The Gospel of John
The text whose opening identified its subject with the logos of Greek philosophy, making Christian theology a subject for philosophical argument.
Who should read it
Readers tracing how Greek philosophical vocabulary entered Western theology and, through it, medieval metaphysics.
Skip it if
You want the historical material. It differs sharply from the other three gospels in structure and chronology, and its interest here is the philosophical vocabulary in the opening rather than the narrative.
The Gospel of John is the fourth of the canonical gospels, written in Greek and generally dated to the end of the first century. It is included here for one reason: its opening is the point at which Greek philosophical vocabulary enters Christian theology, and a great deal of later philosophy depends on that moment.
The Logos prologue
The text opens by stating that in the beginning was the logos, that the logos was with God and was God, and that all things were made through it. The Greek word already carried a long philosophical history. Heraclitus had used it around 500 BC for the rational principle ordering the cosmos; the Stoics used it for the reason pervading nature; and Philo of Alexandria, writing in the decades before this gospel, used it for the intermediary between a transcendent God and the material world.
Placing that term at the opening identifies the subject of the narrative with the rational principle of Greek cosmology. Whatever the author intended, the effect was to make Christian theology a subject that Greek philosophy could be brought to bear on — and it was, immediately and for centuries. See the concept of logos for the term's fuller history.
Its philosophical afterlife
The prologue supplied the material for the christological controversies of the fourth century, for Augustine's Neoplatonic reading, and for the doctrine of the Trinity as it was formulated at Nicaea and after. The question of how the logos relates to the God it is "with" and also "is" drove several hundred years of argument and produced much of the technical vocabulary of Western metaphysics — substance, person, nature, procession.
Character of the text
The book differs markedly from the other three gospels in structure, chronology and idiom, with long discourses in place of short sayings. Scholarship treats it as a distinct tradition, and the relation between the four remains an open question in the field.
Questions
Why is the Gospel of John philosophically significant?
Its prologue identifies its subject with the logos, a term carrying centuries of Greek philosophical meaning. This connected Christian theology to Greek cosmology and made it a subject for philosophical argument.
What does 'logos' mean in the prologue?
The Greek word means word, reason or rational principle. Heraclitus used it for the order of the cosmos, the Stoics for the reason pervading nature, and Philo for the intermediary between God and the world.
How does John differ from the other gospels?
It differs in structure, chronology and idiom, using long discourses rather than short sayings and following a different sequence of events. Scholars treat it as representing a distinct tradition.