Logos

Logos (Gr., 'word,' and also 'reason,' corresponding in Latin to both oratio and ratio) is a term that has played an important part in philosophical and theological speculation, long ere the 'Word of God' came, through the fourth gospel, to be identified with the second person of the Christian Trinity. The notion of a certain self-manifestation or revelation of the Godhead, standing in some way between the infinite and the finite, has from time immemorial been the property of the whole East. With the Stoics the Logos is the active principle living in and determining the world (see STOICS). The apocryphal writers of the Old Testament personify the 'Wisdom' spoken of in Prov. viii. 22, and give it the functions of a Logos. In the Targums Memra, 'Word,' is constantly used instead of God or Jehovah. In the Jewish-Alexandrine philosophy (see PHILO) the Logos is the Divine Reason, the Power of all Powers, the Spirit of God. The doctrine of the Logos reaches its fullest development in St John's Gospel, where it is the Word of God incarnate. See JOHN (GOSPEL OF), CHRIST, TRINITY.