In the Beginning was the Word (Paperback)

In the Beginning was the Word: An Annotated Reading of the Prologue of John by Anthony Esolen

In this extended study, Anthony Esolen examines the majestic Prologue to the Gospel of John, which he rightly labels "the most significant line in the history of man." He reveals its theological richness by demonstrating how the Apostle John considers not just what he saw Jesus do and hear him say, but also the entire witness of Scripture prior to Jesus' time, as well as how the nascent Church proclaimed him. A distinguishing feature of this remarkable work is how Esolen "hears" (and we with him) the Hebrew/Aramaic underlying John's Greek (which was not his mother tongue), echoing those languages in such a way that what we thought could never be more profoundly expressed bursts forth in a renewed poetic splendour that brings into ever keener relief the entire panorama of God-Man theology. Esolen's decades-long absorption in Christian poetry and Scripture uniquely qualifies him as a guide to the Prologue's stunning and life-changing "poem." "My objective is not only to illuminate what John intends us to hear, but to demonstrate that, when it comes to this poetry, John is not the original; rather, he is the beloved disciple who caught the habit from the Lord Himself," he explains.