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John 1:14
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".
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", 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".
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).
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". 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.
'Dwelt among us' (literally 'put up his tent among us') is used in Wisdom of Sirach 24:10. The Greek word for 'dwelt' (ἐσκήνωσεν; "eskēnōsen") also means "tabernacled, sojourned", with a similar sound to "Shekhînah", a term 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 identify the Shekhînah with the "Memra" or "Word". The presence of the Word in the flesh replaces the Second Temple which replaced the tabernacle as a dwelling place for God, to represent God's Wisdom in Israel. The first-person ‘we’ refers to the individuals Jesus lived with, implying that the narrator witnessed Jesus in the flesh.
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John 1:14
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".
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", 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".
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).
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". 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.
'Dwelt among us' (literally 'put up his tent among us') is used in Wisdom of Sirach 24:10. The Greek word for 'dwelt' (ἐσκήνωσεν; "eskēnōsen") also means "tabernacled, sojourned", with a similar sound to "Shekhînah", a term 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 identify the Shekhînah with the "Memra" or "Word". The presence of the Word in the flesh replaces the Second Temple which replaced the tabernacle as a dwelling place for God, to represent God's Wisdom in Israel. The first-person ‘we’ refers to the individuals Jesus lived with, implying that the narrator witnessed Jesus in the flesh.