SAINT ANTONY (KHRAPOVITSKY)

Metropolitan of Kiev.

All Christians know that, in the first chapter of the fourth Gospel, the "Word" is understood to be God the Son, the Second Person of the Holy Trinity. Not many of them are able, however, to connect this name with the appropriate Old Testament types and prophecies Nevertheless, all the names and similitudes which Apostle John uses in the Gospel, and in his epistles and in the Book of Revelation, are united with such Old Testament types and prophecies.

This connection and unity is overlooked not only by ordinary readers of the Holy Bible, but also by the majority of learned interpreters. Only by restoring one's awareness of this connection and unity can one clarify the true sense of the Gospel understanding of "the Word". In this short article, we shall strive, with God's help, to restore this understanding.

Protestant theologians, and Russian theologians who follow their example, study the Bible in isolated parts. In this way, they have so lost the ability to discern its inner unity that they are much more willingly inclined to search for such a unity between the Holy Gospel and pagan philosophy__usually, Platonism. Attempts to link the paschal source of the Gospel with Plato's teachings about the Logos or Intelligence, or even to relate the Gospel to Plato, have created a whole, rather absurd, literature. An example of this literature is the doctoral dissertation of Prince Trubetskoy, "The Teaching About the Logos". In this work, the author or, more correctly, the authors which he translated from the German, strive to establish the opinion that, supposedly, Plato's teaching about the Logos strongly influences Judean apocryphal literature and this in turn had an influence on the Gospel. Trubetskoy does not even mention, or more correctly, does not even know about, the dependence of John's Prologue [Jn.1:1] on the Psalmist and Solomon, who had lived long before Plato.

In a 1902 issue of the Missionary Review there appeared a critical article by Starobelsky, who asserted that in Judean literature, both scriptural and apocryphal, the term "memra" [word] never bore the Platonic concept signifying mind [intellect], for the Hebrew term signifies only "word" and nothing more, whereas Mind [intellect] or Knowledge is designated by the word "yada". In exactly the same way, the Gospel term Logos, despite the opinions of a number of theologians, signifies only the "word", and not "mind" [intellect]. A note on this article, bearing the signature "G", appeared in Works of the Kiev Ecclesiastical Academy, in which the author corrected Starobelsky: "Memra" is encountered in apocryphal literature, whereas in ancient scripture, "Dabar"¹ signifies Word, while "knowledge" and "mind" [intellect] are designated by a completely different term. For all this, there remains the unshakable thought that: [1] a term bearing concurrently the concepts of Word and Mind, like the Hellenic term Logos, was foreign to the Judeans of the Old Testament; [2] by his metaphysical Logos, Plato designated "mind" [intellect], whereas St John spoke of the Logos in a combination of expressions which bound it with other Old Testament deutero-canonical apophthegms, which contain the terms "dabar, memra", i.e., not "mind" [intellect] but precisely "Word". Thus, there can be no talk of any relationship between the fourth Gospel and Platonism.

What were these sayings of the Old Testament which St John the Theologian had in mind when he set forth the teaching about the incarnate Son of God as the Word? Let us ask the question differently: What properties are ascribed to the Word in those Old Testament passages with which the prologue of John's Gospel is united?

If we were to follow the example of the majority of the scholastic theologians and search these passages for purely dogmatic or metaphysical points, then our presentation would be unconvincing both for rationalists and for believing Jews, for they would say: you understand those figurative, personified expressions in a direct sense, and, utilizing such a method, one can reach whatever conclusions from them one wishes. Our thesis will be convincing only if we can demonstrate the sense of this imagery which, in context, was understandable to a reader prior to the events of the New Testament, and then correlate this sense of the passages or term with its New Testament interpretation.

Thus, we will strive to arrive at an understanding of the Old Testament concept of the Word, within the boundaries of life under the law. This life was represented to God's people as a continuation of the Lord's chastisement, as banishment from the desired paradise, under the burden of working the soil which had been cursed by Adam's sin, to endure illness and to die. Only one day of the week remained as a certain, weak likeness of life in paradise. On the Sabbath, people who knew God were freed from toil; they prayed and rejoiced in the life God had given them, originally so beautiful, but because of sin, now heavy with needs and illness.

Life was even more heavy for God's people, because there was no faithfulness to truth on the part of the people around them. The righteous suffered from the sinful people with whom they were bound, and they had neither comfort nor an explanation of their sufferings. Many times in His commandments and revelations, the Lord promised a reward to the righteous and a chastisement of the sinners, but life itself did not manifest this. This subject was perplexing to the righteous Job, David the Psalmist, Solomon the Ecclesiast, Jeremiah, Ezdra and, in general, all the writers and teachers of the Old Testament. This tension between the earthly fate of people and their moral condition is the main and most essential thought in all the sacred books up to the time of Christ, and on the solution of this problem were based all the prophecies about Him and all the foreimages of the Suffering Redeemer....

