Theos-Talk Archives (March 2004 Message tt00520)

--- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, Bart Lidofsky <bartl@s...> wrote:
> netemara888 wrote:
> > Creation was THE WORD. There is no substance in the Word. 
> 
> Show me where in Jewish literature it says that, please, 
because I 
> cannot find it.

There is a statement in Proverbs somewhere that God created the world 
by means of Wisdom, an idea which came to be developed in THE WISDOM 
OF SOLOMON. In there, Wisdom becomes personified, and idea which was 
accepted within Alexandrian (Egyptian) Jusaism and rejected in 
Palestinian Judaism because it seemed to compromise the esssential 
monotheism of that sect. When the texts were translated into Greek 
the word for Wisdom was Sophia, which is of course a woman's name. 
Some people did not like that idea (Philo of Alexandria among others) 
so they used the Greek Logos, whcich means thought, reason, and word.

To my knowleddge the Logos idea in no way implies or denies the ex 
nihilo creation.