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.

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.