In the first 18 lines of John, the story of Jesus is introduced with a jarringly brief and emphatic summary of the story since the beginning of time until the birth of Christ. This passage formalizes the concept, suggested more subtly in Genesis, that language precedes nature. Although in our daily lives we view words as human intellectual inventions, John asks us to take a leap of faith and believe that the Word existed before the physical universe, that the names of objects existed before the objects themselves. same. His assertion that “the Word was God” shows that at the center of his perception of religion is ultimate abstraction. The opening passage from John serves to distance God from nature. This creates a clear division between the abstract realm of the mind and the physical world. Before beginning the story of Christ, John established that the realm of abstraction was the original state of the universe. When Jesus introduces the idea that it is with thoughts of this world that we must live our lives, his statement is already legitimized by this assertion. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay John's description of the birth of Christ is simply "And the Word became flesh" [1.14]. Jesus is the incarnation of his own teachings, which existed before him. Jesus' later teachings echo this theme: “It is the Spirit that gives life; the flesh is useless. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and life. » [6.63]. Instead of exalting himself as a man, he constantly focuses his attention on his words. He considers himself a messenger sent from God, whose function is to teach and spread the word of God. “You have already been cleansed by the word that I spoke to you” [15.3]. According to Jesus himself, it is his words that cause a change in the hearts of his disciples; his physical presence is of no importance. Although his miracles are proof to those of little faith, it is the supernatural promise of his message that appeals to his followers. Jesus comes to them directly from this world of Word and spirit, offering them a chance to follow him to their most distant origins, already described by the opening of John. Jesus' personal rejection of the physical world is apparent throughout the text. He is not subject to the natural desires with which normal men live. At 4:32 p.m., he says, “I have food to eat that you don’t know about.” » He can resist hunger because his food comes from the world of spirit. In addition to ignoring the laws of the physical world by changing water into wine and healing the sick, he remains impervious to many of the natural emotions that influence human behavior; lust and the desire for revenge are unknown to him. But most striking is its ease in overcoming death, the inevitable fate of all living things in nature. In John, Jesus is the personification of his own teachings, not a man of flesh and blood like his disciples. He is a being of pure spirit who does not live according to the rules of nature as those of him did. However, Jesus proposes to replace nature by saying: “…my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink” [6.55]. Moreover, it implies that even the most innocuous and seemingly necessary parts of the physical world are somehow false. He wants his followers to believe that the world of spirit is indeed the force that sustains life. He preached to his disciples: “no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and the Spirit....One must be born from above” [2.5-2.7]..