John 1

Quick answer

The eternal Word, who was with God and was God, becomes flesh; John the Baptist points to him as the Lamb of God.

John's prologue (1:1–18) deliberately echoes Genesis 1 to declare Jesus' deity and pre-existence, then announces the incarnation. The rest of the chapter gathers the first witnesses and disciples around him.

Part of The Word Became Flesh📖 John introduction

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¹In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ✦ ²He was with God in the beginning. ³Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made. ✦ ⁴In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. ✦ ⁵The Light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. ✦ ⁶There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John. ✦ ⁷He came as a witness to testify about the Light, so that through him everyone might believe. ✦ ⁸He himself was not the Light, but he came to testify about the Light. ✦ ⁹The true Light who gives light to every man was coming into the world. ✦ ¹⁰He was in the world, and though the world was made through Him, the world did not recognize Him. ✦ ¹¹He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. ✦ ¹²But to all who did receive Him, to those who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God— ✦ ¹³children born not of blood, nor of the desire or will of man, but born of God. ✦ ¹⁴The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. ✦ ¹⁵John testified concerning Him. He cried out, saying, “This is He of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.’” ✦ ¹⁶From His fullness we have all received grace upon grace. ✦ ¹⁷For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. ✦ ¹⁸No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is Himself God and is at the Father’s side, has made Him known. ✦ ¹⁹And this was John’s testimony when the Jews of Jerusalem sent priests and Levites to ask him, “Who are you?” ✦ ²⁰He did not refuse to confess, but openly declared, “I am not the Christ.” ✦ ²¹“Then who are you?” they inquired. “Are you Elijah?” He said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” He answered, “No.” ✦ ²²So they said to him, “Who are you? We need an answer for those who sent us. What do you say about yourself?” ✦ ²³John replied in the words of Isaiah the prophet: “I am a voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.’” ✦ ²⁴Then the Pharisees who had been sent ✦ ²⁵asked him, “Why then do you baptize, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” ✦ ²⁶“I baptize with water,” John replied, “but among you stands One you do not know. ✦ ²⁷He is the One who comes after me, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie.” ✦ ²⁸All this happened at Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing. ✦ ²⁹The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! ✦ ³⁰This is He of whom I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because He was before me.’ ✦ ³¹I myself did not know Him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that He might be revealed to Israel.” ✦ ³²Then John testified, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove and resting on Him. ✦ ³³I myself did not know Him, but the One who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit descend and rest is He who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ ✦ ³⁴I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.” ✦ ³⁵The next day John was there again with two of his disciples. ✦ ³⁶When he saw Jesus walking by, he said, “Look, the Lamb of God!” ✦ ³⁷And when the two disciples heard him say this, they followed Jesus. ✦ ³⁸Jesus turned and saw them following. “What do you want?” He asked. They said to Him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are You staying?” ✦ ³⁹“Come and see,” He replied. So they went and saw where He was staying, and spent that day with Him. It was about the tenth hour. ✦ ⁴⁰Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, was one of the two who heard John’s testimony and followed Jesus. ✦ ⁴¹He first found his brother Simon and told him, “We have found the Messiah” (which is translated as Christ). ✦ ⁴²Andrew brought him to Jesus, who looked at him and said, “You are Simon son of John. You will be called Cephas” (which is translated as Peter). ✦ ⁴³The next day Jesus decided to set out for Galilee. Finding Philip, He told him, “Follow Me.” ✦ ⁴⁴Now Philip was from Bethsaida, the same town as Andrew and Peter. ✦ ⁴⁵Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the One Moses wrote about in the Law, the One the prophets foretold—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” ✦ ⁴⁶“Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Nathanael asked. “Come and see,” said Philip. ✦ ⁴⁷When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, He said of him, “Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is no deceit.” ✦ ⁴⁸“How do You know me?” Nathanael asked. Jesus replied, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” ✦ ⁴⁹“Rabbi,” Nathanael answered, “You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” ✦ ⁵⁰Jesus said to him, “Do you believe just because I told you I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than these.” ✦ ⁵¹Then He declared, “Truly, truly, I tell you, you will all see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” ✦

Tap any verse for its study page. Underlined terms mark a concept, person, or place; ✦ marks verses with cross-references.

