Understanding God: The Significance of Logos in Understanding John-Part 2
Introduction
My Bible study/discipleship curriculum is easily accessible, and anyone can use it. The supplemental homework I created is for the more zealous or ambitious student. This blog is for the educator. In particular, this post takes a much deeper dive than even my Genesis 1 homework. This post is not for the faint of heart! The Genesis 1 homework is much simpler for those of you who want to explore the concept but not get bogged down in the details.
Here is my disclaimer:😄
Disclaimer: I am not a Hebrew or Greek scholar, but I am a faithful Christian who loves to study Scripture. I try to use quality, trusted sources and the Holy Spirit’s guidance to help me research the Bible. Being the sinner that I am, I may err from time to time. Please gracefully let me know if I made a theological error (and not just a theological preference), and I will be happy to correct it.
Review
In my previous post Understand God: The Significance of Logos in the Gospel of John-Part 1, I challenged you to read John 1, replace the word “Word” with “Logos” and complete a graphic organizer exploring what John says about Logos in his gospel. In this post we are going to go a little deeper. But you can review how I completed the graphic organizer. Note: Your chart might be slightly different than mine, and that’s ok!
Key Takeaways
After synthesizing my chart, here are my key takeaways about Logos:
- He is eternal. He’s before, during, and after time.
- He is a person. He’s separate from God the Father, yet the same as him and also God. He came to earth and dwelled with people there.
- He is life, light, human (flesh), and God simultaneously. He’s also full of grace and truth.
- He’s a God of action. He created everything! He shines in the darkness, and He enables people to be his sons.
- Many people including the darkness and His own did not receive Him or understand Him, but some do!
Teaching Tip: One of the purposes of using a graphic organizer is to help organize your data/observations/thoughts, so that you can synthesize them. Synthesizing is a higher order thinking skill, and that’s what we want our students to do. The chart or graphic organizer is not the end goal!
Background
Now it’s time to take a deeper dive into the historical ideas behind the term logos.
Ancient Greeks
According to Encyclopedia Britannica, “ Logos, in ancient Greek philosophy and early Christian theology, the divine reason implicit in the cosmos, ordering it and giving it form and meaning.”
Ancient Greeks used the term Logos to refer to rational divine intelligence. According to David Guzik’s Commentary on John 1, the Greek’s thought that Logos was a power that created order out of Chaos.
The stoics extended that to the idea that this principle permeated all reality. Its two facets were reason and speech. From this perspective Jesus fulfilled Greek philosophy as He was both the idea and expression of God.
Philo Judaeus (Philo of Alexandria)
Philo Judaeus was a Hellinistic Jewish philosopher who lived in Alexandria, Egypt. Alexandria was known for being the center of culture and education. Philo strived to synthesize faith and philosophic reason.
In Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, TH.M., PH.D’s book Yeshua: The Life of the Messiah from a Messianic Jewish Perspective, Volume I, he summarizes Philo’s teachings. He states that Philo’s writings on Logos boil down to five points. According to Philo, the Logos is as follows:
- The image of God (eikon)
- Metatron which is the closest angel to God in Jewish angelology.
- High Priest acting as mediator
- Paraclete (advocate or intercessor)
- A shadowy and unreal being (not a person)
Although there were similarities between John’s Gospel and Philo’s work, there were also some vital differences. Philo gives no absolute statements as John 1 does, nor does he connect Logos with a messianic figure. More importantly Fruchtenbaum argues that John did not travel in circles where Philo’s teaching would have been known to him. However, John would have been familiar with rabbinic theology.
Rabbinic Theology
In Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum’s book Yeshua: The Life of the Messiah from a Messianic Jewish Perspective, Volume I, he makes the claim that when John wrote the word Logos he was referring to the concept of Memra from Jewish rabbinic theology. Memra is the Aramaic translation of the Hebrew word davar which means word, speech, or thing. The author argues that John was referring Jewish theology not Greek philosophy when writing John 1 as Memra is the exact counterpart of the word logos.
In fact, The Jewish Encyclopedia’s entry for Memra states that it is “’The Word,’” in the sense of the creative or directive word or speech of God manifesting His power in the world of matter or mind; a term used especially in the Targum as a substitute for “the Lord” when an anthropomorphic expression is to be avoided.” Jews believe that words are the creative energy of the world, since God brought the universe into existence by speaking.
