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I'm probably gonna completely butcher this. I'm Matt, by the way. Hi, nice to have you here. This is the 10-minute Bible hour podcast. I'm probably gonna completely butcher this story. I remember it from all the way back in elementary school. Do you remember a thing about some blind guys? And the blind guys come upon an elephant and they all grope around. They go back and they describe what they saw. And the one is like, oh, that animal was like a tree. And well, it turns out it's because he was only feeling the legs. And somebody else was like, no, it was like a fly swatter or a whisk. Oh, well, he was only feeling the tail. And somebody else was like, no, it's like a big stabby spear. Well, he was only feeling the tusk, and so on and so forth. Like the story could get really funny if I just kept going with that. I don't remember what parts they felt of the elephant, is the point. But they all felt up an elephant. And in the end, they got it all wrong because they were blind and they were only feeling part of the elephant and they were only seeing part of the story. And in the New Testament, we keep getting this sense that the Greek thought wasn't completely off. Like sometimes the pagans in Persia, in the Old Testament, and particularly the Greeks, they're groping around in the dark, right? They don't have the illumination that comes with Christ, the Word who came into the world. They don't have the Holy Spirit. I mean, they're not Christians. Their eyes, there's this whole motif, especially in Matthew, about the Holy Spirit opening the eyes of the blind and making it so people can see. Well, the Greeks, I mean, they've never heard of Jesus. I mean, how would Plato and Aristotle ever hear of Jesus? They predate him by like 400 years. I mean, they don't know. But there's this theme throughout the Bible that these blind guys, like the Greeks and other pagans, kind of groped around in the philosophical darkness and accidentally stumbled upon parts of things related to the truth of God, like the actual truth. And they kind of got little bits right here and there. But I think we're getting the same vibe here in John 1, where John is acting like just simply by invoking the word logos, which was so philosophically loaded, he's suggesting, like, you're great philosophers, stoics, you're Plato's. You guys have been groping around in the dark, and you're not totally wrong. There's stuff here that you guys have figured out, that you've seen, that you've deduced that are in the neighborhood of what is real, but John's tone would seem to be everything you guys think you've found while groping around in philosophical and spiritual darkness is bits of the truth, but nothing close to how grand the actual truth of Christ, the actual truth of God is. And as we get further into John 1, it feels like John is delighting in the opportunity to say to all of his Greek-minded neighbors and some Jewish-minded neighbors who were influenced by Greek thought as well: hey, everybody, you're not all wrong. You're actually kind of close. Let me show you what it is that you've been groping around about. Let me show you what it is that you've experienced little glimpses of and that you see little portions of in all of its glory and all of the completeness and the fullness of the thing you're trying to figure out and see bits of. It's all contained in Christ Jesus. My super secret hope is that the more I read this passage, the more we're all going to accidentally memorize it and have it in our hip pockets forever, even if you're brand new to the Bible. So I'm going to read it again to set up what we're going to go and look at today. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made. Without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness is not understood it. There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John. That's John the Baptist. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light, he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world didn't recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Now I mentioned yesterday that two of the most famous things in ancient Greek philosophy for John's original audience, and I would say for the college going or high school philosophy class attending people of today. Two most famous things maybe in ancient philosophy are Plato's idea of the cave illustration and of the philosopher king. And they're both found in the same work of Plato called Republic, and they're both found in the same chapter, if you will. They call it a book within a book. It's book number seven. They're both found right next to each other. Here's the setup for what I'm about to read to you. Plato writes dialogues. So he takes characters, usually Socrates, and then he puts them in a room with a couple other characters, and they all chat about things, kind of like the way the book of Job is structured. It's a back and forth, or the way Habakkuk is structured. That's a dialogue as well. And in Plato's dialogues, he kind of sets up the characters, but then after a while, he doesn't do like Socrates, colon, and then his line, other guy, colon, and then his line. He just assumes that you can tell and kind of track with it. So that's what you're getting here: a dialogue between a knower, Socrates, and a learner, in this case, a guy named Glaucon, who I mentioned yesterday. And specifically here, they're talking about education. And Socrates is saying education is very important, and that at its peak, what education should do is produce philosopher kings, these elite thinkers who are initially trained in music and poetry and PE. They're supposed to be physically good at things, and they should be good at elementary mathematics, and then that's their first couple of years of study. And then after that, they should get two or three more years of physical training and military service. And then after that, they should receive 10 years of mathematical science because that's the ordering