John 1:2 Meaning and Explanation
“The same was in the beginning with God.”
King James Version (KJV)
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Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →The Word was with God from the very beginning, sharing His life before anything was made.
What Does John 1:2 Mean?
John pauses and says it again. He has just told us that the Word was in the beginning, and was with God, and was God (verse 1). Now he gathers it into one quiet line: this same One was in the beginning with God. The repetition is not filler. John wants no room for doubt that the Word always shared the Father's life, present and near to Him before time had a first morning.
That eternal closeness is the very thing Jesus longed to share. On the night before He died He prayed about the glory He had with the Father 'before the world was' (John 17:5), and asked that His friends might be brought into that same love. The Word who was forever with God came to bring us home to God. The nearness that was His from the beginning is the nearness He opens to us.
Where John 1:2 Echoes in Scripture
Jesus Himself spoke of this beginning in His prayer to the Father: 'the glory which I had with thee before the world was' (John 17:5). The line John writes here is the same eternal closeness Jesus remembered out loud.
How to Apply John 1:2 Today
The Jesus we trust did not begin in Bethlehem. He was with God before the world was made, and that unbroken closeness is what He came to share with us. We are invited into the very life He has always known with the Father.