What John Thought of Jesus

I'm reading through the Gospel of John. In this book, there are a lot of statements about the greatness of Jesus, both made by himself, by others who knew him, and by the author of this gospel, whom Christans from the earliest times have believed to be John the Apostle.

John starts his book as if he were writing the bible all over again, and uses language that makes anyone who knows the Old Testament think of Genesis.

The first words in Genesis are

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

And John's opening statement is

In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was with God. And the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

A few lines later, John reveals that he is talking about Jesus. So his opening statement tells us that Jesus is more than a great man, and greater than the greatest prophet. Jesus is God himself. God come down to earth as a man, as the Son of God and the one through whom everything was made.

Equally astounding claims are made about Jesus throughout this 21 chapter book. It could be a good place to start for anyone who wants to investigate Jesus for themselves.

There are lots of sites on the internet where you can read John's Gospel, but I got the text I've used here from tniv.info which is a recent up-to-date translation of John's Gospel.

When you get to the end of the chapter you are reading, you can click on a link to go to the next. I'd love to hear your thoughts on John's message, if you begin reading it.