LOGOS (λόγος, lat. Verbum). — Title attributed by St. John the Apostle to the Only-Begotten Son of God, made man in the Incarnation (v.).
Etymologically, λόγος derives from λέγειν (in Latin legere). In Greek, its semantic development passed from the idea of the root leg, “to gather for oneself,” to those of “choosing, understanding, reasoning, counting, recounting, speaking.” Among profane writers, the original meaning of λόγος (“collection”) survives in compounds (σύλλογος “assembly,” πολύλογος “gathered together again,” etc.). The isolated term λόγος occurs with the derived meanings of “reason” and “account,” in the expressions “to give a reason” or “to render an account,” and among philosophers with the more complex meaning of “reason,” the intellectual faculty, or of another intellectual entity; among all, with the commonest meaning of “word,” with the nuances of “discourse,” “conversation,” “saying,” etc. In the Greek version of the Septuagint (v.), λόγος sometimes translates the Hebrew ἀδάβη (“word,” “thing”). In the New Testament it occurs both in the meanings of profane Greek and in the Christian senses of “word of God,” “divine commandment,” “biblical saying,” “Revelation,” “evangelical preaching,” and in St. John with the meaning of “divine Word” six times (Io, 1, 1 [three times]; 1, 14; I Io, 1, 1; Apoc. 19, 13; I Io, 5, 7 is not to be considered: V. COMMA GIOVANNEO).
I. THE TEXTS
It is appropriate first to examine the texts in which the term occurs with some specification.In Apoc. 19, 13 there appears a crowned horseman, with a “name written which no one knows except him. He is clothed in a mantle soaked in blood, and his name is called: the L. of God (ὁ λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ).” Here the L., or Word of God, is clearly presented as a Person, identified with Jesus Christ, who shed his blood in the Passion and now reigns gloriously in Heaven. The risen and glorious Christ is also alluded to in I Io, 1, 1: “What was from the beginning, what we contemplated; and our hands touched, concerning the Word (λόγος) of life” (ibid. 1, 4).
In the prologue of the IV Gospel (Io, 1, 1-18), the L. is presented in his relations with God, with the world, and with human beings. Here are the salient features: in V. 1 the term λόγος occurs three times: “In the beginning was the L., and the L. was with God, and the L. was God,” that is: the L. is eternal (he already existed before creation, cf. Gen. 1, 1), is a person distinct from God the Father, whose Only-begotten he will be called (Io, 1, 14, 18), and is God (θεός ἦν ὁ λόγος). The placing of the predicate (θεός) before the subject emphasizes this characteristic of the L.: his consubstantiality with the Father. V. 2 summarizes, in parallel form, the truths indicated in V. 1. Vv. 3-5 present the L. as creator of the universe and as the source of life and light for human beings. The creative action of the L. extends to all things, without exception. “In Him was life (cf. I Io, 1, 4), and the life was the light of men” (v. 4). This refers especially to spiritual, supernatural life and light, which will later (v. 14) be called “Grace and truth”; “the darkness did not succeed in extinguishing” the light of the L. who was coming into the world.
Giovanni Battista (v.) was not the true light, but only a witness to the L., the light (vv. 6-8). “There was the light, the true one, which enlightens every man who was coming into the world” (v. 9). “The world,” that is, worldly human beings, and even “his own,” the Jews, did not wish to receive him; but to those who received him the L. “gave the power to become children of God,” infusing them with the life of Grace, through which they are “born of God” (vv. 10-13).
V. 14 reveals the mystery of the Incarnation of the Word: “And the L. became flesh (καὶ ὁ λόγος ἀφ' ἐγένετο) and dwelt among us.” The L., who is God, a Person distinct from the Father and subsisting in him, without undergoing any change became man; that is, in the unity of his divine Person he assumed the complete human nature (soul and body).
Here, as in his first epistle (I Io, 1), the Evangelist proclaims his own testimony and that of the Apostles: “And we contemplated (as we witnessed his miracles, especially his transfiguration, his Resurrection, and his Ascension) his glory; glory such as belongs to the Only-begotten (μονογενής) from the Father, full of Grace (divine life) and truth (divine light).”
The precursor attests the divine pre-existence of the L. (v. 15), and the Evangelist adds: “And from his fullness we all received, and Grace for Grace (χάριν ἀντί χάριτος, V. 16).” Our Grace derives from that of the L. and corresponds to II. “For the Law was given (as an external gift) through Moses; Grace and truth were brought forth through Jesus Christ” (v. 17). Here the L. is clearly identified with Jesus Christ, a historical personage: he is God and man together.
The prologue concludes by presenting the incarnate L. as subsisting in the divine intimacy of the Father, whose only-begotten God-Son he is, and as the revealer of the Divinity: “No one has ever seen God: the Only-begotten God (μονογενής θεός, this is the better reading of the Greek), who is in the bosom of the Father, he himself revealed him to us” (v. 18).
