John’s Logos Hymn is a prologue that introduces the reader to who Jesus is in relation to God by implicitly describing Jesus rather than naming him. “The Logos” or “Word” in John were favored as masculine synonyms to “Sophia” which is a personification of Wisdom. (John 1:2) says, “He was in the beginning with God” which emphasizes the divinity and trueness of the Word. As White talks about the later Jewish tradition he makes the relation to Genesis in saying, “Wisdom was the other ‘person’ present at creation when God said ‘Let us make human kind in our own image’ (Gen 1:26)”. (White 43) The Word, became flesh and lived amongst the people, The Word was in the world and the world did not know him, nor did they accept him. But for those who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God. John the Baptist was sent before Jesus, many people confused John to be their savior but he himself was not the light, rather as a witness to testify to the light. Johns influence amongst the people was crucial in helping them understand that the Law did come through Moses, but grace and truth came through The Word, Jesus Christ.
In the Greek moral tale of the “choice of Hercules”, Hercules comes across a fork in the road. On one side, the latter offers to show him a smooth and easy path to happiness. Whereas on the other side, the former promised only a rough and difficult road to noble deeds. Hercules path is the path of virtue. (White 43). Whereas in Proverbs 7 there is a similar situation, only that the young man follows the latter, and goes like an ox to the slaughter. The young man would be the second of God’s creations, one that can be molded like clay and corrupted. Philo makes an interpretation of Genesis with two interpretations of mankind. The first, is Sophia in the heavenly logos for she comes from God and is true. See personification of Sophia. (White 45) The second of course, is the creation of the physical human creature of earth. Physical humans are patterned in the image of the first, the first is also The Word, and of course The Word being Jesus. This is how many people attribute Jesus to being the only perfect being to walk the earth and how all humans were made in his image.
As a 1st century ready of John, depending on if my ideals were based on a Jewish Law or Greco-Roman way of life I would understand Jesus to be the light. I would better comprehend that the way to get to God would be through Sophia, which would lead me to be foolish and believe in the cross only if I desired the purpose of it. I would understand the personification of wisdom and would associate it with King Solomon’s ideas of wanting to love and marry Sophia. I wouldn’t have any expectations of the rest of the bible as I can’t avoid my own bias of knowing the good news from The Word.