The term "logos" was applied technically during the age of the apologists, beginning with the works of Justin. After the Johannine literature began to circulate, the most significant group to adapt the Logos doctrine was the Gnostics. In contrast, yet with a few similar overtones, Justin Martyr taught that Jesus was the preexistent Logos, whose role in creation the scriptures describe in detail. Whether or not the apologist considered the Gospel of John to be authoritative has been a matter under scrutiny for a number of years. Edwin A. Abbott takes up that question in a superb article he published entitled, "Justin's Use of the Fourth Gospel." His article opens with a discussion, which is carried throughout the study, on the literary relationship between Justin and John. He first evaluates the vocabulary common to them, and then shows their resemblances in thought regarding the Logos doctrine. Abbott provides an extensive list of comparisons between the two writers, as well as with their contemporaries, such as Philo.
Book Description
Justin Martyr was the most influential apologist of the early church. His writings became the foundation for Christian thought until the time of Origen, and the terminology he employed became the standard language of literary church writers. He excelled in philosophy, and, after his conversion, maintained its language to describe Christianity. He seems to have made every attempt to protect the church from the deceptive appeal of paganism, and wrote works in opposition to the leading heretics of his day. One concept Justin developed is also found in the Gospel of John-the "Logos" as God's eternal revelation. For this notion he seems to have borrowed heavily from Stoicism, or written in response to it. In the Fourth Gospel, Christ is described as being with God from the beginning; it was through the Logos that the universe was created. The Logos is eternal in John; it is incarnate and personified in Jesus. This doctrine was the most important theological development of the second century, and it contributed to the christological debates.
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About the Author
Edwin A. Abbott was born in London on December 20, 1838. He studied at the City of London School and at St. John's College, Cambridge, where he was a distinguished student in classics, mathematics, and modern languages. As the top student in classics, he earned the Chancellor's medal and a fellowship at St. John's College. Abbott was ordained in 1862. He served as assistant master at King Edward's School, Birmingham, 1862-64, and then at Clifton College in 1865. Beginning at the age of twenty-six and serving from 1865 to 1889, he was headmaster at City of London School. Abbott was one of the most celebrated headmasters of his day. He was Hulsean lecturer at Cambridge in 1876 and select preacher at Oxford the next year. A prolific writer, with more than fifty books to his credit, he resigned his post to devote his time to research and writing. Abbott also published biographies of prominent churchmen, works on textual criticism, several religious romances, and science fiction, including "Flatland," (published under the pseudonym, A. Square). He died in 1926.
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