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| Decoding the Gospel of John* - Download PDF ArticleOur Heavenly Father thinks very highly of us, so much so that some of his writings are written in code. These writings are for those who will humbly put forth the time and the energy to unlock his divine messages; for those who will bow their knees to the Father, asking him to open their eyes and heart to these hidden truths; for those who do not seek to please men or to be exalted by men but rather they seek to know him with a knowledge that he alone can give in order that they may be filled unto all the fullness of Yahweh. As a whole, the truths in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke are not in code but rather these books present truths that all can eat and digest; a deciphering code book is not necessary for these books. In contrast, the Gospel of John does not begin with lineage or with John the Immerser or with a prologue but with, a puzzle; “Originally, was, the Word, and, the Word, was, with Yahweh; and, the Word, was, Yahweh.” This first statement is our introduction into an appearingly, surreal book that if you do not have the code you will get lost. This article will cover John 1:1 to 1:18, a section of scripture that has, over the centuries, produced countless misconceptions because the travelers did not have or did not seek the code book which unlocks these scriptures. The Pharisee, Nicodemus, a teacher of the Jews was a traveler and a guide to those who were lost. He, believing that he was on the right road was actually lost on his pilgrimage to Yahweh. The code book, which was in his possession, was not being used but rather he used maps produced by men, which is why he and those that were following him were lost. Yahshua said unto Nicodemus, “…Except one be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of Yahweh” (Jn. 3:3). Nicodemus answered, “How, can a man be born, when he is, old?” Yahshua said, “…Art, thou, the teacher of Israel, and, these things, knowest not” (Jn. 3:10)? Nicodemus believed that he could see but his encounter with Yahshua revealed to him that he was actually blind. Yahshua could have spoken the truths clearly to Nicodemus but he rather was instructed by his Father to speak to him in code. Did Yahshua explain his words to Nicodemus? No! Nicodemus probably walked away from Yahshua more confused than when he came. Where did he go? Back to his friends who were Pharisees; the blind who were leading the blind. He chose them over following Yahshua because he would be excommunicated from the Synagogue. This is a choice that we all must make. To have our eyes opened up to the hidden truths, we must come on bended knees to our Father and to our Lord asking them to open our understanding. Our Lord will then say, “…Unto you, hath it been given, to get to know the sacred secrets of the kingdom of Yahweh; but, unto the rest, in parables,––in order that, seeing, they may not see, and, hearing, they may not understand” (Lk. 8:10). Why did Nicodemus and Saul, who was later called Paul, not understand Yahshua? They were not immersed in the code book, which is the Word of Yahweh. They chose rather to immerse themselves in the teachings of men in order that they would be received of religious men. They believed they knew the Word of Yahweh but when the Word of Yahweh came in the flesh and spoke to them, they rejected it. The Word of Yahweh is not necessarily what the Church teaches but rather it is the Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek text that came from the mouth of Yahweh through the prophets. The only English translation of the Hebrew and Greek text, which I have seen to date, that could be called the next best thing to the Word of Yahweh is the Rotherham’s Emphasized Bible. It was not translated to please religious men as other versions have done. An example of what I am speaking of is illustrated in the translation of John 1:2:
