The Word Became Flesh

1 aIn the beginning was bthe Word, and cthe Word was with God, and dthe Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 eAll things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. 4 fIn him was life,1 and gthe life was the light of men. 5 hThe light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

6 There was a man isent from God, whose name was jJohn. 7He came as a kwitness, to bear witness about the light, lthat all might believe through him. 8 mHe was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

9 nThe true light, which gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet othe world did not know him. 11 He came to phis own,2 and qhis own people3 rdid not receive him. 12 But to all who did receive him, swho believed in his name, the gave the right uto become vchildren of God, 13 who wwere born, xnot of blood ynor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

14 And zthe Word abecame flesh and bdwelt among us, cand we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son4 from the Father, full of dgrace and etruth. 15 (fJohn bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, g‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’ ”) 16 For from hhis fullness we have all received, igrace upon grace.5 17 For jthe law was given through Moses; kgrace and truth came through Jesus Christ. 18 lNo one has ever seen God; mthe only God,6 who is at the Father’s side,7 nhe has made him known.

The Testimony of John the Baptist

19 And this is the otestimony of John, when the Jews sent priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, p“Who are you?” 20 qHe confessed, and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 And they asked him, “What then? rAre you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you sthe Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 So they said to him, “Who are you? We need to give an answer to those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am tthe voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘Make straight8 the way of the Lord,’ as the prophet Isaiah said.”

24 (Now they had been sent from the Pharisees.) 25 They asked him, u“Then why are you baptizing, if you are neither the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them, v“I baptize with water, but among you stands one you do not know, 27 even whe who comes after me, the strap of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany across the Jordan, where John was baptizing.

Behold, the Lamb of God

29 The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him, and said, “Behold, xthe Lamb of God, who ytakes away the sin zof the world! 30 This is he of whom I said, a‘After me comes a man who ranks before me, because he was before me.’ 31 I myself did not know him, but bfor this purpose I came baptizing with water, that he might be revealed to Israel.” 32 And John cbore witness: d“I saw the Spirit descend from heaven like a dove, and eit remained on him. 33 I myself did not know him, but fhe who sent me to baptize gwith water said to me, ‘He on whom you see the Spirit descend and remain, hthis is he who baptizes gwith the Holy Spirit.’ 34 And I have seen and have borne witness that this is the Son9 of God.”

Jesus Calls the First Disciples

35 The next day again John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, ithe Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, j“What are you seeking?” And they said to him, k“Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.10 40 lOne of the two who heard John speak and followed Jesus11 was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon and said to him, “We have found mthe Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, “You are Simon the son of nJohn. You shall be called oCephas” (which means pPeter12).

Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael

43 qThe next day Jesus decided rto go to Galilee. He found Philip and said to him, “Follow me.” 44 Now sPhilip was from Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter. 45 Philip found tNathanael and said to him, “We have found him of whom uMoses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus vof Nazareth, wthe son of Joseph.” 46 Nathanael said to him, x“Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” 47 Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Behold, yan Israelite indeed, zin whom there is no deceit!” 48 Nathanael said to him, “How ado you know me?” Jesus answered him, “Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.” 49 Nathanael answered him, b“Rabbi, cyou are the Son of God! You are the dKing of Israel!” 50 Jesus answered him, “Because I said to you, ‘I saw you under the fig tree,’ do you believe? You will see greater things than these.” 51 And he said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you,13 you will see eheaven opened, and fthe angels of God ascending and descending on gthe Son of Man.”

Bibliography

Ahlström, Gösta W. Royal Administration and National Religion in Ancient Palestine. Leiden: Brill, 1982.

Albright, William F. “The High-Place in Ancient Palestine.” Pages 242–58 in Supplements to Vetus Testamentum 4. Leiden: Brill, 1957.

———. “The Moabite Stone.” Pages 287–88 in The Ancient Near East: An Anthology of Texts & Pictures. Edited by James B. Pritchard. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 2011.

Arreola, Daniel D. “Mexican American Housescapes.” Geographical Review 78 (1998): 299–315.