II. DOTTRINA TEOLOGICA
La dottrina teologica dei testi giovannei sul L. e specialmente nel prologo dei IV Vangelo è ricchissima. Il punto centrale di tale dottrina è l'identificazione del L. divino nel Cristo storico, salvatore. Nel resto del IV Vangelo Gesù non è mai chiamato L. (si vede che il Salvatore non si è mai appropriato espressamente questo titolo), ma vi ricorrono nel loro contesto storico le stesse verità espresse nel prologo.La preesistenza eterna del L., affermata nel prologo (Io, 1, 1), è attestata per Gesù Cristo nel IV Vangelo sia da Giovanni Battista (ibid. 1, 30), sia da Gesù stesso
(ibid. 8, 58). La sua distinzione personale dal Padre (ibid. 1, 1) è proclamata nei passi del IV Vangelo che presentano Gesù come Figlio proprio di Dio. È questo, anzi, lo scopo esplicito del Vangelo (ibid. 20, 28; cf. 1, 37; 3, 17, 35, 36; 5, 19-26; 6, 40; 8, 35, 36; 14, 13; 17, 1). L'identità di natura (ibid. 1, 1) o consustanzialità tra il L. e il Padre, è attestata chiaramente da Gesù stesso (ibid. 10, 30; 17, 22).
Che Gesù sia vita e fonte di vita spirituale, soprannaturale per gli uomini è chiaramente insegnato nel IV Vangelo (ibid. 3, 15; 5, 24, 26, 40; 6, 27-51; 8, 12; 10, 10; 11, 25; 14, 6; 17, 2-3; 20, 31). Gesù è luce e fonte di luce (ibid. 3, 19-21; 12; 9, 5; 12, 35-46) e di verità (ibid. 5, 33; 14, 6; cf. I Io. 1, 6-8; III Io. 3). L'Incarnazione è attestata nel discorso di Gesù a Nicodemo (Io. 3, 13-21), ove ritornano i titoli caratteristici di Unigenito (Μονογενής; ibid. 3, 16, 18), di luce di verità (ibid. 3, 19-21), annunciati nel prologo, della discesa del Figlio di Dio dal Cielo (ibid. 3, 31-36).
Il greco λόγος, reso da Tertulliano e da antiche versioni latine con Sermo o Ratio, e meglio dalla Volgata con Verbum, si presta ottimamente ad esprimere la dottrina teologica riguardante il Figlio di Dio fattosi uomo.
I teologi, seguendo s. Tommaso (Sum. Theol. 1ª, q. 34) sviluppano le analogie fra il L. umano e il L. divino così: come l'uomo, conoscendo se stesso, genera intellettualmente un L. interiore (λόγος ἐνδιάθετος, verbum mentis), un concetto che ne è come l'immagine, così Iddio Padre, conoscendo perfettamente se stesso, e in se stesso tutte le cose, genera intellettualmente, ab aeterno, il suo L. interiore, l'Unigenito-Dio (Io. 1, 18), che ne è l'immagine perfettissima (cf. II Cor. 4, 4; Col. 1, 15). Nell'uomo il pensiero è un'accidentalità transeunte, in Dio invece è una Persona, sussistente eternamente nell'unica natura divina, comune al Padre e al Figlio. Come nell'uomo la parola proferita (λόγος προφορικός, verbum oris) è il mezzo con il quale manifesta il proprio pensiero, così, analogamente, nella Divinità il L. divino Incarnato è il rivelatore dei misteri divini, comunica la luce della verità, la vita della Grazia (Io. 1, 14-18).
III. INFLUENCES AND DEPENDENCIES
Before investigating possible dependence on profane sources, it is useful to examine in the inspired writings, which were certainly known to s. Giovanni, the possible sources of his teaching on the L.Various texts of the Old Testament give special prominence to the divine word. Gen. 1:1-27 describes creation as the work of the Words of God, with the repeated formula, “And God said.” This concept is reaffirmed in Ps. 32 (33): “He spoke and it was done; he commanded and it was created” (v. 9, cf. V. 6; Eccli. 42:15; λόγος). Elsewhere the “word of God” is described as sent by him: “He sent his word and they were healed” (Ps. 106:20; cf. 147:14-18; Is. 9:8; 55:10-11). These are rhetorical personifications, but they permitted deeper intuitions. The “word of God,” with the title λόγος, is more forcefully personified in Sap. 18:14 ff.: “When... the night had reached the middle of its course, your almighty Word (λόγος) leapt down from heaven, from your royal throne, an inexorable warrior.”