The pronoun ‘He’ is not in the Greek text. The Amplified Bible takes the liberty of inserting, ‘Christ,’ in John 1:1; “In the beginning <before all time> was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.” These translators no longer submit themselves to the Hebrew and Greek text, but rather propagate false doctrines by their incorrect translations. Submission to the whole Word of Yahweh (the code book) is absolutely imperative when attempting to unlock the codes of the Gospel of John. The Gospel of John is not the first book in the word of Yahweh, as many has held it to be; it does not require all other books to be reconciled to it but on the contrary, it must be reconciled to the other sixty-five books. (For more information on the Gospel of John, read the article, “The Gospel of John is an Enigma.”) Hebrew & Greek Grammar Personification
To illustrate the point of personification, you may replace the words underlined above with a proper name, such as Sally, and the continuity of the sentence is not broken:
Yahweh, in many cases, has personified the phrase, ‘the word of Yahweh.’ When Yahweh personifies, ’the word of Yahweh,’ it appears that ‘the word of Yahweh’ is a person that has power and an existence apart from Yahweh as is illustrated in 1 Sa. 15:10-11: “Then came the word of Yahweh unto Samuel, saying––I am grieved that I made Saul to be king…” The word of Yahweh came, which is motion and spoke, which is speech, to Samuel and said that ‘I (as a person) am grieved (a human emotion).’ The personification of this verse paints a beautiful picture of Yahweh contacting his prophet Samuel. Personification instructs us that ‘the word of Yahweh,’ is not a being or deity working for Yahweh as a messenger; neither is the ground a female that can open up her mouth. Gender A noun is a word used to name a person, animal, place, thing, and abstract idea. A pronoun, such as he, she or it is a substitute for a noun. If a noun is masculine then the pronoun must also be masculine. The Greek word, ‘logos,’ which is translated, ‘word,’ in John 1:1 is a noun that is used 330 times in the New Testament and its gender is always masculine. Logos is not a person but a thing or abstract idea, which would make its gender neuter in the English language; the pronoun, in English, would be, ‘it.’ Since logos’s gender is masculine in Greek, all pronouns associated with the usage of logos must also be masculine (he, him) even though the pronoun ‘he’ does not refer to a person but rather to a masculine noun, which may be a concrete object or abstract idea. This rule will be demonstrated in Revelations 12:16; “And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the river which the dragon cast out of his mouth.” The Greek word translated earth is ‘ge,’ whose gender is feminine. The pronoun used for the earth (ge) must also be feminine, which is ‘her.’ The Greek word that is translated ‘her’ is ‘autos,’ which is feminine in this verse. The KJV and Rheims Bible translations translate the gender correctly but the newer translations change the gender from feminine to neuter. These newer translations can not be trusted in translating the Hebrew and Greek language accurately. Bible translations and teachers of the Bible should be instructing people on how the gender of the Hebrew and Greek language differ from the English language. Another example of translations changing the gender of pronouns is displayed in John 14:17; “The spirit of truth,––which, the world, cannot receive, because it beholdeth it [autos] not, nor getteth to know it [autos]. But, ye, are getting to know it [autos]; because, with you, it abideth, and, in you, it is.” The Greek word translated ‘spirit,’ is ‘pneuma,’ whose gender is neuter. The gender of the pronoun, ‘autos,’ in all three of its usages in this verse are neuter and not masculine, as the other translators have translated it. The translators, by changing the gender of the pronoun from neuter to masculine have falsely taught their English readers that, ‘spirit,’ in this verse, is a he, a person. English readers are ignorant concerning gender usage in other languages thereby believing, “masculine ↔ man and feminine ↔ woman.” The lesson to be learned is that a neuter pronoun, ‘it,’ in the Greek, may be a person as in the case of Matthew 2:11; “And, taking a child (paidion (neuter)), he set it (autos) in the midst of them;” the masculine pronoun, ‘he,’ in the Greek, may be a thing or abstract idea as in the case of John 1:1-3; “Originally, was, the word (logos (masculine))…All things, through him (autos), came into existence…” and the feminine pronoun, ‘she,’ in the Greek, may also be a thing or abstract idea as in 1 Cor. 13:4-5; “Love (agape (feminine))… seeketh not her (heautou) own things…” I have presented some additional example of personification and gender usage in the Hebrew and Greek text to illustrate these truths:
