Logos (Christianity) - Logos As Word, Wisdom, Old Testament Revelation

Logos As Word, Wisdom, Old Testament Revelation

The Old Testament has given an essential contribution to the New Testament christological message for Christ as Logos, translated as the Word. The Word is with God from the beginning (Gen 1:1 John 1:1), powerfully creative (Gen 1:1-2:4 Isa 55:10-11 Ps 33:6,9;107:20 Judith 16:14) and God's personified self-expression (Wis 18:14-16). Like wisdom, the word expresses God's active power and self-revelation in the created world. Solomon's prayer for wisdom takes word and wisdom as synonymous agents of divine creation; "God of my fathers and Lord of mercy, you made all things by your word, and by your wisdom fashioned humankind" (Wis 9:1-2). Even so, John's prologue does not open by saying: "In the beginning was Wisdom, and Wisdom was with God, and Wisdom was God" (cf. John 1:1).

Despite the fact that, in the literature of pre-Christian Judaism, wisdom, word, and, for that matter, spirit were "near alternatives as ways of describing the active, immanent power of God", there are several considerations to understand why John chose word and not wisdom. First, given that sophia (Greek for wisdom) was personified as Lady Wisdom (e.g., Prov 1:20-33;8:1-9:6 Wis 8:2), it could have seemed awkward to speak of this female figure "being made flesh" when Jesus was male. Second, in Hellenistic Judaism the law of Moses had been identified with wisdom (Sir 24:23 Bar 4:1-4) and credited with many of her characteristics. To announce then that "Wisdom was God and was made flesh" could have been felt to suggest that "the Torah was God and was made flesh". Within a few years Christians were to identify the Son of God and Logos with law or the law, But, neither John nor any other New Testament authors identified Christ with the Torah. Third, Paul, Luke (especially in Acts of the Apostles), and other New Testament witnesses prepared the way for John's prologue by their use of logos for God's revelation through Christ.

Both in New Testament times and later, the Johannine "Word" offered rich christological possibilities. First the possibility of identification and distinction. On the one hand, words proceed from a speaker; being a kind of an extension of the speaker, they are, in a certain sense, identical with the speaker ("the Word was God"). On the other hand, a word is distinct from one who utters it ("the Word was with God"). Therefore, Christ was/is identified with, yet distinct from, YHWH. Second, God has been uttering the divine Word always ("in/from the beginning"); the Word "was" (not "came to be") God. In this context "Word" opens up reflection on the personal, eternal pre-existence of the Logos-Son. God has never been without the Word.

Third, words reveal their speakers. Shamefully, or happily, words express what is in our mind. In the Old Testament, "the word of God" repeatedly denotes the revelation of God and the divine will. John's Gospel can move smoothly from the language of "the Word" to focus on "God the only Son who has made the Father known" (John 1:18). As the Son of God sent from the Father, or the Son of man who has come down from heaven, in a unique and exclusive way Jesus reveals heavenly knowledge. At the same time, this Word offers light to everyone coming into the world (John 1:9), a theme soon developed, with help of Philo, Middle Platonic, and/or Stoic thought, by Justin, Origen, and others.

Fourth, John's Logos Christology opened the way for Christians not only to recognise the influence of the Logos outside Christianity, but also to dialogue with non-Christians thinkers. Those who endorsed Jewish, Platonic, and Stoic strands of thought about the Logos could find a measure of common ground with Christians, who, nevertheless, remained distinctive with their claim that "the Logos was made flesh". The notion of "the Logos" probably offered a more effective bridge to contemporary culture than that of "wisdom".

Finally, when New Testament Christians called the crucified and risen Jesus the Word and Wisdom of God, they were not only expressing his divine identity, but also drawing attention to the fact that Christology might not necessarily begin with the incarnation and not even with Jesus' background in the call, history, and religious faith of the Jewish people. By maintaining that the whole world was created through the divine Wisdom and Word (John 1:3 Col 1:16 Heb 1:2) they did more than link Jesus as the last Adam with the high point of the original creation in the making of human beings. They interpreted him as the divine agent of all creation. Thus, creation, right from the beginning, carried christological face.