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Sciborg_S_Patel
Concerning The Logos
The Greek word -- transliterated logos -- which was used by John in the prologue to his gospel, is often translated as word. Taken literally, that meaning is problematic, for how could a mere word exist from the beginning of time? How could a word be God? And how could such a word become human, in particular, the man, Jesus Christ? To properly understand John's prologue and, in fact, to fully understand his gospel and the whole New Testament, one must know something of the interpretation a literate, first century citizen of the Roman Empire -- one thoroughly steeped in Greek philosophy and culture -- would attach to the term.
Literally, logos, did mean word. It could also mean utterance, speech, logic, or reason, to name but a few. Heraclitus of Ephesus, who lived in the sixth century, BC, was the first philosopher we know of to give logos a philosophical or theological interpretation. Heraclitus might in fact be called the first western philosopher, for his writings were perhaps the first to set forth a coherent system of thought akin to what we now term philosophy. Although his writings are preserved only in fragments quoted in the writings of others, we know that he described an elaborate system touching on the ubiquity of change, the dynamic interplay of opposites, and a profound unity of things. The Logos seemed to figure heavily in his thought and he described it as a universal, underlying principle, through which all things come to pass and in which all things share.
This notion of The Logos was further developed by Stoic philosophers over the next few centuries. The Stoics spoke of The Logos as the Seminal Reason, through which all things came to be, by which all things were ordered, and to which all things returned.
Perhaps the most extensive accounting of The Logos was by Philo of Alexandria, a Hellenistic Jew who lived around the time of Christ. Philo wrote allegories of Old Testament books authored by Moses, interpreting them in the light of Greek philosophy. He used the term, logos,refer more than 1300 times in his writings, in many varied ways. Of particular note are his references to The Logos as the Divine Reason, by participation in which humans are rational; the model of the universe; the superintendent or governor of the universe; and the first-born son of God. Although there is no direct evidence that John ever even read Philo, it seems clear that the concepts he articulated were firmly in the mind of the evangelist when he wrote his gospel.
The understanding of The Logos by an intended reader of the prologue to the fourth gospel may be summarized as follows.
The Logos is
If it is true that there is a single, unifying principle eternally at work in the universe, through which all things come into being and by which all things are ordered, one would expect that it would be attested to by other sources. That is in fact the case. For example, in The Tao Te Ching of Lao Tzu, the Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu wrote of such a principle he called the tao, or 'the way of life'. In the Upanishads, ancient Hindu philosophers wrote of the ultimate reality and called it Brahman, which is manifested in the individual as Atman, much as The Logos manifests itself in the individual human's intellect or reason. Today, modern physicists acknowledge a single, fundamental principle of the universe and seek to articulate it in the form of a complete, unified theory of physics.
- the plan or model of the universe.
- the source of order in the universe, that by which all things come into being and all things come to pass.
- the source of human reason and intelligence.
- not understood by humankind.
- universal.
- eternal.
- God.
I believe that these sources reflect a valid yet severely limited comprehension of The Logos. A more complete understanding comes from recognizing, as John states in his gospel, that The Logos became flesh at a particular time in history: about 4 BC; in a particular place: Palestine; as a particular man: Jesus Christ; and for a particular purpose: to reconcile humankind with God through his human life, death, and resurrection.