theology of John. In fact, I was looking over it as right before class started and I said Oh, I forgot this or I should have included this or this is what and so as we're going tonight I may just have to keep you here until midnight.

Yeah. There's just so much theology in the gospel of John. But we're going to focus. I did I do have an outline that I'm going to try to stick to simply to keep us on task so let's look first at authorship and purpose.

With the rise of critical scholarship there began to be a rise in the debate as to who truly authored the Gospels and The most hotly Debated gospel was John's gospel and can anybody tell me why? That's right, that's right.

Yeah the the John has what we would call a high Christology Has a high view of Jesus Christ. And so the argument among critical scholars was that such a high view of Jesus Christ was not Present in the early church.

It wasn't even present in the first century according to the critical scholars and therefore John could not have been written in the first century in fact. It was widely accepted for a long time that John was actually a late second century writing which would have put it well outside the time of the life of John himself which would mean that it wasn't written by John so that argument was very popular and Some made their case as to why we shouldn't believe in things like the deity of Christ because they were second century additions to What the Christians actually believed and then archaeology did us a favor and by the way Archaeology always does us a favor.

We should never be afraid of What's going to be found in the sand or what's going to be unearthed? Because we have the truth we shouldn't be afraid of facts if we have the truth and You remember that passage where Jesus said if if these be silent then the very stones will cry out.

I had an archaeology professor when I was in seminary who loved that verse. Because he made the argument that he said I think Jesus is literally saying that one day Archaeology is going to prove everything.

I've said it's true. I I don't agree with that, but you understand what he was saying said the rocks are crying out. Every time he used to say this he said every time a spade went into the ground. They would unearth one more fact that that that verified what the Bible said.

There were places that the Bible talks about and some people says these places never existed. Then archaeology went and began to dug and they found ruins and of these places and it's amazing. It's it's it's just again one more verification that that not only is the Bible true and accurate.

But we have the evidence to show it's true and accurate. And so it's wonderful to have those things and when it comes to the gospel of John We have early Manuscript fragments and the earliest Manuscript fragments that we possess are from the gospel of John some of the earliest manuscript fragments p52 is a Fragment of the gospel of John.

P stands for parts or Pot papyri, thank you. It's it's a papyri when the Bible was written when the New Testament was written. It was written on papyri, which was it was an early form of paper. They would take the papyrus read and they would interlace it together and they would press it down and they would they would basically Create paper out of it.

And and so the earliest manuscripts were written on this papyri and then later manuscripts were written on vellum. Which is like leather those manuscripts lasted a lot longer than the papyri manuscripts.

It amazes me that any papyri is left at all but there is and We have pieces of manuscripts and one of the ones that has been found is p52 it is the earliest and most famous Greek New Testament manuscript and It is of the gospel of John and it dates to the early 2nd century.

What does that mean. Well, that means that those who said that John wasn't written until the late 2nd century are wrong. Because we have a copy of it that dates To the early 2nd century not the late now if you're having trouble keeping up with this in your mind.

Here's here's what they're saying. And here's what actually happened. They're saying, you know, we have the first Oh bad marker. We Have the. We have the it's almost comical we have the first century is.

There is no year zero, but would you say zero to ninety nine the second century? So that so that's the first century. The second century is 100 to 199 so that's the second century and then of course 200 to 299.

Is the third century if you took my church history class, you'll remember we did three centuries at a time. So the first three centuries of the church are huge very important and they're saying the gospel of John is written here.

When John lived here. Okay. So this what this couldn't be written by John if it's written way out there. But John John lives in here then a copy is found. The copy is from around here. What does a copy demand?

An original yeah, there has to be original and when and when copies exist that means not only has the original been made but it's it's it's been Transmitted so much that copies have been made so this takes us well back into the first century well into the lifetime of John.

John lived the the latest of the Apostles. He lived till in to the 90s. So he lived well in this time period putting his gospel well in the period of time of his lifetime. I'll read this to you says the Apostle.

John likely wrote this Gospel sometime late in the first century. I would disagree with that, but we'll get that in a minute but this means that P52 the earliest New Testament manuscript was likely copied within a hundred years or so of the original.

