That the life of Jesus Christ is Day One. That is but the start of it. It also tells us the authors were raised to be scribes. It’s a Midrash that shows Hebrew is generating the gospel, a look the way Levites memorized and taught Torah, for it is also in the motivating theology of Qumran’s Yachad.

The first nugget is that I’ve discerned the fourth gospel opens with an interpretive complex I call “the Light-Adam Midrash” (AWR-ADM) which was priestly in its origins. This is a Midrash on the letter Aleph attaching to DBR (Word) to create light (AWR), & attaching to the “mute” one to create ADM.

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“Just as oil fed the lamp flames, anointing runners carrying jars filled the dipping bowls to feed the flames of discourse, for thus they would relay the tasty words of the Rabbis teaching in the synagogues and temple porticoes.”

“Think of the crowds dipping their pieces into plates of olive oil, sesame oil and vinegar.”

“In periodic rounds, imagine Jerusalem’s excited youth passing them around in baskets to the gathered men and women all throughout the city as the congregants discoursed and broke bread together.”

“One can imagine all the lodges in Jerusalem distributing batches of freshly baked pita-like bread, some baked with fruit juices and spices like cumin and fennel.”

“These kinds of Torah convocations were apparently so sweet—so held the rapt attention of their interlocutors and audiences—that I suspect they lasted from ‘dusk to dusk’, as they do in Judaism today.”

“Now imagine in your ear, in rooms and porticoes filled with people sitting in discussion circles, the undying waves of murmuring worshippers also enjoying the spiritual “bread” of Sinai baked in the discourses of their rabbis.”

“Imagine how Jerusalem has just been filled with the scents wafting off the fresh-baked loaves and cakes of the first fine flour batches of the summer season.”

“Not incidentally, one of the special industries of Jerusalem was the crafting of oil lamps. We must ask ourselves why. Think about that night scene in the evening following the Shavuot temple ceremony: the entire city of pilgrims awake in the lamp lights of the festival.”

“but the gospel will hint that Yochanan also connects feast days in Jerusalem with Torah learning, particularly during the night of a festival.”