The exalted and exuberant prologue to John (1:1-18) has been recognized since the church's earliest history as a uniquely soaring and sonorous text. Indeed, it is in large part due to the poetic flight of these words that John came to be symbolized by the eagle.

The power of these words has been felt so deeply through the centuries that there emerged the Christian tradition of wearing an amulet containing a tiny copy of the prologue in the belief that it could protect the wearer from all manner of affliction.

That John's prologue resonates so well with the ear as well as with the spirit has led many scholars to propose that it is a text best understood as an early Christian hymn, possibly a part of the early worshiping community's liturgical order. Thus its lyric qualities, its tendency to…