Moreover since manuscripts since the manuscript was discovered in Egypt a significant distance away from Ephesus where the gospel was originally written we can see that the text of the Bible is being copied and widely circulated.

Already in the second century so not only was it Early, but it was so far away that it shows that expansion early on it shows that copies are going out and they're going far and wide and. So so those who argue against the authorship of John Had to step back and say oh wait, okay now.

We're our arguments about Christology and early Christian Christology. Those those arguments don't really work. And so that's where we find ourselves. We find ourselves in a situation where it shouldn't be as hotly debated as it is and anymore it really isn't even the even the.

The guy that was teaching the Yale class that I was talking about even he said yeah John wrote it it was amazing. He's a higher critical. Yeah, John. John is the author. Now there is another thing that we need to look at as far as authorship.

And this is. We have testimony to John's authorship, which is fairly unique. We have testimony to John's authorship that comes from an early church father. Named Irenaeus. Irenaeus was the student of a man named Polycarp.

You've probably heard of Polycarp. Polycarp was a student of who? John he was a disciple of John. Irenaeus was a disciple of or a student if you will of Polycarp so Irenaeus is two generations or really one generation.

From the original and guess what Polycarp or guess what Irenaeus tells us? Irenaeus tells us that the Gospel of John was written by John. So we really have no reason to doubt John's authorship and Maybe I spent more time on that than I should have but I think it's hugely important.

We are we this is the man who walked with Christ. This is the man who laid his head on on the on the chest of the Lord Jesus. This was the man who said who he said I Jesus loves me. You know, he was the first to say Jesus loves me this I saw this I know right because he said I'm a man who?

Jesus loved. And we have his words. We have his gospel from his own hand. Now we don't know where he wrote. But there are several propositions that have been made. The traditional view is that he wrote from Ephesus.

Legend says that he was requested to write by friends to supplement the other Gospels now again, that's all part of legend and church tradition. But it does make sense because it would conclude us to understand that John was probably aware that the other Gospels existed.

We do believe he wrote later than the other Gospels. So it is likely that he knew that they existed and That brings us to the question of when did he write if if if we take the later? Rendering we can put John as late as 80 to 90 because that would have been the length of his life.

However, does anybody remember what I believe about this because I've talked about it in the classes prior. I believe that the entire New Testament Was completed prior to the fall of the temple in AD 70 and I have various reasons for that not the least of which is the fact that none of them mentioned this major thing and It's a fulfillment of prophecy that Jesus gives us in Matthew.

He says not one stone will be left upon another that happened. Nobody mentions that it happened. It to me is a huge matzah ball hanging out there that nobody says anything about this but the the other reality is We we think of John and we think of him as the author.

He's not writing so much later than the other gospel writers, but he's writing later, but not 20 and 30 years later. We're looking at within a decade or so maybe 15 years not 20 or 30 years, which what does that tell us that tells us the other Gospels are Likely already circulating at that time, especially if he's aware of them and people are asking him to supplement.

What has gone out? It just tells us so much if we look at it from it from a historical perspective of what's happening. Because you know what we don't have from the first century. We don't have any other Gospels.

The Gospel of Thomas people are in the guy again. I've this professor from Yale. Oh, well, we need to look at the Gospel of Thomas. The Gospel of Thomas is a second century work at best was not written by Thomas.

It is a Gnostic work it has some of the most ridiculous. I'm probably gonna do a few podcasts on it because I've All you gotta do is listen to it. Just read it. It's some of the most ridiculous thing.

It has none of the qualities of the other four Gospels at all. It is it's basically sayings of Jesus but it's not. Some of its taken directly out of the the the four Gospels. So some of its just direct what I would say ripoff, but some of it is very obscure language.

I believe it's in the it's I know it's in one of the Apocryphal Gospels, but I think it's Thomas where Peter asks about Mary Magdalene being saved and Jesus said she has to become a man before she can be saved.

It's very weird. There's a lot of odd things in the Gospel of Thomas and It just doesn't read with the same quality of character that the other four Gospels do. In fact one of the easiest ways to just discount it.

