Wisdom in John’s Gospel Part 1 (of 8)
Submitted by Debbie’s Dad
The LORD possessed me [wisdom] at the beginning of His way, Before His works of old. From everlasting I was established, From the beginning, from the earliest times of the earth. (Proverbs 8:22–23)
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men. The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. (John 1:1-5 NASB 95)
In a series of studies, we will examine the wonderful ways in which wisdom is introduced in the Gospel according to John.
The word wisdom (Greek sophia) is not used explicitly in John’s Gospel, yet we will see that the concept of wisdom–revering and acknowledging God and His ways–is a major element of the Gospel. Bible scholars use the work motif to refer to a prominent idea or theme that is presented in Scripture. In the Old Testament, Hebrew and Christian scholars alike recognize the motif of wisdom in several books that often described as the “Wisdom Literature”. The books include Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and portions of the Psalms and the prophets.
We first recognize the Wisdom of God – the attribute by which He knows all things and created all that exists (Prov. 3:19; Psalm 104:24). This differs from the wisdom that God invites us to recognize and follow that we may walk in God’s ways. This walk begins with the fear of the Lord (Proverbs 1:7; 9:10; 15:33; Job 28:28 and Psalm 111:10). In a sense, wisdom is an attribute that God “shares” with those who follow Him and would desire to become like Him.
We will see, in the successive parts of this series, that the Old Testament wisdom motif is also found in John’s Gospel, as God:
- Reveals Himself as the everlasting Creator
- Becomes personified and calls out to men and women, inviting them to follow
- Instructs in the way of righteousness and warns of the fate of rejection
- Introduces men to God’s ways
In John’s Gospel, Wisdom (Sophia) has become the Word (Greek Logos) is the Word has become “flesh”, personified in Jesus, the Son of God in human form, a son of man.
We can summarize and compare these four aspects of wisdom presented in the prominent wisdom passages of the Old Testament with the presentation of the same concepts in John’s Gospel in the table below. [1]
In the following parts, we step through the Book of John, detailing the aspects of wisdom personified in the life of Jesus Christ, the Word—the Wisdom of God.
[1] This table is based on an excellent paper on this subject: Henry R. Moeller, Wisdom Motifs and John’s Gospel – Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, JETS 06:3 (Summer 1963), pp. 92-100.