Think Faster

Coffee is good for getting you up to speed so grab a cup.

Our modern world and its technology has a way of deceiving us with the belief that knowledge has always moved throughout the world at current speeds. Not so today and much less so in ancient times. Interesting that some of the most progressives thinkers were limited to certain locals and in fact their writings languished for want of a broader means of communication. The printing press would change that but even then that great invention does not compare to the instant access we have to thought, reason, and logic.

In the same time frame of Jesus was living in Palestine there was a tremendously important thinker writing in the Greek community of the city of Alexandria, built by and named for the Greek Emperor Alexander the Great. Philo was a Jewish philosopher and theologian living in the Hellenistic world. Because the Jewish community was large, diverse and scattered, Philo was a bridge for philosophical thought knowing the importance of interpreting his tradition in the dominant culture so that Jews would not be persecuted and at the same time dragging his fellow countrymen into a progressively modern world.

Philo was at heart a Platonist, that is, he believed that the essence of God could not be known. God was above and beyond (transcending) all creation. But, God could be experienced and was made known (immanent) by the things God had made and was doing (power to create). Read the first chapter of Paul's book to the Romans and you can hear this same thinking from someone who writes shortly after the time of Philo.

Philo correlated Plato's idea of "forms", that is the incarnation of that which is not visible but is eternal and real, with the Jewish concept of God's intentional design for creation. The key word Philo used was 'logos', which in Greek means dialogue or speech. In Hebrew thought it is God's power that is made visible in the 'spoken word'. In the Genesis creation story God literally speaks and the power of Word (logos) makes it happen.

The word used to express this visible power of God in Hebrew is 'shekinah' but there is no Greek equivalent for that word. Philo chose the word 'logos' to convey this Hebrew concept of God's power at work.

The other important contribution made by Philo was using the Greek concept of 'allegory' or story as a means of explaining and interpret these eternal and transcendent concepts about the universe and God. Allegory is originally a Greek word that means using one thing to explain or disguise another. When we interpret a story or parable and say "this is the meaning behind what is in the story" we are allegorizing the story. Gulliver's Travels is an allegory as is the interpretation given to the Biblical texts in Revelation by some current writers. This form of simplifying difficult concepts was made popular by the early Greek philosophers and was also prominent in the Jewish world of Rabbinic interpretation of Hebrew texts.

Philo laid the ground work for the earliest Apostle's and Church fathers to take the traditional thinking of the Hebrew Jesus and interpret his concept of God into the fast moving world of Greek and Roman culture. Some will ask, "Wait a minute, or you saying that it was the quirky timing of history that is responsible for the spread of Christianity? What about that Spirit talk of Biblical proportions?" Call it by Philo's word, or Rabbinic word, or Christian word, it all depends on the language and culture you bring to it. The importance is not what word but what those words mean. Drink up, the rest is history.