John 1:1-18, The Word

One of the most fascinating things that I ever studied was the "Logos" of John 1:1-18. After reading many commentaries concerning how Jesus fulfilled the goals of Greek philosophy in the areas of both "reason" and "speech," Arnold, (Dr. Arnold Fruchtenbaum), reminded me that John was not a Greek philosopher, he was a Jewish fisherman and that what he really had in mind was first century Jewish theology that existed in Israel. The rabbis during that time used an Aramaic term that meant "word." It was the concept of memra that John used and there were six things that the rabbis taught concerning the memra:

1. The same, but distinct from God, (John 1:1)
2. The agent of Creation, (John 1:3)
3. The agent of salvation, (John 1:12)
4. The visible manifestation of God's presence, (John 1:14). That word is "skeinei" in the Greek, because the Greek's didn't have a "sh" sound for Shechinah, but they liked the concept of gods coming down from Mount Olympus and intermingling with men. So, it should be read, "And the Word became flesh, and "tabernacled" among us."
5. The agent of Revelation, (John 1:18)
6. The Seal of the Covenants, (John 1:17)

Arnold summarizes as follows: "John's introduction of verses 1-18 can be summarized in four points. First, the Word, the logos, the memra, finally came in visible form, in the form of flesh, in the form of a man. Secondly, unfortunately, the world in general did not know Him; it did not recognize the light that had arrived. Thirdly, even more tragically, His own people, the Jewish people, did not recognize Him either. However, fourthly, those individual Jews and Gentiles who did recognize Him are the ones who became the children of light; they are the ones who received spiritual salvation from Him, the agent of salvation."

In class, we also listened to Paul Wilbur perform "Day's of Elijah" at the feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem. What a blessing.

Hope to see more of you in the following weeks.

Chrbrotherist

George Haven