language that undergirds all of existence. And then those who are the best at that should get five more years of training in dialectic. And then those who are the most successful at that should get 15 more years of training in practical politics. Notice how Socrates doesn't recommend giving anyone any kind of political training or ambition until they've been humbled by all of this other stuff and they're someone who's cultivated the soul. And then finally, Socrates says that those who are the most successful after all that in practical politics, they should be compelled to lift up the radiant light of their souls to the good itself and are now equipped to be philosopher kings. So yesterday I was kind of badgering Plato a little bit for being like, hmm, well, I think philosophers would be the best kind of rulers. What am I? Oh, well, I guess I happen to be a philosopher. So well, what can you say? I mean, we called it. Okay, of course the philosopher is going to come to the conclusion that philosophers should rule, but when you actually hear the way the republic reads, okay, I admit, maybe I was being a little too hard on old Plato. And I gotta admit, I I would prefer that our rulers were cultivated in this way. I think it would be way better than how we currently select our rulers and the training and education that our rulers currently get. And my guess is that no matter how you think about politics, something has happened where you live in the last decade from one side or the other of whatever the politics are like where you live, that would cause you to agree with me and be like, yeah, I think there is a more enlightened version of rulership, and I can't totally disagree with Plato. Okay, I need to actually read you firsthand what the cave illustration and the philosopher king thing is all about. But I don't want you to get bored because it's ancient philosophy. So let's do this. Jeff, could you drop a sick beat? Oh, yeah. That's the stuff. To make this more interesting, I'll just go ahead and freestyle wrap the opening chapter of book seven of Plato's Republic. Here we go. Next I said compare the effect, the education, or the lack of it, on our nature to an experience like this. Imagine human beings living in an underground, cave-like dwelling with an entrance a long way up, which is both open to the light and wide as the cave itself. They've been there since childhood, fixed in the same place with their necks and legs, fed or able only to see in front of them. Because their bots prevent them from turning their heads around. Light is provided by a fire burning far above and behind them, also behind them. On higher ground, there is a path. Stretching between them and the fire. Imagine that along this path, a low wall has been built, like a screen, in front of puppeteers, above which they show their puppet. I'm imagining it. Yeah, we could probably do the whole thing that way, but I don't want to overwhelm anybody with awesomeness. There's only so much awesomeness the mind and the soul of a normal man can internalize in one day. And we have reached the limit. It goes on. Then also imagine that there are people along the wall carrying all kinds of artifacts that project above it. Statues of people and other animals made out of stone, wood, and every material. And as you'd expect, Socrates goes on, some of the carriers are talking and some are silent. Okay, so we have a picture here, right? Of all these people who are fettered and they can only look one direction and they live in this subterranean existence. They're not aware of any other version of existence, but there's this weird screen like for puppeteers, and there's a fire back there. And so as the things move around in the puppet show behind these prisoners who are shackled and live in the subterranean dwelling, you know, it's going to cast a shadow from those things that are behind them that they've never seen. And that's kind of our setup here for the cave illustration. All right, he goes on. Do you suppose, first of all, that these prisoners see anything of themselves and one another besides the shadows that the fire casts on the wall in front of them? And Glaucon replies to Socrates, he says, How could they, if they have to keep their heads motionless throughout life? And Socrates says, All right, well, what about the things being carried along that wall? Isn't the same true of them? Glaucon says, Of course. Socrates says, and if the prisoners could talk to one another, don't you think they'd suppose that the names they used applied to the things they see passing before them? Glaucon says, they'd have to. And Socrates says, and what if their prison also had an echo from the wall facing them? Don't you think the prisoners would believe that the shadows passing in front of them were talking whenever one of the carriers passed along the wall behind the puppet screen was doing so? Glaucon says, Well, I certainly do. Socrates says, then the prisoners would in every way believe that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of those artifacts. Glaucon says, they must surely believe that. Socrates says, and this is where it gets juicy. Consider then what being released from their bonds and cured of their ignorance would naturally be like. When one of them was freed and suddenly compelled to stand up, turn his head, walk, and look up toward the light, he'd be pained and dazzled and unable to see the things whose shadows he'd seen before. What do you think he'd say if we told him that what he'd seen before was inconsequential, but that now, because he's a bit closer to the things that are and is turned toward the things that are, that now he sees more correctly? Or put it another way, what if we pointed to each of the things passing by and asked him what each of them is and compelled him to answer? Don't you think he'd be at a loss and that he'd believe that the things he saw earlier in the shadows were truer than the real ones he was being shown now? Glaucon says, much truer. Socrates