LOGOSPOETICS
An intersection of Theology, Existential Spirituality, Metaphysics, Aesthetics, Ethics, Epistemology and History
For a Hellenistic Jew living in Alexandria, Philo (30 BCE -50 CE) had an unusual ability to probe deeply into the sub textual “Sod” of the Septuagint. As a contextual frame to view the use of the word logos he is able to give a clear outline that would inform the readers of John 1:1-11.
When speaking of logos he says, “And many names are his, for he is called, 'the Beginning,' and the Name of God, and His Word, and the Man after His image, and “he that sees,” that is Israel. He writes in a form that could easily be mistaken for Chalcedon Trinitarianism when he writes decades before the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. “Let us, then, have recourse to the scientific mode of interpretation which looks for the hidden meaning of the literal words” in this statement he is setting the stage for what is to come by using a Midrash style of hermeneutic. He then amplifies with, “We say, then, that the High Priest is not a man, but a Divine Word and immune from all unrighteousness whether intentional or unintentional.”
He develops logos as protokos when he writes, “For that man is the eldest son, whom the Father of all raised up, and elsewhere calls him His first-born, and indeed the Son thus begotten followed the ways of his Father, and shaped the different kinds, looking to the archetypal patterns which that Father supplied.”
Philo perhaps more than any other great minds of the Jewish faith has a clear and unambiguous aspiration for the triune.
The Gospel is above all else written as a Tragedy but a Tragedy with the twist that brings victory. It follows Aristotle’s outline[1] of the Dramatic Tragedy with a Plot (Mythos) that is structured around the Character (Ethos) of a clear Thought or Theme (Dianoia).
This Plot has order in its communication (Lexis) and a clear Choreography or melody (Melos) which ultimately is revealed in a Spectacle (Opsis).
The Spectacle in the form of narrative of the Logos intervening as a Representation (Mimesis) in Human history through the incarnation is an issue of conflict with the powers of darkness who are represented by Pride (Hubris). It is the arrogance of Satan in his deception of humanity into believing a lie about God that the Incarnate Logos has come to destroy.
In turn the Evil One seeks to bring retribution (Nemesis) upon the Godhead by scheming death for the Son of God. He makes the ultimate miscalculation (Harmatia) by causing through the Son of God going to the Cross, his own destruction.
This death on the Cross is antecedent to the Recognition (Anagnorisis ) of the Reversal (Peripeteia) of the power of sin and death