LOGOS -- The WORD Defined

I was confused about the word “LOGOS” in our Lenten Adventure today (Day #2) so I looked it up. I'm not a researcher, a theologian, a philosopher, nor a preacher. I'm just someone looking for the truth, just like you. What I stumbled upon (or was perhaps guided to) was an epiphany for me.

Here’s what I found and I want to share it with all who will stop and read:

Logos – The WORD defined:


Philo (20 BC - 50 AD), a Hellenized Jew, used the term Logos to mean an intermediary divine being, or demiurge. Philo followed the Platonic distinction between imperfect matter and perfect idea, and therefore intermediary beings were necessary to bridge the enormous gap between God and the material world. The Logos was the highest of these intermediary beings, and was called by Philo "the first-born of God." Philo also wrote that "the Logos of the living God is the bond of everything, holding all things together and binding all the parts, and prevents them from being dissolved and separated."
The Platonic Ideas were located within the Logos, but the Logos also acted on behalf of God in the physical world. In particular, the Angel of the Lord in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) was identified with the Logos by Philo, who also said that the Logos was God's instrument in the creation of the universe.1

I found this last statement interesting in that the Logos—the Word—the Son of God—Christ was the “instrument in the creation of the universe.” Jesus isn’t just (I hate using the word ‘just’ here) the Redeemer, the Savior, the Lamb who takes away the sins of the WORLD, He actually CREATED the world. This is awesome!!

Okay, now let's back up. Eons before Philo used the Platonic concept of Logos to label Deity in terms the material world could understand, the Targumists were referring to the One True God as "The Word."
Even though John the Baptist’s understanding of “Logos” has a Jewish foundation through his study of Targumism, John must have been aware of these Hellenistic or Platonic concepts as well, for in the Gospel of John, the Baptist refers to the Man he is about to baptize as “'... the one of whom I said: He who comes after me has passed ahead of me because he existed before me.'”2 I believe, here, John the Baptist is revealing the fact that Christ—the Word—born after His cousin, John, is superior to John (passed ahead), but most importantly “existed before” John. Here, John is speaking of Christ’s eternal presence, before time began.

John the Apostle reiterates this in his gospel with the very first 3 verses:
1 In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God.
2 He was with God in the beginning.
3 Through him all things came into being, not one thing came into being except through him.3

So, what's the big deal, you might ask. Well, the way I see it, Even though a Messiah was introduced as a promised , prophesized coming attraction to redeem Israel, Humankind didn't really know what or who this Messiah would be. The religion of the day in first century AD Israel was the Targum.


The Targums are interpretive renderings of the books of the Hebrew Scriptures (with the exception of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel) into Aramaic. Such versions were needed when Hebrew ceased to be the normal medium of communication among the Jews. In synagogue services the reading of the Scriptures was followed by a translation into the Aramaic vernacular of the populace. For a reading from the Pentateuch the Aramaic translation followed each verse of the Hebrew; for a reading from the Prophets three verses were followed by the Aramaic translation.

At first the oral Targum was a simple paraphrase in Aramaic, but eventually it became more elaborate and incorporated explanatory details inserted here and there into the translation of the Hebrew text. To make the rendering more authoritative as an interpretation, it was finally reduced to writing. Two officially sanctioned Targums, produced first in Palestine and later revised in Babylonia, are the Targum of Onkelos (1) on the Pentateuch and the Targum of Jonathan on the Prophets, both of which were in use in the third century of the Christian era.4

Now, the Targums referred to God as the "Word"--not the promised Messiah, but God was the "Word", and here is why they used that term:


What is interesting about the Targums is the apparent embarrassment of the targumist with the many anthropomorphisms of God. That is, when God appears to man or when references are made in the text that God has a body. During such times, instead of giving a literal translation of God’s name, the targumist replaced it with Memra (the Word). For example, instead of God walking in the garden in Genesis 3:8, the targumist has the Word of God; and instead of God being with Ishmael (Genesis 21:20), it is the Word of God. Other substitutions are Shekinah and Glory.5

Stay with me now. Are you listening? This is important:
When John the Apostle wrote his gospel, his first verse shakes the foundation of religious theory to date. As he is about to introduce John the Baptist who will introduce the promised Messiah, John the Apostle says:
In the beginning was the Word: the Word was with God and the Word was God.6
Wait a minute! Did John just say "the Word was with God?" Is there another person John is talking about? There must be, because how can God be with God. There is someone else there. Then John says:
The Word became flesh, he lived among us, and we saw his glory, the glory that he has from the Father as only Son of the Father, full of grace and truth.7

What??!! This "Word" that is with God became FLESH? One of us? And this "Word-Man" is the Son of the Father? I believe here--in these words--is the birth of our Christian faith. The old faith--the Targums have an addendum. An addendum which changes the world.

Footnotes
1  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos
2  John 1:15
3  John 1:1-3
4  http://www.bible-researcher.com/aramaic4.html
5  http://smoodock45.wordpress.com/2011/02/26/god%E2%80%99s-love-fleshed-out-in-jes...
6  John 1:1
7  John 1:14