Greek Commentary of John 1:14

1. Christopher Hines
Dr. Edlin
Introduction to Biblical Languages
October 21, 2014
Greek Commentary Paper: John 1:14
Kai ho Logos sarx egeneto kai eskēnōsen en hēmin kai etheasametha tēn doxan
Καὶ ὁ Λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο , καὶ ἐσκήνωσεν ἐν ἡμῖν , καὶ ἐθεασάμεθα τὴν δόξαν
And the Word flesh became and dwelt among us and we beheld the glory
Conj Art-NMS N-NMSN-NFS V-AIM-3S Conj V-AIA-3S Prep PPro-D1P Conj V-AIM-1P Art-AFSN-AFS
autou doxan hōs monogenous para Patros plērēs charitos kai alētheias
αὐτοῦ , δόξαν ὡς μονογενοῦς παρὰ Πατρός , πλήρης χάριτος καὶ ἀληθείας.
of him a glory as of an only-begotten with a father full of grace and truth
PPro-GM3S N-AFS Adv Adj-GMS Prep N-GMS Adj-NMS N-GFS Conj N-GFS
The literary context of the passage is John 1:1-18
1 In the beginning wasthe Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God
in the beginning.3 Through himall things were made; without him nothing was made that has been
made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.5 The light shines in the darkness, and the
darknesshas not overcome it.
6 There was a man sent from God whose name was John. 7 He came as a witness to testify concerning that
light,so that through him all might believe. 8 He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the
light.
9 The true light that giveslight to everyone was coming into the world. 10 He was in the world,and though
the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. 11 He came to that which was his own,

2. but his own did not receive him. 12 Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he
gave the right to become children of God— 13 children born not of natural descent,nor of human decision
or a husband’swill, but born of God.
14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one
and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.
15 (John testified concerning him.He cried out,saying, “This is the one I spoke about when I said, ‘He who
comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’”) 16 Out of his fullness we have all received
grace in place of grace already given.17 For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came
through Jesus Christ. 18 No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in
closest relationship with the Father,has made him known. (New International Version)
Multiple translations of John 1:14:
NIV1984:14The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his
glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of
grace and truth.
NIV2011:14 The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his
glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of
grace and truth.
ESV: 14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory,
glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
NRSV: 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory,
the glory as of a father’s only son, full of grace and truth.
NLT: 14 So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of
unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the
Father’s one and only Son.
HSCB: 14 The Word became flesh
and took up residence among us.
We observed His glory,
the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father,
full of grace and truth.
MSG: 14 The Word became flesh and blood,
and moved into the neighborhood.
We saw the glory with our own eyes,
the one-of-a-kind glory,

3. like Father, like Son,
Generous inside and out,
true from start to finish.
Most of the versions are similar and only differentiate with capitalization or the added
“Son”. The word dwelt was translated into different words such as “residence” and “home”
which are easier to understand. The New Living Translation arranges the latter part of the
passage differently by placing “unfailing love” and “faithfulness” before “we have seen his
glory”.
Word Biblical Commentary
The language of this verse is parallel with that of Exodus and God’s work with Moses.
This was intentionally done by John to show Christ’s fulfillment of a second Exodus.
ἐθεασάμεθα represents the Church’s confession to the ministry of Christ. χάριτος only occurs in
this passage, however, its repetition shows the importance to the confessional theology of the
Johannine church.
Black’s New Testament Commentary
The thought of the Word becoming flesh was the opposite of Jewish tradition and
Graeco-Roman thought and John leaves no room for Docetism. When He made His dwelling
among us is to be the person of Jesus, not a reference to the temple or tabernacle. The use of
grace and truth was to reference traditional Jewish language.
My Thoughts
One of the insights I gained from the Word Biblical Commentary was the parallelism of
this passage to that of Exodus. I never thought about the dwelling relating to the burning bush or
Mount Sinai. Black’s New Testament Commentary brought the realization of the counter-
cultural idea of Jesus and helped me understand the reasons for the Jewish community’s reaction.