In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. He came as a witness, to bear witness about the light, that all might believe through him. He was not the light, but came to bear witness about the light.

The true light, which enlightens everyone, was coming into the world. He was in the world, and the world was made through him, yet the world did not know him. He came to his own, and his own people did not receive him. But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John bore witness about him, and cried out, “This was he of whom I said, ‘He who comes after me ranks before me, because he was before me.’”) And from his fullness we have all received, grace upon grace. For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made him known.

st. john's Gospel, 1:1-18

the Light has shone in the darkness, and we have seen His glory where we are. we have seen Him coming afar off, and now through the mirror of faith dimly, yet soon face to face. for like He did this day, we too shall rise unto Life eternal. today is the day that puts all may days and earth days and arbor days to shame, for today is the day of Life. today is the day that death lost and earth, the earth, was given Life. Happy Easter.

"And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive, that whatsoever thing from without entereth into the man, it cannot defile him;"

mark 7.18

Christ seems to have a whole new vision of the purity laws, yet it's the same vision Yahweh had. Christ isn't making new standards, He's interpreting the old standards for all of life. He's forcing israel into circumcising their hearts, and they are kicking against His goads.

Take Matthew's case ... The lawyer has the last sentence in mind when he writes the first. Such a brief, we are told, is planned on one plane, and is of one mind (at least this is the theory; I do not believe in it). But Matthew begins: 'Jesus was the king of the Jews' and at the end, he knows of himself: 'For heaven's sake, I no longer am a Jew' and leaves.

rosenstock-heussy, fruit of lips, p.39

A Christian of the first century was introduced into a way of life and under way, on the way, was told the things necessary for his becoming a missionary himself, a witness, a confessor, possibly a martyr. To hear was nothing but the first step for telling others. Not curiosity but salvation was served. And its continuous flow was achieved by the foolishness of oral preaching. The tremendous novelty of the written Gospels, therefore, was that anything written should rank as Gospel truth at all.

rosenstock-heussy, fruit of lips, p.26