The New Testament Logos

The influence of the rhetoric of Philo of Alexandria on the Shape of the New Testament

© Dr. Keith LloydAssociate Professor of EnglishKent State University Stark kslloyd@kent.edu

Philo Judaeus

Background• In 1990, Earl

Doherty published a book called The Jesus Puzzle, one of two books in which he claims that there was no historical Jesus.

A Wikipedia article on Doherty notes,

“Not a single early Christian source supports Doherty's claim that Paul and those before him thought of Jesus as a spiritual, not a human being, who was executed in the spiritual, not the earthly realm."

In a book criticizing the Christ myth theory, New Testament scholar Maurice Casey describes Doherty as "perhaps the most influential of all the mythicists", but one who is unable to understand the ancient texts he uses in his arguments.

“Earl Doherty “ From Wikipedia, the free encyclopediahttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earl_Doherty

So why read anything Doherty says?• Probably 3/4s of what he says is confirmed

elsewhere. His research isn’t bad—his conclusions connect the dots more like the DiVinci Code than true detective work.

• And--As my professor, William Lane observed, the most dangerous lies are ones that are based in truths.

• But he also taught me • 1) to seek truth wherever it can be found• 2) to never be afraid to engage critique• 3) that truth is much larger than any of us • In any case, Doherty’s descriptions of the

influence of Philo on early Christianity (adjusting for his bias) is just about the best out there.

Lane was the author or editor of several notable works, including The Encyclopedia of Modern Christian Missions (1967),[2] The New Testament Speaks (1969),[8]

The Gospel According to Mark in The New International Commentary on the New Testament (1974),[9] and the two-volume commentary on the Epistle to the Hebrews in the Word Biblical Commentary(1991), which was awarded the 1993 Christianity Today Critic's Choice for "Book of the Year".

Overview• “Only if the fundamental concept of a heavenly intermediary

between God and humanity was already part of the philosophical fabric of the time can we understand the genesis of the Christian movement, or the success which apostles like Paul achieved.

• Consciously or unconsciously, Paul and his contemporaries were fitting their spiritual Son into the thought patterns of the time.

• … they are nowhere so clear as in Alexandria around the turn of the era, especially in the writings of Philo Judaeus.

• Philo might be styled a “grandfather” to Christianity, for some of his genes have been passed down to Paul and others, genes he himself had drawn from his own progenitors, the world of Platonic philosophy and Jewish Wisdom theology.”

Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5 TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

Philo’s Synthesis• As the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy notes, Philo

produced a synthesis of both [Hebrew and Greek] traditions developing concepts for future Hellenistic interpretation of messianic Hebrew thought, especially by Clement of Alexandria, Christian Apologists like Athenagoras, Theophilus, Justin Martyr, Tertullian, and by Origen.

• He may have influenced Paul, his contemporary, and perhaps the authors of the Gospel of John (C. H. Dodd) and the Epistle to the Hebrews (R. Williamson and H. W. Attridge).

• In the process, he laid the foundations for the development of Christianity in the West and in the East, as we know it today.

“Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 B.C.E.—40 C.E.)”Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

The Evidence• If one compares what

Philo says with various New Testament books, the comparisons are too numerous and similar to be coincidental.

• Philo’s ideas, themselves a weaving of different influences, quickly became part of the mythos of the Greco-Judaic world.

One place this is most evident is in the Christological Hymns of the New Testament, places where Paul and others quote liturgical statements in their letters.

These statements would have circulated throughout the early church, and reflect the earliest Christian creeds.

The Logos is the Creative forcePhiloDe Confus. Ling., § 14; M. i. 414, P. 329 (Ri. ii. 262)

Colossians 1:15-20 (NIV)

• “For the Father of things that are hath made him rise as His Eldest Son, whom elsewhere He hath called His First-born, and who, when he hath been begotten, imitating the ways of his Sire, and contemplating His archetypal patterns, fashions the species [of things].”

• “But the Reason (Logos) is God’s Likeness, by whom [sc. Reason] the whole Cosmos was fashioned.”

• De Monarch., ii. § 5; M. ii. 225, P. 823 (Ri. iv. 302).

