Rethinking John 1:1

Abstract

Abstract The presence of wisdom “with” God at or before creation is well attested in Jewish sapiential traditions. Given the widespread recognition that the logos of John’s prologue corresponds with sophia in such traditions, it has become natural to read John 1:1b as virtually all English translations do—that is, as “and the word was with God.” Through comparative analysis of the role of divine intermediary figures in Middle-Platonism and Philo of Alexandria, this article argues against the majority interpretation by providing new arguments and a new conceptual framework for the reading, “and the Word was Godward.”