Good and Evil, Towb and Ra

Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.

Translated with the force of the tenses and sense of the structure, this reads, “In the beginning the Logos was being, and the Logos was being face-to-face with God, and GOD is what the Logos was being.”

This is one of those cases where a noun lacks the definite article but is more definite than it would be with it; the traditional translation is, “And the Logos was God”, but that fails to catch the emphatic nature of the relationship being specified.

The idea that the Logos was not just the principle behind the functioning of all Creation was already present in one or two branches/parties of Judaism in the first century B.C. as well as the first century A.D. It’s commonly noted that in Greek philosophy the organizing principle of existence was labeled the logos and the assertion is made that this is what John was linking to, but more has been learned about various branches of Jewish philosophy and that was probably primary in John’s mind.

This is an artificial distinction that has no basis in the text, either Old or New Covenant writings.

I occasionally encounter the claim that the words for “Holy Spirit” in the Greek are neuter and thus the Spirit is a force, not a person, but John 14:26 knocks that idea down–

ὁ δὲ παράκλητος, τὸ πνεῦμα τὸ ἅγιον, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit”

“Helper” (or “Advocate”, “Counselor”, or just “Paraclete” (the Greek word used) is a masculine, and since “the Holy Spirit” is a subordinate phrase the neuter is irrelevant. It’s also worth noting that an Advocate is a person. Given that this is Jesus telling us about the Advocate Who is the Holy Spirit, this is definitive for the New Testament.

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