The Logos

John 1:1-5 (Part I)
I. Background Material
A. Author and Date
1. The book is technically an

work.
2. The context, and early church history makes it clear the book was written by the

John.
3. John uses the moniker “the disciple whom

loved”.
4. John is also the only disciple who was not

; he lived well into the 90’s AD.
5. This book was written in the latter part of the

AD.
B. Relation to the Synoptics
1. The church eventually recognized four of these reports of the life of Jesus as

.
2. Three of the four gospels are called the “

Gospels”: Matthew, Mark and Luke.
3. John does not use many of these stories, and has ones not

in the Synoptics.
C. Purpose
1. John wrote to serve the needs of the

.
2. John spent much of his later years serving in

leading a large community of followers helping start new churches.
D. Historical Background
1. Old Testament and

Judaism.
2. Qumran
3. Jewish

4. Philo and

Judaism
5. Gnosticism
II. Word = Jesus
A. Philo personified the Greek word,

, to carry the meaning that was often attributed to a personified Divine Wisdom.
B.

was thought amoung Jews to be the power of creation.
C. John takes that idea of Logos and applies it to

Will you accept His offer of life?