2 - PHILO'S LOGOS DOCTRINE

Summary

The Logos doctrine of Philo – if indeed it can be said that he had a single Logos doctrine – is part of his doctrine of God. It was a logical requirement of that doctrine, especially in regard to its emphasis on the transcendence of God. If there had not been Logos doctrines already in existence for his use, Philo would almost certainly have created the concept with its associated vocabulary. The term Logos is used by him very frequently and, partly because the ideas it was used to express are difficult and complex ones, and partly because Philo's own thought is also profound and complex, it is difficult to give a clear and coherent statement of Philo's thought in this area. A chapter on his Logos doctrine could be as long as the one on his doctrine of God. Requirements of space, however, mean that a severe abbreviation of what Philo has to say must take place, with the inevitable distortion and misrepresentation of his ideas that this involves. There are, perhaps, inconsistencies and even contradictions within Philo's thought on the subject of the Logos. It is always, however, difficult for a modern mind to grasp wholly what it is that an ancient writer – especially one who is avidly devoted to both scriptural Judaism and Greek philosophy – had in mind, and one suspects more than once that what looks like an inconsistency or a contradiction does so because of the intellectual and religious viewpoint of the (usually non-Jewish) reader of his works.