The Word (Logos) in John 1: Gnostic or Jewish Origins?
The usage of the term Logos in Judaism and early Christianity
The Logos (Word) was a common term in many religions/philosophies of the first century. So the many proposed overlaps between these beliefs and John 1:1–18 are not unsurprising.
Talmudic scholar Daniel Boyarin offers a unique perspective. A Rabbi immersed in the origins of early Judaism and Christianity. His book Border Lines traces the influence of ‘Logos theology’ in this period. He finds evidence of a common tradition in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), Philo, John’s Gospel and the Aramaic Targums.
The Logos: Gnostic or Jewish?
Rudolf Bultmann’s views on John’s Gospel were dominant in the first half of 20th century. He thought the Gnostic origins of the Gospel were self-evident. John’s message was obviously in fundamental opposition to the Judaism of that time.
There are terms in Gnostic writings that overlap with John’s Gospel. Does that mean that the origins of John’s Gospel are Pagan? Not necessarily.
John’s Gospel is full of evocative words that we find in most religions: light and darkness, life and death, flesh and spirit. So the overlaps are unsurprising. However, New Testament scholar Don Carson argues:
…they would soon discover that whatever they had understood the term to mean in the past, the author whose work they were reading was forcing them into fresh thought. (D. A. Carson, The Gospel According to John, p116)
Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and greater awareness of the first century context, has shown themes in John’s Gospel were prominent in Judaism:
…many scholars declared that Bultmann’s search for the Johannine milieu in a pre-Christian Gnosticism had been misguided. (D. Moody Smith, Professor Emeritus in New Testament, Duke Divinity School)
After Bultmann, scholars increasingly looked to the Hebrew Bible and early Judaism to understand the background. For example, Daniel Boyarin has argued:
Rather than seeing in the Logos of John a parthenogenetic birth from a Greek mother-father, foisted illegitimately on a “Jewish” Christianity… I think, highly conceivable to see this Prologue, together with its Logos doctrine, as a Jewish text through and through rather than, as it has often been read, a “Hellenized corruption” of Judaism. (Daniel Boyarin, Border Lines, p31)
John 1:1–5 a midrash on Genesis 1?
John’s first few verses evoke Genesis 1: “In the beginning was the Word [logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (John 1:1, NIV)
John’s conclusion that the Logos is a creative agent, distinct from God and also fully God can be implicitly discerned in Genesis. But this is clearer in other passages (e.g. Psalm 33:6). Boyarin argues John is also informed by Proverbs 8. This passage makes a similar point but instead uses the term “Wisdom”:
I was there when he set the heavens in place,
when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep,
when he established the clouds above
and fixed securely the fountains of the deep (Proverbs 8:27–28, NIV)
Carson has questioned whether John 1 was dependent on Proverbs 8. Wisdom is not a key theme in his Gospel. Either way, John’s Gospel is not unique in speaking of a divine agent present with God at the creation.
The Hellenistic Jew, Philo made similar connections between the Logos and creation. Some have dismissed Philo as reading the Hebrew Bible through a Hellenistic/proto-Gnostic filter. However, we find similar theology in the Aramaic Targums where the Word (in Aramaic “Memra”) is a personal agent in Genesis 1.
For example, the Targum of Jerusalem dated between 4th and 12 century:
In wisdom (be-hukema) the Lord created…And the Word [Memra] of the Lord created man in His likeness, in the likeness of the presence of the Lord He created him, the male and his yoke-fellow He created them.(Targum of Jerusalem, Genesis 1:1)
Also the Targum of Neofiti dated between 1st-4th century:
“And the Memra [Word] of H’ [HaShem — the divine name] said Let there be light and there was light by his Memra.” [In all of the following verses, it is the Memra that performs all of the creative actions] (Targum of Neofiti, Genesis 1:3; quoted in Boyarin, ibid, p119)
Further evidence of John 1’s Jewish origins, is the formal Hebraic structure of these verses. Boyarin identifies various examples of John’s use of chiasm and gradatio (e.g. “in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was God”) — common literary devices in the Hebrew bible. This leads him to conclude:
…[John’s prologue] can best be read as the product of a common tradition shared by (some) Jesus Jews and (some) non-Jesus Jews.” (Daniel Boyarin, Border Lines, p96)
The Word in the Hebrew bible
The Logos in John 1 is not only present at creation. I think Boyarin is right — verses 10–13 are about Jesus’ pre-existence:
He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God — children born not of natural descent, nor of human decision or a husband’s will, but born of God.