says, and if somebody compelled him to look right at the light himself, wouldn't his eyes hurt? And wouldn't he turn around and flee back toward the things he's able to see, believing that they're really real and really clearer than the ones he's being shown now? And Glaucon says, he would. And Socrates says, and if someone dragged him away from there by force up the rough, steep path and didn't let him go until he dragged him all the way into the sunlight, wouldn't that former prisoner be pained and irritated at being treated that way? And when he came into the light with the sun filling his eyes, wouldn't he be unable to see a single one of the things now said to be true? Glaucon agrees, he would be unable to see them, at least at first. Yeah, I'm gonna interrupt Glaucon and Socrates here because this is getting to be a long episode, but I do want to, I don't want to split this in half. I want to keep it all together. So let me sum up how it ends. Eventually, the freed prisoner squints and uh his eyes adjust, and pretty soon he realizes, oh wow, no, this is real light. Light is better. And he comes around on the reality that all those puppets and sounds and everything that were behind him when his neck was shackled and he was just staring at a dark cave wall, he realizes, uh-oh, that stuff was really real. And I was just looking at a deteriorated version of that shadows, even the names we had for that stuff, they weren't the right names. We just made stuff up to try to make sense of this cave world we lived in. And then this guy who got out of the cave, this former prisoner, is like, I gotta go tell everybody else. Pete and Jenny and Kyle are still in there. So that's not that's not their names. I made those up. And so he goes back into the cave to tell all the other people who are still in bondage, but when he goes in there, he can't see very well anymore because his eyes have adjusted to the light. And then the other prisoners, they're not into it. This is the only reality they know. They can't hear it. If what former prisoner is saying is true, then everything about their lives is a lie and they can't stand it. So they're not going to listen. They mock him, they refuse to believe him, and Socrates goes on to say they they might even kill that guy who came back in. In this example, all that stuff I described to you about what education should be given over the course of a lifetime to a philosopher king. In this example, that guy who goes out and comes back in is the philosopher. He is, in a way, the philosopher king, the one who has seen, the one who is enlightened, in this case, in the most literal sense, enlightened. He's the one who's qualified to come back in and lead everybody else. They're not qualified to lead. But all the people in the cave are probably going to pick somebody else who's looking at shadows and isn't aware of reality because they're going to feel more collegiality and more comfort with what that leader has to say. Okay, this is not a one-for-one with what John is saying here in John chapter one at all. But remember how we started this conversation with the blind man and the elephant? And remember what I was saying about how the Bible has these moments, especially here in John 1, where it's like the biblical authors revel in saying, you guys have actually fumbled around and kind of groping around in the intellectual darkness. You've sort of grasped a few things, and some of these elements are right. Now, let me hey, this kind of works with the analogy. Let me lead you out of the cave and show the light of what you are seeing in darkness. And I think the New Testament authors had the joy and the delight of seeing people's eyes opened, seeing the scales fall off of people's eyes, who had little bits of partial understandings of how reality really is and who God is. And we see throughout the whole New Testament a whole bunch of people who thought the stuff that I just read you and characterized from the Republic. We see throughout the whole New Testament a whole bunch of them coming around and getting it and becoming powerful leaders in the early church, committed Christians. Once they see the light, once they see the reality of reality, and that the truest, realist thing is God, it is Christ, they never go back. But now, let's you and I do go back to the Gospel of John and let's consider, in light of what I just read, and a little bit wrapped for you, with excellence, I might add, let's go back and consider what we just got straight from the horse's mouth from the Republic in light of what John is doing here in the beginning of John 1. In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. Okay, so the whole cave illustration is predicated on the idea that there is a realm of truer, realer things, and that we only see a diminished version. The Greek idea of Logos is this ordering force, this grand rational plan that is impersonal, but it pulls together the blueprints and the raw materials that just exist in the ether and makes reality as we know it. Unfortunately, reality as we know it in this logos theory is a reduced version of reality, the equivalent of seeing those shadows that are cast on the wall. That's no good. It's better than nothing, I guess. But the path to enlightenment, the path to truth that the Greeks were seeking would be get out of the cave and don't see the crude shadows anymore. See reality for what it is, not just like facts and physical things, but the symmetry of existence and ethics and all of that stuff. So those opening two lines of the prologue then sort of allude to the assumptions that are behind the whole cave illustration setup. Let's keep going. Through him, all things were made. Without him, nothing was made that has been made. Okay, already we're challenging this cave illustration model now, because someone personal did the making, and that someone personal made the blueprints and made the raw materials. So now the reader who has that cave illustration that you also have in your brain that has it in their brain, they're reading along and they're comparing notes between their assumptions and what we're getting from John. John goes on. In him was life, and that life was the light of men. The light is not some independent thing, like in the cave illustration, that is just the sunshine. Rather, the light is Jesus, the philosopher king himself. The light exudes from Jesus. He is the light, he is the life. It's not an external, inanimate thing as it is in the cave myth. Jesus is the source of light, and light, of course, in this passage represents more than just seeing. Rather, just like in the cave illustration, light references clarity, truth, seeing what is real and what is actual. It goes on. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. Well, there's two layers here to the cave illustration. One, this relates to the cave illustration in which a little bit of light is shining into the darkness, and people are shackled. They're prisoners, they're looking at a wall, they're just seeing shadows, they don't know what they're looking at. So the darkness doesn't understand what they're seeing. They don't even understand really the concept of light. But I think where this line really pops in light of the cave illustration is in the return, when the prisoner goes out, sees how the things actually are, and comes back in. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. Well, the philosopher, the one who's been liberated and sees how the things are, comes back into the cave and brings light, even if it's just spoken light, the spoken light of truth, to the other prisoners, and you know, they don't like it. They I mean they're gonna mock him, make fun of him, maybe even kill him. Now there's a breakdown here because in the cave illustration, the light is inanimate, it is just from the sun, it's ambient light, and the philosopher used to be a slave just like everyone else. But we already know five verses in that Jesus isn't like that guy. He's better than that guy in the same way that he's better than the Lagos. Jesus pre-existed existence. Jesus was with God. Jesus has been there from the beginning and before. Jesus is God, Jesus made everything. Jesus is light and he's life. So the analogy is starting to get strained a little bit for the Greek audience who'd been groping around in the darkness, and the best they'd come up with was this cave illustration, starting to speed wobble a little bit here by verse 5. It's breaking down a little bit who Jesus is, is challenging the parameters of the cave illustration, and it's starting to not hold. It can't contain. Jesus anymore by this point, but it goes on. There came a man who was sent from God. His name was John the Baptist. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. Maybe at this point, the Greek-minded people are like, oh, okay. So John the Baptist, he used to be shackled, but then he went out and he saw the light of your Christ, your God in the flesh. And then he went back into the cave to illuminate and set free the people who are in there. Oh, okay. So maybe now a lot of that Greek-minded audience is like, okay, well, that fits a little better. That works a little bit. And really, even if you leave it right there and you carry it out to the nth degree, some of you who are new to this, you know, this is going to be news to you. Some of you already know this part of the story, but that John the Baptist guy was Jesus' cousin. And he did come to preach that the prisoners were being set free. He came to preach that things were getting straightened out. The stuff from the Old Testament that John preached kind of sounds a lot like what the guy who came back in from the sun and tried to help the people who were still in the cave was preaching to them. And the people in the cave responded to the guy who, in Plato's myth, comes back in to try to help them, the same way that the world responded to John the Baptist for trying to help them. His head ends up on a platter of a dude who doesn't get it at the behest of a woman who doesn't get it. It goes on. John the Baptist himself was not the light. He came only as a witness to the light. So again, this sounds like the freed prisoner. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world. Oh. So there's a better version of Lagos that we've already met, but now there's also a better version of light. This isn't just the sun impersonally radiating light. It comes and goes every day. Now we're talking about the true light, and this light has a personality. This is a being who was doing things volitionally. Okay, well, the Greek audience is really perked up now. Tell me more. You're kind of nuking my cave illustration. I mean, you're working with me a little bit. Thank you for using languages familiar, the Lagos and the Philosopher King and the cave illustration. Kind of, I see what you're doing there. Thank you, John. But I'm really piqued by what you're talking about, about these bigger and truer fulfillments of all of these things and these stories we've told each other for so long. John goes on. He, that's Jesus, the Lagos, was in the world. And though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. Oh, well, now Jesus is kind of sounding like the philosopher king, except a better and superior philosopher king who didn't see the light, but rather is the light. And like John the Baptist, who went before him from the state of being a prisoner to a state of being free and seeing the truth to a state of going back in to try to help the other prisoners, Jesus has always been the light. Jesus has always been all-knowing. Jesus didn't need 35 years of careful grooming and education to become brilliant and smart. He's pre-existent. He is God in the flesh. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Oh, how here we tap into the emotional tragedy of the cave illustration. This would have struck a chord with the Greek audience. One of the most brutal, tragic, sad things in all of Greek philosophy is that it was so simple, guys. Prisoners, chained up, looking the wrong way. Just listen to the dude who's been outside the system. He's trying to help you. But the tragic note in the Republic is that the thoughtful reader is going to hear that story and at first be like, I would listen. But then with a little more reflection, be like, Yeah, I probably wouldn't listen. And humanity in general, eh, it's not going to listen. So the tragedy of the republic comes through in how John is kind of setting up the story arc of what we're about to get with this Jesus, this word, this fulfillment of the idea of the Logos, who we're going to learn about throughout this whole book. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Probably a whole bunch of Greeks in the audience there who were familiar with these two most famous bits of ancient philosophy, the cave illustration of the philosopher King. It's probably a whole bunch of them who read that line in John 1.11 that I just read to you and are sitting there shaking their heads, like, yeah, tell me about it. Tell me about it. Yeah, humans, we just do not listen. We like our shadows, we like our diminished versions of things. We're not really into the light. We're not really into truth. I hear you, John. Yeah, this guy sounds pretty great, wise, ethical, enlightened, like God himself. No wonder humanity rejected him. Yet, verse 12, to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband's will, but born of God. So right at that moment where John has tapped in to all of this stuff true from the Old Testament, but especially as he goes along, he's tapped in to these two most famous ancient philosophical illustrations, the cave illustration, the philosopher king. He's even now tapped into the emotions that people associate with this as a cautionary tale, a statement of the state and fallenness of humanity. He gets right to the point in verse 11 where he's like, Yeah, same as you guys. You you all get it. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. And just when everybody's like, Yep, and that's the take-home of the cave illustration and the philosopher king. The world just won't hear truth. There's no hope. Try to make good kings and stuff, you know, try to socially engineer it, but it's all kind of a dream. Everybody who was listening to this, by the way, knew full well how things worked out for Socrates. His ideas about how the world actually was and what it would take to lead properly threatened the insecure leaders of Athens, and they made him drink hemlock and kill himself under trumped-up charges of corrupting the youth of Athens. So all of these original readers are like, Yep, I hear you, John. Yeah, you want to know what understanding the light will get you? Yeah, it'll get you what it got, Socrates, and I'm not interested in chugging any hemlock. Ugh. Well, not a lot of hope here. But then John comes back with this complete reversal that I just read you in verses 12 and 13. Yet, that's your pivot word of the prologue for the Greek audience. Yet, yes, it's bad. It's bad in a similar way to how you understand bad to be, but yet to all who received him, Jesus, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God. What would that sound like to the original Greek audience? Children of truth, children of light, children who somehow escaped the trap of the cave and the shackles, the fetters that they were in, and walked back out into the light and were received there by the author of light, the light himself, not as enlightened, noble philosophers, but as dear children, even better. Children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision. I'm gonna get up and leave this cave, or a husband's will, but born of God. Dang. I just instinctively picked the thing up and threw it down. And like, yeah, right on. That's how the stuff is. I love this passage. What are we at? Oh my goodness, we're I we're at a lot of minutes. This is one of the longest episodes I've ever done, and I don't care. We're not gonna cut it up because I want all these ideas together. I'm amped. Can you tell? I love this stuff. I love these places where the larger picture of the ancient world and what God is doing through the Bible comes right together. I'm interlocking all four of my fingers on both hands right now. Listen, they come together right there, airtight, swijgin, woo, airtight. This stuff, it's the Bible is a miracle. It is amazing to me how much in just 12 verses we can cover the whole gamut of the Old Testament all the way up till now and the whole gigantic story of God's dealing with the Jewish people going all the way back to before time began. And at the exact same time, in the exact same 12 verses, we can cover the entire Greek notion of the cosmology of everything, the entire Greek understanding of reality and truth and light, and the entire Greek understanding of right leadership and right government and what kind of king they were yearning for as they fumbled around in the dark, they reasoned to. We need something better than our dictators, we need something better than our tyrants, we need something better than our council of leaders in Athens who decided Socrates should have to poison himself. We need the true philosopher king. What was the conclusion of the Old Testament? We need the true king who will reign on the throne of David forever in just 12 verses. John has captured the entire story from two gigantic, dominant narratives, people groups, and he's mushed them together and he said loud and clear to the whole world if you are within earshot of this, this is for you. And my friends, even the ones who are brand new to this, if you are in earshot of this now, it is for you. It still counts, it's still real. Whew. I cannot get enough of this. But we have had enough for today, and it's time for me to be done. I could go on for hours. We're not gonna do that. Fun, fun, fun. We have had a lovely day today. Thanks for hanging out with me. I'm Matt. This is the 10 Minute Bible Hour Podcast. Let's do this again soon.