Even clearer are the personifications of the Wisdom of God (bohmāh, σοφία) found in Prov. 8-9 and in Eccli. 24. In Sap. 7:21 the personified divine Sophia is actually called the “artificer of all things,” and further on (vv. 25-26), “an emanation of the divine power, a pure effluence of the glory of the Almighty... a reflection (ἀπαύγασμα) of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the activity of God and an image of his goodness.”
In the New Testament the mystery is clearly revealed. The connections between the writings of s. Paolo and the sapiential books of the Old Testament are interesting. The concept of reflection (splendor) and image, applied to divine Wisdom in Sap. 7:25-26, is taken up in Hebr. 1:3 and applied to the Son of God made man, and more clearly in II Cor. 4:4 and Col. 1:15. The latter text, in its entire context (Col. 1:13-17), has undeniable affinities with the Book of Wisdom and with the prologue of s. Giovanni; there “image” corresponds to L., and Jesus Christ is clearly presented as the Son of God, preexistent, creator, made man, and redeemer. Io. 1:14 corresponds to Col. 2:9 and Phil. 2:6. In these passages of the Pauline epistles, the doctrine later systematized by s. Giovanni in his prologue is already clearly taught: in it the eternal L. dominates, distinct from the Father, God, creator, and incarnate Jesus Christ.
Other elements occur in I Pt. 1:23: “You were regenerated, not from corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the living and enduring word of God.” The word (L.) of God that regenerates, of which s. Pietro speaks, concerns preaching, and perhaps the formula of Baptism; nevertheless, its correspondence with Io. 1:13 concerning supernatural birth is significant. “The earth emerging from the waters subsists through water by the force of the Word of God” (II Pt. 3:5); this runs parallel to Io. 1:2, which speaks of the creator L.
In these inspired texts and in the living word of the divine Master who, even in the Synoptics, attested the perfect mutual knowledge between the Father and the Son (Mt. 11:27) and his Trinitarian life, s. Giovanni must have found the essential elements of his doctrine. Some hold that Giovanni drew elements for his L. from the Greek philosophers.
Eraclito (v.), the L. would be a kind of divinity immanent in the cosmos, a universal, eternal cosmic law, identifiable with fire (regarded as the rational element): this L. would determine the destiny of all mutable things (cf. M.-J. Lagrange, Le L. d'Héraclite, in Revue biblique, 32 [1923], pp. 96-107).
Platone (v.) Aristotele (v.) did not accept these doctrines of the L. into their systems. Nevertheless, certain Platonic elements concerning the intelligible cosmos, regarded as the exemplary and efficient cause of the sensible cosmos, concerning the soul of the cosmos and the secondary gods, exerted some influence on the subsequent history of the doctrine of the L. Likewise, the Aristotelian concept of nature as the immanent principle of motion, conceived as a rational divine force that causes the universe to subsist in itself, offered the Stoics certain elements for their doctrine of the L.
The later Stoics applied the title L. to the so-called “soul of the cosmos.” For Seneca (Ad Helviam, 8, 3), the L. is “a divine spirit equally diffused through all things great and small; it forms matter and directs it,” governs it, and is the universal law that leads everything toward its appointed end: human intelligence is a participation in the universal L. When man speaks, he manifests through the uttered L. (λόγος προφορικός) what has been communicated to him in the inner L. (λόγος ἐνδιάθετος; cf. Zenone, apud Galenum, De Hipp. et Plat. plac., 2, 5).
The influence of Greek philosophy on the Johannine doctrine of the L., upheld especially by the rationalists M. Lidzbarski, R. Reitzenstein, B. Bauer, and W. Bousset, does not withstand objective analysis. The sole point of contact between Giovanni and this philosophy consists in the use of the term L. and in attributing to it some special relationship with divinity and with the world. But none of those philosophers, not even the Stoics closest to Giovanni (Epitteto, Seneca), regards the L. as a special wisdom of God, still less as a person or as an intermediary used by God in creation.
Others, with A. Loisy, sought the sources of the Johannine doctrine of the L. Filone (v.).
Despite certain similarities, the substantial divergences are such as to exclude any true dependence.
For both Filone and Giovanni, the L. is called God and Son of God; for both, the L. influences the formation of the world; it is mediator between God and men and is a revealer. Yet Filone’s L. is an abstract idea, devoid of personality; it is called God (θεός) in the broad sense of a divine being, not in the proper sense; it is also called son of God by participation, like the world, which is the “younger son” of God, whereas the L. is his “elder son.” For s. Giovanni, on the other hand, the L. is the Only-Begotten Son of God in the proper sense; it is a divine Person who assumes human nature in himself; it is Jesus Christ himself. Filone’s L. is simply an arranger of matter, presumed to preexist, whereas s. Giovanni’s L. itself preexists matter and is the true creator of all things. Filone’s L., unlike s. Giovanni’s, is in no way the source of supernatural life and light and is not the redeemer of the world.
