“In the beginning was the Word.” But what beginning? At creation? When light came and the chaos became cosmos? No, not that beginning, although John’s phrase surely comes from the Genesis account. There are words throughout the prologue that recall the creation event—life, light, darkness. But John reaches back further and plunges deeper than the beginning of created existence. He is speaking of a new creation, of what God has done in His new dispensation, of salvation history, asking, “When did