It's just read all five read four regular Gospels, and then read this this absolute monstrosity, and you're like yeah. That ain't the same it's just it doesn't bear the qualities of historicity or Any of the you know when you read the new when you read the Gospels think of how it reads it reads like a biography and It and it's it's so expressive and so well written.

And then you get to something like the Gospel of Thomas. It's like not not not of the same quality not at all. But again we talk about the the Gospel of Thomas and and other Gospels. They do not qualify we have four Gospels that come from the first century all four of the people that wrote the Gospels had a legitimate connection to the Apostles and They all tell the same thing about Jesus from four different perspectives.

There is no reason for us to doubt that there should be and should only be the four Gospels so moving on from there. We Don't have to when we talk about purpose. I said we're gonna talk about authorship and purpose.

We don't have to wonder what John's purpose is because he tells us in John chapter 20 verse 30. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have Life in his name.

What's the purpose of John's Gospel that you will believe in Jesus? That's the purpose He tells us when the author gives you his purpose. You don't look for another. The purpose is that you would believe in him.

He has an evangelistic Purpose and this is why a lot of churches including our own in the past sometimes purchase copies of just the Gospel of John and Give them away as gospel tracts. Because this has been written that you may believe.

Somebody comes to me and they say I'm a new Christian. Where should I begin reading start with John? This has been written that you may believe now. Let us talk more about the purpose because there is more to the purpose than then.

More but not less than that. The purpose is to show that Jesus is worth believing in. This is why it begins in the beginning was the Word the Word was with God. The Word was God. He's worth believing in and John writes his gospel centered around seven public miracles of Jesus seven undone undeniable claims to divinity Within his Life that he was that he bore witness to and the seven miracles are these.

Number one is turning water into wine. That's chapter 2 verse 9. Number 2 is the healing of the noble man's son. That is chapter 4 verse 46 to 54. Number 3 is the healing of the crippled man at the pool of Bethesda.

That is chapter 5 2 to 9. Feeding of the 5 ,000 that is chapter 6 1 to 14. Number 5 the walking on the water chapter 6 verses 16 to 21. Number 6 is the healing of the blind the man blind from birth in chapter 9 verses 1 to 7 and Then the leaven is the coup de gras the raising of Lazarus in chapter 11.

If you look at the pattern of John's gospel, you'll see it centers around those seven major events in the life of Christ. All of them, of course pointing to him as divine now one could argue that there's an eighth and that's the resurrection but In keeping with John's use of The idea of sevens and we do see this because I'm going to show you another one of those in just a moment.

I think that those seven work together because all of those precede Jesus going to the cross all the Gospels share the cross the death burial and the resurrection but John tends to focus on those things and what's interesting about John's gospel is John's gospel gives us more about the life of Jesus in the sense of chronology than anyone else because Matthew Mark and Luke all together add up to about one year of Information in the life of Christ, but we believe John we believe Jesus had a three-year ministry.

Why? Because of John's gospel because John tells us that There are annual feasts and Jesus goes and deals in these feasts. So there's there's three years. How do we know because we're counting the events in John we don't see these same things in Matthew Mark and Luke so John is giving us a wider view of the life of Jesus and the ministry of Jesus and Again, he's centering it around these seven miracles.

Now along with the seven public miracles. There is also seven I am statements of Jesus. I'm gonna I know it's hard to write all these down and I and I do for the sake of time. I can't just stop and and and go too slowly.

But I'll give these to you in a way that you can write them if you'd like. He says I am the bread of life chapter 6. And he says it several times in chapter 6. I just say it's chapter 6 beginning of verse 35 Number 2.

He says I am the light of the world. That's chapter 8 and Chapter 9 I Am the door he says in chapter 10 verse 7 and verse 9. What's that brother? Okay, he says I am the Good Shepherd chapter 10 verse 11 and verse 14.

He says I am the resurrection and the life chapter 11 verse 25. He says I am the way the truth and the life chapter 16 or 14 verse 6. And he says I am the vine chapter 15 verses 1 and verse 5 so right there we have Seven statements where Jesus says I am the blank.

