This study is started to figure out what the prologue of John's Gospel is mainly about and the rhetoric of it to see its structure to deliver the contents. In more detail, this study is intended to examine how the prologue of John's Gospel is structured along with several topics characterized by 'lambano'(λαμβάνω)meaning 'receive' to reveal the true meaning of logos, the fundamental topic of the prologue.
The fundamental topic of the prologue in John's Gospel is logos. The prologue is mainly with the testimony and confession that Jesus Christ is the logos that pre-exists and creates things, the logos that has become the only son and flesh, and also the logos that still exists. In the perspective of the topic regarding logos, the frame of the prologue in John's Gospel largely consists of three parts: ①1:1-3,(2)1:14,(3)1:18
In the aspects that the prologue of John's Gospel is the completion of literature, the twelfth verse is the core. The prologue of John's Gospel clearly forms the chiastic structure centering around 12b, "He gave power to become children of God." Before the twelfth verse, it talks about the world where they cannot realize, know, or receive the logos that has come as light(4-5b, 9-11b). And after the twelfth verse, it mentions the community that receives the logos that has become flesh, sees the glory, and live within the grace and truth.
Logos certainly is the nuclear, central, and fundamental topic of prologue in John's Gospel. It is because the purpose of John's Gospel and the reason of its prologue's presence is to testify Jesus Christ as the logos and as the son of God.
However, 'lambano'(λαμβάνω) plays roles in receiving the logos and staying the logos within the prologue. The main topic of the prologue is, of course, the logos that forms the ground of Christian theory. But in the composition of the prologue, 'lambano'(λαμβάνω) plays roles in receiving the logos and testifying the logos in an organized way along with related topics. In this sense, we can say that the relationship between logos and 'lambano'(λαμβάνω) corresponds with that of Jesus Christ and John's community.