My tiny two cents:
I was thinking about the translation (and interpretation) of "Logos" a couple of weeks ago, and came to the firm conclusion that the fundamental grid to be used in understanding this term is Genesis 1.
I know that's obvious. All of us certainly made that connection from our first days as a Christian, namely, John 1:1-5's grounding in Genesis 1:1.
However, for me, personally, I always made that connection, deemed it too obvious, and started sifting through the literature on Heraclitus and Hellenism, Proverbs 8, Clark's "Logic/Reason", etc.
Like I said, though, it was a couple weeks ago that I just thought, "What's the point Scripture is trying to make?" And John is clearly calling us back, not primarily to Proverbs 8 (and certainly not to Greek philosophy), but to Genesis 1, both with the first two words of his sentence, and with the further emphasis on the word's role in creation.
So that much, at least for me, is "locked in." As far as, speculation aside, *exactly* what "the word" means in the context of Genesis 1, I'm up in the air. I like the thought of "revelation", and clearly that is a major theme of John's (from memory, but I believe John 1:18, John 14:8, et al.), but the emphasis in Genesis seems to be on the creative power of the word.
However, I suppose if you think of "creation" in terms of Romans 1:20, namely, that it reveals the invisible things of the visible God, then you could nicely and Biblically see the theme of "revelation" rooted in Genesis 1 itself, namely, that the Word was performing and executing the creation decrees of the Godhead, and was the principle force in constructing this theater of God's glory.
At least that's where I'm at. Everything else (Proverbs 8, the "word" in the Old Testament) would be a fleshing out of that central exegetical claim. Of course, I'm rather talented at being dead-wrong, so who knows.
I was thinking about the translation (and interpretation) of "Logos" a couple of weeks ago, and came to the firm conclusion that the fundamental grid to be used in understanding this term is Genesis 1.
I know that's obvious. All of us certainly made that connection from our first days as a Christian, namely, John 1:1-5's grounding in Genesis 1:1.
However, for me, personally, I always made that connection, deemed it too obvious, and started sifting through the literature on Heraclitus and Hellenism, Proverbs 8, Clark's "Logic/Reason", etc.
Like I said, though, it was a couple weeks ago that I just thought, "What's the point Scripture is trying to make?" And John is clearly calling us back, not primarily to Proverbs 8 (and certainly not to Greek philosophy), but to Genesis 1, both with the first two words of his sentence, and with the further emphasis on the word's role in creation.
So that much, at least for me, is "locked in." As far as, speculation aside, *exactly* what "the word" means in the context of Genesis 1, I'm up in the air. I like the thought of "revelation", and clearly that is a major theme of John's (from memory, but I believe John 1:18, John 14:8, et al.), but the emphasis in Genesis seems to be on the creative power of the word.
However, I suppose if you think of "creation" in terms of Romans 1:20, namely, that it reveals the invisible things of the visible God, then you could nicely and Biblically see the theme of "revelation" rooted in Genesis 1 itself, namely, that the Word was performing and executing the creation decrees of the Godhead, and was the principle force in constructing this theater of God's glory.
At least that's where I'm at. Everything else (Proverbs 8, the "word" in the Old Testament) would be a fleshing out of that central exegetical claim. Of course, I'm rather talented at being dead-wrong, so who knows.