The two notions differ as to origin. The impersonal God of Philo cannot pass to the finite creation without contamination of his divine essence. Hence an inferior agent must be inter- posed. John’s God, on the other hand, is personal, and a loving personality. He is a Father (i. 18); His essence is love (iii. 16 ; 1 John iv. 8,16). He is in direct relation with the world which Ile desires to save, and the Logos is He Himself, manifest in the flesh. According to Philo, the Logos is not coexistent with the eternal God. Eternal matter is before him in time. According to John, the Logos is essentially with the Father from all eternity (i. 2), and it is He who creates all things, matter included (i. 3).
Philo misses the moral energy of the Hebrew religion as expressed in its emphasis upon the holiness of Jehovah, and therefore fails to perceive the necessity of a divine teacher and Saviour. He forgets the wide distinction between God and the world, and declares that, were the universe to end, God would die of Joneliness and inactivity.
As Logos has the double meaning of thought and speech, so Christ is related to God as the word to the idea, the word being not merely a name for the idea, but the idea itself expressed. The thought is the inward word (Dr. Schaff compares the Hebrew expression “ I speak in my heart ” for “I think ”).
The Logos of John is the real, personal God (i. 1), the Word, who was originally before the creation with God, and was God, one in essence and nature, yet personally distinct (i. 1, 18); the revealer and interpreter of the hidden being of God; the re- flection and visible image of God, and the organ of all His manifestations to the world. Compare Heb. i. 3. He made all things, proceeding personally from God for the accomplish- ment of the act of creation (i. 3), and became man in the per- son of Jesus Christ, accomplishing the redemption of the world. Compare Philip. ii. 6.
The following is from William Austin, “ Meditation for Christmas Day,” cited by Ford on John:
“The name Word is most excellently given to our Saviour; for it expresses Tiis nature in one, more than in any others.