In this chapter

Theme Light & Darkness Person / place John the Baptist Person / place Moses Concept The Lamb of God Concept The Word (Logos)

Where this chapter connects

John 1 ·56 John 3 ·29 John 6 ·17 Matt 3 ·16 Luke 1 ·15 John 5 ·15 Luke 3 ·14 Mark 1 ·13

Christ at the center

John declares him plainly: the eternal Word made flesh, the Lamb of God, the great 'I AM' — bread, light, door, shepherd, way, truth, life, resurrection — that you may believe and have life in his name.

How John 1 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.

Resources, by level

Lay

★ Start hereDocumentaryFollowing the MessiahAppian Media · Free · evangelical
A free, beautifully shot 10-part series walking the lands of Jesus' life — Bethlehem, Galilee, Jerusalem, and more.
★ Start hereVideoBibleProject — video overviews & word studiesBibleProject · 5–10 min · Free · evangelical
Free animated overviews of every book of the Bible, plus themes and Hebrew/Greek word studies — the best visual on-ramp to any book. (Biblical-theology, broadly evangelical, not distinctly Reformed.)
★ Start hereAudioThrough the WordThrough the Word · ~10 min/chapter · Free · evangelical
A clear ~10-minute audio teaching for every one of the Bible's 1,189 chapters — the most systematic free way to study chapter by chapter.
DocumentaryHolyLandSiteHolyLandSite · Free · evangelical
Free on-location videos tying biblical events to the actual sites in Israel — the Temple Mount, Galilee, Capernaum, and more.
ApologeticsCold-Case Christianity (J. Warner Wallace)J. Warner Wallace · Free · evangelical
A cold-case homicide detective examines the Gospels' reliability — forensic faith for skeptics and seekers.

Pastoral

★ Start hereSermonMLJ Trust — Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermonsMartyn Lloyd-Jones · Free · reformed
1,600+ free sermons from "the Doctor," including landmark verse-by-verse series (Romans, John, Ephesians, Acts) — a gold standard of expository preaching.
SermonGrace to You — John MacArthurJohn MacArthur · Free · reformed
Decades of careful verse-by-verse expository sermons, especially through the New Testament. (MacArthur, d. 2025; archive remains free.)
SermonGospel in Life — Tim KellerTim Keller · Free · reformed
Tim Keller's gospel-centered preaching — sermons stream free (the complete downloadable archive is paid).
ArticleRecommended NT commentaries (9Marks / Schreiner)Thomas R. Schreiner · Free · reformed
A trusted pastor-oriented guide to the best commentary on each New Testament book.
SermonChuck Smith — C2000 SeriesChuck Smith · Free · evangelical
Free verse-by-verse audio through the entire Bible from the founder of Calvary Chapel.
VideoVerse By Verse Ministry InternationalVerse By Verse Ministry Int'l · Free · evangelical
In-depth, verse-by-verse expository teaching book-by-book — strong for working straight through a whole New Testament book.
CommentaryCommentary on John 1Matthew Henry · Free
Henry on the prologue — rich on the Word and the incarnation.
VideoLook at the Book — John PiperJohn Piper · Free · reformed
Watch Piper trace the logic of a passage phrase by phrase on screen — a model of close reading.

Seminary

★ Start hereApologeticsGary Habermas — the resurrectionGary Habermas · Free · evangelical
130+ free videos and lectures from the scholar behind the "minimal facts" method — the start-here on the historical evidence for the resurrection. (Only his books are paid.)
★ Start hereCommentaryThe Gospel According to John (Pillar NT Commentary)D. A. Carson · ~720 pp · Paid · reformed
The go-to mid-level exegetical commentary on John — rigorous and readable.

Commentaries & study tools

VideoBibleProject — John videosBibleProject · Lay · Free · evangelical
Free animated overview and word-study videos for this book.
VideoWatch teaching on John 1YouTube · Lay · Free
Sermons and chapter teaching from across YouTube.
CommentaryEnduring Word — John 1David Guzik · Lay · Free · evangelical
Readable, verse-by-verse exposition of the whole chapter.
CommentaryMatthew Henry on JohnMatthew Henry · Pastoral · Free · evangelical
The beloved Puritan exposition of this whole book — warm, devotional, and verse by verse (free, CCEL).
ReferenceBlue Letter Bible — John 1Blue Letter Bible · Seminary · Free
Interlinear, lexicon, and study tools across the chapter.

John 2 →