of Jesus (cf. Acts 10:37; 13:24–25). But the first five verses of the Gospel of John reach back to an earlier beginning, the same “beginning” spoken of in Genesis 1:1, when “God created the heavens and the earth.” The refrain of Genesis (“And God said … and God said …”) finds its equivalent in the prologue’s designation, the Word (cf. Ps. 33:6: “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth”). The purpose of the Gospel writer is to place the story of
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