G'Day,Prov 18:13 - He who answers a matter before he hears it,...

G'Day,

Prov 18:13 - He who answers a matter before he hears it, It is folly and shame to him.

The word salad approach as you put it, is to cover the WHOLE truth and not just cherry pick and I covered all the points you raised.

The John area has been Totally misunderstood from almost as far back as the 100's, so one has to try and get passed this Conditioning that's gone on for so long, hence this will not be a short post, as that would be injustice to the word of TRUTH.

What you have done, which most have done, the oldest trick in the book, is picked 1:1 and immediately jumped to 1:14 and gone -> See see it can't mean anything else.
You are then claiming that God against all sorts, became flesh =

What you appear to be doing, is not implying the open mind as you previously mentioned and it's my way or the highway, and not by the Bible supports that I put forward.
Don't take this as a downer, as I once did exactly the same when I was a trinity follower and a pre-existing Jesus and believe you me, it is extremely Hard to even get a peak over the fence, never mind actually getting over.

This John passage, effectively dead center of the Book, is a HUGE gottcha moment for satan's trap.

If John was saying that Jesus is the Word in 1:1, then he would most definitely have said -> In Beginning was Jesus............NO to ways about it.
Common sense and logic, should tell all people this.

The Book of John is to show that Jesus IS the Son of God = the ONLY TRUE God at the time of Jesus and NOT that he was God, God man or God in the flesh or that he was the Word in 1:1.
You first have to know WHO and WHAT the Son is from, if you don't know the Father, then you don't know the Son.

John in NO WAY is speaking of Jesus, as per the other Clear gospels, as to how Jesus became flesh, as per the misunderstanding of 1:14.
If you falsely claim as per -> He came to his own = he is already flesh there, then you would effectively have him jumping back into the womb and popping out at 1:14 = Totally messing with a perfect Chronological prologue and truth in the process.

The first 13 verses are introducing the Father, His word and what it represents, means and brings = eternal life and Jesus picks this up as per 1:14 and runs with the Fathers words of life.

If an OT Jew come along and knew nothing of Jesus's coming and read the first 13 verses, they would say, yes we know all this, God's wisdom and word personified etc and what it means and represents etc, etc.

If you say Jesus is the Word in 1:1, then 1:3 which CANNOT be separated, DEMANDS that you show Jesus spoke the Gens creation into being and that is NOT possible to show.
1 & 2 are God's mind, wisdom, plans and purpose, to which you align words to in your mind, where your logos begins = and the Word was (ongoing, in progress) = toward the God, shown to have been expressed forth by him alone and by himself by 1:3.
It was the Father alone and by himself, BECAUSE this is what the scriptures unquestionably show Isa 44:24, Psa 33:6, 9 and Gens etc.

John wrote the opener as per inline with the following, for which he would have been well aware of, did the same as John the Baptist in the prologue etc, preaching the word of God as per OT understandings and John B also mentioned the one to follow him.

Mal 3:1 - Behold, I send My messenger (John B), And he will prepare the way before Me (Father). And the Lord, whom you seek, Will suddenly come to the temple, Even the Messenger of the covenant, In whom you delight. Behold, He is coming,” Says Yehowah (Father) of hosts.
Isa 40:3 - The voice of one crying in the wilderness: “Prepare the way of Yehowah (Father); Make straight in the desert A highway for our God. -> (Only true God and Father at the time of Jesus 17:3)

Make straight = truth

When you correctly apply the first 13 verses of John to the Father and his word, the entire prologue flows in Perfect Chronological order.
Jesus as well as picking up the words of the Father as he REPEATEDLY tells us, also repeatedly picks up the theme, of showing us the Father.
Jesus shows us in John Ch 14, that by hearing the Fathers words coming out of him 14:10, is deemed as Seeing (perceiving - Inter) the Father.
When expressing out the Fathers words, he became the express image of his Person = WORD, The Word. Heb 1:3 KJV.
Your words being your person expressed.

John 1:3 - All things were made through Him (it = word), and without Him (it = word) nothing was made that was made. = Gen, Psa 33:6, 9).
"All things" = This includes Jesus, as per the Luke account, the word of the Father comes down via the Angel to Mary = Like Isa 55:10, 11.
The man Jesus falls under being Made, Created, the Bible tells us, he was Made lower than Angels, that's his all time beginnings, re from Mary.
The verse in NO WAY says, he was reduced from something greater, and if you claim that, you ARE ADDING to the word of God, which in no way will I do.

1:1 .........And God (Father) was/is the Word.
Word God -> Image of -> Word Man - Jesus.
1:14 - And the Word Man (existing Mal 3:1) became = (on the scene) and dwelt among us and we beheld the glory (word) of Him (it) glory (word) as only begotten by the side of the Father full of grace and TRUTH -> John 17:8, 17:17, 17:22 -> glory there being the word of God, so all become one in word = Unity in One = Father, so that he maybe all in all.

1:14's truth does NOT read -> And the Word became Man = that creates another story, 14 is NOT talking about him becoming flesh.
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In beginning was the Word and the Word was to, or toward or with The God and the Word was God.
This; was in beginning to, toward, with The God.
In Him (Father) life was (inner words) and that life (words expressed) was the light (words expressed) of men.

