Kermos
Well-Known Member
The Encyclopedia Britannica sums it up pretty well:
“The Logos which having been in the beginning, and with God, and divine [‘a god’], had entered human life and history as the Word ‘made flesh!’ .... But the identification of Jesus with the Logos was not tantamount to recognizing him as ‘God.’ Neither the ‘Word of God’ in Hebrew nomenclature nor the Logos in Greek speculation was ‘God’ though it was definitely ‘divine’ [‘a god’].” - Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th ed., vol. 13, p.25.
If John’s intended audience for his Gospel were primarily of Jewish background, we could properly assume his Logos concept was one that was well known in the Jewish world (Philo’s Logos). Some trinitarians (for obvious reasons) insist that John was writing primarily to non-Jewish pagans, but the very language and ideas used in the Gospel of John show that the writer was writing primarily to those of Jewish background. Those unfamiliar with Jewish customs, ideas, and language would have been confused:
“Features of John which suggest more convincingly a Jewish and even Palestinian background are its language, its echoes of rabbinic ideas and methods of argument, and its parallels in thought and language with the recently discovered documents of the [Jewish] Qumran community”! - The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, vol. 2, p. 942, by the trinitarian Abingdon Press, 1962.
(The Trinitarian New Bible Dictionary, second ed., 1984, also tells us that for the writer of the Gospel of John “a Jewish audience is probably in mind” and, “it is an attractive hypothesis that he wrote especially for the Jews of the Diaspora and proselytes in Hellenistic synagogues. .... the view that the Gospel was written primarily to convert the thoughtful Gentile ... is unlikely.” - p. 607.)
This brings us to the fact that John would have likely been writing to those Jews in the largest and most influential area of Hellenistic Judaism in the known world at that time: Egypt (particularly Alexandria and the many synagogues influenced by it).
It is significant that:
“The existence of John’s Gospel is attested in Egypt before AD 150 [probably 100 – 125 AD] by the Rylands Papyrus 457 [p52], the earliest known fragment of a NT MS.” – p. 610, New Bible Dictionary, Second Edition, Tyndale House Publ., 1984.
“The apparent lack of knowledge of John in Asia gives weight to the claims of Alexandria: here John was certainly used very early by the Gnostics (cf. also the papyri), the climate of thought (Hellenistic Judaism) could be regarded as suitable, and the general remoteness of Alexandria would explain the Gospel’s slow circulation.” – p. 611.
This respected trinitarian Bible dictionary, therefore, admits that the writings of John were found very early in Egypt and only slowly crept outward to other congregations around the Mediterranean. This strongly indicates that Alexandria (or, possibly, another Egyptian synagogue) received the original of John’s Gospel. The Hellenistic Jews most familiar with the Logos of Philo were the very ones John wrote his Gospel to originally.
To further verify this we have the evidence of the earliest manuscripts of John ever found.
The Complete Text of the Earliest New Testament Manuscripts lists the fragments of 11 separate manuscripts as all the very earliest MSS known of the Gospel of John. They include the earliest of all, p52, which is now dated to 100 – 125 AD, which is very soon after the original was written!
The others are 0162; p5; p22; p28; p39; p45; p66; p75; p90; p95. (We also find the very earliest MS of 1 John, p9, was also found in Egypt.)
Out of all 11 of these manuscripts (or 12 if we include p9), only two (p80 and p95) were from unknown locations (in museum, discoverer and original location unknown). All of the others were from Egypt! – Philip Comfort and David Barrett, Baker Books, 1999.
Yes, John wrote his Gospel to Hellenistic Jews in Egypt who had to be well aware of the Logos concept of Philo of Alexandria, and who would be using that concept themselves! Therefore, when John wrote them his Gospel account, there was no need to explain what was meant by “Logos,” the Word. They already knew, and it was Philo’s Logos.
You do not believe that which is explained in the Bible, as shown in the following.
The Apostle John and Philo were temporal contemporaries.
The Jewish leaders understood that John was an "uneducated and untrained" man (Acts 4:13), so this means that Philo would have been exposed to John's testimony as opposed to John being trained in Philo's philosophy.
It is much more plausible that Philo heard or read the Apostle John's testimony that Jesus Christ is the Word (Logos in Greek) and that the Word is God, as now recorded in John 1:1-5 and John 1:14.
Jewish leaders were involved in the persecution (Acts 4:1-31, Acts 5:12-42) and death of Apostles (Luke 23:21, Acts 12:1-3); therefore, Philo is a hostile witness against the Gospel of Christ because he was a Jewish leader.
Philo, as with other Jewish leaders (Acts 4:17), would be interested in eliminating knowledge of the Word or at least introducing confusion about the Word.
One such point of confusion would be Philo introducing the concept of the Word (Logos) being "a god" working as "God's agent" but "not God" but being "Son of God" but "never 'God'".
Philo has a HUGE problem because his philosophy has "a god" being "an intermediate entity" "between God and Man", so Philo's Logos philosophy results in an other "god" being before God for man's salvation; therefore, Philo was living in sin against God because of the commandant "You shall have no other gods before Me" (Exodus 20:3) - the Word written by God's own finger.
As is clearly evident, Watchtower Society people hold to Philo and his confusion, yet "God is not a God of confusion but of peace, as in all the assemblies of the saints" (1 Corinthians 14:33); therefore, Watchtower Society people do not believe in the Word.
Philo remains an advantageous hostile witness because Philo provides evidence of John testifying that the Word is God (John 1:1) before the book of John was penned in a complete compendium around 90 AD.
In other words, historically, Philo provides ample evidence that John's testimony, that the Word is God (John 1:1) even YHWH God, was actively taught in the lifetime of John the Apostle.
In other words, historically, Philo provides ample evidence that John's testimony, that the Word is God (John 1:1) even YHWH God, was actively taught in the lifetime of John the Apostle because as a Jewish leader Philo would actively try to confuse John teaching Christian Truth (John 14:6).
Philo's writing illuminates that John 1:1-5 as we have in the book of John is accurate despite Watchtower Society people's thoughts that other people corrupt John 1:1-5 as it appears in English Bibles such as the KJV, NASB, and ESV.
In fact, this means that the Watchtower Society's New World Translation bible's "the Word was a god" (John 1:1) is the teaching of a Jewish leader opposed to Christ and Christians, and that Jewish leader's name is Philo.