(John 1:10–13, NIV)
Throughout the Tanakh, the Word is a person sent to the earth (see Psalm 147:15, Psalm 107:20) to accomplish the will of God. For example:
It [the Word] will not return to me empty,
but will accomplish what I desire
and achieve the purpose for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11, NIV)
There are also many occasions where the Word meets with specific people. For example, in Genesis 15 he makes an everlasting covenant with Abraham:
Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son who is your own flesh and blood will be your heir.” He took him outside and said, “Look up at the sky and count the stars — if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” (Genesis 15:3–4, NIV)
The Targum of Jonathan states that Abraham’s faith was in the Lord and his Memra.
And he believed in the Lord, and had faith in the (Memra) Word of the Lord, and He reckoned it to him for righteousness (lizeku) (Genesis 15:6)
John 8 possibly referred to this incident, Jesus said, “Your father Abraham rejoiced at the thought of seeing my day; he saw it and was glad.” (John 8:56, NIV) Isaiah is also said to have seen Jesus’ glory (John 12:41).
The Word became flesh
John’s narrative reaches crescendo when the Word — who made the world, is fully God, and accomplishes God’s will on earth — becomes human flesh:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling [tabernacle or tent] among us. (John 1:14)
This final section of John’s prologue focuses on Moses. Immediately, John draws an allusion to the tabernacle or tent of meeting:
Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp…The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend. (Exodus 33:7–11, NIV)
John has seen the Logos with his own eyes (John 21:24) — the one who met with Abraham and Moses face-to-face.
Full of grace and truth
The final verses of the prologue state that Jesus is the fulfilment of God’s promises in the Tanakh. There are clear allusions to Exodus 33–34.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known.(John 1:17–18)
Exodus 34 speaks of the Lord showing Moses his glory:
And he [the Lord] passed in front of Moses, proclaiming, “The Lord, the Lord, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness (Exodus 34:6, NIV)
New Testament scholar Andreas Kostenberger argues “grace and truth” are translations of the Hebrew words hesed(love) and emeth (faithfulness):
In its original context this joint expression refers to God’s covenant faithfulness to his people Israel. John’s message is that this covenant faithfulness found ultimate expression in the sending of God’s one-of-a-kind Son. (Andreas Kostenberger*, p422).
The Son who makes the Father known
John 1:18 is a summary and interpretation of Exodus 33. The Son, addressed with the divine name, spoke with Moses (Exodus 33:11) face-to-face in the tent of meeting. He is distinct from the Father, yet they share the divine name. No one may see the Father and live (Exodus 33:20). The Son’s mission is to make the Father known:
No one has ever seen God, but the one and only Son, who is himself God and is in closest relationship with the Father, has made him known. (John 1:18, NIV)
Evidence from the Tanakh, Philo, and the Targums reveals Logos theology was fundamental to the beliefs of many first century Jews. Boyarin comes to a startling conclusion about the Logos of John 1:
Christian theology, far from “gradually draw[ing] away from Judaic tendencies,” actually maintained a more conservative Judaic approach to the doctrine of God than did the Rabbis, and that it is they — if anyone — who drew away from earlier Jewish theology. (Daniel Boyarin, Border Lines, p92)
*Kostenberger A. John. In: Beale G, Carson D, eds. Commentary on the New Testament Use of the Old Testament. Michigan: Baker Academic.