I am the bread of life. I am the light of the world. I am the bread come down from heaven. Why is that important? Because remember we talked about John has a high Christology, right? What's Christology the doctrine of Christ?

John's and what we're going to see when we look at the theology of John is John's entire purpose is to express the absolute uniqueness of Jesus Christ as the God-man. So he uses this phrase over and over I am This I am that I am I am I am.

Where does that come from? Who who who said I am. Well God, right. Well, we're getting there we haven't got there yet. That's John 8 58 because I'm gonna make that point too. But who is who is the first to call himself the I am Exodus right we go back to Exodus the burning bush and you have the burning bush.

Who says to Moses. Moses said who shall I say has sent me you tell him I am has sent you. Yeah, I am that I am is a reference to God and so Jesus comes along. He says I am this I am that all of that is is Linguistically tied to the concept of the I am but the most important one I would say Is in chapter 8 verse 58.

Whereas Jesus is Interacting with the Jews and he is going back and forth with him about who he truly is. He says if you if you really were of Abraham you'd believe in me. Abraham look forward to my day.

He saw it and was glad where he saw it and rejoiced and They said ha you're not even 50 years old and you're telling me Abraham. You know and have seen Abraham. And Jesus said before Abraham was I am.

I just imagine he said it just like that. It's so cool. Yeah, I mean before Abraham was I am because you got to think of the the weight of Just that statement. It's formed in such a way that it is absolutely Unquestionable.

People always say Jews never said he was God. That's not true because he said it in that verse he said before Abraham was I am. He took on the name of the divine and he expressed his own eternality. Before Abraham existed I Have always existed.

That's what the phrase I am means means I exist. You see when we say I am we always have to qualify it. I am because there's enough air. I am because I've had enough food. I am because there's enough atmosphere to keep me from floating away.

There's all these things that make me able to exist. God doesn't have that God has what's called a say it II. Say it II is the is the quality of God. That means he is absolutely self-existent and independent.

A say it II a s e I t y E I t y a say it II and It simply means the to have existence in himself. God is the one who can call things into being because he is self-existent. He doesn't have to have permission from anyone.

He doesn't have to get anyone else's approval. He doesn't have to have anyone else mark the okay on his spreadsheet. He is I am. God says and and Jesus said I am. I remember hearing years ago. I Remember who the pastor was but he said he said he said if Jesus was speaking Like he should have spoke.

He would have said before Abraham was I was. But because he said before Abraham was I am we know he's really saying something. He's using language to make his point and John is Ensuring that we understand that point.

I Do want to make mention though? Because I had this question at set free. I was talking about this. I taught on the the deity of Christ this morning at set free and the question was well. What do the other Gospels teach the deity of Christ?

Absolutely. And even the phrase I am you remember when Jesus came to the to the men in the boat? And he was walking on the water and they and they said he said fear not it is I. That's not what it says in the original language.

It's fear not I am Very important that phrase eggo Amy in the Greek is the same as it is here in and what's he doing when he says I? Am I Am walking on the water. That's a that's pretty divine. Yeah, it's a pretty big deal also Jesus in all the Gospels forgive sins.

In fact, that's why they picked up stones to stone him. That is a prerogative that is belongs to only God. And that's why they were so upset. So John is not the only gospel that gives us a divine Christ.

But he is certainly the one that goes out of his way to express the divinity of Christ in such Uncertain terms that even those two people who show up at your door on Saturday morning have to retranslate the Bible just to get away From it.

I'm talking about the Jehovah Witnesses they have to have their own translation where they add words and Reorder words so as to make Jesus not divine. There really is no question that John's Christology is one of a divine God man, Jesus Christ so Kind of got a look kind of got away from myself there because we're gonna see more that we talk about the theology of John.

But it really is this is it? The other thing we should note about John before we move away from the authorship and purpose is that John's gospel is simple. Its sentences are short. It is the it is the Greek that most students who begin Greek cut their teeth on.

Because he uses certain words over and over uses the words believe Love world sin father. All those words are used multiple times in John's gospel. Yet even with a small and repetitious vocabulary he dives deeper on certain subjects than any of the other Gospels.

