In John 1:1-18, the Word (the Logos) was not just present with God before all created things were created, the Word (the Logos) was God (v.1). The Word (the Logos), also known as the light of men and the Son, is making people children of God (v.12). Though no one has direct visual access to God, as the Word (the Logos) has become flesh and dwelt among men (v.14) he is and has made God known (v.18). The whole world, everything that came into existence, was created by the Word (the Logos) (v.3,10), yet despite this the world did not know or accept him (v.10-11). Even his own people, presumably the Jews, did not receive him. The world’s very existence depends on the Word (Logos), and he is the source of life and light (v.4), yet they did not receive him. The community seems to be those who recognize the necessity to receive the Word (the Logos) when others did not, and now have been made children of God. Now this community also sees the glory of the Father through the Son (v.14). The Word (the Logos) is significant for the community because in him is life and the light of men (v.4), the opportunity to be children of God, and as seen in 11:25 the Word (the Logos) is the resurrection and the life.

According to Philo of Alexandria, a devout 1^st century Jew who applied Platonic philosophy to Jewish cosmology, there is a dichotomy between the heavenly Logos and earthly humanity. He sees two types of humans: the heavenly man who is the offspring of God, free of corruption and earthly substance, and the earthly man disparate and not the offspring of God. Sophia or personified wisdom, is the feminine counterpart to the masculine Logos term. She is active in the activity of creation and makes the “holy souls” prophets and “friends of God”, and to approach God one must be a lover of Sophia (White 46).

As a 1^st century reader of John, I would be fairly familiar with the concepts of Sophia and Logos, and I would understand that it is the personification of virtue, reason and wisdom that has taken on human form. Logos actually being God himself doesn’t seem to be present in the established understanding prior to John. As a 1st century reader, I would also expect that Logos would be necessary for getting to God, just by necessity of him representing wisdom and truth, not mentioning that he is God.

Despite some differences, John also writes that the Word (the Logos) was also involved in the activity of creation, that he gives the right to be children of God (John 15:15 “friends”) and is the way to approach God. Like Philo’s Logos, Jesus also fully displays the glory of God (is without corruption) and is the Son (offspring in Philo’s terms) of the Father. In addition, though no one had visual access to God (v.18), as in Greek contexts when Sophia/Logos is a very active agent under a transcendent though indifferent God, Logos in the Gospel of John, while also being God, has made God known as the intermediary between God and earthly man.