We have already reviewed in chapter 7 the indications that the prologue reflects a controversy setting and that it represents an attempt to legitimate certain beliefs, and thus we need not review this evidence again here. In order to avoid unnecessary repetition in this chapter we shall at times presuppose our earlier discussion of certain aspects of the prologue and the conclusions drawn there.

The focus of the conflict and its relation to earlier tradition

One of the debates which underlies the prologue of the Fourth Gospel is the issue of the relationship between Jesus and Moses and their respective revelations. This can be seen explicitly in 1.17, where some sort of contrast/comparison is made between Jesus and Moses. However, it is also implicit in a number of other features: the application to Christ of imagery connected with the Torah (with which Wisdom had been identified in Jewish tradition), and the allusions to traditions connected with Moses at Sinai (such as seeing God in 1.18, and grace and truth in 1.17).

The imagery John uses, and his overall portrait of Jesus here, are based on earlier Christian approaches to this issue. In view of the poetic or hymnic character of the prologue, the closest New Testament parallel outside the Johannine corpus is probably Colossians 1.15–20. There we find Wisdom language and imagery being applied to Jesus, and this use of such imagery is best understood as a response to the application of similar imagery to Torah in Jewish writings.