• 15 The Son is the image of the invisible God, the firstbornover all creation. 16 For in him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things have been created through him and for him. 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together.

G.R.S. Mead. VIII PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA AND THE HELLENISTIC THEOLOGY CONCERNING PHILO AND HIS METHOD.” Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1, [1906], at sacred-texts.comp. 227-228

Christological Hymns

Colossians

• “The [C]hristological hymn in Colossians 1:15-20 … is stamped with the same kind of imagery as well: the Son as the pre-existent image of God, a force which created the universe and now holds it together.

• Paul himself tells us that Christ “is the very image of God” (2 Corinthians 4:4), and in 1 Corinthians 8:6 he has this to say:

Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5 TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

“Paul and other early writers are speaking of Christ in exactly the same language as we find in the broader philosophical world, both Greek and Jewish.

Their idea of the spiritual Son has absorbed both the features and roles of the Logos and personified Wisdom.

… Paul is drawing on the prominent ideas of his day and the deeper heritage which lay behind them.”

“For us there is one God, the Father, from whom all being comes . . . and there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came to be and we through him.”

The Logos takes on a BodyPhilippians 2:6-11 (NIV)Philo

De Prof., § 20; M. i. 562, P. 466 (Ri. iii. 133)

• 6 Who, being in very nature God,did not consider equality with God

something to be used to his own advantage;7 rather, he made himself nothing

by taking the very nature[b] of a servant,being made in human likeness.

8 And being found in appearance as a man,he humbled himselfby becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross!• 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest

placeand gave him the name that is above every

name,10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

• “Now the Most Ancient Reason (Logos) of That-which-is is vestured with the Cosmos as his robe;—for he wrappeth himself in Earth and Water, Air and Fire, and what comes from them; the partial soul [doth clothe itself] in body; the wise man’s mind in virtues.

• “And ‘he shall not take the mitre from off his head,’ [signifies] he shall not lay aside the royal diadem, the symbol of his admirable rule, which, however, is not that of an autocrat-emperor, but of a viceroy.

• “Nor ‘will he rend his garments,’—for the Reason (Logos) of That-which-is, being the bond of all things, as hath been said, both holds together all the parts, and binds them, and does not suffer them to be dissolved or separated.”

Christological Hymns

G.R.S. Mead. VIII PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA AND THE HELLENISTIC THEOLOGY CONCERNING PHILO AND HIS METHOD.” Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1, [1906], at sacred-texts.comp. 227-228

The Logos is the shepherd of the flock

• “Moreover God, as Shepherd and King, leads [and rules] with law and justice the nature of the heaven, the periods of sun and moon, the changes and harmonious progressions of the other stars—deputing [for the task] His own Right Reason (Logos), His Firstborn Son, to take charge of the sacred flock, as though he were the Great King’s viceroy.” De Agric., § 13; M. i. 308, P. 195 (Ri. ii. 116).

G.R.S. Mead. VIII PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA AND THE HELLENISTIC THEOLOGY CONCERNING PHILO AND HIS METHOD.” Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1, [1906], at sacred-texts.comp. 227-228

John 10: 10"The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly. 11"I am the good shepherd; the good shepherd lays down His life for the sheep. 12"He who is a hired hand, and not a shepherd, who is not the owner of the sheep, sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep and flees, and the wolf snatches them and scatters them.….”

The Logos is the High PriestPhiloDe Prof., § 20; M. i. 562, P. 466 (Ri. iii. 133).

Hebrews 4

• “But we say that the High Priest is not a man, but the Divine Reason (Logos), who has no part or lot in any transgressions, not only voluntary errors, but also involuntary ones. For, says Moses, he cannot be defiled either ‘on account of his father,’ the Mind, nor ‘on account of his mother,’ the [higher]

• 14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has ascended into heaven,[a] Jesus the Son of God, let us hold firmly to the faith we profess. 15 For we do not have a high priest who is unable to empathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who has been tempted in every way, just as we are— yet he did not sin. 16 Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.

