In the Beginning
was the 
word
and the word
was
with God
and the word
was God
Genesis
who wrote Genesis?
when? in what language?
what is its purpose?
what story does it tell?
what does its name mean?
a GREEK word that means "birth" or "origin."
why would a book written in Hebrew have a title that's
___________________________?
About 300 years before Christ, the Hebrew Scripture was translated into Greek, the common language of the day.  Many of the books got renamed to match the language.

This translation, called the Septuagint, is the Scripture that most Jews were familiar with.
the Tanakh, or what we call the Old Testament
B'reshiyth
the Hebrew name for the book of Genesis
the first word of the book
LOGOS
(stow-iks)
the Jews
Hebrews
Greek: philo = "love"| sophos = "wisdom"
they believed in
reason
logic
They did not believe in letting emotion control them.
In fact, even today, "stoic" means showing very little feeling.
"Stoic"
the Stoics
the Stoics were a group of philosophers, whose ideas were popular at the time of the New Testament
REASON was literally EVERYTHING.
The energy that makes sense of everything.
The Order in Nature.
The Force that makes up and holds together the Cosmos.
the Gnostics
Greek: gnōsis = knowledge
they preached salvation would come through "knowledge"
they taught that Universe used be made up of only the spirit realm, controlled by the ultimate god they called the 'demiurge'
until part of the demiurge split off, and becaome a smaller, evil god
it was this inferior, evil god that created the physical realm.
dualism: the belief in two opposing forces or realms
they believed that humans are trapped between the spiritual (good) world, and the physical (evil) world
according to them, there is a Redeemer, sent by the supreme god (demiurge) to teach people about the truth of the Universe.

But remember, if they believe that anything physical is evil, and their "Redeemer" is good, what does that tell you about the "Redeemer?"
and therefore, the world, and anything phyical, is evil.
the man Jesus wasn't God
In the Beginning
God created the heavens and the earth.
... and God saw that it was 
good
Genesis 1:
Originally a word meaning "word," "speech," "account," or "reason," it became a technical term in philosophy, beginning with Heraclitus (ca. 535–475 BC), who used the term for the principle of order and knowledge.
word
speech
account
reason
study
logic
dia-logue
mono-logue
psycho-logy
theo-logy
bio-logy
anthropo-logy
(B' ray-sheeth)
lets look at one last group
John
1:1
who was he?
he was a fisherman
along with his older brother James
he was a disciple of John the Baptist
He walked with jesus personally for three years
when Jesus was on the Cross, it was John whom he told to look after his mother Mary
he became one of most important people in the books of Acts, starting the Church with the other Apostles.
he was sentenced to death by being boiled alive in oil.
he wrote more of the New Testament than anyone else but Paul.
Jesus nicknamed them the "sons of thunder"
he was not only one of the 12 disciples; he was Jesus' closest friend
so how does all of this fit together?
the apostle
We’re going to look at three groups of people from the time of the New Testament.  They believe very different things, and it might be hard to see what all this has in common; but trust me, you’ll want to see how it all fits together.

The first group is...
click here
the Greek word is
The Gnostics believed
the Redeemer couldn't have had a physical body! And therefore,
In  one sentence, John speaks specifically and powerfully to all three of these groups at the same time!
To the Jews:
To the Stoics:
To the Gnostics:
he starts “In the beginning”... the very same words as the name of the first book of Scripture.
he describes Christ as the "Word," through Him all things were made. How did God create?
he states the Word was WITH God (in intimacy as well as proxiomity) and WAS God -- blasphemy to Jews who believe in one God!
the Greek for "Word" is logos -- the very same logos that the Stoics believe to be the supreme reality of the universe!
it's almost as if he says to them, "You know that impersonal Force which you believe governs all things? Well you are almost right -- except he is a Person who is one with the One True God, and he has made himself one of us!
John picks apart the idea that a Redeemer is merely sent from God; he IS God.
John addresses their false teaching of salvation through knowledge later in the book;
here, he outright destroys the Gnostic claims that Jesus the human could not have been God, in verse 14: "The Word became FLESH." It could not be clearer.