Psa 119:105 - Your word is a lamp to my feet And a light to my path.
Prov 6:23 - For the commandment is a lamp, And the law a light; Reproofs of instruction are the way of life,
John 1:9 That was the true light (word) that enlightens EVERY man coming into the word = (Includes Adam).

John 5:26 - For as the Father has life (words 1:4) in himself, so has he given to the Son (words Deu 18:18) to have life in himself.
(John 17:8, 6:68).

"This" = Is NOT speaking of another person being with The God = Father, it is in reference to the logos/plan, the Fathers plan and purpose in himself.
"This" is the only word available from the Greek word.

1:1 to, toward and with are in the definitions order of the definition of the Greek word and "toward" is the most appropriate, based on the overall of the scriptures'.

Titus 1:2 - in hope of eternal life which God, who cannot lie, promised before time began, (In the mind plans and purpose of the God and Father John 1:1, 2, through the future Jesus to be).
Rev 13:8 - All who dwell on the earth will worship him, whose names have not been written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world.
(God sees things not yet done as though they are done -> that is the pre-existing Jesus context, in the mind and plans of the God and Father, his firstborn of creation, a Jesus to be, right where our creations begin = in us). Col 1:15

To -> expressing motion in the direction of (a particular location) (Life)
expressing location, typically in relation to a specified point of reference - (Life)
expressing a point reached at the end of a range or after a period of time (plan for life)
approaching or reaching (a particular condition): (plan for Life to begin shortly 1:3)
indicating that two things are attached or linked: -> (plan for life within the God and while in you = and God was the Word.
used to introduce the second element in a comparison: - ( as above).

Toward -> ongoing, in progress - (plan of life).
In the direction of - ( plan for life)
along a course leading to - (plan for life)
in relation to - (plan for life)
not long before - (the plan for life 1:3)

With -> Clearly the plan for life within the God and Father, was with him Titus 1:2, who sees things not yet done as though they are complete.
accompanied by (another person or thing): -> (a plan for life)
indicating the instrument used to perform an action - (In this case, his mind, logos/plan which is to be expressed and was 1:3)
indicating the manner or attitude in which a person does something: (Titus 1:2, to come through the future Jesus - life).
in relation to: (life as per Titus 1:2)
in the same direction as - (toward life, Titus 1:2)

As with the word "This" in verse 1:2, the overall of all these definitions CLEARLY demonstrate that, THERE IS NOT ANOTHER PERSON BEING SPOKEN OF WITH THE GOD = FATHER IN 1:1.
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Now think and ponder;
And God was/is the Word.
We know what "the" means, so temporarily remove it -> And God is Word.
You claim that this is Jesus = Therefore you are designating him as Word.
OK then, as Jesus is the Image of the God and Father, WHAT IS Word the Image of..................................= WORD -> The Word the Father.
And sure enough, what name does Jesus have = Rev 19:13 - The Word OFGod -> The God who Jesus defines as the only true God and Father when he was here.
So Jesus is deemed as a Word of God and titled "The" to represent one of his Key roles, to bring the word of God of the Fathers, the word of life into the world, like no one before (one of the meanings and representations of this name).

Another is, he is the results of the God and Fathers words, that come via the Angel to Mary. Isa 55:10, 11 for example.

John 6:63 - It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words (Fathers) that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.

That Fathers words are deemed as Spirit, as the Father is, so Spirit and word are effectively interchanged.
Hence we are told to be born again by the Spirit John 3:5 and the word of God 1 Peter 1:23.
That which is born of Spirit is spirit...................that which is born of WORD is Word.
Become born again = become a Word of God -> deemed as, as your expressed words, the you, are your person expressed.

Dabar = WORD = Door -> House/Kingdom/Temple -> Head = The Almighty God and Father.
Jesus -> I am in the Father............In my Fathers House...............
No one comes to the Father accept by me (Door).
The Kingdom (word of God) is to be in one.

We are that image, but it's just a matter of whose Word you are, for the Books.

The official opening of the House of God, or seal (Eden reopened so to speak)
Mark 15:37, 38 - And Jesus cried out with a loud voice, and breathed His last.
Then the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom.

John 10:9 - I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture. = The word of God.

Matt 1:18 - Now the Beginning of Jesus Christ was as follows: After His mother Mary was betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Spirit. -> (The God and Father)
Heb 2:7 - Thou made him a little lower than the angels; thou crowned him with glory and honour, and did set him over the works of thy hands: (not reduced from something greater)
2 Cor 11:3, 4 - But I fear, lest somehow, as the serpent deceived Eve by his craftiness, so your minds may be corrupted from the simplicity (like Matt & Luke) that is in Christ.
For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!

John 10:1 - Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that enter not by the door into the sheepfold, but climb up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

John 17:17 - Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth.

A tiny peak from Jesus in the Gospel of Thomas;
Jesus said, "Whoever seeks shouldn't stop until they find. When they find, they'll be disturbed. When they're disturbed, they'll be […] amazed.......(Believe you me, if you get serious and passionate about seeking truth, the message here is Smack on and you WILL Know when you find.

James 1:6 - But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea driven and tossed by the wind.

So when you seek, if you do, ask for truth, consider it a Given with No if but or maybe's before asking, or don't bother imo.