Others sought the sources of the Johannine doctrine of the L. in Jewish writings that personify the Law (Tārāh), the Cloud (Šēhhināh), and especially the Word (Memrā') of the Lord.
The formula “Memrā' of 'Ādhōnaj,” which might correspond to “L. of the Lord,” occurs only in the Aramaic paraphrases of the Bible, called Targāmlm, written after Christ but already transmitted orally before Christ. H. L. Strack and P. Billerbeck (Kommentar zum Neuen Testament aus Talmud und Midrasch, II, Munich 1924, pp. 302-33) count 179 occurrences in the Targum of 'Onqēlōs, 321 in the First Jerusalem Targum, and 99 in the Second (p. 305 ff.).
Ma l'analisi dei passi in cui ricorre questa formola (sostituita talora dalla sinonima « dibbārā' di 'Ādhōnaj ») mostra che si tratta di uno dei tanti espedienti rabbinici per evitare di pronunciare il nome di Jahweh. Per evitare gli antropomorfismi i targumisti invece di « Dio » o Jahweh scrivono « Parola del Signore » (Memrā' di 'Ādhōnaj). Tale sostituzione avviene normalmente anche là dove la Bibbia dice che Jahweh cammina, parla, agisce esteriormente, governa il mondo, si rivela, crea. Può darsi che l'uso di Memrā' presso gli Ebrei palestinesi sia una versione del termine L. usato dagli Ebrei alessandrini e specialmente da Filone; qualche volta il Memrā' viene pure personificato come un'ipostasi divina, oppure, più frequentemente, come un'emanazione divina trasmessa ai profeti; ma anche in questi casi si tratta di personificazioni retoriche. Anche quando dicevano « parola di Dio » i rabbini intendevano « Dio ». I rabbini inoltre non qualificano mai il Messia come Memrā' del Signore. Altri tirano in campo come le fonti supposte di tale dottrina il sincronismo confluito nelle religioni misteriosefiche, negli scritti ermetici o mandaici; ma si tratta di somiglianze puramente verbali, con idee assai diverse. Il mandeismo (v. MANOEI E MANOEISMO) poi ha subito influenti dal cristianesimo, non viceversa.
Gli elementi dottrinali essenziali contenuti nel prologo del IV Vangelo derivano dalla Rivelazione consegnata, in forma alquanto oscura, nel Vecchio Testamento, e più chiaramente nella parola viva di Gesù e negli scritti degli apostoli Paolo e Pietro. Da questi dati rivelati, l'Evangelista ha condensato nel meraviglioso inno che apre il suo Vangelo il frutto delle sue contemplazioni.
Si può pensare che la scelta della parola L. piuttosto che un'altra (immagine, sapienza, splendore di Dio, oppure ῥῆμα, νοῦς, ἰδέλ), sia dovuta ad una rivelazione speciale, oppure, meglio, ad una sua scelta intenzionale allo scopo di conferire un'impronta cristiana inconfondibile al termine λόγος, del quale tanto si abusava nel mondo filosofico e religioso ellenistico; offriva ai colti ellenisti un mezzo per incanalare le loro speculazioni fino al vertice del mistero divino.
213 (con ampia bibl.); H. Simon-G. Dorado, Praelectiones Biblicae: Novum Testamentum, I, 6ª ed., Torino 1944, nn. 185-96 (con bibl.); F. Prat, s. V. in DB, IV, coll. 323-29; E. Krebs, s. V. in LThK, VI, coll. 628-31; A. Debrunner-H. Kleinknecht-O. Procksch-G. Kittel, Abyss. ecc., in G. Kittel, Theologisches Wörterbuch zum Neuen Test., IV, pp. 69-140; J. Lebreton, Histoire du dogme de la Trinité, I, 7ª ed., Parigi 1927; II, 3ª ed., ivi 1928; L. Tondelli, Gesù secondo s. Giovanni, Torino 1944.
Per la parte teologica i trattati dogmatici sulla S.ma Trinità e sul Verbo Incarnato. Per la questione delle fonti cf. M.-J. Lagrange, Le L. d'Héraclite, in Revue biblique, 32 (1922), pp. 96-107; id., Vers le L. de St Jean, ibid., pp. 161-84, 321-17.
Sul L. di Filone V. J. Lebreton, Histoire du dogme de la Trinité, I, 7ª ed., Parigi 1927, pp. 209-51, 636-44; M.-J. Lagrange, Le L. de Philon, in Revue biblique, 32 (1922), pp. 321-71.
Sull'influsso delle dottrine giovanne del L. sulla tradizione V. A. Michel, Verbe, in DThC, XV, coll. 2633-72.
Pietro De Ambroggi