The structure of the prologue is rather like the letter V. It begins

with a steady descent from the first verse until the lowest point is

reached at verse 14, and then, from this point onwards, there is a

steady rise until the Son of God is `back where He was before'. We

have reached verse 14, where we have the marvellous words:

`And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we

beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,)

full of grace and truth'.

It will be noticed that John makes no reference to the various

features in connection with the actual birth of Christ that are dwelt

upon by Matthew and Luke. He does not even mention Mary, the

mother of Christ, until the Lord is about to start His public ministry;

and although Mary is mentioned ten times in the Gospel nothing is said

of the virgin birth or of the fulfilment of prophecy at Bethlehem,

except in a discussion among the Jews, who only knew that Christ had

come from Galilee. It would seem that John purposely refrains from

pointing out the fulfilment of Old Testament Scriptures - a very

definite feature of Matthew's Gospel which was written particularly

for those who knew them - and instead, brings before us one piece of

evidence after another until we are forced by its sheer weight to say,

with Thomas, `My Lord and my God'. Thomas was not convinced by

an appeal to Scripture that Jesus was the Christ, or that He was risen

again. He was convinced by the testimony of his own senses.

`... Reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither

thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but

believing' (John 20:27).

In Nathanael's case, too, the evidence was personal rather than

scriptural. He was convinced that the Lord was the Son of God and the

King of Israel, not by the fulfilment of prophecy, but by evidence of a

purely personal character - `Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under

the fig tree' (1:50). So here, in the prologue, John says nothing about

the prophecy of Isaiah 7:14 that we find stressed in Matthew, and

nothing about the revelation made by Gabriel to Mary that we find in

Luke. He simply makes a statement of fact: `the Word was made

flesh', and follows it by a personal testimony, `we beheld His glory'.