Verse one talks about the "logos" ("word" in English). It is not good to change that word to "Jesus."
No trinitarian is actually doing that, Rich. But John himself does go on, just a few verses later, to say, in verse 14, "...the Word (Logos) became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen His glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth."
Better to see what the logos actually is.
Yes, I agree.
Logos is a Greek word literally translated as "word, speech, or utterance." However, in Greek philosophy,
Logos refers to divine reason or the power that puts sense into the world making order instead of chaos. It is the idea of a word uttered by a living voice that embodies a concept or teaches a doctrine. It is how ideas are communicated and brought to life. Though the translation of the term logos is the simple term word, it must be noted that logos carried a lot of philosophical baggage in the ancient Greek world. Ancient Greek philosophy was concerned with answering the ultimate questions of reality. They were seeking to find ultimate truth. They wanted to find the ultimate reality that lies behind all other things. Over time, as the ancient philosophers pondered these questions, they came up with a term to describe this ultimate reality, and the term they came up with was logos. The logos came to be understood as that which gave life and meaning to the universe. Within the realm of Greek philosophy, however, this logos was largely understood to be an impersonal force, not a personal being.
Hebrew philosophy had a similar concept to the Greek
Logos where life-giving God Himself was referred to in the terms "the Word of God." In
Genesis 15:1, the Bible states, "After these things, the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: 'Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great'." Jewish rabbis used this phrase, "the Word of God," to refer to God Himself. In fact, ancient Hebrew editions of the Old Testament changed
Exodus 19:17 from "Moses brought the people out of the camp to meet God" to "…to meet the Word of God." So both Greek and Jewish philosophy used the expression "Word" to refer to God, His divine reasoning, and His connection with the world.
In the Gospel of John, John writes "In the beginning was the Word (
Logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (
John 1:1). John appealed to his readers by saying in essence, "You've been thinking, talking, and writing about the Word for centuries and now I will tell you who He is." Thus John introduced Jesus in terms his audience understood, showing that Jesus is God. He wrote that the Word was "in the beginning" meaning He is eternal; that He was "with God" in heaven equal to God before coming to earth; that "all things were made through him" (
John 1:3) showing that He is Creator and is Himself an uncreated being (note, too, the similarities between
John 1 and
Genesis 1); and that He "became flesh and dwelt among us" (
John 1:14) showing Jesus to be God incarnate. It is not until verse 17 that John names this
Logos as Jesus Christ ~ "...grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." He wanted his readers to engage with the realities of what they meant when they spoke of the
Logos or "Word of God" and how all those things are fulfilled in the person of Jesus. Jesus is God Himself who brings life and order to the chaos of our world. His incarnation was how God connected with the world, and John used the phrase
Logos to help his audience connect with Jesus in a way that made sense to them.
Unlike the recent past when anything trinity was suppressed, it is incredible easy to do one's own research today, thanks to the internet. There is no shortage of scholarly work that covers John 1 that shows it in a decidedly not-trinitarian way.
It has been said that the great thing about the internet is you can find whatever you want to find, but the terrible thing about the internet is (also) that you can find whatever you want to find. :)
John used the word "logos" to refute how the Greeks thought of the logos.
In a way, but not the way you want to suppose. See above.
John revealed the true logos...
That he did.
Yes, it is, Rich. As Jesus Himself stated (quoted by John), "I am the way, the truth, and the life." He Himself was (and is) the answer to the ultimate questions of reality. He is the ultimate truth. They wanted to find the ultimate reality that lies behind all other things.
John stated his purpose in John 20:31.
John 20:31,
But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through His name.
Absolutely. But many soft-pedal what it actually means for Jesus to be the Christ, the Son of God.
I believe Jesus is the Christ, the anointed Messiah.
Great! But you're making that out to mean far less than it really means.
I also believe he is the son of God.
Great! Yes, he's the Son of God. But like I said before, Rich, Jesus is also the Son of Man; He refers to Himself as such several times. So which one is He more of, and which one is He less of, or... is He equally both? :)
What John did not say, and what I do not believe, is that Jesus is God.
But He did. In John 1:1. and then he spent his entire gospel showing that. Like you pointed out, it was his purpose in writing his gospel.
I know the whole "echad" argument meaning a compound unity, but I don't believe that.
That's too bad.
If it were we would have Abraham being a trinity, since he's called "echad" in Ex 33:24.
I'm not at all sure what you're referring to here, Rich. First, there is no verse 24 of Exodus 33, and second, the main character in Exodus (besides God, of course) is Moses. Maybe you're talking about verses like Exodus 33:1, where God said to Moses, “Depart; go up from here, you and the people whom you have brought up out of the land of Egypt, to the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, saying, ‘To your offspring I will give it.’"? Or maybe you're talking about God's having made Abraham the father of many nations? I mean that's Genesis 17... In any case, Abraham is never referred to in any similar sense to God.
...lacking solid evidence anywhere else that God is a trinity...
The ancient Israelites knew very well that God was an "us." From Genesis 1 on.
Grace and peace to you.
