As the revelation of God to the individual is a Logos, so, too, is his
revelation to the whole of mankind. It was pointed out in the last
chapter that Philo identified the Torah with the law of nature, and he
did this by regarding it as the Divine Logos. The more perfect
emanation of God is in one view the power by which He directs the
physical creation, in another the perfect law which He set up as the
model of conduct for His highest creatures. The rabbis, indeed, were
prone to glorify the law as the primal creation of God, and the
instrument of all the later creations, [Hebrew: kli hmra shbu gbrao
shmim].[212] They speak of it as the light, the pillar, and the bond
of the universe, the model whereon the architect looked;[213] and Philo
amplifies this simple poetical concept and develops it afresh in the
light of Greek idealistic and cosmical notions,[214] so that the Torah,
as the Logos of God, is equated with the source of all being, wisdom, and
knowledge, with the ideal world which is the archetype of the
material, and with all the law and order of nature. And as the Torah
is the Logos, so also its particular precepts are Logoi.
It seems difficult to trace the unity among all these different
aspects of the "Word," but in fact they are only different expressions
of the Divine activity in the universe. All these are comprehended in
the Logos, and then again divided out of it, so that it is, as it
were, a crystal prism reflecting the light of the Godhead in a myriad
different ways. One curious illustration of the universal sense in
which Philo understood the Logos is his interpretation of the manna;
it is typical also of his manner of exegesis and his habit of
spiritualizing the material. It is related in Exodus (xvi. 15) that
when the Israelites saw the heavenly food they exclaimed [Hebrew: mn
hu'], "What is it?" and hence the food obtained its name of manna. Now the
Greek Septuagint word for [Hebrew: mn] is [Greek: ti], which means not
only "what" but "anything." Philo sees in the gift of the heavenly
food a symbol of the inspiration of the chosen people by the Divine
Logos, and says that the Logos is rightly called manna, _i.e._,
anything, because it is the "most generic of all things, and that by
which man may be nourished."[215]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account