In answer to the video "Muslims' Worst anti-Christian Polemics: Corruption of the New Testament"
Jn1:1"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God".The verse first of all says nothing about Jesus physically preexisting with God. And if "the word", Jesus' shape prior to his physical existence, was an entity appart from God, then it conflicts with
Mal3:6"I the Lord do not change".The same shape He always had is the same one He always will have. God's word is no more a distinct person from himself than your word/purpose is a distinct person from yourself. When God created light with his word in Genesis, light became the manifestation of His will through the word "BE", not a manifestation of Himself.
In Prov8:23 just like the word was with God, wisdom is with God from eternity. It is common in Hebrew writings to personify concepts such as these. No Jew reading Prov8:23 would ever believe wisdom was a person seperate from God and present on his side from eternity. Job says in 12:13
"with God are wisdom and might".Jews would often speak of God's attributes being "with" God as if they were persons. In the Targums(aramaic translations of the OT) the word(logos) of God is a common expression meaning the manifestation of God's wisdom and action (Targum Onkelos Gen39:2,Ex19:17,Job42:9,Ps2:4,106:12). I
ts clear from Isa44:24 confirmed by Jesus in Matt19:4,Mk10:6 that God created all things alone, no one was on his side, with no God before or after Him Isa43:10.
Philo a Hellenized Jew, much influenced both by Greek philosophy and Egyptian religious ideas, introduced this expression found in Jn1:1.
The Logos was present in the Egyptian pantheon, identified with the god Horus/Serapis, and similarly, in Stoic philosophy which held that the Logos made itself manifest through various gods – Zeus, Hermes, etc. When he was writing, and when the Greeks who penned the Gospels were writing, in a language loaded with Hellenistic theological baggage, the rules of mythological thinking continued to be in force, as far as images were concerned. They took these symbolisms for granted, unlike the "unsymbolic" later mindframe of those that approached such expressions.
Philo wrote hundreds of philosophical and religious essays during the first half of the first century and his primary purpose was to merge Mosaic Judaism with Pythagorean philosophy as noted by early Christian theologians such as Clement of Alexandria (c.150 - 215). For example he said that it was God who begat Isaac, through the "virgin" Sarah, although He/God made sure that Isaac closely resembled Abraham so as to not create any "ambiguity". Philo was highly allegorical and aggressively promoted the allegorical interpretation of scripture. In his idea, logos expressed all ways by which God makes His word/logic known to man for ex. his speech (which he called logos) was his Revelations, his reason (which he also called logos) was his Design.
Other "emanations" through which God made himself known to the world, in addition to the Logos were Sophia/Wisdom, Nous/Mind, Phronesis/Judgement, and Dynamis/Power. Thus the supreme God’s will, justice, power, etc., made its presence felt through these "emanations", which might take various forms.
Philo also describes Moses as the “empsychosis” of God’s divine thought, i.e. as the personalization of the Divine Plan (Life of Moses, I, 28). John's author understood the metaphor quite well, this is why he writes in Jn1:17 "the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ". Both of them are an expression of God's plan, neither of them are gods nor preexisted physically at God's side.
Philo's "logos" has clearly been misapplied to promote trinitarianism by the likes of Justin Martyr, the 2nd century Church Father who proposed this idea of the son of God/Jesus preexisting with God, instead of the word/logos. Philo also wrote that God exists outside of time and space, that He has no human attributes or emotions. He even says God has no attributes at all, not even a name, and cannot be perceived by man. He insists that God doesn't change, is completely self-sufficient and thus in no need of "co-partners". He is eternal and doesnt die. Philo is not even by inference saying that the “word” can become “flesh.” This is a pagan concept as epitomized by gods such as Hermes and Prometheus.
Logos never meant a person as seen in 1Jn1:1-3 where the word/logos is "That" not "he" and manifested, personified through Jesus. Logos appears 100s of times in the NT but only capitalized less than 10 times depending on bible versions and has a wide range of meanings for ex. "question" in Matt21:24 (NIV),"account" in Matt12:36,"command" in Gal5:14,"message" in Luke4:32,etc.
What is translated as "God" in the end of the verse "and the Word was God" is actually the Greek "theos" used to refer to the Father as well as others such as the Devil 2Cor4:4, lesser gods 1Cor8:5 or men with great authority Ex7:1,Jn10:34,35,Acts12:22. So it is the context that decides.
In addition almost every time the NT uses theos for the Father, it is preceded in the Greek by a definite article "Ho" and this contrast appears clearly in Jn1:1 where the Greek says "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with "THE theos" and the Word was "theos". The definite article is missing from the second "theos" clearly to mark a sharp distinction, so it becomes an adjective qualifying the logos, ie "and the word was divine". In conclusion, the true meaning of Jn1:1 is
"In the beginning was the Word (the wisdom, plan or purpose of God), and the Word was with God, and the Word was divine".
A final thing to note, So this preincarnate Jesus was in a non human form. Jesus was "something minus the soul". Once that "something" assumed human form, the soul was added. After his resurrection and ascencion, the soul remained attached to him. He became in heaven a God with an additional part he did not have before. Jesus started as a God minus soul to God plus soul. God increases in nature?
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