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I sat in the comfort of my home as I pondered the Scripture I’d just read:

The Word.

It stood out in its austerity; a simple four-letter word (no pun intended) used to describe Jesus. I asked myself, “Why is Jesus called the Word?”

The beloved disciple, John, opened his biographical account of his Messiah with a simple sentence that forever changed how Christians around the world understood Christ. 

He paralleled the first book, first chapter, the very first verse of the Holy Scriptures that the Jews held so dearly: the words Moses wrote down, words inspired by the Creator. 

I knew for certain that this simple phrase meant something deeper than merely the spoken Word of God. Somehow, I was led to the answer.

Introduction to John 1:1

The Holy Spirit introduced me to study the Greek origins of John 1:1: logos.

I’d seen the word before, and I’d done a study on it many years ago while sitting on my bed. I still asked myself, “What does logos mean?” Knowing I had something on the word, I searched my hard drive for the old file, and there it was: Logos.

What I uncovered made me realize logos was more than a word; it was a philosophical concept John brought to the Hellenistic Jews.

Scripture Focus:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.

John 1:1-5

The Philosophy of Logos

John opened his Gospel account with a strange introduction. 

If he were indeed speaking of a person, why would he begin with ‘in the beginning was the Word?’

John, a simple fisherman in first-century Judea, was perhaps exposed to the most prolific ideas of the time. Many philosophers theorized about the creation of the world, and Greek philosophers debated among themselves and their students about who or what created the universe.

The Rise of Enlightenment in Ancient Rome

Hellenistic Jews and the Greeks were concerned with the enlightenment of new knowledge. This enlightenment and yearning for truth only deepened over time, and by the time John penned his Gospel, he was ready to dive into some of the most profound theological concepts that still resonate with the Christian world today. 

He actually opens his Gospel saying, “In the beginning was logos”, and this is important because while English translators had done their best to preserve the authentic meaning of Scripture, they simply could not properly translate that word ‘logos’ into any English word that we use. Thus, they settled on ‘word’.

However, if we study how philosophers thought during this early period of Roman history, we’d find that ‘logos’ was more than a word; it was an idea.

The History of the Word ‘Logos’

The word ‘logos’ comes from a root word with meanings such as ‘I put in order, arrange, gather, choose, count, reckon, discern, say, or speak’. Heraclitus first used it in 475 BCE to describe the principle of order and knowledge.

When the Bible was translated into English, scholars debated how to translate the word ‘logos,’ since there was no direct English equivalent. Finally, the early Church fathers settled on ‘word’, but this is incorrect, as in Greek the word ‘word’ would have been ‘lexis’, not ‘logos’^[a].

Aristotle, a Greek philosopher, defined ‘logos’ as an argument from reason and used the word accordingly. This was vastly different from how Heraclitus used the word. Heraclitus seemed to refer to logos as a universal law, principle, or truth that the entire cosmic world must adhere to, even if humans were unaware of it^[b].

In Aristotle’s definition, an argument from reason is called a logical argument; hence, we get the words ‘logic’ and ‘logical’^[c].

In Stoic philosophy, as early as 300 BCE, logos was interpreted as the active reason ‘pervading’ and ‘animating’ the cosmos. Logos was made of material substance and was closely related to God and Nature.

Stoic philosophy spoke of the seminal logos (logos spermatikos), which denotes the ‘seed’ of the universe—the law of generation. In this case, the Stoics seemingly believed that the universe ‘sprang’ from logos^[d].

Isocrates held a definition of logos that was similar in structure to Aristotle’s definition, though Isocrates was more concerned with ‘what logos could do’ rather than ‘what logos was’. 

Logos, according to Isocrates’s teachings, focused on the tactical implications of logos—how it could be put to use. He thought that logos was the binding principle in establishing a ‘common good’ among Athenian citizens. 

Hellenistic Jewish philosophers such as Philo also defined logos. Philo believed that Logos was the ‘demiurge’, or in other words, the primary cause of the creation of the universe^[e]. 

He believed that many intermediary beings were necessary to bridge the gap between God and the material world, and that within these beings was the Logos, the highest and most important of them. Here, Philo coined Logos as the ‘first-born of God’. Philo wrote:

“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”. ^[f]

Philo believed that ‘the Angel of the Lord’ written about in the Old Testament (Tanakh) was identified with the Logos. He also thought the Logos was God’s instrument in creating the cosmic universe.

How Greek Philosophy Influenced John’s Thinking

Growing up in Greco-Roman culture, John knew exactly what would spark interest among Hellenistic Jews and Greeks.

While Matthew identified Christ as the promised Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament, John identified Christ as the Logos, a concept many of the most well-known philosophers held to be the Creator of the cosmos.

John’s skillful approach tied the Messiah with the Logos in a way that only one who was knowledgeable about Greek thinking could do. But he went beyond appealing to the Greek audience; he also addressed a Jewish audience by referring to Genesis 1. 

Here, John connects the Logos to creation. Since Greek thinkers identified Logos as the foundation of creation, it seems reasonable that John would begin his Gospel account this way.

Jesus as the Logos

John paired the Logos with the God of creation by stating that the Logos was there in the beginning. The Logos was with God; the Logos was God. 

His approach to this topic certainly grabbed the attention of the Hellenistic Jews. Interestingly, this single verse asserts that John’s approach to the Gospel is rooted in philosophical and theological concepts and affirms Christ’s deification.

Dive Deeper Into John

Share your thoughts on the Logos and what you find interesting about John 1:1. 

As you continue in this series, I hope clarity and a stronger faith will be at the forefront of your spiritual growth.

Signed,

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Want to do a deep-dive into the Gospels? Follow my mini-study series, The Gospel According to John, right here on The Ravyn Blogs. Sign up to get all your questions answered as you Grow with God.