John 1:1-18 - It's Chiasmic!

We will do a verse by verse study of the chapter, but before doing that it worth looking at the overall structure of the prologue. For it has a chiasmic structure (Kruse). This structure is often used in the Bible, especially in the Old Testament. The general structure is of the form:

A

B

C

D

C’

B’

A’

The A and A’ etc correspond to each other, and the central idea is the middle of the chiasm, ie D in the example structure above (D may also have a parallel, D’). So the general idea is that:

• Ideas are expressed in reverse
• The central idea is the middle one.

There is an interesting web site on this here. So how does this apply to 1:1-18? Well Kruse identifies the structure as:

A 1:1-5

B 1:6-8

C 1:9-11

D 1:12,13

C’ 1:14

B’’ 1:15

A’ 1:16-18

So how does the structure work? Well, A speaks of the Word being in intimate relationship with God, and A’ tells of the Word being in close relationship with the Father. Both B and B’ tell of John the Baptist bearing witness to the Lord. C speaks of the light coming into the world and C’ of the Word becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us. The centre of all this is D where it says that those who believed in Jesus received the right to become children of God, to be born of God. Remember this is John’s primary purpose in writing his gospel 20:31. The outer elements of the chiasma build up to this. Perhaps most important is the outer one, the relationship between the Son and the Father. Part of the message of John is that we can have the same relationship with the Father and the Son. Eg in 17:22 Jesus prays that we may be one as they are one. In John 20:17 Jesus says “my Father and your Father”. 14:17 speaks of the Holy Spirit dwelling within us. Looking at the Father-Son relationship in terms of it demonstrating the divinity of Jesus and in trinitarian terms is important, but if that is all we do we are missing the key point that John is making. The relationship between the Father and the Son is a model of the relationship we should look to have with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, an intimate relationship. Item C of the chiasma is concerned with the Word becoming flesh and dwelling amongst us, emphasising the closeness of the relationship. We do not worship a far away God, but one who wants to have a relationship with us. The B parts of the chiasma are emphasising what John the Baptist was really about. Remember the Ephesian dozen (Acts 19) who had “only received John’s baptism”. It seems as though there may have been some who misunderstood the importance of John the Baptist, so John is emphasising that his ministry was all about pointing towards Jesus.