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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 came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not overcome it.
There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify to the light, so that all might believe through him. He himself was not the light, but he came to testify to the light. The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world.
He was in the world, and the world came into being through him; yet the world did not know him. He came to what was his own, and his own people did not accept him. But to all who received him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God, who were born, not of blood or of the will of the flesh or of the will of man, but of God.
And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, the glory as of a father's only son, full of grace and truth. (John testified to him and cried out, "This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'") From his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. The law indeed was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father's heart, who has made him known.
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This is the Gospel reading that will be read aloud by a priest on the first Sunday after Christmas, Year C, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. It will follow an Old Testament reading from Isaiah, where the prophet sang, “as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland, and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels. For as the earth brings forth its shoots, and as a garden causes what is sown in it to spring up.” Following that will be a singing of Psalm 147, where David wrote: “[Yahweh] heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. He counts the number of the stars and calls them all by their names.” Those two will be followed by a reading from Paul’s letter to the Galatians, where the saint wrote to true Christians saying, “Because you are children, God has sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!”’ All of those readings will accompany this reading from John.
In November 2017, I posted two commentaries about this reading. I updated the second in January 2021. The first is entitled “The Birth of the Word,” and the second is entitled “Deeper View.” Feel free to examine either of those articles or both. I can assure you that the depth of interpretation I placed in both of those commentaries show just how must is said in these eighteen verses. Every word is divinely inspired by Yahweh, who knows everything about the “Word” and how that relates to both “John” and Jesus. Because I have already written about this reading, in length, I will now focus on aspects that were not as clear to me four years ago.
Because it has only recently dawned on me that the date of December 25th is more relative to the actual birthdate of John the Baptist, than to Jesus, I want to focus my interpretations now on John (the Gospel writer) speaking about John the Baptist. Because nothing is written that clearly states the named “John” to be a relative of Jesus, with nothing specifically naming Jesus, it is important to look at what John wrote as being the inspirations of Yahweh.
First of all, the writing of a capitalized “Logos” three times, surrounding a twice named “God” (as “Theon” and “Theos”), this cannot simply be grasped as John calling Jesus “the Word.” Because “the Word” was from the beginning and “was with” and “was God,” this speaks loudly (through capitalization) that Yahweh speaks through souls born into human flesh, which began when Yahweh created the first of His elohim to do His works of the Creation. In that, I explained that “Logos” means more than speaking, as it also means “Plan.” Therefore, the “Plan” has always been (from “the beginning”) Yahweh commands and His angels obey.
The implication that John was referring to Jesus when he wrote “Logos” can be seen as true, but by writing “Logos” he left Jesus as the name that is the “Word” of “God” that says “Yahweh Will Save.” In that sense, the “Word” is present in every soul that speaks as an extension of Yahweh on the earth. Thus Jesus was Adam, Noah, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and others, while not going by that specific name. This means Yahweh Will Save through “the Word” coming into all who will completely serve Him.
For John to then differentiate from “the Word,” by saying “There came a man having been sent from God , name to him John”, this says the many souls who have served Yahweh in the past, all having received “the Word” into their being are granted eternal life. In that eternity of service to Yahweh, those souls will be reissued (so to speak) as reincarnated souls in human flesh, with the divinity of “the Word” still one with those souls. This says the soul possessing the body of flesh that would be named “John” was an angel (also called one of the elohim of Yahweh) reborn in flesh to again serve Yahweh. The name “John” (as “Iōannēs”) means, “Yah Is Gracious” or “Yah Has Been Gracious.” Because the author of this Gospel is also named “John,” the same can be said of both souls. This says the graciousness of Yahweh that has been placed upon both souls named “John” is they both equally possessed “the Word” of Him.
When John wrote that John was “a witness,” from the Greek word “martyrian,” this must not be read as John’s only role was to see Jesus and then tap him on the shoulder, saying, “You’re the guy!” The meaning of “witness” says John was “the Word,” as one who knew that divine closeness – as ONE with Yahweh – in the same way Jesus would come. While both Jesus and John were divinely conceived (it is doubtful Elizabeth was impregnated by Zechariah, with him knowing that deed hadn’t happened, causing him to laugh at Gabriel) and holy as fetuses, John knew Jesus was the soul that had been ALWAYS “the Word.” John’s soul had at one time been in a body of flesh that was a sinner; but once he submitted to marrying his soul to Yahweh, Yahweh then sent into his soul the soul of “the Word,” which forevermore saved that soul. John is then the “witness” for all souls like his (at one time prior), who will allow eternal life changes to enter their souls.
