4. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.
5. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not receive it.102
"Thus, the explanations that the Logos has taken the role of Sophia because it is somehow
unfitting for Sophia to become incarnated in a male human beg the question entirely. Pace, e.g.
Haenchen, John, 1:126: "Of course, Wisdom (σοφία) as a feminine form could not then be
identified with the figure that subsequently becomes man," to which I ask: why on earth not?
I00Contrast Bultmann, "History of Religions," 37.
101Schiissler Fiorenza, Miriam's Child, 152. See also, "Rather than just being influenced by Sophia speculation, the Christology of the Fourth Gospel is nothing less than a thoroughgoing
Sophia Christology" (Scott, Sophia and the Johannine Jesus, 29) and Alison E. Jasper, The
Shining Garment of the Text: Gendered Readings of John's Prologue (JSNTSup; Sheffield,
England: Sheffield Academic Press, 1998).
102For this translation as a possible one, see commentaries. For my reasons for adopting it,