I would like to describe for all of you the kind of webinar I did this past week for those blog members who have chosen to become Blog Stewards — so you can see what you too could be involved with if you choose.

For a long time I’ve wanted to try having a bona-fide seminar with a group of layfolk. Not a lecture, not a Q&A, but a discussion – something closer to what happens in a university classroom when everyone comes prepared and ready to wrestle with a text together.

Our focus was the Prologue to the Gospel of John (John 1:1–18). Few passages in the New Testament have provoked more thought or more confusion than this one. What exactly does it mean to say “the Word was with God, and the Word was God”? How an entity be something and be with the same something? What does it mean for that Word to “become flesh”? Why is this high view of Jesus found here and nowhere else in the New Testament?  Is it meant to allude exclusively to the opening of Genesis (“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth” / “In the beginning was the Word”)?  Or has the author (also? mainly?) been influenced by Greek philosophies that talk about the “Word” that is divine and infused in all of creation (e.g. Stoicism).  Was the Prologue itself added later? Were some parts of it, such as the verses about John the Baptist, later insertions?

These are the kinds of questions scholars spend careers exploring. In this seminar, I wanted to take participants into that world—to think through the text with them, not simply present conclusions but show how conclusions are reached, how arguments are weighed, and how interpretation is an ongoing, living process.  And I tried to do it in a way that did not require academic expertise.  It was a blast.

The Passage That Keeps Teaching Me

One thing I love about teaching – whether in a classroom or on the blog – is that I keep learning. I’ve read the Prologue to John roughly 29,000 times, but every time I return to it, something new stands out.

This time, what struck me most was the tension between Jesus’ identity as a Jew and the way the Gospel of John often portrays “the Jews” as Jesus’ opponents. Even in the Prologue, the author distinguishes between “the Law given through Moses” and the “grace and truth that come through Christ.” Later, Jesus himself refers to “their law”—as though he were somehow not a Jew himself.

But Jesus himself indeed was a Jew. He lived, taught, and died within Judaism. That raises fascinating questions: how could a later author, writing about a Jewish teacher, present “the Jews” as the enemy?  Or portray him as opposed to the law?

These aren’t just theological puzzles, they’re historical ones. They remind me how much of the New Testament reflects not only belief but conflict: the growing pains of a movement defining itself, sometimes against its own roots. And they remind me that, even after decades of study, these texts still push me to think in new ways.

A Seminar, Not a Lecture

This format was different from anything I’ve done on the blog before. In my lectures, I usually take people through the evidence and explain what I (and other scholars) think it means. But in a seminar, the goal isn’t simply to convey knowledge, it’s to provoke thought.

We read the passage together and examined its literary form – the “staircase parallelism” that gives it a poetic rhythm, and the “prosaic interruptions” that suggest an editor may have stitched together earlier traditions. We looked at its intertextual echoes of Genesis 1 (“In the beginning…”) and Proverbs 8 (where Wisdom is with God at creation).

Rather than trying to settle the questions, we followed them. Each insight raised another puzzle, and wherever it led us, that’s where we went.

The discussion was lively, thoughtful, and rigorous. I could see participants stretching their minds in real time—testing ideas, revising them, sharpening them. That’s what I love most about real academic engagement: it’s not about memorizing what others have said, but learning how to think historically and critically for yourself.

An Invitation to Go Deeper

These Blog Stewards Seminars are open only to members of our Blog Stewards program, a group of readers who make a special commitment to supporting the work of the blog and its charitable mission. In return, they gain access to events like this one, where we can dig deeply into the texts together and explore how scholars think about them.

If you’ve ever wanted to see how academic study of the New Testament really happens, to join the conversation rather than simply listen in, I’d encourage you to become a Blog Steward and join us next time. We’ll be tackling another fascinating passage, and I can promise it will stretch your mind in the best possible way.

You can read more about becoming a Blog Steward here. If you’re interested, please send Jen an email at [email protected].