Page 10 - FLIP BOOK TOPICS (A)

Historical Antecedents of the Logos-Doctrine:
Historically, the Logos-doctrine of John has undoubted links of connection with certain
speculative developments both of Greek and Hebrew thought. The Heraclitean use of the
term "Logos" (see above, I) to express the idea of an eternal and all- embracing Reason
immanent in the world was continued, while the conception was further elaborated, by the
Stoics. On the other hand, the later developments of Hebrew thought show an increasing
tendency to personify the self-revealing activity of God under such conceptions as the Angel,
Glory, or Name of Yahweh, to attach a peculiar significance to the "Word" (me’mera’) by
which He created the heaven and the earth, and to describe "Wisdom" (Job, Proverbs) in
something more than a figurative sense as His agent and coworker. These approximations of
Greek pantheism and Hebrew monotheism were more verbal than real; and, naturally, Philo’s
attempt in his doctrine of the Logos to combine philosophies so radically divergent was less
successful than it was courageous. How far, and whether directly or indirectly, John is
indebted to Philo and his school, are questions to which widely different answers have been
given; but some obligation, probably indirect, cannot reasonably be denied. It is evident,
indeed, that both the idea and the term "Logos" were current in the Christian circles for
which his Gospel and First Epistle were immediately written; in both its familiarity is
assumed. Yet the Johannine doctrine has little in common with Philo’s except the name; and

it is just in its most essential features that it is most original and distinct. As the Old
Testament begins with the affirmation, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth," so the Fourth Gospel begins with the similar affirmation, "In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (Joh 1:1). The Word was the
medium of Divine action in creation (Joh 1:3).

The Logos-Doctrine in John:
In the Word was life, not merely self-existing but self-imparting, so that it became the light of
men (Joh 1:4)—the true light, which, coming into the world, lighteth every man (Joh 1:9).
And finally it is declared that this Divine Word became flesh and tabernacled among us, so
that "we beheld his glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and
truth" (Joh 1:14). Here faith in Jesus as Divine has been traced back to, and grounded in, a
duality within the Godhead itself. In the twofold mode of the Divine existence, it is seen that
there is God who is just God (so to say), God in Himself; and there is God-with-God, God
who is God’s other self, God going forth from Himself in thought and action. The first
without the second would be essence without manifestation, mind without utterance, light
without effulgence.