Rereading Genesis in the Prologue of John?

Abstract

This chapter describes an area of Peder's early work on the Prologue. In this work Peder Borgen drew on Jewish exegetical methods to illuminate the Prologue. In his 1923 essay on the background of the Prologue, Bultmann drew attention to the question of the relation of the Prologue to the Gospel as a whole and the integrity of the Prologue as a uniform composition. On the other hand, Peder argues that the Prologue is the result of a Targumic interpretation of Genesis 1:1-5. If Borgen rightly notes the importance of Genesis 1 for the interpretation of the Prologue, he gives insufficient attention to the literary parallels in Wisdom tradition. Pagels' analysis of the Prologue of John shares important points of agreement with the analysis of Peder Borgen. The language of the Prologue implies a context within Hellenistic Judaism influenced by Wisdom speculation, Genesis interpretation, and Logos theology. Keywords: Genesis; Hellenistic Judaism; Logos theology; Pagel; Peder Borgen; Prologue of John; Targumic interpretation; Wisdom tradition