When John then said John the Baptist would be a “witness concerning the light” [“martyrēsē peri tou phōtos”], the “light” must be realized as the opposite of darkness, such that “light” is eternal life, while darkness is the repetitiveness of death, which for a soul means reincarnations. John was then a soul with personal knowledge of salvation, whose knowledge of eternal life was not ‘book read’ but a soul that retained salvation, sent back into the realm of darkness as a messenger of Yahweh about salvation. John would be known as one who immersed other souls with the inundation of “the Word” that made other souls aware of the need to cease sinning, forevermore. That cleansing by awareness would prepare other souls to ‘step into the light of truth’ and marry their own souls to Yahweh.
When Gospel John wrote that “the Word was made flesh and dwelled among us,” this is more a lasting truth than his writing hind-sightedly about Jesus (or John the Baptist), as this is simply more truth about Yahweh having created “the Word in the beginning.” All prophets, apostles and saint, at all times, are “the Word made flesh.” It “dwells among us” as us – one with our being, one with each soul. Jesus was the soul made to be “the Word” for all souls that would take the step of commitment and marry Yahweh. At that point of divine union, all those souls will behold the glory of “the Word” in oneself, with each knowing the truth of having been reborn as “the only begotten of the Father.” Each soul filled with “the Word” will become “the Son” reborn.
When John wrote that John the Baptist would cry out, “This was he of whom I said, 'He who comes after me ranks ahead of me because he was before me.'” A better translation is, “This existed of whom I am speaking, ‘This behind me coming , has precedence over me , because before me it existed.’” In that, John is saying his soul has become merged with the soul of “the Word,” which overcomes the soul of John, who had once been a sinner. The precedence that “the Word” has over John’s soul is due to John’s soul being in complete submission to Yahweh, allowing his soul to be led by “the Word.” The reason is John’s soul has become led by the soul Yahweh created for the purpose of saving souls [which is named “Jesus”].
John the Gospel writer was enlightened in the same way as was John the Baptist. Both Johns were souls that had been reborn with “the Word,” which allowed them to be born as souls previously saved, reincarnated to be messengers of Yahweh, speaking “the Word.” This needs to be seen as the reason behind these words being chosen as the Gospel reading for the first Sunday after Christmas. The birth of John the Baptist is more aligned with what modern Christians know as “Christmas,” which comes on December 25th. John the Baptist would have been born in the tenth month (December means “the Tenth month”), as Elizabeth became pregnant in the first month (Nisan), so the tenth month in the Hebrew calendar is Tevet.
The Hebrew month Kislev is the ninth month, which is the equivalent of the time between November and December. It is much like the astrological sign Sagittarius (approximately November 23 and December 21). With Zechariah told by Gabriel his barren wife was pregnant six months before he told Mary she was pregnant with Jesus, a nine-month pregnancy for Elizabeth would have ended in early Kislev, which is the equivalent of the astrological sign Capricorn (about December 21 to January 21). This makes the Winter Solstice (usually December 21 or 22) and the timing of Christmas (December 25) be symbolically chosen to reflect the darkness of a soul (one who is a sinner) needing to be cleansed (John the Baptizer), so a soul is prepared to receive the light of “the Word,” which is when the soul of Jesus is resurrected within a former sinner’s soul, married to Yahweh on Christmas Day, and made pregnant with his soul to come.
This is the meaning of this Gospel reading. John was saying each soul that is to be saved must first become like John the Baptist and repent one’s past life of waywardness. The first Sunday of Christmas is then when one wakes up from one’s ‘wedding night’ feeling the glow of Gabriel saying, “You’re pregnant with a child that will be named Jesus.” That means to begin preparations for bringing a new self into the world, one whose ways are now righteous, with sinning the ways of the past cut free. This means the gift giving of Christmas is all one’s past sins being washed clean.