i like john

At this point in my life, I cannot honestly say that I'm a Christian. But I am spiritual, and I am a perpetual searcher of spiritual meaning (I can't help it)...so I liked John the best because it's more existential. I especially liked John 1:3-5, because of the light/darkness symbolism and the idea of good triumphing over evil. I love that it's very philosophical (I think I've learned that such light/dark symbolism was common during the time and probably came out of Platonic philosophy) and esoteric. I love the number of times the word "light" occurs througout all of John: 1. This is so hopeful and unifying. I love the unifying sense of who can recieve the light: in 1:9,"enlightens everyone," and, in 1:4, "the life was the light of all people."

Abby, I was just reading over your post, and I noticed you asked about the connotation of "the word" in the original text. I know I learned about this in my Rise of Christianity class, but I don't have a clear memory of the exact meaning. So I looked it up on the Internet....this may be an incorrect explanation, but this is what I think it means. "Logos" was the original Greek word used, and the "logos" was a being who was present with God from the beginning of Creation, and who became human in the person of Christ. So essentially, the "logos" was the being of the Son of God before he existed on earth as Christ. The idea of the "logos" being with God from the beginning of time was used to argue for the doctrine of the Trinity. The concept of the "logos" was used to counter the Arians, early Christian heretics who believed that God was one and that the Son of God had not been with God since creation, but who had achieved God-like status on earth through merit. Ultimately, (of course) the doctrine of the Trinity was accepted and Arianism faded out. (hope that made sense...)

I liked the hopeful sense of the beginning of Mark: "The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, Son of God." It provides an interesting parallel to the end of Mark, when the disiplines "went out and proclaimed the good news everywhere" (16:20).

I also thought Mary's speech was really interesting in Luke 1:47-55. Mary definitely makes her future son sound more like of powerful earthly ruler than like the gentle, loving person of Christ. She says, "He has shown stregnth with his arm...he has brought down the powerful from their thrones."

I'll add some more later...