a revolutionary revelation.

The magnitude of the incarnation of the divine through the person of Jesus Christ is lost in the Gospels’ translation from Greek to English. These inspired accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry speak uniquely to the first-century Jew and Gentile. As such, our understanding of the Gospels is made more complete when we look at the person of Christ from the worldviews and perspectives that dominated the culture of that day.

The ideas and philosophies of great thinkers like Plato provided the intellectual backdrop of this first-century world. Particularly, his allegory of the cave would have been the lens through which many people perceived and understood the world. And it’s through this very lens that I would like to consider the message and quite revolutionary meaning of John 1.

The unique thing about the Gospels, and particularly this chapter in the Gospel of John, is that they enter into a conversation that already exists in the ancient world. In both the Republic and Timaeus (my incorporation of and comments regarding the latter may not be entirely accurate seeing as I have yet to read this Platonic work; my knowledge and commentary regarding it are based on one single lecture from the great Dr. Jeffrey), there is an underlying craving to understand the world, how it came to be, why it has gone so terribly awry, and how to bring it back to completeness. And John brings answers to these questions.

Plato, in both his works, recognizes that the notion of goodness and justice is transcendent. There is something higher, something intangible that is guiding all things. In Timaeus, he identifies this being as the demiurgos: that which has brought all things into being. In the Republic, his allegory of the cave (which is my new favorite topic of discussion) is a metaphor for the world and all things that were created through this demiurgos.

Consider the illustration above. The cave is a place of darkness, of shadows, and of half-truths. It deals with the tangible, the becoming, the changing. Objects, facts, and things of the literal realm define life down here. As I discussed in a previous post, and as Plato indicates, all of humanity is in this cave. We live in a world where the things we see and experience are merely shadows and incomplete imitations of the truth.

But above this cave, above this darkness is a world full of light. It deals with the intelligible, the being, the eternal. Subjects, forms, and things of the spiritual or figurative realm define life up here. This is a world of truth. This is the place we try (but fail) to imitate.

Side note: C.S. Lewis’ The Great Divorce is enfused with these Platonic ideas. The Valley of the Shadow of Death (filled with gray shadows) and the Valley of the Shadow of Life (filled with bright, solid objects) are closely based on this idea of the cave.

In the Republic, Plato (well, technically, Socrates seeing as he is the speaker) mentions that some people will journey from the cave into the light. But it’s a select few: only the best and brightest, the philosophers, and those who possess a predisposition for understanding the world of forms travel above. Thus, the opportunity to know the truth and to experience true life is only for a privileged few. The rest of us are, basically, without hope of ever knowing the intelligible, perceiving the eternal, or stepping into the light. Our lives are restricted to the world of shadows, our comprehension limited to simple, finite objects and facts.

The Gospel of John addresses this philosophy. It enters into this conversation. The author plays on Plato's ideas by turning them on their heads:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made.” (John 1:1-3)

Here, John is suggesting that the Word has created all things. (Later, he’ll go on to establish that the Word is Jesus, God incarnate.) In Greek, the term for “word” is logos. Logos, however, can also mean the “reason,” “argument,” “speech,” “story,” and “verb.” (Remember this. I’ll bring it up later.) So John is replacing the demiurgos, which Plato has suggested to be the creator of all things, with Jesus, the Word, and logos.

The revolution comes when John writes, “In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” (John 1:4-5, 14)

Light has penetrated the darkness. Jesus, being truth, came down. He descended the throne to dwell among us, the people in the cave.

Here, in the person of Jesus, the world above, the intelligible, the being collides with the world below, the tangible, the becoming. Where formerly the Greeks considered all things either tangible or intelligible, John points out that Jesus is both! The Creator of the Universe, the logos, the reason, the story, and the verb connects the object with the subject. (Get it? subject + verb + object? It’s like a sentence; it’s completion and fullness. Once again, Dr. Jeffrey’s insight.)

So the Platonic way of thinking has been reversed:

We do not have to go up to receive truth. The truth is no longer unable to be grasped. The truth is not for the select few anymore. It’s not just for the smart people. It’s not just for the people who have it all together.

Rather, it’s accessible because it has come down to us.

It’s for everyone.

Do you get it? Do you see? This is crazy! Jesus changes everything! Just as he does Jewish law, he turns Greek philosophy upside-down. He’s the fulfillment of the promise, and he’s the truth among us. Because of him, there is hope in our darkness. Because of him, we can reach the light.

So there you have it, the revolutionary revelation. It’s there. Actually, it’s always been there. It’s in the words. It’s in the significance behind the words. But sometimes we miss it because we don’t know the context or because we lose it in the translation. So we must keep looking back. We must understand the context to understand the message because this is too big to miss.

Because this is revolutionary.