The Logos: a legitimate concept or a hellenistic corruption of God and Jesus?

[minichibi]

Most of our doctrine of God and Jesus and the Trinity comes from the concept of Logos found in te Gospel of John.
Philo of Alexandria (20 B.C.–50 A.D) used philosophical allegory to attempt to fuse and harmonize Greek philosophy with Jewish philosophy and therefore introducing the concept of the Logos as God’s creative principle, which influenced John’s Gospel and divided the opinions among the early christians: there were those who accepted it and those who strongly opposed it.
While not being native to the Orthodox Judaism, do you think this concept is still valid and legitimate to explain God? Is this REALLY the God of the Jews or a misconception, a hellenistic corruption of the Jewish God?

 

[Bookcat]

Yes Jesus of Nazareth is the* Logos*. Such is not a hellenistic corruption but Divine Revelation. St. John’s writings are Sacred Scripture – the inspired word of God. So yes it is very legitimate in the Christian Teaching and understanding.

A good one to read regarding Christ the Logos is Pope Benedict XVI

 

[R_C]

The Catholic Encyclopedia has a historical overview of this topic here.

@ minichibi, we are not shocked when in other religions we find things that resemble Christian teachings or symbols, and we would never think that they “corrupt” Christian theology. Instead, we believe that these religions had seen / see something of that which is fully revealed to the Church. On this matter, the Catechism teaches that

843 The Catholic Church recognizes in other religions that search, among shadows and images, for the God who is unknown yet near since he gives life and breath and all things and wants all men to be saved. Thus, the Church considers all goodness and truth found in these religions as “a preparation for the Gospel and given by him who enlightens all men that they may at length have life.”

844 In their religious behavior, however, men also display the limits and errors that disfigure the image of God in them:

Very often, deceived by the Evil One, men have become vain in their reasonings, and have exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and served the creature rather than the Creator. Or else, living and dying in this world without God, they are exposed to ultimate despair.

This is possibly related to the following phrase of the Lord:

believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You adore that which you know not: we adore that which we know; for salvation comes from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth

 

[fisherman_carl]

Most of our doctrine of God and Jesus and the Trinity comes from the concept of Logos found in te Gospel of John.
Philo of Alexandria (20 B.C.–50 A.D) used philosophical allegory to attempt to fuse and harmonize Greek philosophy with Jewish philosophy and therefore introducing the concept of the Logos as God’s creative principle, which influenced John’s Gospel and divided the opinions among the early christians: there were those who accepted it and those who strongly opposed it.
While not being native to the Orthodox Judaism, do you think this concept is still valid and legitimate to explain God? Is this REALLY the God of the Jews or a misconception, a hellenistic corruption of the Jewish God?

I have not come across this particular claim. However, there are many claims of people asserting that Christianity is from paganism or that Jesus resembles certain gods. In fact you have a handful of gods all of which someone claims is Jesus. The fact that they can not make up their minds just which god is suppossed to represent Jesus shows their claims are hardly credible.

The Romans had so many gods that Jesus could hardly walk down the street without being compared to some god.

Here is an intersting article you may want to read.

catholic.com/magazine/articles/paganism-prophecies-and-propaganda

 

[Mystophilus]

Most of our doctrine of God and Jesus and the Trinity comes from the concept of Logos found in te Gospel of John.
Philo of Alexandria (20 B.C.–50 A.D) used philosophical allegory to attempt to fuse and harmonize Greek philosophy with Jewish philosophy and therefore introducing the concept of the Logos as God’s creative principle, which influenced John’s Gospel and divided the opinions among the early christians: there were those who accepted it and those who strongly opposed it.
While not being native to the Orthodox Judaism, do you think this concept is still valid and legitimate to explain God? Is this REALLY the God of the Jews or a misconception, a hellenistic corruption of the Jewish God?

Is “God”, derived from a term for a local spirit, a valid way to explain God? For that matter, is any word in a mortal, necessarily-imperfect language ever a truly valid way to describe Absolute Perfection?

We use the tools which we have, imperfect though they are, to help our audience to approach some understanding of what we are thinking. Sometimes, that means borrowing terms from their belief system, even when we do not hold their belief. This is still commonly done in Bible translation today.

 

[Dave_Noonan]

Most of our doctrine of God and Jesus and the Trinity comes from the concept of Logos found in te Gospel of John.
Philo of Alexandria (20 B.C.–50 A.D) used philosophical allegory to attempt to fuse and harmonize Greek philosophy with Jewish philosophy and therefore introducing the concept of the Logos as God’s creative principle, which influenced John’s Gospel and divided the opinions among the early christians: there were those who accepted it and those who strongly opposed it.
While not being native to the Orthodox Judaism, do you think this concept is still valid and legitimate to explain God? Is this REALLY the God of the Jews or a misconception, a hellenistic corruption of the Jewish God?

At first glance, John 1 may appear to resemble Neo-Platonic philosophy which believes that the logos is the creator-intermediary between God and the material world. However, the assertion that the logos would become flesh would have been about the most objectionable idea imaginable from a Greek standpoint, since the material world for them is associated with decay, corruption and evil. In Platonism, the idea is that one must escape the material world with its imperfect and decaying forms. The idea that God would become flesh and enter the material world is simply unthinkable.

However, in the Jewish mindset, the material world is created by God and is declared “good.” And there are various stories in the Old Testament, such as Jacob’s wrestling story, where the idea of God taking human form is approached, maybe–even if it’s never fully clear that that is what’s happening.

So in a way, John 1 is a Jewish response and even condemnation of some of the more important aspects of the Neo-Platonic philosophy that was prevalent at the time John’s gospel was being written.

 

[Dave_Noonan]

Most of our doctrine of God and Jesus and the Trinity comes from the concept of Logos found in te Gospel of John.
Philo of Alexandria (20 B.C.–50 A.D) used philosophical allegory to attempt to fuse and harmonize Greek philosophy with Jewish philosophy and therefore introducing the concept of the Logos as God’s creative principle, which influenced John’s Gospel and divided the opinions among the early christians: there were those who accepted it and those who strongly opposed it.
While not being native to the Orthodox Judaism, do you think this concept is still valid and legitimate to explain God? Is this REALLY the God of the Jews or a misconception, a hellenistic corruption of the Jewish God?

So Philo, as a good example of a Neo-Platonic philosopher, would have never been able to accept the basic tenants of Christianity, at least in terms of the Incarnation.