Texts in Conversation
John says that the world was made through the Logos but did not recognize him, echoing Jewish wisdom traditions such as Sirach, where wisdom is described as abundant and beyond human grasp, but never fully known.
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Sirach 24:28
Ben Sira, Ecclesiasticus
Deuterocanon
25 It is he who makes wisdom abundant, as Pishon, and as Tigris in the days of first fruits. 26 He makes understanding full as the Euphrates, and as the Jordan in the days of harvest, 27 who makes instruction shine forth as the light, as Gihon in the days of vintage. 28 The first man didn’t know her perfectly. In like manner, the last has not explored her. 29 For her thoughts are filled from the sea, and her counsels from the great deep. 30 I came out as a canal stream from a river, and as an irrigation ditch into a garden. 31 I said, “I will water my garden, and will drench my garden bed.” Behold, my stream became a river, and my river became a sea.
Date: 195–180 BCE (based on scholarly estimates)
John 1:10
New Testament
8 He himself was not the light, but he came to testify about the light. 9 The true light, who gives light to everyone, was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him. 12 But to all who have received him—those who believe in his name—he has given the right to become God’s children—
Date: 90–110 CE (based on scholarly estimates)
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Notes and References
"... Verses 10–11 again strengthen the connection with the creation established in verses 1–5 when it is confirmed that the world is made “through” the Logos. But now this is used as a contrast to the fact that the world did not recognize the Logos. Here the prologue again adopts aspects of the Early Jewish Wisdom discourse: Wisdom was given into the world or even came to dwell within Israel, but it also experienced rejection or nonrecognition. (Compare Proverbs 1:20–27; Sirach 24:28–29 and, in an apocalyptic framework, 1 Enoch 42:1–2) Thus, verses 10–11 could easily be read as a modification of the Wisdom tradition, which is now expressed by reference to the λόγος: as Wisdom was said to rule over the whole world (Sirach 24:6), it is now stated for the λόγος, and as rejection was experienced by Sophia, the λόγος is now rejected by “his own,” which is, in the present context, most probably “a reference to Israel’s role.” In the body of the gospel, this is matched by the rejection of Jesus by his contemporaries in John 2–12 while his non-recognition by the world is particularly mirrored in the farewell discourses where the world is the predominant opponent, not the “Jews.” ..."
Jörg Frey, “Between Torah and Stoa: 'How Could Readers Have Understood the Johannine Logos?',” in The Prologue of the Gospel of John: Its Literary, Theological, and Philosophical Contexts. Papers Read at the Colloquium Ioanneum 2013, ed. Jan G. Van der Watt, R. Alan Culpepper, and Udo Schnelle (Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016), 189–234.
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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