“In the beginning” the Word existed, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The Word existed “in the beginning” with God.
All things came into being through the Word. Nothing that came into being did so apart from the Word.
In the Word was life, and that life was what gave light to humans.
That light has continued to shine in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. John 1:1-5
The Gospel of John starts off with “in the beginning” and thus puts us right back at the beginning of the Bible, which is about the beginning of everything except God. Genesis 1 says what happened “in the beginning,” which was that “God created” heavens and earth, that is, all of that everything-except-God. But John 1 says who was there “in the beginning,” naming something — “the Word” — that, it says, was there alongside God, but was God. Hmm.
How did God create? He spoke, beginning with “let there be light” (at least that’s the first bit we’re told of) and continuing on in that manner for six busy days. So the Word that John says was there was God’s speaking, God’s creating by talking. So John’s appropriation of “in the beginning” from Genesis does not take that phrase away from the story of creation. Rather, it focuses our attention on the “how” of creation, God’s speaking.
If I see you (and already know you), I recognize you by your looks and your way of moving. If you speak, my recognition will be confirmed by the sound of your voice and by phrases you usually say. If we are in dark place, or I have become blind (not yet!), or I don’t notice you coming in, or you phone rather than visit, then your speaking may well come first in the evidence for your identity. It works quite well. No one else sounds quite like you. Your voice travels with you and no one else. Your voice is you.
So with God. His voice, his Word, was there “in the beginning” (though not mentioned till the third verse of Genesis). It was with him, and it was him. Everyone else there (which no one was, barring some ideas about when angels first showed up) would have known it was him without looking up, provided they were familiar with that voice. “Voice” is sound, but “Word” is coherent speech, that is, meaningful sound, which God’s creating words certainly were because, whaddya know, here we all are.
It is hard for us to read books of the Bible the way we ought to read them, at least sometimes. We need to be linear in our reading sometimes, and if we read John’s Gospel that way, we won’t know that John tells us about the Word so that he can tell us about the incarnation of the Word, because he doesn’t mention the incarnation till v. 14 (though we get it in terms of the coming of the light in vv. 9-13). So if we thus hear John 1:1-5 as a faithful Jewish meditation on how God created us and our world, then that the Word is incarnate and has lived among us (v. 14), and then that that incarnate Word person has a particular name (v. 17), then we are can appreciate yet more the audacity of the early Christians in speaking thus of the man Jesus.
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As I type this I am listening to Anita O’Day (d. 2006) singing standards. It’s surprising that so enjoyable and prolific a singer dodged my radar for so long. Check her out. Archive.org has hours of her recordings for your listening and downloading.
The One Story 