The Father and Son relationship is the foundation upon which the Gospel of John is built. Yahshua is not Yahweh but rather he is the image of Yahweh. Yahweh has a throne as does Yahshua. Yahweh is known as the, ‘Rock,’ in the Old Testament, while his Son becomes the ‘Rock,’ in the New Testament. Yahweh was the ‘Way,’ in the Old Testament, while Yahshua becomes the ‘Way’ in the New Testament. Yahweh is also ‘the word of Yahweh,’ while the Son, after his birth, takes on his Father’s nature by becoming, ‘the word of Yahweh in the flesh.’ Before the birth of his Son, Yahweh spoke his word to the people by the prophets but after the birth of his Son, Yahweh spoke his word to the people through his Son. His Son, the ascended Christ, as the word of Yahweh, then spoke the words of his Father (The Seven Church Epistles) to the Apostle Paul. 1 Corinthians 15:27-28 unveils this Father and Son relationship. Yahweh put, all things, in subjection under Yahshua’s feet. But, whensoever it shall be said––all things are in subjection!––it is evident that it means,––Except Yahweh who did put into subjection, unto Yahshua, the all things–– But whensoever have been put into subjection, unto Yahshua, the all things (the last enemy death, vs. 26, Rev. 20:14), then, Yahshua himself, shall be put in subjection unto Yahweh who put in subjection, unto Yahshua, the all things,––that, Yahweh, may be, all things in all (1 Cor. 15:27-28). The Father and his Son The Word We will begin our study by examining a foundational pillar of the Gospel of John, which is ‘the word of Yahweh.’ The term, ‘the word,’ was used three times in John 1:1. The Greek word translated into English as, ‘word,’ is ‘logos,’ which is a translation of the Hebrew word, ‘dabar.’ To understand what ‘the word’ is referring to we must go to the Old Testament and study dabar. “In any language the words which represent the basic verb for speaking and the noun for ‘word’ cannot but be of supreme importance. The verb dabar and the noun dabar have these important spots in the Hebrew Bible…These two words occur more than 2500 times in the Old Testament, the noun more than 1400 times and the verb more than 1100… A most important declaration, which is reiterated over and over again (about 400 times), in the Old Testament use of dabar, is that Yahweh ‘spoke.’ The Pentateuch is loaded with such statements such as ‘Yahweh said,’ ‘Yahweh promised’ and ‘Yahweh commanded,’ all translations of dabar. Yahweh’s spokesmen are often challenged as Moses was challenged by Miriam and Aaron saying, ‘Hath Yahweh indeed spoken only by Moses’ (Nu. 12:2)? But Yahweh always supports his word and his spokesman…The phrase, ‘the word of Yahweh’ occurs 242 times… In addition, the word of Yahweh is personified in such passages as: ‘A word, hath My Lord sent unto Jacob,––And it shall alight on Israel (Is. 9:8); ‘He sendeth his word, and healeth them, and delivereth them from their graves (Ps. 107:20); ‘Who sendeth his utterance to the earth, How swiftly, runneth his word (Ps. 147:15); “The word, which came upon Jeremiah, concerning all the people of Judah…” (Jer. 25:1); “But, near unto thee, is the word, exceedingly,––in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it” (Deu. 30:14). Admittedly, because of the figure it appears as if the word of Yahweh had a divine existence apart from Yahweh, but Gerleman rightly calls into question the almost universal interpretation that sees the word in these passages as a Hypostasis, a kind of mythologizing. Gerleman suggests that this usage is nothing more than the normal tendency to enliven and personify abstractions. Thus human emotions and attributes are also treated as having an independent existence. For example Psalm 85:11 states, “Faithfulness, out of the earth, doth spring forth, And, righteousness, out of the heavens, hath looked down;” Psalms 107:42 states, “The upright seeth and is glad, And, all perverseness, hath closed her mouth;” “Say unto wisdom, My sister, thou! and, an acquaintance, call thou, understanding” (Pr. 7:4); “Wisdom, hath builded her house, hath hewn out her seven pillars.” The word of Yahweh is known as Yahweh as is illustrated in Jeremiah 1:11-12; “Moreover the word of Yahweh came unto me, saying, What canst thou see, Jeremiah? And I said, A twig of an almond–tree, can I see. Then said Yahweh unto me––Thou hast rightly seen…” In this verse, it first said ‘the word of Yahweh said’ and then later in the verse it said, ‘then said Yahweh,’ making ‘the word of Yahweh’ equal to ‘Yahweh.’ The phrase, ‘the word,’ can be treated as an ellipsis. An ellipsis is a figure of speech whereby a gap is purposely left in a sentence through the omission of some word or words. When we see the phrase, ‘the word,’ we should ask ourselves, ‘Whose word?’ The word we are speaking of is the word of Yahweh; ‘of Yahweh’ being the ellipsis. The parable concerning the seed and the sower uses the phrase, ‘the word,’ which we could then add ‘of Yahweh;’ “The sower, soweth the word (of Yahweh)” (Mk. 4:14). Another example is Mark 2:1-2 which states, “And, entering again into Capernaum, after some days, it was heard say––He is in a house; and many were gathered together, so that no longer was there room even in the approaches to the door,––and he began speaking unto them the word (of Yahweh).” The Gospel of John is filled with the phrase, ‘the word.’ Logos is used forty times in this Gospel and as noted earlier, its gender is always masculine. When Yahshua says, ‘my word,’ he is actually meaning, the word of Yahweh, as is illustrated in John 14:24; “He that loveth me not, doth not keep, my word; ––and, the word which ye hear, is not mine, but, the Father’s who sent me.” He also said in John 12:50, “…The things, therefore, which I speak, just as the Father hath told me, so, I speak.” This truth is very important in our understanding of our study. Yahweh is the source of all things, including ‘the word,’ while Yahshua relayed, from the Father, ‘the word’ to mankind. This same truth is also revealed in John 14:10; “Believest thou not, that, I, am in the Father, and, the Father, is, in me? The things which I am saying unto you, from myself, I speak not; but, the Father, within me abiding, doeth his works.” Yahshua was not Yahweh but Yahweh was in Yahshua; the word of Yahweh was in Yahshua. The ‘word’ or ‘logos’ is used throughout this Gospel as coming from Yahweh through Yahshua as is exhibited below. In chapter eight, Yahshua says, “…my word, findeth no place in you…because ye cannot hear my word…If anyone shall keep, my word…I know him, and, his word, am I keeping” (31, 37, 43, 51, 52). In chapter fifteen, Yahshua said, “Already, ye, are, pure, because of the word which I have spoken unto you…Remember the word…the word which, in their law” (3, 20, 25). In chapter seventeen, Yahshua told his Father, “thy word, have they kept…I, have given them thy word…Thine own word, is, truth” (6, 14, 17). The words spoken through out the Gospel of John were not Yahshua’s words but they were the words of his Father, Yahweh, as Hebrew’s 1:1-2 also states; “Whereas, in many parts and in many ways of old, Yahweh spake unto the fathers, in the prophets, At the end of these days, He hath spoken unto us in his Son…” The Gospel of John is a record of Yahweh sending his word, which is life and light to Israel through his only-begotten Son. Yahshua, through his complete obedience, became an exact representation of Yahweh’s very being, being an eradiated brightness of his glory; being the image of the unseen Yahweh. John 1:1-18, from beginning to end proclaims ‘the word of Yahweh,’ which is spoken of in two ways. It begins with the word of Yahweh as spoken by Yahweh, as being Yahweh, which brought the heavens and earth into existence as stated again in Psalms 33:6-9; “By the word [dabar] of Yahweh, the heavens were made, and, by the spirit [ruah] of his mouth, all their host: Who gathered as into a skin–bottle the waters of the sea, Delivering, into treasuries, the roaring deeps. Let all the earth, stand in awe of Yahweh, Of him, be in dread, all ye inhabitants of the world; For, he, spake, and it was, He, commanded, and it stood forth” (Ps. 