Thus the fundamental thought of this introduction is, that the original, all-creating, all-quickening, and all-en- lighteiiiiig Logos, ox piersonal dirine icord, became man in Jesus Christ. See Incaunation.
2. Origin and History of the Idea. — (1.) John uses the terra Logos without explanation, assuming that his readers know it to bear this sense. Accordingly, we find this conception of it not new with him, but a chief element in the development of the Old-Test. the(.l:igy. In the iMosaic account, God's revelation of himstlf in the creation was, in its nature, spirit (Gen. i, 2), in con- trast with matter, and in its form, a icoi-d (Gen. i, 4), in contrast with everj' involuntary materialistic or panthe- istic conception of the creative act. The real signifi- cance, under this representation, of the invisible God's revelation of hiraself by sj)eech became the germ of the idea of the Logos. With this thought all Judaism was pervaded ; that God does not manifest himself immedi- ately, but mediately; not in his hidden, invisible es- sence, but through an appearance — an attribute, emana- tion, or being called the angel of the Lord (Exod. xxiii, 21, etc.), or the voi-d of the Lord. Indeed, to the latter are ascribed, as his work, all divine light and life in na- ture and historj' ; the law, the promises, the prophecies, the guidance of the nation (compare Psa. xxxiii, 6, 9 ; evii, 20; cxlvii, 18; cxlviii, 8; Isa. ii, 1,3; Jer. i, 4, 11, 13, etc. Even such poetic personifications as Psa. cxlvii, 15; Isa.lv, 11, contain the germ of the doctrinal person- ality of the Word). See Angel.
(2.) Another important element of Hebrew thought was the visdom of God. The consideration of it be- came prominent only after the natural attributes of God — omnipotence, etc. — had long been acknowledged. The chief passages are Job xxviii, 12 sq. ; Prov. viii and ix. Even the latter is a poetic personification : but this is based on the thought that SV'isdom is not shut up at rest in (iod, but active and manifest in the world. It is viewed as the one guide to salvation, comprehending all revelations of God, and as an attribute embracing and combining all his other attributes. This view deeply influenced the development of the Hebrew idea of God. At that stage of religious knowledge and life. Wisdom, revealing to pious faith the harmony and unity of pur- pose in the world, appeared to be his most attractive
and important attribute — the essence of his being. One higher step remained; but the Jew could not j'et see that God is love.
(3.) In the apocryphal books of Sirach (chap, i and xxiv) and Baruch (iii, and iv, 1-4), this view of AVisdora is developed yet more clearly and fully. The book of Wisdom (written at least B.C. 100) praises wisdom as the highest good, the essence of right knowledge and virtue, and as given by God to the pious who pray for it (ch. vii and viii) ; see especially vii, 22 sq., where Wis- dom has divine dignity and honors, as a holy spirit of light, proceeding from God, and penetrating all things. But this book seems rather to have viewed it as anoth- er name for the whole divine nature than as a person distinct from God. And nowhere does it connect this Wisdom with the idea of Messiah. It shows, however, the influence of both Greek and Oriental philosophy on Jewish theology, and marks a transition from the Old- Test, view to that of Philo, etc. See Wisdom, book of.
(4.) In Egypt, from the time of Ptolemy I (B.C. 300), there were Jews in great numbers, their head-quarters being at Alexandria (Philo estimates them at a million in his time, A.D. 50), and there they gradually came un- der the influence of the Egyptian civilization of that age, a strange mixture of Greek and Oriental customs and doctrines. See Alexandrian Schools. Aristob- ulus, about 150 B.C., seems to have endeavored to unite the ancient doctrines of Wisdom and the Word of God with a form of Greek philosophy. This effort, the lead- ing feature of the Jewish-Alexandrian school, culmina- ted in Philo, a contemporary of Christ, who strives to make Judaism, combined with and interpreted by the Platonic philosophy, do the work of the idea of Messiah, affording by the power of thought a complete substitute for it. This attempt to harmonize heathen and Jewish elements, while it led in him to a sort of anticipation of certain parts of Christian doctrine, explains how he him- self vacillates between opposite and irreconcilable views. See Platoxism.
(5.) Philo represents the absolute God as hidden and unknown, but surrounded by his poice?-s as a king by his servants, and, through these, as present and ruling in the world. (These powers, c^i'J'hjkhc, are, in Platonic language, ideas ; in Jewish, angils.} Tliese are different and innumerable ; the original principles of things; the immaterial world, the type of which the material is an image. The two chief of these in dignity arc the Qeog, God, the creative power, and the Kvpioc, Lord, or gov- erning power of the Sciiptures. But all these powers are essentially one, as God is one ; and their unity, both as they exist in God and as they emanate from him, is called the Logos. Hence the Logos appears under two relations : as the reason of God, lying in him — the di- vine thought ; and as the outspoken word, proceeding from him, and manifest in the world. The former is, in reality, one with God's hidden being; the latter com- prehends all the workings and revelations of God in the world, affords from itself the ideas and energies by which the world was framed and is upheld, and, filling all things with divine light and life, rules them in wisdom, love, and righteousness. It is the beginning of crea- tion ; not unoriginated, like God, nor made, like the world, but the eldest son of the eternal Father (the world being the younger) ; God's image ; the creator of the world; the mediator between God and it; the highest angel ; the second God ; the high-priest and reconciler.