By: Marcia Railton

How many times does it take for a false statement to be repeated before it becomes true? Can you make a myth true if a lot of people believe it long enough?

What would happen if we read the Bible with no prior bias. What if we could vacuum out of our brain all knowledge and impact of the Apostles’ Creed which would be written hundreds of years after Yeshua walked on earth? What if we could read John for what John wanted to say, instead of what the emperor and church leaders over 200 years later decided they wanted it to say?

John, the beloved disciple. He loved Yeshua and Yeshua loved him. Perhaps he knew Yeshua better than anyone. He was there very near the start of Yeshua’ ministry – the fisherman who with his brother James left their fishing nets to follow and learn more about Yeshua. He heard Yeshua’ teachings and was with him when he calmed the storm and healed the sick. His feet had been washed by his master, Yeshua. That horrific day at the foot of the cross, Yeshua entrusted to John the care of Mary, his mother. John ran to the empty tomb and saw with his own eyes the resurrected Yeshua and spent 40 more days listening to and learning from his risen Lord and Savior. And, then Yeshua was taken into heaven in the clouds and John and the others were told Yeshua would return in the same way – but until then they were to be his witnesses. John had a job to do, to tell the world of Yeshua. And so, before his death he carefully writes it down for all the future generations – and we have the New Testament book called the Gospel (good news) of John.

John specifically states near the end of his gospel what his purpose in writing has been. He says Yeshua did much much more than could be recorded, “But these are written that you may believe that Yeshua is the Messiah ( the Anointed One, the Chosen King), the Son of Elohim, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” (John 20:31 NIV – parenthetical definition of “Messiah” added). Obviously, it becomes very important for John to clearly represent Yeshua if life and salvation come from believing in Yeshua. We wouldn’t want to get that wrong, would we? And, we can expect that since this is John’s purpose statement nothing we read in the book of John will contradict what his mission is – to show us who the Messiah, the SON of Elohim is. Remember, we already cleaned out of our brain any future manipulation, twisting or reversal of this term that will develop centuries later. John, and the other New Testament writers (and Old Testament for that matter) never used the term “Elohim the Son”. If it didn’t come from the Bible, where did it come from? It seems we should be concentrating on who and what John meant by the Messiah, the Son of Elohim, rather than trying to use this book to explain Elohim the Son.

John would have been very familiar with Old Testament scripture which exalts and reveres the word of Elohim – the words, plans, thoughts, intent, desire, ideas, as well as the actual spoken word of the Almighty Elohim. The terms word of Elohim and Elohim’s word have also been used to refer to His written word, the Scriptures, in part or whole. Can we worship Elohim, without knowing or trying to understand (to the best of our human ability) what His words, His thoughts, His desires are? It’s almost like voting for a president without having a clue what he stands for, what he has said in speeches, written in papers, what he thinks, believes and intends to do. It sounds dangerous to try to separate a candidate or a Elohim from His words. We should view them as one – Elohim and what He says/plans/intends/thinks/desires are the same.

It is also helpful to know that in Greek all words are assigned a male or female pronoun (similar to Spanish and many other languages in which every noun is known either as a she or a he) and the word “word”, in Greek “logos”, is assigned a male pronoun. It is interesting to note that 8 Bible translations written before the first King James version of 1611 did not use the Greek male pronouns (he and his) when referring to the word in John 1, but used “it” the gender neutral English pronoun given for all the other Greek nouns that were not people (he or she) but objects or ideas (its). Also, in the Greek language they did not use capitalization, so when John wrote “word” he did not write “Word”.

John also would have known of the use of personification in Scripture. For example, in Proverbs wisdom is often personified as a female who is calling in the streets or building her house. In a whole chapter devoted to ‘Lady Wisdom’ we read, “Yehovah brought me forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old; I was appointed from eternity, from the beginning, before the world began. When there were no oceans, I was given birth…then I was the craftsman at his side…” (Proverbs 8:22-24a, 30a). It is goes on. And, yet, no one has convinced too many people that Elohim has two parts and one of them is a lady named Wisdom who existed before the world began and who created the world with Him. This theory would be called foolishness because of course we all know Solomon was using personification speaking of wisdom which comes from Elohim.

So, now let’s read John with a brain cleared of all preconceived human ideas. We just want Elohim’s inspired word. While we read, let’s try to think like John, the one who was at Yeshua’ side for 3 years, knowing that logos – the word – of Elohim does not have to be a person any more than the wisdom of Elohim is a person. And, yet both the wisdom and the word of Elohim can not be separated from Elohim – they are Elohim’s, or, you could even say, they are Elohim.

So reading John 1, with simply removing capitalization and eliminating male pronouns (which was done in most or all other uses of the word logos) we now have something like this: In the beginning was the word, and the word was with Elohim, and the word was Elohim. The word was with Elohim in the beginning. Through it all things were made; without it nothing was made that has been made. In it was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. (John 1:1-5 NIV but removing capitalization for “word” and replacing neuter pronouns for masculine).

Remember creation – Elohim spoke His word and it came to be. This makes sense. Elohim and His word. They are powerful. They are inseparable. They get the job done. They light up the world. “Let there be light.” That was Elohim and His word! But, some will not understand – made me think of some biology professors who certainly don’t understand the power of Elohim and His word.

Next, we see in verse 6 that Elohim sent a man. “There came a man who was sent from Elohim: his name was John.” (John 1:6 NIV) Yet, no one argues that John the Baptist pre-existed his birth. To be sent from Elohim or come from Elohim does not require pre-existence or to be part of Elohim.

In verse 14 we have the plan of Elohim, His design, His purpose, His word becoming flesh. Here we indeed have another man, in the flesh. This time it’s not John the Baptist. This time it is Yeshua, the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Chosen King, the One and Only Begotten (comes from), in flesh, Son of Elohim. There would have been LOTS of ways John could have said that Yeshua was Elohim, if that is what he wanted to say. But, he didn’t say it because he knew Yeshua as the SON of Elohim, just as he said.

Not only did John not say it – but no other place in Scripture says Elohim became a man. It is not in Scripture, but it is very common in mythology (which we are warned several times in the Bible to avoid). How did this idea get into so many Christmas songs, hymns, worship songs, and sermons if it did not come straight from the Bible? Could it be the false teachers that Elohim’s word warns would sneak into the church to twist the apostles’ words and the Elohim they served? This is something we don’t want to be wrong about. We need to be sure we are correctly handling the word of truth – Elohim’s word – and not just what others hundreds of years later would teach about it.