We will not discuss this truth in detail here, but will only point out that the appellative "God's Word" is given to those actions of Divine Providence in which the falsehood of life has been overturned, the righteous or repentant have been exalted and sinners have been put to shame. For, in such actions, the Lord replies to the questioning mind, "and the Lord thundered from heaven and the Most-High offered His Voice" (Ps.17:13).

God sometimes seems to have withdrawn from the sinful earth and departed with His Truth into heaven. Sometimes, however, when the "cry of the oppressed reaches heaven", He manifests His Truth on earth in wondrous acts of His providence, in such a way that the Word is revealed in the inner life of the human spirit. This is why scripture calls these actions of Divine truth God's Word.

The Psalms and other wisdom books apply such a designation to the following acts of Providence: to the salvation of Joseph from the prison, to the plagues in Egypt, to the crossing of God's people through the Red Sea and the desert into the promised land, to the salvation of the repentant through the brazen serpent and, finally, to all of God's governance of the elements of nature.

Though mankind has turned away from Him by sin, God does not always forget him; sinners do not always triumph over the righteous. There comes a time when, even in the midst of the sinful and unjust life, God's Word is revealed and It instills truth. It is remarkable that the various sacred books of the Old and New Testament apply the manifestation of God's Word to one and the same events in sacred history.

In this sense, Psalms 104 and 106 speak of the events in Egypt and the liberation of God's people. Joseph was the forerunner of the people, a prefigure of the people and a symbol of its destiny, a destiny which was at first slavish and grievous, but subsequently, glorious and beneficial for the whole world.

"He sent a man before them, Joseph was sold as a slave. They humbled his feet with fetters, his life was spent in irons, until his word came to pass. The word of the Lord proved him" (Ps.104:17-19). Not only are the pure and righteous saved by God's Word, as was Joseph, but the repentant are also. Just as with Joseph, when the grumblers in the wilderness were beyond all earthly help, wounded by terrible serpents, and came to repentance, they were saved by God's Word in a miraculous manner. "And they cried to the Lord in their affliction, and He saved them from their distress. He sent His Word and healed them, and He delivered them from their corruption" (Ps.106:19-20). Here, God's Word is synonymous with the ordering of the brazen serpent which merged in the minds of the Israelites with the Author of the healings to such a degree that many took it [the brazen serpent] for an idol, until the righteous Hezekiah found it necessary to destroy it. And the most wise Solomon cautions the reader against such an understanding, and affirms that God's Word is revealed in thought in the Psalm concerning this event. "For he who turned towards it was not saved by the thing he saw, but by Thee, Who art the Saviour of all....For it was neither herb nor medicinal plaister that restored them to health but Thy Word, O Lord, Which heals all things" (Wis.16:7; 12; cp.Dt.8:3).

In all the cited passages, the expression used for "God's Word" has the connotation of something living or, if we turn to the Hebrew, the connotation is clearly of something personified__not simply God's voice, but a constantly and identically acting Divine, providential power. Only human folly does not perceive this power in the ordinary course of the events of nature and of life, but recognizes it only in miraculous events. In actual fact, the power of God is always directed into the historical destinies of man and into the very life of nature where those laws, which the Lord prescribed in His commandments to man, do act. That power of God is always directed to the victory of truth, the rooting out of impiety and the glorification of the Divine truths enunciated in God's law. Man, however, does not comprehend this wisdom. This concept is present in Psalm 147, where we read that the Lord invisibly guards Jerusalem, blesses its children who are oppressed by enemies and reestablishes it from ruins. Thus He "sends his word unto the earth; His word runs swiftly. He gives snow like wool; He sprinkles mist like ashes; He hurls ice like morsels. Who can stand before His blasts? He will send forth His word to meet them; His breath will blow and the waters will flow. He declares His word unto Jakob, His ordinances and judgments to Israel. He has not done so with any other nation or shown them His judgment" (vs. 4-9).

And so, it is in vain that the faint hearted and those of little faith say, "Where is the word of the Lord? Let it come now!" (Jer.17:15) or, "Let good happen to me, though I walk in the error of my own heart" (Dt.29:19). God's Word, Divine Providence, is not absent in those instances in which the righteous suffer and the unrighteous are exalted. We have a clear explanation of this in the Book of Job, in Psalms 21, 36, 72 and in other places. The Lord sometimes permits the unrighteous to flourish, so that later, he will be the more humbled, and the word of God will be revealed. "The sinner will keep diligent watch over the righteous man and gnash upon him with his teeth. But the Lord will mock him, knowing that his day [of recompense] will come" (Ps.36:12-13).

