THE OPENING SCENES of a movie can set the tone for what follows, as do the opening words of a book. That said, you probably don’t want to begin your Great American Novel with “It was a dark and stormy night,” especially since those words have been so famously lampooned by Charles Schulz in the Peanuts comic strip. Still, the principle remains: beginnings matter.

Note, for example, how differently each of the four gospels begins. Mark, thought by many to have been the first gospel written, opens with the phrase, “The beginning of the good news about Jesus,” citing the prophet Isaiah then jumping into the story with John the Baptist. Luke pushes the timeline further back by starting with the conception and birth of John the Baptist. Matthew goes still further by opening with a genealogy that locates the story of Jesus in the history of God’s people since the time of Abraham.

But the opening of John’s gospel, as we’ve seen, goes back as far in time as it’s possible to go: to the time of creation. Here again are the first three verses of John:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. (John 1:1-3, NIV)

“In the beginning.” The phrase echoes the very first words of Scripture: “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). John, in other words, begins at the beginning — the Beginning, capital B — to identify the person of Jesus with creation, with the eternal Word through whom all things came to be. As beginnings go, this is utterly unique. And the rest of John’s gospel follows suit, with unique stories and images that clearly set it apart from Matthew, Mark, and Luke.

Similarly, the opening of 1 John is unique among the New Testament letters:

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. (1 John 1:1)

Paul has nothing like this, nor does Peter, nor James. Hebrews is the only other letter to forgo the traditional opening in which the writer identifies himself — and interestingly, Hebrews also begins where the gospel of John begins, with Jesus and creation:

In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. (Heb 1:1-2)

Given all this, it seems obvious to read the opening verse of 1 John, with its reference to both “the beginning” and “the Word,” as an echo of the opening words of the Fourth Gospel. That reading is reinforced by what John will say later in the letter. In 1 John 2, he says twice, “you know him who is from the beginning” (cf. vss. 13 and 14), referring, of course, to Jesus.

BUT INTERPRETERS HAVE suggested other possibilities for what 1 John means by “from the beginning.” For example, think back to the story of the Last Supper in the Fourth Gospel. Jesus shocks his disciples by first washing their feet, then predicting his betrayal. Judas leaves, and Jesus unsettles them even further by predicting Peter’s denial, and telling them that he will be leaving them soon.

They’re understandably upset. He reassures them by promising to send the Holy Spirit. But this isn’t just for their comfort — it’s also to empower them to be his witnesses. He tells them:

When the Advocate comes, whom I will send to you from the Father—the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father—he will testify about me. And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning. (John 15:26-27)

There it is again: “from the beginning.” Obviously, in this content, Jesus does not mean that the disciples have been with him since creation. Rather, he means something like, “You men have been with me since the start of this ministry, so you’re the ones best qualified to tell other people the whole story.”

Now go back and reread that opening verse of 1 John: “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life.” With its emphasis on eyewitness proclamation, we might hear in this verse the fulfillment of the charge Jesus gave to his disciples in the Upper Room: You’ve been with me since the beginning, so go out and testify about me.

So should we read 1 John 1:1 against the background of John 1 or John 15? Which is correct?

We don’t have to choose. Throughout history, clever or gifted writers — that is, writers who don’t open with “It was a dark and stormy night” (sorry, Snoopy!) — are capable of writing with multiple layers of meaning. And clearly, for John, these different meanings are tied up with each other. Yes: John’s purposes for writing the letter require an emphasis on eyewitness testimony. His readers should give more weight to the words of people who were with Jesus from the beginning of his public ministry, as opposed to the words of people with their own new ideas.

But that apostolic testimony is not just about a man whose life began in a manger in Bethlehem and ended on a cross in Jerusalem. It’s about God in the flesh, the one who was with God since creation and yet walked the earth as a real live human being. It’s as if John wants to remind his readers of the cosmic significance of what they believe and what he’s about to say.

Beginnings matter. And these opening words to the letter, in all their uniqueness, brilliantly set the tone for what follows.