The key to understanding the goal of Jesus' ministry is to first know how he uses the Greek term logos. Jesus does not use logos in the sense of the statement or the "word" of God recorded in the Bible. Logos, for Jesus, refers to divine logic/reason of God, in man. This definition is Hellenized Judaism's adaptation of the classical Greek concept of logos as "world soul" (274) meaning the mind of God.
"If one thinks in OT terms, one would prefer to translate logos by word; if one thinks in the Greek terms, as the apologists [Gnostics] did on the whole, then one would translate logos into 'reason'." (275) "The logos stood for more than spoken words. The extent of the concept was that behind spoken words were thoughts. Thoughts were mind. Mind had affinity with reason. Reason was the structure of orderly action…that ultimate reality was reasonable, was in fact reason itself." (276) And because human beings have the capacity to reason, it was believed by Jesus and Gnostic Christians that our destiny is to "make contact with divine reason and, like God, discern ultimate truths." (277) (Note: See page 547A in The Interpreters One Volume Commentary on the Bible.)
"Logos also means man's ability to recognize reality; we would call it 'theoretical reason'. It is man's ability to reason." (278)
The author of The Wisdom of Solomon, "became the first to achieve some kind of rapprochement [meaning the renewal of friendly relations] between those two great cultures…the Greek and the Hebrew. Philo Jedaeus would later follow in his footsteps, and so would the Alexandrian [Egypt] church fathers, Clement and Origen, and to a greater or lesser degree, most of the great thinkers of the Christian church… In the NT itself, one can see the movement taking place, particularly in the letters of Paul…" (279)
What is this great movement? It is attempts at the reconciliation of the Jewish concept of wisdom/logos with that of the Logos in Greek philosophy. "The remarkable description of wisdom in [Ws ch7: 22-23], is made up of terms borrowed in large part from Greek, especially Stoic, philosophy. [Stoics thought of "the word as emanated by Logos as an intelligent principle". (280) Obviously, the author wishes to show that "whatever word might be used to describe such Greek philosophical concepts as the logos, or world soul, might also be used to characterize the biblical concept of wisdom." (281)
Jesus' Christ/logos teachings bring a new element to the debate between Jewish and Greek philosophy. For all the reasons given above, Jesus' contribution of nonjudgmental logic, when added to Aristotle's judgmental system of logic, will expand our consciousness. And we will, because of our renewed thought process, process ideas with the same wisdom/logos as does God.
Justin Martyr, for example, maintained that Christianity "is the true philosophy better than anything the Greeks produced. He used the Greek term logos (word) for Christ and explained that this meant both the word [logic] of [Jesus'] revelation and true reason in philosophy. Thus he sought to bring together the truth of Christian revelation [meaning Jesus' logic teachings] and the wisdom of Greek philosophy [meaning Aristotelian logic]." (282)
"Plato had set a theme by picturing the Ideas of God as the patterns on which all things were formed; the Stoics had combined these Ideas into the Logos of Spermatikos or fertilizing wisdom of God; the Neo-Pythagoreans had made the Ideas a divine person; and Philo had turned them into the Logos or Reason of God, a second divine principle, through which God created, and communicated with, the world. If we retain the famous exordium of the Fourth Gospel with all this in mind, and retain the Logos of the Greek original in place of the translation Word, we perceive at once that John has joined the philosophers." (283)
"In the beginning was the Logos [divine reason]; the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God…All things were made by the Logos; without him [him is the masculine pronoun of Logos] nothing was made that was made. It was by him [the Logos or divine reason of God] that all things came into existence… So the Logos [logic of God, not Jesus] became flesh and blood [first in Jesus, but later in all mankind] and dwelt amongst us." (Jn 1:1-5)
Most think that it is blasphemous to believe that human beings can be like God. Jesus, however, teaches the opposite. The Logos/reason of God is in us, and that our purpose is to, like Jesus, elevate our reasoning to the level of God's Logos. Understanding this makes it easy to understand Jesus' goal. Namely that all mankind has the power to reason like God. In fact, like Jesus, we all are one in God.
The goal of Gnostic Christianity then is to raise consciousness by elevating the rational element of consciousness to the same level as the logos, again meaning the logic or reasoning of God. This goal is achieved when we understand a new theory of human nature that Jesus revealed because that theory justifies nonjudgmental rules of logic that empower us to reason in ways that are comparable to that of the logos of God. With that godlike potential for reasoning, we will expand the context in which we think and become conscious in a nonjudgmental and loving, godlike way. This is what Paul means by "we [meaning Gnostic Christians] are those who have the mind of Christ." (1Co 2:16 jbv)
From the perspective of first century Gnostic Christians, Jesus' goal was to teach a new theory of human nature that is, like Newton's Theory of Gravity, true for everyone, everywhere, and for all time. One does not have to hold a particular doctrine, believe a particular religion or philosophy, or have a particular spiritual orientation to profit from Jesus' theory. We need only understand the theory to benefit from its wisdom, for it can change the character of our thoughts and, in turn, our consciousness of reality. Simply said, the goal of Gnostic Christianity is to make the reasoning mind an instrument of our spiritual nature-globally.
We stand on the edge of a revolution in consciousness, as momentous as any in history. Knowledge of Jesus' Gnostic/logos teachings is the key to that revolution. The second coming of Jesus is not Jesus in person, but his form of higher consciousness within us all.
Copyright © February 2, 2001, William C. Kiefert