Such a day of God's reckoning with the unrighteous is depicted with special strength in the book of Wisdom, where there is a like appearance of God's Word hypostatically [in true personification]. Here, the personification (hypostasis) cannot be accepted as a simple metaphor, for real, personal life is appropriated to God's Word. The passage refers to the taking away of the firstborn of Egypt on account of the hardness of pharaoh's heart in disobeying God:

"Thine almighty Word leaped from heaven out of Thy majestic throne, as a powerful man of war, into the midst of that land of destruction, and brought Thine unfeigned commandment as a sharp sword, and standing forth, he filled all with death; and It [the Word] touched heaven, though it stood upon the earth" (Wis.18:15-16). Further, the Word saves the people in response to Aaron's prayer (vs.22). If we compare this passage with the following one in St John's Book of Revelation, then we will see quite clearly that the apostle, not only in concept, but in actual expressions, links his teaching about the Word with the Old Testament one. The Theologian sees the sky opened and a horseman coming forth from its midst: "And in righteousness He judges and makes war....and He was clothed with a garment dipped in blood, and His name is called The Word of God....and out of His mouth proceeds a sharp sword, with which to smite the nations. And he will shepherd them with a staff of iron; and He treads the winepress of the wrath of almighty God. And His name is written on His garment and on His thigh, `King of Kings and Lord of Lords'" (Rev.19:11-16).

It is clear that this imagery of the Revelation, as also the other imagery, is brought from the Old Testament, even in its very phraseology. It is equally beyond doubt that the sense of the beginning five verses of the Gospel of John are tightly bound with Psalm 147. God's Word, that power, that manifestation of Divinity which was revealed to people in miraculous actions of God's truth, comforted the righteous in their perplexities __such as Job and David the Psalmist. This was not a singular phenomenon, a momentary bright light upon a dark horizon. No, the world was always directed by Him as it was created by Him. And this Word is not only a Divine action, a Divine power: it was God, but not God the Father, Who acted by Him; He was with God (not within God, but with God__pros ton Theon). Here, it is made especially clear how the sense of the Gospel is violated by those who interpret the term Logos as "mind", rather than as "Word". In Him (the Word) is life and light to mankind. Now He became flesh and tabernacled among us, full of Grace and truth. David taught that it was revealed in the commandments and law of Moses (Ps.147). There, however, He appeared only in part; while among us, He appeared in the fulness of His Grace and truth. "Because of His fulness we have all received, and grace for grace. The law was given through Moses, but grace and truth became by Jesus Christ" (Jn.1:16-17).

And so the solution of the enigma of the Old Testament teachers is resolved, but not in the manner they expected. The long-awaited Word of God was manifested: not in the righteous being elevated over the impious, not in the Judeans being given dominion over the pagans. No, God's Word was revealed as God Himself incarnate on earth, the Son of God. There was given something immeasurably greater than what the ancient teachers and righteous people expected, with a different effect on the life of the Judeans, and of all mankind.

Truth did not begin to reign on earth by external means: the world, created by the Word, did not recognize Him, and those to whom He came did not receive the One Who came to them. But to those who did receive Him, He did not give possessions or a kingdom, or earthly happiness such as He so richly returned to Job. He gave them what was far greater and better: He gave them power to become God's children and to receive truth into their hearts, and Grace for grace. This is a different, inner, spiritual kingdom, which is not of this world, but consists in the confession of truth which will be heard by those who are of truth (Jn.18:36-38).

And so, it is by such thoughts that the divine law crowns the Old Testament teaching about God's Word: It is a living Divine Person, equal to God, incarnate on earth and renounced by the world, but giving to Its followers an inner victory in external sufferings __ through an inner Grace-filled communion with God __ and a disdain toward earthly life. This idea of the significance of Christ in life is revealed by St John throughout his Gospel, his epistles and in the Book of Revelation. Whoever desires to examine the matter from this point of view __ His farewell conversation with His disciples or, the word of John's first epistle about the inner testimony and anointment of the Spirit in the disdain of the surrounding world and, finally, the words of the Lord, Who appeared among the seven candlesticks, concerning His struggle against the world, and the other visions which reveal this thought __ will understand that the teaching of John the Theologian about the Word has nothing in common with either the metaphysical pantheism of Plato, or with "nebulous metaphysics". Rather, the fourth Gospel contains within it a revelation and explanation of the moral power of the manifested Lord, which made His followers victors over the world by means of suffering from the world, and gave them an inner joy while still on earth, precisely in that very disdain of [worldly] happiness. This was an enigma which the teachers of the Old Testament, who saw the suffering of the righteous and the exaltation of sinners, could not resolve. The disciple of the Word resolved this enigma and said: "As deceivers, yet true; as unknown, yet well-known; as dying, but behold, we live; as chastened but not slain; as grieved, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, yet possessing all things" (2Cor.6:8-10). This is the sense in which, from the fulness of the manifested Word, the Christians accepted Grace for grace.

1. This is the term used to translate Jn.1:1 into ancient Hebrew when the New Testament is translated.

ADD: Memra is a form denoting personified word. It is used in Ps.33:6 "By the Word of God were the heavens made"

In Ps.107:20 "He sendeth His Word and healeth them". In Is.55, the Word assumes form and accomplishes God's will. See Wis.18:15, Dt.33:27, which resembles Jn.1:10 in the targums.

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