I skimmed through a few commentaries yesterday evening and as I did I started to notice all the OT references. Of course I knew they were there, but this time they stood out. So many of them are about 'wisdom', for 'wisdom' is with God in the beginning (Prov 8). It is common (and convincing) to see wisdom in Prov 8 behind the "Word" of John 1. Moreover the law is the wisdom of Israel (Deut 4:6 and also the apocryphal Sir. 15:1; 19:20; 21:11; 39:8 ).
Then I started to see a wider pattern. It is not just that there are many references to the OT. The references develop a theme. The prologue re-reads the history of Israel: the creative wisdom-word of God coming to Israel (who are the children of God). In the exodus God's glory revealed to Moses (that God is 'emet' and 'hesed' - true and gracious) and that glory settles in the tabernacle. Now the prologue announces that the true creative word of life and light has come, and allowed people from all backgrounds to become children of God and grace and truth abound from him as they never did from Moses for the reality of the temple/tabernacle has come in the word incarnate. I think in the past I'd read the prologue against the Greek idea of the logos, but the whole thing starts to have greater coherence when the main background is the story of Israel. So the prologue shows us that what we have in Jesus is the truly divine word who becomes truly human so that we may know God in his faithful and gracious glory. What was prefigured in Israel's story is true in Jesus.
In one sense this is just what John says in the rest of the gospel anyway, but I'd never quite seen it in the prologue.
