En arche

In the third century before Christ, Emperor Ptolemy asked that the Old Testament (then known simply as the Jewish scriptures) be translated into the most accessible and wide-spread language of the day: Greek, or Koine. To accomplish this task, tradition holds that 72 Jewish scholars were appointed as translators and met in Alexandria between 300 and 200 B.C. Their product became known as the Septuagint, after the Latin septuaginta interpretum versio.

Translated into Koine, Genesis, the first book of the Law, the book of beginnings, began:

En arche epoiesen ho Theos ton ouranon kai ton gen.
In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth.

En arche, "in the beginning," would have served as a title of sorts. (Books, as you may know, were not present during this time. What we would consider a book today would have been a scroll then. And the first line of the scroll would most commonly be used for its title.) The Septuagint provided a previously unavailable window into Judaism for the Koine-speaking world, which at that time was much of civilization surrounding the Mediterranean. Additionally, the Jews of the period were losing their Hebrew knowledge. The Septuagint would allow them to learn their scriptures in the language of their environment—"Hebrew as a second language" classes would no longer be needed.

Fast forward to the first century ano domini. Sometime between 65 and 90, John, the Disciple whom Jesus loved, sought to relate the story of Jesus to his culture in more than simple historical events. He would be the maverick among his fellow disciples in sharing the Gospel. John also sought to engage the philosophers of the day who themselves sought the Divine Word, ho logos, that something that was unknown and unnamed yet was behind and ordered everything. The philosophers knew there had to be something more to their existence. They believed it was ho logos.

And so, written in elegant Koine, John's gospel began:

En arche en ho logos, kai ho logos en pros ton Theon, kai Theos en ho logos.
In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and God was the word.

En arche. The first two words of the book of John, and the first two words of Genesis in the Septuagint. This is not an accident.

A first century philosopher might have thought, "En arche, I've read that, haven't I?" If they were learned in the philosophies of their age, the Greeks would have known of the Jewish book of beginnings, En arche, and of how the Jewish God had made everything. From John, they would learn that the God who made everything had come to earth as one of them. They would learn of his great love for them (3:16) and the sacrifice to which that love would lead. And they would learn that He was the Divine Word, the one behind everything, ho logos.

En arche. In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. En arche. In the beginning was the word.... This is not an accident.



More learnings from my genius Sunday School teacher. More to come.