THE HOLY GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST ACCORDING TO ST. JOHN
St. John the Apostle and Evangelist was the son of Zebedee and Salome, brother to James the Greater. He was called the Beloved disciple of Christ and stood by at his Crucifixion. He wrote the Gospel after the other Evangelists, about sixty-three years after our Lord's Ascension. Many things that they had omitted were supplied by him. The original was written in Greek; and by the Greeks he is titled: The Divine, St. Jerome relates that, when he was earnestly requested by the brethren to write the Gospel, he answered he would do it, if by ordering a common fast, they would all put up their prayers together to the Almighty God; which being ended replenished with the clearest and fullest revelation coming from Heaven, he burst forth into that preface: IN THE BEGINNING WAS THE WORD.
John Chapter 1
The divinity and incarnation of Christ. John bears witness of him. He begins to call his disciples.
1:1. In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God: and the Word was God.
1:2. The same was in the beginning with God.
1:3. All things were made by him: and without him was made nothing that was made.
1:4. In him was life: and the life was the light of men.
1:5. And the light shineth in darkness: and the darkness did not comprehend it.
1:6. There was a man sent from God, whose name was John.