G.R.S. Mead. VIII PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA AND THE HELLENISTIC THEOLOGY CONCERNING PHILO AND HIS METHOD.” Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1, [1906], at sacred-texts.comp. 227-228

The quotations look back to Lev. xxi. 10, but the readings in the first two differ from the LXX

Epistle to the Hebrews• “The ‘Epistle to the Hebrews’ defines “the nature

of the Son as ‘the effulgence of God’s splendor,’ the image of God and the sustainer of the universe.

• This document comes either from Alexandria or from some Palestinian circle with close connections to the Egyptian city and its philosophy.”

Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5 TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

The Logos is the divine mediatorPhilo Quis Rer. Div. Her., § 42; M. i. 501, 502, P. 504 (Ri. iii. 45, 46).

I Timothy 2

• “And on His angel-ruling and most ancient Reason (Logos), the Father who created all, hath bestowed a special gift—that standing between them as a Boundary, he may distinguish creature from Creator.

• “He [the Reason] ever is himself the suppliant unto the Incorruptible on mortal kind’s behalf in its distress, and is the King’s ambassador to subject nature.

• 4who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. 5For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, 6who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.…

G.R.S. Mead. VIII PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA AND THE HELLENISTIC THEOLOGY CONCERNING PHILO AND HIS METHOD.” Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1, [1906], at sacred-texts.comp. 227-228

The Logos brings imparts God’s peace

Philo Quis Rer. Div. Her., § 42; M. i. 501, 502, P. 504 (Ri. iii. 45, 46)

John 14

• to Him who hath created him, for pledge that the creature never will remove itself entirely [from Him], nor make revolt, choosing disorder in order’s place; and to the thing created for good hope that God, the Merciful, will never disregard the work of His own hands. ‘For I will herald forth the news of peace to the creation from Him who knows how to make wars to cease, from God the Everlasting Peacekeeper.’

• 27 "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful.

G.R.S. Mead. VIII PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA AND THE HELLENISTIC THEOLOGY CONCERNING PHILO AND HIS METHOD.” Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1, [1906], at sacred-texts.comp. 227-228

The Universe is made through the logos, and the logos brings us back into unity with God

Hebrews 1PhiloDe Sacrif., § 3; M. i. 165, P. 131 (Ri. i. 233).

• 1 In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe.

• 3 The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

• it is by means of the same Reason (Logos) that He hath made the universe, and bringeth back the perfect man from earthly things unto Himself again.”

Christological Hymns

G.R.S. Mead. VIII PHILO OF ALEXANDRIA AND THE HELLENISTIC THEOLOGY CONCERNING PHILO AND HIS METHOD.” Thrice-Greatest Hermes, Vol. 1, [1906], at sacred-texts.comp. 227-228

Where it all began: Alexandria

• “The city of Alexandria (in Egypt) was founded in the year 331 BCE by Alexander the Great in his march of conquest across the Persian empire.

• … largest Jewish community in the Diaspora.• … the most prominent center of Jewish learning

outside Palestine, • the place where the Hebrew bible had been

translated into Greek in the third century BCE.• the most important point of entry for Greek

philosophy in its absorption by the Jews. (2)

Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5 TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

How ideas travelled …• Judea was directly in the

path of commerce and travel from Alexandria to Antioch in Syria,

• Antioch was called "the cradle of Christianity" as a result of its longevity and the pivotal role that it played in the emergence of both Hellenistic Judaism and Early Christianity.

• The Christian New Testament asserts that the name Christian first emerged in Antioch.

• Home of a huge Jewish diaspora.

Antioch, Syria – 10th Century Lithographwww.biblesearchers.com

Jews “were given full status” as free citizens from the Athenian founding

Wiki source

Philo of Alexandria

• The foremost philosopher-theologian of Hellenistic Judaism was born around 25 BCE and lived until some time after the year 41 CE.

• Philo believed that the Platonic philosophy of his day (now called Middle Platonism) represented a true picture of God and the universe, supplemented by elements of the Stoic and Pythagorean systems.

• But Philo was first and foremost a Jew, and so he maintained that Judaism lay at the center of this picture, that the Jewish scriptures, as well as Jewish religious observance, embodied the very reality all this Greek philosophy pointed to.

Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5 TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

Jew or Not Jew: Philo of Alexandriawww.jewornotjew.com

Philo’s Life and Connections• “Alexandria … at that time counted, according to

some estimates, about one million people and included largest Jewish community outside of Palestine.”

• Philo “came from a wealthy and the prominent family and appears to be a leader in his community. Once he visited Jerusalem and the temple, as he himself stated in Prov. 2.64.

• Philo's brother, Alexander, was a wealthy, prominent Roman government official, a custom agent responsible for collecting dues on all goods imported into Egypt from the East.

• He donated money to plate the gates of the temple in Jerusalem with gold and silver. He also made a loan to Herod Agrippa I, grandson of Herod the Great.”

“Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 B.C.E.—40 C.E.)”Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

According to the Gospels, Jesus was put on trial before Herod Antipas, son of Herodthe Great.

Acts 12:1-2 – Why Did Herod Kill James? | Reading Actsreadingacts.com

Agrippa is depicted in Acts 12 as a persecutor of the apostles; he ordered the execution of James the brother of John and had Peter imprisoned.

Philo’s Connections to Judea• Alexander's two sons, Marcus and Tiberius Julius

Alexander were involved in Roman affairs. • Marcus married Bernice, the daughter of Herod

Agrippa I, who is mentioned in Acts (25:13, 23; 26:30).

• The other son, Tiberius Julius Alexander, described by Josephus as "not remaining true to his ancestral practices" became procurator of the province of Judea (46-48 C.E.) and prefect of Egypt (66-70 C.E.).

• A “pogrom” against Alexandrian Jews began in 38 C.E. initiated by the prefect Flaccus, during the reign of … Caligula.

• Philo “was elected to head the Jewish delegation” to Rome to appear before Emperor Gaius Caligula.

• The delegation “apparently included his brother Alexander and nephew Tiberius Julius Alexander”. Recorded in Against Flaccus and The Embassy to Gaius.

“Philo of Alexandria (c. 20 B.C.E.—40 C.E.)”Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy

Bernice Βερνίκη, Βερνίκης, ἡ (i. e. victorious, daughter of Herod Agrippa the elder. married first her uncle Herod, king of Chalcis, and after his death Polemon, king of Cilicia. Deserting him soon afterward, she returned to her brother Agrippa, with whom previously when a widow she was said to have lived incestuously. Finally she became for a tithe the mistress of the emperor Titus

THAYER'S GREEK LEXICON, Electronic Database. Copyright © 2002, 2003, 2006, 2011 by Biblesoft, Inc.

The Impetus for Philo and others• “ancient thinking had arrived at the concept that

an ultimate high God created and governed the universe. But as this God in the minds of philosophers became more and more transcendent, the problem arose as to how he could have any contact with the inferior world of matter.”

Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5 TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

From our point of view, a new mythos was needed…

Greek Thought: Stoicism• Stoicism … conceived of God as immanent in the

world, virtually equivalent to Nature itself or the total universe.

• The reasoning or governing principle within it was thought of as the mind of God, and this the Stoics called the Logos.

• Humans possessed a spark of this divine reason within themselves—the Stoic “soul”—so that they shared in God’s nature; they were an integral part of the cosmic world, in continuity with God.

Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5 TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

Judea was conquered by Alexander the Great in 332 and became essentially a Greek province… Most Jews assimilated to varying degrees into Greek culture.

Platonism

• the governing force of the universe (God) lay outside matter, with the visible world only a distant imperfect reflection of the true spiritual reality above, creating a “dualistic” (in two parts) universe.

• The Platonists, too, adopted the term Logos, but they used it of the intermediate force which served as the link between God and the lower world.

• The first task of this force had been creation, a process in which the mind of God produced Ideas, and the intermediary agency, a creative aspect of God which Plato called the “Demiurge,” fashioned these Ideas into the material world (as well as into the stars and lower gods).

• The Logos was also defined as the image of God according to which humans were created, and it was regarded as the ongoing channel of spiritual communication between Deity and humanity.

Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5 TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

Plato - Ancient History Encyclopediawww.ancient.eu

Platonists generally did not regard the Logos as a personal being, but more an abstract force or principle

Philo

• Philo adopted the Platonic Logos for his own picture of the universe, calling it “the Son” and “the first-begotten of God” (as in De Confusione Linguarum, 146).

Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5 TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

He also drew on the figure of Wisdom from Judaism’s own intermediary theology…In some biblical and extra-biblical writings, Wisdom, a personified aspect of God, was an agent of creation and salvation, pre-existent with God in heaven. Philo occasionally makes her mother to the Logos. But such language seems to be symbolic only. Certainly, Philo envisioned no incarnation of this “Son” to earth.

Tune in next week…

Philo, deeply knowledgeable in Greek philosophy, was a mystic, and based his work on mystical revelations.

Philo’s Logos and Christianity

• Philo “did not personalize the first-begotten of God, nor make him even as distinct a figure as the spiritual Christ who inhabited Paul’s mind, for his Jewish monotheistic instinct was too strong.

• Nor had he any apocalyptic leanings, with consequently little if any interest in the Messiah idea.”

Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5 TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

Philo’s Logos and Christianity

• “But he also saw the Logos as an intercessor, bringing it closer to Christianity’s Christ.

• The power of the Logos could, however, be embodied in humans, and thus Philo portrayed Moses as having been the most perfect receptacle of God’s Logos in human history.”

Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5 TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

"To his Word (Logos), His chief messenger, highest in age and honor, the Father of all has given the special prerogative, to stand on the border [between the two worlds] and separate the creature from the Creator. This same Word both pleads with the immortal as suppliant for afflicted mortality and acts as ambassador of the ruler to the subject." (From the Loeb edition, p.385-7.)

Philo “Who is Heir of Divine Things”

• “And the Father who created the universe has given to his archangelic and most ancient Word a pre-eminent gift, to stand on the confines of both, and separated that which had been created from the Creator. And this same Word is continually a suppliant to the immortal God on behalf of the mortal race, which is exposed to affliction and misery; and is also the ambassador, sent by the Ruler of all, to the subject race. And the Word rejoices in the gift, and, exulting in it, announces it and boasts of it, saying, ‘And I stood in the midst, between the Lord and you;’ [Numbers 16:48] neither being uncreated as God, nor yet created as you, but being in the midst between these two extremities.” (205).

Jack L. Coyote. The “First-born Son” of God, Begotten as “Word of Truth.” COSMONOUS exploring nature-type ideographs, mytho-typological development and archaeoastronomy. https://earthnous.wordpress.com/2015/05/07/first-born-son-of-god-begotten-as-word-of-truth/

Where Philo differs• In heaven itself, Philo sees the Logos as “a continual supplicant to

the immortal God on behalf of mortal man” (Divine Matters, 205): this is one of Christ’s roles, one exactly paralleled in 1 John 2:1.

• The role Philo did not assign to his Logos, however, nor to Moses, was a sacrificial one.

• Paul and the branch of the Christ movement he represented needed an atoner, a sacrifice for sin—or perhaps, at an earlier stage than Paul (represented by the Philippians hymn), a paradigmatic suffering figure whose exaltation would guarantee the believers’ own.

• Ultimately, Christianity became the embodiment of the suffering Savior idea, and this was its greatest “advance” … on Philo and Hellenistic philosophy generally.

• Philo, on the other hand, represents Jewish optimism and positive theology at its best, although part of this is due to a healthy dose of the Greek spirit.

Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5 TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

I John 2:1: “My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.”

Where the NT differs:• Colossians I 18 And he is the head of the body, the

church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19 For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20 and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.

• Hebrews 1:2: After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.

Christological Hymns

Philippians 1

• 8 And being found in appearance as a man,he humbled himselfby becoming obedient to death—

even death on a cross!• 9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place

and gave him the name that is above every name,10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,

in heaven and on earth and under the earth,11 and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,

to the glory of God the Father.

Christological Hymns

1 Timothy 3:16 (KJV)• 16 And without controversy great is the mystery

of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

Christological Hymns

Conclusions: What does Doherty get right?