And that's what we're going to look at now. We're going to look at the theology of John's gospel brother. Well, we want to ask him, but you're closer. Would you would y 'all pass those out for me and Just make sure it's a two-sided.

It's a two-sided handout, so please make sure everybody gets one sorry I Do believe numbers matter. I do not believe in numerology though. Well, that's why I was saying I think you see seven miracles we see the seven I am statements.

What is the typically? We talk about biblical numbers. There are certain numbers that have certain Weight to them number seven usually has to deal with completeness. Think about God created the world seven days, you know, they're certain.

Yeah, and so John referencing seven miracles seven I am statements. There's certain there there's I think there's something to that. Where it gets dangerous though is when people start trying to interpret the Bible Numerically, and and that's where I would say be careful.

All right, I will I'll give you a good example. Since you asked I always kind of pay attention to numbers. What was Jesus's first miracle? Turn the water into wine. I love Mark Lowry. Do you know Mark Lowry is?

Mark Lowry is a Christian singer and he's a comedian and one of the things that he says He said I love the fact that Jesus's first miracle. The only purpose it had was to keep the party going and I thought that was kind of funny.

Is it really just it just you know? Me it's not my turn yet. But I want you to consider the enormous weight of the first miracle of Jesus Recorded in John's gospel. We know it's the first miracle because it says This was the first miracle, right?

John tells us it's not like we have to guess. Doesn't necessarily mean it was the first miracle he'd ever done because it seems like his mom knew he could do it. Which is interesting. But in regard to his ministry, this was the miracle that sort of kicked off The ministry and began and what what what do we see there?

We see Jesus create Something from nothing. Now bear with me because some of you're gonna say he didn't create something from nothing. He turned water into wine. Yes but wine Has within it Elements that are not in water wine has Elements that are not present in water.

So therefore when Jesus Turns the water into wine He is adding elements to the water because wine is mostly water it's just got certain elements that are not in water. He adds the elements that were not there by the power of his own Ability to do a miracle and I want and again numbers.

This is why I'm saying this because you reminded me. How many water pots were there. Three? Six six water pots. Look it up. It's John chapter 20. How much did it hold three? No, not about that. I want you to think that's okay.

Six Water pots. Jesus create something from nothing in six days. God created the whole world out of nothing. So there is some there is some I think there's some connection there as Jesus Identifying his divinity again.

I'm not. I'm not. I'm not diving into numerology. I'm just saying if we see something Where Jesus is doing something miraculous and he's he's identifying himself in a certain way. And there's a connection.

I think the connection between the miracle of the water and the wine is a connection to his divinity. I don't know. I don't want to get too far into it. Like I said, and we got a lot of other stuff to do.

Yeah. All right. So You have your handouts? Please turn to the Theological propositions in John's gospel. As I said another surveyor Might do this quite differently. So I'm giving you my survey of John's gospel in regard to the theological propositions that I would think We should recognize and of course, I am certainly bent towards reformed theology.

So you'll notice that I certainly didn't get away from the total depravity there number four or election number five. But the first thing that John's gospel teaches us primarily is the divinity of Christ.

Now I have spent many many sessions teaching on John 1 1. In the beginning was the Word. The Word was with God and the Word was God. And I don't we could break the Greek down, but that's that's really too much for this class.

The the the part that I think really is overlooked though is because number verse 1 is so clear. He is with God and he is God that that expresses what we believe about the Trinity that God is one in essence and three in Person therefore we can refer to his nature and to his person as being distinct.

I think John 1 1 allows for that but then it says he was in the beginning with God and all things were made through him and Without him was not anything made that was made. Jesus is not only present in Creation he is active in creation.

He is the agent of Creation. All things were created through him. Now you look down to verse 14 verse 14 should never be overlooked. It says and the word became flesh and dwelt among us that were dwelt.

There's the word for tabernacle. That's an important side note. Jesus tabernacled among us. There are certain things you can do with the looking back at the Feast of Tabernacles and what that represented and all those things.

But ultimately it says we have seen his glory. Glory is the only Son from the Father full of grace and truth. So if anybody ever says well John 1 1 isn't about Jesus. Well, John 1 14 proves that it is about Jesus.