Commentary on the Johannine prologue

Theology Today, Apr 2003 by Newman, Barbara

His name was John because the works he did accorded with his name: The grace of God strengthened him before and behind. For the grace of the Word, which is God, sent John without the moral instability that abounds in the fickle habits of people who are born in sin. For this reason, he had a certain stability like the righteousness of angelic spirits, who neither share the moral instability of humans nor have any desire to sin. God, who is marvelous, created in the belly a likeness of the miracles that he worked in John. For the belly abstracts the vital forces of the created things that it takes in and ejects, so that it might be nourished by their juices as God ordained. In all creatures-animals, reptiles, birds and fish, herbs and fruit trees-there lurk certain hidden mysteries of God that neither man nor any other creature knows or perceives, except insofar as God grants them this knowledge. But John was marvelously sent to the elements and marvelously fed by them, and just as he was abstracted in a way from the habit of sin, so too, through his abstinence, he marvelously lived off the elements. And as a pure man, he was a worthy and praiseworthy messenger before the hidden Son of God, by whom the world was established with its numberless beings, and all creatures were created. This too is designated by the belly, for just as the world contains all things, the belly takes all creatures into itself in digestion. And just as all creation came forth from God, so Adam carried in his own form all the human beings whom the Son of God fed with true nourishment when he carried man in his own humanity.

He came for testimony to bear witness to the light, that all might believe through him. For John-a marvelous man, miraculously made in marvelous ways beyond the norm of carnal birth-came by divine dispensation to give testimony concerning the mysteries of God, so that he might bear witness to the light, that is, to God, from whom all lights are kindled. Through the mighty works accomplished in John, all who were on fire with the Holy Spirit could believe in God through the testimonies he marvelously uttered. Therefore, he came bearing witness to divinity clothed in human form. And, as he himself was born of an arid nature with no viridity of its own, he proclaimed my Son to be born without sin of the Virgin Mary. This is what I willed, so that, by the miracle I worked in John, people might believe in the miracles of my Son. And just as this witness appeared in John, a true witness is declared in the thighs, which witness all births and propagate the entire body, which sees, touches, thinks, and chooses, and in its knowledge takes account of all it does. For man is a miracle of God; therefore, it is right for him to bear witness to the marvels of God.

He was not that light, but came to bear witness to the light. For John was not the light that is never divided or altered: That light is God. Sent by God, however, he came to bear witness concerning the true light that kindles all lights. For God exists in and through himself, with no lack or need of any kind, since it is he who would accomplish all in all. So he is present in every work of his making. Therefore, John testified and bore witness concerning Christ, for just as the fruit bears witness to the quality of the root, he arose amid the marvels of God and bore witness to them.