Across the Hellenistic world, the Logos, the “Word” or “Reason,” had become a great metaphysical idea.
Even among Hellenized Jews, Philo of Alexandria could call the Logos God’s firstborn, His image, even a “second God.”
Then Jesus appears.
In the Gospel of John, Jesus stands before Pilate, the Roman governor, on trial for his life. And he says:
“For this I was born, and for this I came into the world: to testify to the truth.”
— John 18:37
The Qur’an gives similar:
“I have come to you with wisdom, and to make clear to you some of that over which you differ.”
— Qur’an 43:63
Pilate answers Jesus:
“What is truth?”
— John 18:38
That was the danger of the age.
Once God needs a Word beside Him,
a Wisdom beside Him,
a second principle through which He creates,
He is no longer the God who simply speaks,
and it happens.
The language sounds sophisticated.
The system sounds coherent.
And the ‘simple’ God of Abraham can easily disappear beneath it.
Now listen.
Even the Gospel of John, the book that calls Jesus the Logos, records Jesus himself saying:
“The Son can do nothing of himself.”
— John 5:19
“I can do nothing of myself.”
— John 5:30
“My teaching is not mine, but His who sent me.”
— John 7:16
“The word that you hear is not mine, but the Father’s who sent me.”
— John 14:24
That is what the Word looks like.
It does not speak apart from the Speaker.
It does not originate the message.
It receives.
It obeys.
It delivers.
It serves the One who sent it.
Six hundred years later, the Qur’an says the same.
Jesus is God’s Word:
“God gives you good news of a Word from Him, whose name is the Messiah, Jesus son of Mary.”
— Qur’an 3:45
“The Messiah, Jesus son of Mary, was only a messenger of God, and His Word, which He cast to Mary.”
— Qur’an 4:171
And then the Qur’an shows you what kind of Word this is:
“The mathal of Jesus with God is like the mathal of Adam: He created him from dust, then said to him, ‘Be,’ and he was.”
— Qur’an 3:59
And why was Jesus sent?
“He was only a servant We favored, and We made him a mathal, an example, for the Children of Israel.”
— Qur’an 43:59
In Jesus’s own voice:
“I have come to you with wisdom, and to make clear to you some of that over which you differ.”
— Qur’an 43:63
“Indeed, God is my Lord and your Lord, so worship Him. This is a straight path.”
— Qur’an 43:64
A mathal.
A living example.
Just as Abraham’s son was ransomed by a sacrifice,
Israel was given a sign:
God’s Word itself,
a living ransom from turning Greek metaphysics into Abrahamic faith.
The Word stood before Israel.
Not enthroned beside God,
but standing among them as God’s servant.
Not saying:
“I speak from myself.”
But:
“The word you hear is not mine.”
Not saying:
“I act from myself.”
But:
“I can do nothing of myself.”
The philosophers elevated the Logos toward divinity.
God made the Logos a mathal.
The Word was not another speaker beside God.
It was the servant of the Speaker.
God commands.
The Word goes forth.
Creation obeys.