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14 Colossians 1:15-20

John 1:14 — The Word became flesh

What John is saying here is that the prophecies that YEHOVAH had spoken of in the past to
the fathers and the prophets about the Messiah were fulfilled when Yeshua was born. In order to
better understand this verse, I am going to use an analogy that most of us can relate to. Say that you
and your spouse decide to have a child. You have an idea, (logos) a plan in your mind to have a
child. That plan becomes flesh when your child is born. YEHOVAH’s logos (plan) became flesh,
became a reality when Yeshua was born. We can see this type of expression used again by John in 1
John 1:1-2 —

“Concerning the Word of life – and the life was manifested; and we have seen, and bear
witness and proclaim to you the eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested
to us.

Notice that in John 1:14 it is the Word that became (is manifested) flesh, and in 1 John 1:1-2
it is the life, the eternal life that is manifested.

The life is not Yeshua, it comes to us through Yeshua. John 1:2:

“What came to be through him was life”

So if we use the definition that Word = Yeshua, then we have the Word being manifested in
John’s gospel and the life being manifested in John’s epistle. Now we have two different things be-
ing manifested, the Word and the life. If Yeshua is the Word then who is the life?

If we understand “Word” to mean a message that brings life (Word of life), then there is no
conflict, we are speaking of the same thing. In other words, YEHOVAH’s message of love that
brings us eternal life was manifested (revealed) to us by Yeshua:

1 John 4:9 – “In this the love of God was MANIFESTED toward us, that God has sent his
only begotten Son into the world so that we might live through him.

In other words, by seeing Yeshua, how he lived, how he loved, how he perfectly followed
YEHOVAH’s will, YEHOVAH’s word (His message) was no longer an abstract idea, it was being
acted out in the flesh. It was manifested in the flesh. You could actually touch it.

YEHOVAH’s works are also said to be manifested. A good example is the blind man that
Yeshua cures in John 9:3:

(The blind man) “Neither has this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God
should be made manifest in him.”

The outcome of the Greek philosophical interpretation of the Word becoming flesh is Dual-
ism:

The Berean Voice November-December 2002