1 Corinthians 1:30, The Logos (Part IV of V)

//Before wrapping up this discussion tomorrow, a little more information about the Logos is in order. What is this mysterious, cosmic Reason that coexisted with God since the creation?

John’s Logos Christology poetically parallels the structure of Wisdom texts throughout Jewish tradition. It is not a new idea. These texts, both inside and outside the Bible, personify Wisdom’s relation to God, her preexistence and role in creation, her place beside the throne of God, her dispatch to earth to dwell among God’s people, and the benefits of seeking her. This Wisdom tradition reflects Jewish-Hellenistic thinking and writing long before Christ arrived. Virtually everything John says about the Logos, Jewish literature first said about Wisdom. But while Wisdom (Sophia) is a feminine name, John needed a more masculine name: he chose Reason (Logos).

Other ancient writers also linked Reason and Wisdom, Sophia and Logos. The two, personified, cooperate to create the universe in Shepherd of Hermas. (In Genesis, it is the “spirit” or “wind” of God that accomplishes this task.)

Nor was John the first to compare Wisdom to Jesus. Paul, hoping to relate to both Jew and Gentile, explained that Christ arrived as the wisdom of God. See today’s verse. John merely carried Paul’s analogy farther, introducing to Christianity the theology of descent from above.