Logos

Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, most scholars held that the Gospel of John reflected a non-Palestinian religious-historical background[1]; however, since the discovery it has been accepted by many that the Jews responsible for the composition of the Dead Sea Scrolls are remarkably similar conceptually to the John’s Gospel. It should be noted that scraps of the Septuagint had been found among the Hebrew and Aramaic Scrolls. Within a few years of the publication of the first of the Dead Sea Scrolls, several scholars were quickly noticed the religious-historical connectivity shared by John and the scrolls[2]. (Some went so far as to claim direct dependence of John on one or more of the Dead Sea Scrolls.) To interpret John against a religious-historical background other than Palestinian Judaism usually distorts the meaning of a text, since alien meanings are given to key religious terms.

Logos, according to the Anchor Bible Dictionary, has been used throughout the history of Greek philosophy, but then again, since the New Testament was written in Greek, it will not be uncommon to find shared terms.

Allow me to state here that during 2nd Temple Judaism Logos was used in different contexts, and since John didn’t write in a vacuum for only himself, it is proper to explore which Logos concept he used. Philo or another? This is the point of using the Septuagint research in New Testament Studies. Paul and the other writers, writing in Greek, used the religion and theology of the words handed to them. Where did they get those words? They transferred them from the Old Greek (Testament) into the Greek New Testament.

I believe that the closest conceptual parallels to John’s use of Logos can be found in the wisdom literature of the Jews. (Including Sirach and the Book of Wisdom - especially the Book of Wisdom) In these books we see Wisdom personified. We see this reflected in Paul’s writings when he calls Christ the Wisdom and power of God. What should be noticed is that John’s prologue is centered on the action of the Logos, not the being of the Logos. John assumes that his audience rightly understands the theology of the Logos and thus spends very little time exploring it. Can we rightly place so much theology on John’s use of Logos when John didn’t? As a matter of fact, this prologue is one of the very few instances in the New Testament were Logos has any theological implications. It is used nearly 330 times in the Greek NT, but only in Johannine Literature (his Gospel, 1st John, and the Apocalypse) does it carry, or seem to carry, deep theological or at least metaphysical implications.

No where in the Johannine Literature will you ever find that the Logos is subordinate to God. I would venture to say, that John only uses Logos as he does in the Prologue, only twice, and that in 1st John 1:1 (Word of Life) and Revelation 19:3 (Word of God).

How can God’s wisdom, Logos, plan, message, reason, etc… be separated from Him? When God issues the Word in creation, did that Word separate from God and co-exist with him? I think not. Logos is God’s way of disclosure. The Logos is God in revelation. It is right to say, as Thomas did (and remember this too is found in John’s Gospel), that the Logos is God. If we allow philosophy to play a part in our theology, then we err quickly.

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[1] C. H. Dodd lists suggested religious-historical backgrounds for understanding John [The Interpretation of the Fourth Gospel, 1-130].

[2] F. Braun, “L’arrirre-fond judagque du quatrirme Jvangile et la communautJ de l’alliance,” RB 62 (1955) 5-44; W. Albright, “Recent Discoveries in Palestine and the Gospel of John,” in The Background of the New Testament and Its Eschatology, ed. W. Davies and D. Daube; J. A. T. Robinson, “The New Look on the Fourth Gospel,” in Twelve New Testament Studies (London: SCM, 1962) 94-106; J. Price, “Light from Qumran upon Some Aspects of Johannine Theology,” in John and the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. J. Charlesworth.

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