If one compares him to the other
authors of the New Testament, John in his Gospel and epistles is the one who
most frequently uses the word “beginning.” In the Fourth Gospel, after the
Prologue (cf. 1:1-2), which constitutes a separate unit, the word “beginning,”
employed in itself, is found in two places (Jn 2:11 and Jn 8:25). In four other
cases, it is either “ap’ archês,” (8:44 and 15:27) or “ex archês”
(6:64 and 16:4), which in both instances mean “from the outset.” At Cana, the
“beginning” is clearly specified: “The beginning of the signs...” (2:11); in
the two other cases, on the contrary, it was the start of a much longer period,
the commencement of a permanent reality, that of their relationship to Jesus:
“From the outset you have been with me,” Jesus will say (Jn 15:27).
Thus, the “beginning” in John is a concrete happening which is the start of
a permanent relationship between Jesus and his disciples: it is the
beginning of their faith in him.
We also find the word “beginning”
in several places in the Johannine epistles. The opening verse of the First
Epistle has this expression: “Ho ên ap’ archês,” “That which was from
the beginning” (cf. 1 Jn 1:1-3). Contemporary exegesis is more and more
unanimous in saying that here it is not a question of the eternalness of the
Word, as at the beginning of the Prologue of the Fourth Gospel (Jn 1:1), but of
the “beginning” of the Christian tradition. And yet, the expression which one
reads shortly after, “that which we have contemplated,” is exactly the same as
that which occurs much earlier in the Prologue of the Gospel (Jn 1:14). In both
instances we are dealing with a theology of revelation. The Word become flesh,
of whom the witnesses “have contemplated the glory,” is “the unique Son of God
come from the Father.” But in the epistle, John is more precise: “... we have
contemplated..., we have seen and we render testimony... that which we have
seen and heard, we announce it to you, too, that you also may be in communion
with us” (1 Jn 1:2-3). “That which was from the beginning” for the witnesses —
the historical self-revelation of Jesus to his disciples — the author links
later to the message he announces to the Christians. Here, not only is the
message transmitted, but the faith experience of the witnesses is shared as
well.
But in his letters, John likewise
addresses himself to Christians by using up to four times the same expression:
“ékousate ap’ archês,” “(what) you have heard from the beginning.” The
verb “ékousate” is a technical term for the kerygma. For the Christians
of Asia Minor, to whom John sent his letters, the “beginning” is the moment
when they, for the first time, heard Jesus spoken about by the witnesses
of the Good News. It is indeed remarkable that the author brings about a fusion
between what has been the “beginning” for him and the other witnesses and what
it means for the Christians to whom he writes: all have communion in one and
the same experience and the same practice (cf. 1 Jn 2:20-27). For John as for
the other Christians, for all, the beginning of Christianity was the moment
when they personally discovered Christ and received him in faith; that this
happened earlier (for the first witnesses) or more recently (for the
Christians), it is always the direct encounter with Christ and the acceptance
of his message. The beautiful reflection of Blondel is appropriate here in
light of Tradition: he characterizes it as a “collective experience,” a
“spiritual continuity” of a Christological nature, which links the past
(here, the time of the witnesses) and the present (the religious
actuality of the community); all participate in one and the same experience:
the discovery of and the personal encounter with Christ. (Ignace de la
Potterie, Mary in the Mystery of the Covenant [trans. Bertrand Buby; New
York: Alba House, 1992], 173-75)
