What does it mean that the Word was in the beginning (John 1:1)?

The opening words of the first verse carry us back to the most remote moment that our minds are capable of conceiving: the moment when there began the first thing that ever had a beginning: the moment on the further side of which there was only — GOD. In that moment of "beginning" the Word "was," that is, existed. He did not begin then; He existed then. His eternal Being is proclaimed, and we are carried back before the opening words of Genesis 1. Further He was "with God." Our minds are still back at that remote moment, and we discover that then He was possessed of distinct Personality. The Word is not a title of the Godhead in a general way, apart from any special distinction, for in being "with God" a special, distinctive place is definitely stated.

John 1:1-2. The gospel opens with the sublime statement, "In the beginning was the Word." At once our thoughts are carried back into eternity, before time commenced or creation existed, to learn that the glorious Person Who is called "the Word" had no beginning. In the beginning of everything that had a beginning, the Word was, not "began". "'In the beginning was the Word' is the formal expression that the Word had no beginning" (N.Tn.).

1-3. There would seem to be more meaning in pros ton Theon ("with God") than merely apud (nigh), expressed by para Theo. I know of no case of pros ton being used merely in this sense. The most analogous passage is "that eternal life, which was with the Father," but there is ending in included in this word pros, and communicative association. It stood there in the presence of, and associated (vitally) with God. Also "in the beginning" means in existence prior to time; we find Him in essential, eternal existence. Everything else had a beginning, a cause commencing it, but He "was in the beginning." Therefore it is said, "The devil sinneth from," not in, "the beginning." The comment on Theos (God) here is idle, and proves only the ignorance of the commentators. Every affirmation of nature or quality concerning an object is without the article, and the object or subject matter affirmed of with it. Had it been ho Theos, it would have made ho Logos (the Word) exclusively God, and denied the Deity of the Father and the Spirit.

The absolute Deity of the Son is brought before us in many passages of Scripture, but in none more strikingly than the opening verses of the Gospel of John. This Gospel opens with the sublime statement "In the beginning was the Word." All created things, and every created being in the universe had a beginning, but the Word was in the beginning. At the beginning of all things the Word was there, without any beginning. "In the beginning was the Word," is the formal assertion of the eternal existence of the Word.

Then we are told "the Word was with God." He was a distinct Person in the Godhead, for He was "with God." Furthermore we read "the Word was God." Though distinct in Person He was not different in nature, for He was God — a divine Person.

Then we have the additional statement, "He was in the beginning with God." The mind of man might argue, and indeed has done so, that while it is true the Word is now a distinct Person, yet He was not always so. But this verse rebukes such a thought and tells us plainly that His distinct Personality is as eternal as His deity.

In the Gospel, John is most careful to say that "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." It matters not how far one essays back in thought into the depths of eternity. Imagine millions of years! These are not the beginning; though of course one cannot with propriety talk of "years" before the measures of time apply. But go back in imagination into these unmeasured depths, there He subsisted. No beginning had He Who is eternal, and in His own personality He was "with God."

It is manifest that this declaration of the Word's existence in the beginning conducts us to a point prior to the very earliest creative act comprehended in Gen. 1:1. That is, we are by the revelation ushered into eternity. Indeed, this absolute precedence of existence is even more definitely declared in the context, where we learn that the Word created every single thing that ever was created or that received being: " All things received being through Him, and without Him not one [thing] received being which has received being " (John 1:3). The Creator of all must necessarily precede in existence the whole creation.

This being so, the reasoning mind would be inclined to argue: then we cannot speak of the Word as being God in any full or proper sense; even if He is not exactly a creature, seeing He existed before creation. Such reasoning is flatly contradicted by the closing words of verse 1, "the Word was God." Essential Deity was His. Attempts have been made to weaken the force of this great statement, and translate it, "the Word was Divine," or, "the Word was a god," based upon the omission of the definite article; i.e., it does not say, "the Word was the God." But we are told by those who know the Greek that there is in that language no indefinite article, and the word translated "God" is a strong one, denoting proper and absolute Deity; and had it stated that the Word was the God, it would have confined Deity to the Word and excluded therefrom the other Persons of the Godhead. The words are chosen with Divine exactitude: the Word was properly and absolutely God.