Barrick, W. Boyd. “What Do We Really Know about “High Places’?” SEA 45 (1980): 50–57.

———. “The Bamoth of Moab.” Maarav 7 (1991): 67–89.

———. “On the Meaning of Beth-Ha~Bamoth and Bate-Habamoth and the Composition of the Kings History.” Journal of Biblical Literature 115, no. 4 (Winter 1996): 621–42.

Biran, Avraham. “To the God Who Is In Dan.” Pages 142–51 in Temples and High Places in Biblical Times. Proceedings of the Colloquium in Honor of the Centennial of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Edited by Avraham Biran. Jerusalem: The Nelson Glueck School of Biblical Archaeology of Hebrew Union College, 1977.

———. “Dan.” Pages 323–32 in vol. 1 of New Encyclopedia of Archaeological Excavations in the Holy Land. Edited by Ephraim Stern. Jerusalem: Society for the Study of the Land of Israel and Her Antiquities, 1992.

———. Biblical Dan. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society, 1994.

———. “The High Places of Biblical Dan.” Pages 148–55 in Studies in the Archaeology of the Iron Age in Israel and Jordan. Edited by Amihai Mazar. Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press, 2001.

Bolle, Kees W. “Altar, Historical Background.” Pages 343–44 in vol. 1 of New Catholic Encyclopedia. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 2003.

Brown, Francis, Samuel R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs. Hebrew and English Lexicon With An Appendix Containing the Biblical Aramaic. Peabody, Mass.: Hendrickson, 1996.

Bowker, John. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000.

Brandon, Samuel G. F. “Altar.” Pages 62–63 in Dictionary of Comparative Religion. Edited by Samuel G. F. Brandon. New York: Scribner, 1970.

Carroll, Robert P. Jeremiah: A Commentary. Old Testament Library. London: SCM, 1986.

Day, John. “Asherah in the Hebrew Bible and Northwest Semitic Literature.” Journal of Biblical Literature 105 (1986): 385–408.

De Vaux, Roland. Ancient Israel: Its Life and Institutions. Translated by John McHugh. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1997.

Dearman, John Andrew. “Historical Reconstruction.” Pages 155–210 in Studies in the Mesha Inscription and Moab. Edited by John Andrew Dearman. Atlanta: Scholars Press, 1989.

Dever, William G. “The Silence of the Text: An Archaeological Commentary on 2 Kings 23.” Pages 143–68 in Scripture and Other Artifacts: Essays on the Bible and Archaeology in Honor of Philip J. King. Edited by Michael D. Coogan, J. C. Exum, and Lawrence E. Stager. Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 1994.

Edelman, Diana. “Hezekiah’s Alleged Cultic Centralization.” Journal for the Study of the Old Testament 32, no. 4 (2008): 395–434.

Emerton, John A. “’The High Places of the Gates’ in 2 Kings XXIII 8.” Vetus Testamentum 44, no. 4 (1994): 455–67.

Freedman, David Noel. “Temples and High Places in Israel.” Biblical Archaeology 40, no. 2 (May 1977): 46–91.

Fried, Lisbeth S. “The High Places (Bāmôt) and the Reforms of Hezekiah and Josiah: An Archaeological Investigation.” Journal of the American Oriental Society 122, no. 3 (July 2002): 437–65.

Gleis, Matthias. Die Bamah. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 1997.

Gutiérrez, Ramón A. Home Altars of Mexico. Albuquerque, N.M.: University of New Mexico Press, 1997.

Haran, Menahem. Temples and Temple Service in Ancient Israel: An Inquiry into the Character of Cult Phenomena and the Historical Setting of the Priestly School. Oxford: Clarendon, 1978.

Hardy, Humphrey Hill II, and Benjamin D. Thomas. “Another Look at Biblical Hebrew bama ‘High Place.’ ” Vetus Testamentum 62, no. 2 (2012): 175–88.

King, Philip J., and Lawrence E. Stager. Life in Biblical Israel. Louisville, KY.: Westminster John Knox, 2001.