33:6-9). Yahweh, by his mouth and by his word, created all things. The prophet John, who was sent by Yahweh, came to proclaim a message, to Israel, the coming ‘word of Yahweh’ which would be in the flesh, Yahshua Christ. Yahshua Christ, ‘the word of Yahweh in the flesh,’ came to interpret and make known his Father to the world. Why is the Only–begotten Son of Yahweh, called the word of Yahweh? He humbled himself to speak only the words his Father gave him and do only what his Father told him, making him the exact representation of his Father. Yahweh foretold the coming of the ‘word of Yahweh’ in the flesh in Deuteronomy 18:18; “A prophet, will I raise up unto them, out of the midst of their brethren, like unto thee,––and I will put my words [dabar] in his mouth, so shall he speak unto them whatsoever I shall command him;” “At the end of these days, He hath spoken unto us in his Son…” (Heb. 1:2). We encounter problems with this section of scripture because: we have isolated this book from the rest of scripture; when we see ‘the Word,’ we are not thinking of ‘the word of Yahweh; we have not been instructed in the ways Yahweh personifies; we have not been instructed in the Greek and Hebrew gender of nouns and pronouns and centuries of the man-made teaching of the doctrine of the Trinity has influenced our way of thinking. The best way to understand John 1:1-18 is to replace the pronouns with the nouns they have replaced. Also we will supply the phrase, ‘the word of Yahweh,’ for ‘the word.’ I have also combined the two sections on John the Immerser into one piece, making it easier to read and understand. John 1:1-18
‘The word of Yahweh’ can also be presented in another perspective. The words of Yahweh have creative powers. What Yahweh speaks comes to pass. Yahweh spoke, ‘Light Be. And Light Was.’ He spoke matter into existence. When Yahweh spoke, which is the word of Yahweh, Adam and Eve became flesh or in other words, Adam and Eve did not exist until Yahweh’s words or the word of Yahweh created them. John 1:14 states, “…the word of Yahweh became flesh…” which could also mean that Yahshua did not exist until Yahweh spoke the sperm, which would unite with the egg of Mary, into existence; the word of Yahweh, which he spoke, became flesh; the creative ability of his words began his Son’s life. This ability was demonstrated by Yahshua when his words raised Lazarus from the dead or when his words stopped the winds or when his words killed a tree. After Yahshua’s words killed the tree, he instructed his disciples, “…Whosoever shall say unto this mountain, Be lifted up, and cast into the sea, and shall not doubt in his heart but shall believe that, what he speaketh, cometh to pass, it shall be his” (Mk. 11:23). The statement, ‘the word of Yahweh became flesh,’ in John 1:14, could mean that Yahshua, as the word of Yahweh, became flesh or it could mean that Yahweh’s spoken word produced the sperm that united with the egg of Mary resulting in his spoken word creating matter that brought Yahshua into existence. Conclusion The Gospel of John is not a difficult book if you use the code book (The whole Word of Yahweh) to decipher it; if you learn a little about the Hebrew and Greek language and if you subjugate the teachings of men to the Hebrew and Greek scriptures. The Gospel of John is a jewel among other jewels in our Father’s crown, which is his Word. What a day it was when Yahweh presented his Son to mankind. What a compliment it was for Yahshua when his Father, who was the word of Yahweh, called him, ‘The Word of Yahweh,’ ‘the Rock,’ and ‘the Way.’ These titles, which the Father also possesses, were not given to Yahshua but rather he earned them because of his complete submission and obedience to his Father’s will; by his overcoming, he earned a throne, to be seated with his Father. Yahweh, through his word, brought his Son into existence who then took on his Father’s mantle, thus becoming ‘The Word of Yahweh.’ (For the footnotes, read the PDF verison) (*When quoting scriptures, from the Rotherham Emphasized Bible New Testament, I will substitute the Hebrew words Yahshua for Jesus, Yahweh and Elohim for God and the LORD and ruah for pneuma (spirit).) |
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