Światło, które jest Osobą – fenomen Janowego ujęcia poświadczający wpływy kultur semickiej i greckiej
Light that is a Person – the phenomenon of John’s perspective evidencing the influences of Semitic and Greek cultures

Author(s): Joanna Nowińska
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, Philosophy, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Theology and Religion
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: light; God; person; relationship; John’s Gospel; John’s Epistles
Summary/Abstract: In the writings of John, light is inscribed on the identity of God. The formula ἐγώ εἰμι (I am) refers back to the personal self-presentation of God in the pages of the Old Testament and points to the identical ontological specificity of Jesus, emphasising an involved, relational presence in relation to the world, manifested in action. Linking it to the light in this interpersonal space results in observing how the entrance of God removes the evil expressed in the image of darkness, highlights the colours and beauty of the world, and allows one to see the way towards development and towards life without limits, because it is based on the results of the death and Resurrection of Jesus. Correlated in the First Letter of John with the formula God is love, it reveals the closeness built by God with man, marked by openness to newness, learning, bringing out aspects of the world unknown to human nature and the possibilities of a relationship with God. There is a progression here, a transgression of the limits of Semitic mentality by linking the designator to the person without objectifying it, and yet not on the basis of comparison. The inspired author, thanks to his encounter with the Greek culture that names the experience of light and discusses it, can understand more deeply the self-presentation of Jesus as light. He points out, however, that the change in the person does not take place by accepting the light, but the Person who, on the basis of an interpersonal relationship, makes that which is light.

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