LaRocca-Pitts, Elizabeth C. “Of Wood and Stone”: The Significance of Israelite Cultic Items in the Bible and Its Early Interpreters. Winona Lake, Ind.: Eisenbrauns, 2001.

Macalister, Robert A. S. The Excavation of Gezer: 1902–1905 and 1907–1909. Vol. 2. London: John Murray, 1912.

Meyers, Carol L. “The Israelite Empire: In Defense of King Solomon.” Michigan Quarterly Review 22 (1983): 412–28.

McCown, Chester Charlton. “Hebrew High Places and Cult Remains.” Journal of Biblical Literature 69, no. 3 (Summer 1950): 205–19.

Na‘aman, Nadav. “The Debated Historicity of Hezekiah’s Reform in the Light of Historical and Archaeological Research.” ZAW 107, no. 2 (1995): 179–95.

Nakhai, Beth Alpert. Archaeology and the Religions of Canaan and Israel. Boston: American Schools of Oriental Research, 2001.

Paul, Shalom M. Amos. Edited by Frank M. Cross. Hermeneia. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991.

Redmon, R. X. “Altar, In the Liturgy.” Pages 347–51 in vol. 1 of New Catholic Encyclopedia. Washington, D.C.: Catholic University of America, 2003.

Schunck, K.-D. “בָּמָה (bamah) bāmāh.” Pages 139–45 in vol. 2 of TDOT. Edited by G. Johannes Botter Weck and Helmer Ringgren. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1975.

Seow, Choon-Leong. The First and Second Books of Kings. New Interpreter’s Bible 3. Nashville: Abingdon, 1999.

Stump, Roger W. The Geography of Religion: Faith, Place, and Space. Lanham, Md.: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 2008.

Sweeney, Marvin A. I & II Kings: A Commentary. Old Testament Library. Louisville, KY.: Westminster John Knox, 2007.

Vaughan, Patrick H. The Meaning of “Bāmā” in the Old Testament: A Study of Etymological, Textual and Archaeological Evidence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1974.

Wellhausen, Julius. Prolegomena to the History of Ancient Israel. Edinburgh: A & C Black, 1885. Repr., New York: Meridian Books, 1957.

Wright, George R. H. “Pre-Israelite temples in the land of Canaan.” Palestine Exploration Quarterly 103, no. 1 (1971): 17–32.

Zevit, Ziony. The Religions of Ancient Israel: A Synthesis of Parallactic Approaches. London: Continuum, 2001.

Sun Hee Kim

High Priest The chief or head priest at a location of worship. In the Bible, this most commonly refers to the high priest of Yahweh in ancient Israelite worship.

High Priests in the Old Testament

In the Old Testament, the primary purpose of the high priest was to serve as a representative and mediator between the people and Yahweh. The office was established with Aaron, the brother of Moses, and high priests were the head priest first at the tabernacle and then later at the temple. Zadok served as high priest in the temple during the reign of Solomon.

The high priest served several purposes that were crucial to Israelite worship. It was the high priest’s responsibility to see that the covenant was enforced, and to direct people to complete the duties of the temple and the law of Moses. As the representative for the nation of Israel, the high priest had a tremendous responsibility to direct the hearts of the people toward God and the fulfillment of the covenant. Some of the primary responsibilities of the high priest were the regular handling of sacrifices and offerings, the blessing of people, and the annual entrance into the most holy place within the tabernacle/temple during the Day of Atonement. Many of the duties, actions, and even the unique style of dress that was required of the high priest were symbolic.

The office and responsibilities of the high priest were often familial (Lev 16:32; Exod 29:29). Generally, the office of high priest was assumed by the son of the current high priest when he was either no longer able to fulfill his duties, or upon his death. The primary way in which a high priest was evaluated in Scripture was in terms of their love for and loyalty to Yahweh and the zeal with which they held to the observation of the covenant.

Throughout the Old Testament, there is a foreshadowing and forward-reaching hope of a more perfect high priesthood that can represent Yahweh effectively and be a sufficient mediator for the people of Israel. The cyclical pattern of the lives of good and poor high priests makes it clear that no human being can fully perform this responsibility.