Re: HO LOGOS - The Marshal(ler)

From: dalmatia@eburg.com
Date: Thu Jul 09 1998 - 17:13:25 EDT


Will Wagers wrote:

> I wouldn't argue with anyone who chooses to leave LOGOS untranslated
> (for the reasons Carl outlines), except that many scholars have despaired
> of settling the question, which I consider insufficient reason for abandoning
> the search for the best translation. But, neither would I argue with anyone
> who chooses "marshal" or a similar term, which I consider to be the
> appropriate meaning of LOGOS in this context.

I have seen it translated as 'system' ~ All tries along this line are
vain. Its root for the English word 'logic' is obvious, and the
implication for meaning 'mind' is obvious as well. Both are vain.

> Yes, the technical, philosophical meaning going back to Heraclitus
> is something like "ordering", which accords nicely with the definition of
> KOSMOS

Well, there is a great deal of difference between 'order' and
'ordering'. It was seen by these guys as the underlying metaphysical
principal of existence, and not particularly reducable to anything
else.

The problem with using only its Greek philosophic antecedent usage as
the approach to it meaning in John is that it does not afford John the
opportunity of using his own frame of reference, and delineating it in
the text. This he chose not to do, philosophically, and my feeling is
that the omission is intentional. The book of John is not a
philosophical endeavor, imo, and for us to impose Greek philosophical
understandings upon this term will miss the meaning that John has for
it in this gospel.

 My sense is that John uses enigma and dual meanings of terms very
deliberately, giving the paradoxes thus engendered a force of Spirit
in the reader that allows a certain communion with God. For us to try
to tack down in our logical brains one side or the other of these
dualities loses the power of the text. I have found that its power
at least in part lies in its ability to confound our logical
processes, engendering a quiet receptivity...

Arguing which side is the 'right' one kills the power of the text, you
see...

George

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George Blaisdell        dalmatia@eburg.com

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