Then the second verse carries us back to the first and second statements of verse 1. This distinct Personality which characterizes the Word is not something assumed at some subsequent point of time. Eternal Personality was His. In the beginning He was thus "with God," for this distinction of Personality lies in the very essence of the Godhead. Thus we have had four things stated of the Word. His eternal Being; His distinct Personality; His essential Deity; His eternal Personality. Whatever else we may have to learn about the Word, here are four things that should bow us in lowly adoration.

Further, we are told that the Word was "with God". Not only is the Word an eternal Person, He is also a distinct Person in the Godhead. The "with" denotes, moreover, not only distinctness of Person, but also intercommunion between the Persons in the Godhead. Then we are told that "the Word was God." The opening statement, telling us that the Word is an eternal Person, would imply that He must be a divine Person. But we are not left, in a matter that touches the glory of His Person, to an inference, however correct. We are definitely told that "the Word was God" — a divine Person.

Finally, we learn, "The same was in the beginning with God." This is no mere repetition of the fact already stated that He was a distinct Person with God. Here we learn the additional truth that He was eternally a distinct Person. Thus carefully does the Spirit of God guard the glory of His Person against those who might admit the distinctness of His Person and yet assert that there was a time when He commenced to have a distinct Personal existence.

Both the Lord, referring to the commencement of His ministry, and John, speaking of the commencement of Christianity, use the expression "from the beginning". Here in reference to that which has no commencement we twice have the expression, "in the beginning". Further, it is to be noted that it is said that "the Word was with God" — not the Father. As the Word and God, so the Son and the Father are correlative. The designation God comprehends not only the Father but also the Holy Ghost and the Son. The Word and God speak of the nature of divine Persons: the Father and the Son tell of relationships between divine Persons. The great object of these verses is to establish the glory of Christ as in nature a divine Person.

Secondly, the Scripture shows that, commensurate with the eternity of His being is the fact of His possessing separate personality. "In the beginning … the Word was with God." If the evangelist had written "the Word was in God," our foolish minds might have thought that just as Levi was (Heb. 7) in the loins of his father Abraham when Melchisedec met him and only received actual being later, so perhaps our Lord, the Son, the Word, had only received separate being at a special date in eternity. But the Holy Ghost is too jealous of His glory and too accurate in His words to admit this erroneous idea. "In the beginning … the Word was with God." As certain as the Eternity of His being is the separateness of His personality. There never was a time, however remote, when the Word was not with God, ever distinguishable from the Father as the Father, and from the Holy Spirit as the Holy Spirit. Yet there is no suggestion of a second Godhead, for though distinct in personality, He was with God.

Finally, as though to forbid for ever any comparison of Personalities or of glories in the Godhead, or in our conceptions of the Deity, He says "the Word was God." Whatever language the Lord used of Himself after He took a servant's form, or whatever terms might apply when He had become a Man, we should be utterly wrong in supposing that He held an inferior place in Deity before He came. This last clause in our verse is absolutely destructive of any idea of an inferior place in Godhead. "The Word was God"; and God cannot be inferior to God.

130 It is not, "In the beginning God created"; but, "In the beginning was the Word." All is founded upon the uncreated existence of Him who created everything: at the beginning of all things He was there, without any beginning. "In the beginning was the Word," is the formal expression that the Word had no beginning. But there is more in this remarkable passage: the Word was personally distinct, "the Word was with God"; but He was not distinct in nature, "the Word was God." Thus we have the eternal existence, the distinct personality, the identity of nature, of the Word; and all this existed in eternity. The distinct personality of the Word was not, as people have wished to make it, a thing which had a beginning. "In the beginning the Word was with God," v. 2. His personality is eternal as His nature. This is the great and glorious basis of the doctrine of the gospel and of our eternal joy, what the Saviour is in Himself, His nature, and His Person.