• “From the Logos of Greek philosophy and Philo’s Platonized Judaism to Paul’s Christ Jesus is scarcely a stone’s throw.

• Philo described the Logos as the “image” of God.

• It was God’s “first-begotten,” the primary of his emanations.

• Through this “eldest son” God produced everything else.

• The Logos was the instrument of God’s creation.”

Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5 TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

Romans 8:29For those God foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers and sisters.

Conclusions: What does Doherty get right?

• In an idea derived from Stoicism, the Logos became the binding power which made everything in the universe cohere and function.

• Again like Stoicism, the Logos was the divine seed within humans; as the Logos was God’s Son, all human beings were God’s “sons.”

• Neither Paul nor Hebrews uses the actual term “Logos,” but their Christ bears all the characteristics of this divine entity who is one step removed from the Father. Earl Doherty The Jesus Puzzle Supplementary Article No. 5

TRACING THE CHRISTIAN LINEAGE IN ALEXANDRIA

Galatians 3 26For you are all sons of Godthrough faith in Christ Jesus. 27For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ.…

Acts 17:28For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring.'

The First New Testament (Syriac)• One of the earliest versions of the New

Testament appears in Syria, in the Syriaclanguage. (Matthew and Luke were written in Syria).

• If we could accept the somewhat obscure statement of Eusebius (HistoriaEcclesiastica, IV, xxii) that Hegesippus"made some quotations from the Gospel according to the Hebrews and from the Syriac Gospel," we should have a reference to a Syriac New Testament as early as 160-80 AD, the time of that Hebrew Christian writer.

• Didn’t include:

• John 7:53-8:11• James• I and II Peter• II and III John • Jude• Revelation

• Less influenced by Philo’s logos.

The term Peshitta was used by Moses bar Kepha in 903 and means "simple" (in analogy to the Latin Vulgate). It is the oldest Syriac version which has survived to the present day in its entirety.Wiki Source Syriac versions of the Bible

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

General Conclusions • Earl Doherty’s description of the intersection of

Philo’s ideas is probably the most cogent one to date, but his conclusion, that there was no historical Jesus, is a long way from established, by him or anyone else.

• It is interesting to wonder how our current mythos, our current rhetoric, our own sense of logic, lends itself to these interpretations….

Mythos, Logos, Rhetoric

• Undoubtedly the NT writers reflect the Mythos of their time, especially the blend of Hebrew and Greek ideas promulgated by Philo.

• In this case, the link was Logos itself, blended from Platonic and Stoic ideas.

• Philo’s Rhetoric was powerful enough to spread quickly from Alexandria through Antioch, the home of the newly formed Christian faith.

1 Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος, καὶ ὁ Λόγος ἦνπρὸς τὸν Θεόν, καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος.

2 Οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν Θεόν.

3 πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο, καὶ χωρὶςαὐτοῦ ἐγένετο οὐδὲ ἕν ὃ γέγονεν.

4 ἐν αὐτῷ ζωὴ ἦν, καὶ ἡ ζωὴ ἦν τὸ φῶς τῶν ἀνθρώπων.

5 καὶ τὸ φῶς ἐν τῇ σκοτίᾳ φαίνει, καὶἡ σκοτία αὐτὸ οὐ κατέλαβεν.

Gospel of John 1

• 1 In the beginning was the Word [ὁ Λόγος], and the Word [ὁ Λόγος], was with God [τὸν Θεόν], and the Word [ὁ Λόγος], was God [Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος].

• 2 He was with God [τὸν Θεόν ] in the beginning. • 3 Through him all things were made

[πάντα δι’ αὐτοῦ ἐγένετο]; without him nothing was made that has been made.

• 4 In him was life [ζωὴ] , and that life was the light [φῶς] of all mankind.

• 5 The light shines in the darkness [σκοτία], and the darkness has not overcome [καταλαμβάνω] it.

καταλαμβάνω (katalambanó)seize tight hold of, arrest, catch, capture, appropriate, (b) overtake, (c) perceive, comprehend