Abstract:
A historical-grammatical exegesis of the Initiation (Prologue) of the Gospel of John. It begins with an analysis of the historical-critical, semiotic and historical-grammatical methods. This latter one was chosen without neglecting the advances propitiated by the historical-critical method which do not conflict with that method. We proceed to the textual criticism choosing the most expressive variables. A prior translation is elaborated without many refinements prioritizing a literal sense. A literary analysis is made to delimit the text, get to know its structure, its literary sources and the literary role of the pericope. In the quest for the structure of the text, four segments are discovered: the creator logos, the luminous logos, the incarnated logos and the glorious logos. In the literary role of the pericope the inadequateness of the term Prologue is discussed and the term Initiation is proposed. Following, there is the analysis of the redaction where internal and external evidence is discussed related to authorship, factors which can indicate the date of the composition of the text, the place where it was written and recipients. At the end of the redaction analysis, the proposition is posited that the main purpose for the writing of the gospel is for the defense of the faith, which is facing Gnostic and Jewish threats, through the Johanine Christology. In the form analyses the text is a smaller genre within a larger genre, analyzing its possible living places. Within the analysis of traditions the substrata which are behind the terms which can have various origins are discussed: logos, light, getting to know and truth. Then one gets to the heart of the exegesis which corresponds to the analysis of the content. Each one of the four segments discovered in the literary analysis is analyzed. Within each segment, first, a grammatical analysis is done with emphasis on discovering the meaning of each word in the light of the impressions which the evangelist left throughout the Gospel and his living world. Next, an analysis of the broad context is done using the grammatical discoveries and analyzing the historical perspectives. This is followed by analyses of the specific context, in which the text is understood in light of the Jewish and Gnostic problem. After comes the theological analysis which deals with the most important issues of the theology of the prologue in connection with other theological texts of the Scriptures. Finally we have the final translation which aims at making use of the knowledge produced throughout the whole exegesis to produce a translation which comes closest to the message which the author wanted to transmit to his first readers.
