The bond between the ancient family and the Logos in patristic texts (commentaries to J 1:1-18)

Abstract

The article concerns the reception of the text of the Prologue of the Gospel of Saint John (John 1, 1-18) in antiquity. It also sheds light on what the Incarnation seems to have - that is, the acceptance of the human body by God, as the ancient editors of the writings called gospels constituting the main part of the New Testament in the Bible show - on the lives of ancient families and modern families. We read about the meaning of the Incarnation – as it was explained in ancient times with the help of the philosophical concept of the classic logos (Heller, 2013, p. 9-59; Krąpiec, 2017, p. 22-43) - in the comments of the Church Fathers written from the third century after the birth of Jesus Christ onwards and in the texts of medieval Christian writers. As a result of the Incarnation, as the editors of the New Testament and patristic texts write about it, part of Jewish society and other communities that in ancient times recognized the coming of God the Creator in the Word (verbum) (Hadot, 2019, p. 74-76; Domański, 2007) – the Word, which took the body of the man Jesus – the world of values taught by Socrates gained reality through the practice of human life of the Incarnate God – Jesus, fully God and fully human. The article quotes patristic comments to the Prologue and the use of the ancient understanding of Jesus’ role in the work of modern educators and psychologists: dialogue trainers, deepening interpersonal relationships, ability to forgive (Ostrowska, 1998b, p. 50-54), spiritual growth through knowledge of the existence of values and living in them, both in the family and in society.