Book Blurbs: Bruce Schuchard, The Word from the Beginning

Concordia Seminary’s Dean of Theological Research and Publication Dr. Erik Herrmann talks with Dr. Bruce Schuchard, professor of Exegetical Theology, about his new book, The Word from the Beginning: The Person and Work of Jesus in the Gospel of John (Lexham Academic, 2022), in this Concordia Journal Book Blurbs segment, Schuchard began studying John as part of his graduate work. “It struck me quite a while ago, this Gospel has more to say about the Word made flesh than perhaps we previously we realized,” Schuchard says in the video. “Who the Word is in the prologue, ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,’ and then in verse 14, ‘And the Word became flesh.’” Schuchard says a lot of scholarship suggests this manner of introducing readers to Jesus in the first few verses of John doesn’t end up being taken anywhere in the story that follows, or that perhaps, the prologue was a late addition to the Gospel. He argues that the book’s prologue has a much more organic relationship with the rest of John. “If you play close and careful attention to Jesus, who talks a lot in this Gospel, and frequently talks about His talk a lot, we discover the thread that needs to be noticed with the telling of the story,” Schuchard says. “Who the Word is in the prologue is what the Word does in the narrative. He speaks.” The book is available for purchase through Lexham Press and on Amazon.