Additionally, Fruchtenbaum states that the style of John 1’s prologue mimics a typical opening of Jewish Midrash literature. The Jewish rabbis would start each work with an opening summary of the text that follows. Viewing the Targumim, which are Jewish commentaries of the Old Testament, as John’s source for Logos will give clearer insight into John’s prologue where he uses Logos as a divine title. Fruchtenbaum gives six truths about how the rabbis used Memra in their writings. The Memra was—
- Distinct from God, but the same as God;
- The agent of creation;
- The means by which God became visible (shekinah glory and angel Metatron);
- The means by which God signed his covenant; and
- The agent of revelation.
My Thoughts
Over the past decade God has shown me that the Bible including the New Testament was a book by Jews for Jews (and also Gentiles secondarily). We have to remember that Jews not only had the Old Testament memorized but also their oral law and writings. This allowed them to have a common knowledge bank that they could easily allude to, and thus their readers/hearers would understand their references. It was common knowledge like pop culture is for us. When passages seem confusing, looking at the Jewish writings around that topic are often enlightening, but not to be confuses with the canonized Scripture.
Knowing that our God is omniscient and likes to accomplish several of his purposes simultaneously, I like what David Guzik said in his commentary on John 1: “Therefore in this opening John said to both Jews and Greeks: ‘For centuries you’ve been talking, thinking, and writing about the Word (the logos). Now I will tell you who He is.’ John met both Jews and Greeks where they were at, and explained Jesus in terms they already understood.” I like the idea that God uses both/ands oftentimes instead of either/ors.
A note about Yeshua: The Life of the Messiah from a Messianic Jewish Perspective, Volume I, by Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, TH.M., PH.D
I just bought this book, and I was excited to read it as I’ve been informally studying Scripture through the view of the Jewish lens over the last decade or so. It’s definitely not a book I would read straight through, but it is definitely a handy resource book for studying Scripture.
Look Back to Look Ahead
Remember in my Bereshit-Part 3 post, we compare and contrasted John 1 to Genesis 1 using a Venn Diagram. As a review, I’ve posted that image above. Now that we have some new background knowledge about Logos, we are going to take that thinking a step farther.
An Interesting Exercise: And God Said….
Notice that the Greeks thought that Logos was the power that created order out of chaos. Additionally, one of the aspects of the Jewish view of Memra was that it was an agent of creation.
So now let’s do an exercise: Reread Genesis 1 and replace “God said…” with the word “Logos.”
Note: There is no Biblical translation of Genesis 1 that I know of that actually replaces Logos with “God’ said…” We are just doing an academic exercise to make us think.
Genesis 1: 1-24 (NIV)
1In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.
3 And God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light. 4 God saw that the light was good, and he separated the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light “day,” and the darkness he called “night.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the first day.
6 And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so. 8 God called the vault “sky.” And there was evening, and there was morning—the second day.
9 And God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so. 10 God called the dry ground “land,” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was good.
11 Then God said, “Let the land produce vegetation: seed-bearing plants and trees on the land that bear fruit with seed in it, according to their various kinds.” And it was so. 12 The land produced vegetation: plants bearing seed according to their kinds and trees bearing fruit with seed in it according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good. 13 And there was evening, and there was morning—the third day.
14 And God said, “Let there be lights in the vault of the sky to separate the day from the night, and let them serve as signs to mark sacred times, and days and years, 15 and let them be lights in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth.” And it was so. 16 God made two great lights—the greater light to govern the day and the lesser light to govern the night. He also made the stars. 17 God set them in the vault of the sky to give light on the earth, 18 to govern the day and the night, and to separate light from darkness. And God saw that it was good. 19 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fourth day.
20 And God said, “Let the water teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth across the vault of the sky.” 21 So God created the great creatures of the sea and every living thing with which the water teems and that moves about in it, according to their kinds, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the water in the seas, and let the birds increase on the earth.” 23 And there was evening, and there was morning—the fifth day.
24 And God said, “Let the land produce living creatures according to their kinds: the livestock, the creatures that move along the ground, and the wild animals, each according to its kind.” And it was so. 25 God made the wild animals according to their kinds, the livestock according to their kinds, and all the creatures that move along the ground according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals,[a] and over all the creatures that move along the ground.”
