In the Beginning Was the Word: An Annotated Reading of the Prologue of John

by Anthony Esolen, Peter Kwasniewski (Foreword)

In this extended meditation, Anthony Esolen looks, phrase by phrase, at the majestic Prologue to the Gospel of John, which with good reason he calls “the most influential paragraph in the history of man.” He unfolds its theological richness by showing how the Apostle John has in mind, not only what he saw Jesus do and heard him say, but also the whole witness of Scripture before the time of Jesus, and the way the young Church proclaimed him. A unique feature of this remarkable work is how Esolen “hears” (and we with him) the Hebrew/Aramaic underlying John’s Greek (which was not his mother tongue), echoing those languages in such a way that, all at once, what we thought could never be more profoundly expressed bursts forth in a renewed poetic splendor that brings into ever keener relief the whole panorama of the theology of the God-Man. Esolen’s decades-long immersion in Christian poetry and Scripture uniquely positions him as a guide to the astonishing and life-changing “poem” of the Prologue. He says it “My hope is not only to illuminate what John wishes us to hear, but to show that, when it comes to this poetry, John is not the originator; he is, rather, the beloved disciple who caught the habit from the Lord Himself.”

“This book is more than biblical interpretation. It is poetry — and poetry about the greatest work of poetry ever the Prologue to John’s gospel.” —SCOTT HAHN

“A word-by-word commentary that is accessible and scholarly, robustly orthodox, and poetically inspiring.” —FR DWIGHT LONGENECKER

“Here philological expertise is brought to bear on the paragraph of text that is arguably the most pregnant with meaning of any ever written.” —FR LUKE BELL

“In this splendid gem of a book, Anthony Esolen reminds us that all Scripture — perhaps especially the Gospel of John — sparkles and delights, if only we would see its theological, philosophical, and poetical brilliance.” —R. J. SNELL

“Anthony Esolen here reveals something of the original tongues that fed into this theological overture, allowing our souls to resonate with the allusive overtones of the Logos that tells us our Story.” —SCOTT RANDALL PAINE

“This unique, arresting book allows a mere eighteen verses to shed their light into the very heart of life and culture!” —R. JARED STAUDT

Genres: Catholic, Nonfiction, Theology

213 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 22, 2022

About the author

Anthony Esolen is the author of over twenty-five books and over 1,000 articles in both scholarly and general interest journals. A senior editor of Touchstone: A Journal of Mere Christianity, Esolen is known for his elegant essays on the faith and for his clear social commentaries. His articles appear regularly in Touchstone, Crisis, First Things, Public Discourse, The Catholic Thing, Chronicles, Inside the Vatican, and Magnificat, among others. An accomplished poet in his own right, Esolen is known for his widely acclaimed three-volume verse translation of Dante’s Divine Comedy (Modern Library). His Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child has been described as "a worthy successor to C.S. Lewis's The Abolition of Man." And its sequel, Life Under Compulsion, has been called "essential reading for parents, educators, and anyone who is concerned to rescue children from the tedious and vacuous thing childhood has become." His recent books of social commentary include Out of the Ashes: Rebuilding American Culture, Nostalgia: Going Home in a Homeless World, and the forthcoming, No Apologies: Why Civilization Depends upon the Strength of Men.

Anthony Esolen has been writing his own poetry for decades, but until recently most of his published poetry has appeared in his verse translations of the great poets, Dante, Tasso, and Lucretius. More than a hundred of his own poems have appeared in such venues as Fine Madness, The Plains Poetry Journal, and Modern Age. After studying and teaching great poetry for nearly thirty years, Professor Esolen set out to write a book-length unified poem of his own, a project which he hopes will show that serious and significant long poetic works can still be written in our time. The result of his effort is The Hundredfold: Songs for the Lord, a book-length single poem composed of 100 parts -- short lyrics, dramatic monologues, and hymns -- centered on the life of Christ. He is working now on a second such long poem, The Twelve-Gated City, a collection of 144 interrelated poems centered on the parable of the prodigal son.

The grandson of Italian immigrants to America, Anthony Esolen was born and raised in the coal-mining country of Northeastern Pennsylvania. He received his B.A. from Princeton University, and his Ph. D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, where he was a Morehead Fellow. He is the 2020 recipient of the CIRCE Institute's Russel Kirk Prize, awarded each year to a writer and scholar "in honor of a lifetime dedicated to the cultivation of wisdom and virtue." He is writer-in-residence at Magdalen College in Warner, NH.

For more from the mind and pen of Anthony Esolen, visit his online magazine called Word and Song, at https://anthonyesolen.substack.com

Reviews

[Gene · Rating 5 out of 5]

I discovered Anthony Esolen online. He's a great teacher of literature with a brilliant mind, but at the same time he has a tenderness that comes from his love for Christ. This makes him the perfect one to comment on the prologue to the Beloved Disciple's gospel. The first eighteen verses of the Gospel of John were significant enough to me that I decided to memorize them and recite them reflectively every morning. This passage that was already precious to me became that much dear through the insights of Esolen. Though not a Biblical scholar, he brings his skills in poetry and linguistics to the text to bring out deeper and richer meanings from those verses that begin John's Gospel. He considers this the most significant piece of short writing in the history of the world, so he does not treat it flippantly. The immensity of the thought of an eternal God who takes the form of a servant in human form is overwhelming in ramifications for our world, and Esolen makes sure the reader gets this truth sunk deeply into his heart. The work is one that combines scholarship with relationship; it is both deeply theological and poetical. I highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to understand more about who Jesus is or for anyone for whom the faith has become mundane and lacking in excitement. It will build a deeper love for the Word Who became flesh and dwelt among us.

[Jeremy]

I didn't expect as much Milton as I found in here (pp. 23, 25, 32–33, 41, 65, 80, 94, 119). Dante, Shakespeare, Donne, Herbert, and Lewis appear too.

[Jeff Beyer · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is not light reading, but it was wonderful. Esolen is so excellent with his understanding of language and has great insights into John, who wrote his Gospel in Greek, even though that was not his native tongue.