 |  |
philosopher Chrysiphus had said that God pervades all nature and that He has many
names to match his operations.
"They all call him Dia, `through' whom are all things, and they call him Zeus,
inasmuch as he is the cause of `life'." (Diog. Laert 7: 147).
According to Chrysiphus, Zeus is the Logos that regulates (dioikeo) all things, and is
the soul of the world.
On another occasion, when Paul stood before a group of Pharisees and Sadducees, we
find that he seized the opportunity presented by their mutual antagonism to gain the ear
of the Pharisee in the matter of the resurrection. So here, at Athens, before the Stoics and
Epicureans, he seizes upon their distinctive tenets and shows how they meet in the person
of Christ. Knowing the sayings that were current among them, he refers to the fact that
"we are also His offspring", and also that He is not "like unto gold, or silver, or stone,
graven by art and man's device". He teaches the Divine transcendence (the Epicurean
position); "Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He needeth anything",
but he also teaches the Divine immanence (the Stoic position) by adding: "If haply they
should feel after Him . . . . . For in Him we live, and move, and have our being."
And then, when both parties begin to realize that Paul has taken hold of both their
conflicting positions, he brings these opposite views into synthesis by focusing their
attention upon the "Man" that has been ordained (Acts 17: 31).
Paul does not necessarily endorse the somewhat popular etymology of Chrysiphus.
Dia and Dion need not necessarily be derived from dia, "through", and there are other
possible origins of Zeus besides zoe, "life"; nevertheless the idea was sufficient for the
Apostle to use as a starting-point from which to direct the attention of his hearers to the
Lord God, the true Source of life, through Whom all else must be derived. And so John,
surrounded at Ephesus with a blend of Greek and Philonic philosophy and the Hebrew
Apocryphal Wisdom, takes up the central theme of this philosophy, the Logos, and,
stripping it of its heathen and Hebrew accretions, and adding to it that which revelation
alone could give, leads his hearers to see that the elusive and abstract Logos of human
philosophy found its full and perfect significance in the living Person of Jesus Christ, the
Son of God.
No explanation of John 1: 1 can compare with that written by the same writer in his
first epistle:
"That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with
our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;
(for the life was manifested, and we have seen it, and bear witness, and shew unto you
that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us); that which we
have seen and heard declare we unto you, that ye also may have fellowship with us: and
truly our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ. And these things
write we unto you, that your joy may be full" (I John 1: 1-4).