27 So God created mankind in his own image,
in the image of God he created them;
male and female he created them.
28 God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”
29 Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds in the sky and all the creatures that move along the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so.
31 God saw all that he had made, and it was very good. And there was evening, and there was morning—the sixth day.
Memra and Targum Neofiti
Notice in the exercise above, there is no translation that actually replaces God said with Logos. However, there is a Palestinian Targum called the Targum Neofiti that uses the word Memra.
A Targum is an ancient Jewish translation of Scripture into Aramaic. These translations can give us insight on how ancient Hebrews interpreted certain portions of Scripture as they are at times more expansive than a word-for-word translation.
However, I could only find Genesis 1: 1-7 in an electronic version for you to view, but you can get a flavor of the translation from those verses. Yeshua the Life of the Messiah from a Jewish Perspective contains Targum Neofiti’s English translation of Genesis 1: 1-2:3.
Targum Neofiti: Genesis 1
“1From the beginning with wisdom the Memra of the Lord created and perfected the heavens and the earth. 2 And the earth was waste and unformed, desolate of man and beast, empty of plant cultivation and of trees, and darkness was spread over the face of the abyss; and a spirit of mercy from before the Lord was blowing over the surface of the waters.
3 And the Memra of the Lord said: “Let there be light” and there was light according to the decree of his Memra. 4 And it was manifest before the Lord that the light was good; and the Memra of the Lord separated the light from the darkness. 5 And the Memra of the Lord called the light daytime and the darkness he called night. And there was evening and there was morning: (in) the order of the work of creation, first day.
6 And the Memra of the Lord said: “Let there be the firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the lower waters from the upper waters. And the Lord created the firmament and separated the waters that were under the firmament from the waters that were above the firmament; and it was so according to his Memra. 7 And God created the separation, which separated the water below the line of separation and the water above the line of separation, and it was thus as his word.”
Excerpt taken from: intertextual.bible | Biblical Intertextuality | Genesis 1:1 | Neofiti Genesis 1:1
Interesting Observations
Interestingly, every time our Bible says and “God said…” at the beginning of each new day of creation, the Targum Neofiti states “the Memra of the Lord said” with the exception of Day 4 which just states “The Lord said.” Why? I have no idea. Feel free to research it, and let me know what you find out in the comments!
Also, the phrase “it was so according to his Memra” also repeats itself in every day of creation except Day 1 which states “ according to the decree of his Memra,” and there is no mention of it on Day 5. Again, I’m not sure why.
Another interesting thing that I saw in the Targum was that occasionally the “Glory of the Lord” performs some actions:
- In verse 17 the “Glory of the Lord” set them [sun and moon] in the firmament of the heavens.
- In verse 28 the “Glory of the Lord” blessed them, and the Memra of the Lord said to them: Be strong and multiply.
- Then in verse 29: “The Glory of the Lord” said: Behold, I have given you all the herbs…
- In Genesis 2:3: Even though the “Memra of the Lord” completed the work in verse 2, the “Glory of the Lord” blessed the seventh day and hallowed it because there was a great Sabbath and repose before him from all his work which the Glory of God had done in creation.
Again, I’m not sure why, but they were interesting, so I thought I point out my noticings. If you have any insights, leave your thoughts in the comments.
So what?
The Jewish rabbis used the concept of Memra as a parallel concept of the Divine Wisdom and to the Shekinah Glory. See the Jewish Encyclopedia for more information.
This leads us to our next exercise, I’m going to ask you to do two tasks:
- Create a Venn Diagram comparing John 1:1-18 to Proverbs 8: 1, 22-36. Remember Proverbs 8 is poetry and uses personification. Note: Some translations such as the NIV translate the word “qanah” in Proverbs 8: 22 as create or brought forth instead of the word possess that earlier translations use. The NIV states, “The Lord brought me forth as the first of his works…” However, a better translation is the word “possessed” such as the KJV uses: “The Lord possessed me in the beginning of his way, before his works of old.” This helps one avoid the Arian heresy who denied the deity of Christ.
- Create a Venn diagram comparing Proverbs 8: 1, 22-36 to Genesis 1: 1-25.
Reflection Question
After completing the Venn Diagrams, consider what is true wisdom.
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