PROLOGUE II

 In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God. (Genesis 1:1-5) (Job 28:12-27) He was with God in the beginning. (Proverbs 8:22-31) Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him. (Psalm 33:8-9) (Wisdom 9:1-4) (Ecclesiasticus / Sirach 42:15) What has come into being in him was life, life that was the light of men; and light shines in darkness, and darkness could not overpower it. (Wisdom 7:29-30)

A man came, sent by God. His name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness to the light, so that everyone might believe through him. He was not the light; he was to bear witness to the light.

The Word was the real light that gives light to everyone; he was coming into the world. He was in the world that had come into being through him, and the world did not recognize him. He came to his own and his own people did not accept him. However, to those who did accept him he gave power to become children of God, to those who believed in his name who were born not from human stock or human desire or human will but from God himself.

The Word became flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that he has from the Father as only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth. (Exodus 16:10; 24:17; 25:8) (Ecclesiasticus / Sirach 24:4-8) (Isaiah 60:1) (Ezekiel 43:7)

John witnesses to him. He proclaims, “It was of him that I said, 'Behind me comes one who has passed ahead of me because he existed before me.'” (John 1:30)

Indeed, from his fullness we have, all of us, received -- one gift replacing another, for the Law was given through Moses, (Exodus 31:18; 34:28) grace and truth have come through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; (Exodus 33:20-23) (Judges 13:21-22) it is the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known. Return