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While the early Christians personified the "Logos" in the figure of Jesus, the Greeks had represented the "Logos" in the figure of Apollo, the god of geometry and music. Another favorite representation was Hermes, who, as the church fathers acknowledge, was actually called "the "Logos"" by the Greeks. Thus Justin Martyr writes:
"When we say, as before, that he [Jesus] was begotten by God as the Word of God in a unique manner beyond the ordinary birth, this should be no strange thing for you who speak of Hermes as the announcing word [Logos] from God" (Justin Martyr, First Apology, 22; in Richardson, Early Christian Fathers, 256).
For example, according to the gnostic sect of the Naassenes, "Hermes is the Word who has expressed and fashioned the things that have been, that are and that will be" (Hippolytus, Refutation of All Heresies 5.2 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, V, 50); translation by Doresse, Secret Books of the Egyptian Gnostics, 84).
In ancient Egypt, where the "Logos" theology appears at an early date, the Greek god Hermes was identified with the Egyptian divinity Thoth. Thoth was the personification of the universal order, the "heart and tongue" of the sun god Ra who "spoke the words" which resulted in the creation of the heavens and the earth (Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, I, 407-408). According to lamblichus, Thoth was the author of 36,525 books [equal to the number of days in one hundred solar years] (Iamblichus, On The Mysteries 7.1 (Taylor Translation, 300). Thoth was represented as the "scribe of the gods," the revealer of mathematics, geometry, and priestly knowledge. As E. A. Wallis Budge points out:
Thoth's knowledge and powers of calculation measured out the heavens, and planned the earth, and everything which is in them; his will and power kept the forces in heaven and earth in equilibirum; it was his great skill in celestial mathematics which made proper use of the laws (maãt) upon which the foundation and maintenance of the universe rested; it was he who directed the motions of the heavenly bodies and their times and seasons; and without his words the gods, whose existence depended on them, could not have kept their place among the followers of Ra (Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, I, 407-408).
As "the reason and mental powers" of the sun god Ra, Thoth was "also the means by which their will was translated into speech (Budge, Gods of the Egyptians, I, 407). As the revealer of celestial knowledge, the attributes of Thoth are later reflected in the figure Hermes Trismegistos (Thrice-Great Hermes), the reputed author of the Egyptian Hermetic writings. While the actual authors of these important works are unknown, like the unknown authors of the Christian gospels, lamblichus repeats the tradition that "Hermes, the god who presides over language, was formerly very properly considered as common to all priests; and the power who presides over the true science concerning the gods is one and the same in the whole of things. Hence our ancestors dedicated the inventions of their wisdom to this deity, inscribing all their own writings with the name of Hermes" (Iamblichus, On The Mysteries 7.1 (Taylor Translation, 17-18).
The Greek Hermetic tractates were written and used in Egypt during a period stretching from perhaps 100 B.C.E. to 350 C.E. by members of Hermetic spiritual communities which were active in synthesizing native Egyptian teachings with the expressions of Greek philosophy. The ideas of this "pagan gnosticism" were certainly "in the air" during the formative days of early Christianity, and while "no direct literary relationship can be traced. . . it seems clear that [the person who wrote the Gospel of] John was working with similar presuppositions and along similar lines to those of the Hermetic authors" (C.K. Barrett, The Gospel of John, 31). If one looks into this he see remarkable parallels between the surviving Hermetic hymns and recently discovered documents of Christian gnosis.
The Hermetic writings are cast as revelation discourses between Hermes Trismegistos, the spiritual "father," and Tat, his "son," the aspiring initiate. In an esoteric sense, "Hermes" and "Tat" may represent two aspects of an individual's soul, the higher and lower natures respectively. Through "his" writings and discourse with his disciples, Hermes Trismegistos reveals teachings of a spiritual and cosmological nature, concerning the nature of God, the soul, the origin and structure of the cosmos, and the path through which the soul may experience its divinizing rebirth in the divine principle of Mind or Nous. Common to all of these writings are parallels to the Hellenistic "Logos" doctrine as it has been summarized in these articles.
According to the underlying myth of Gnosis, humanity is asleep, forgetful of its celestial origin and true nature. It is the task of the "Gnostic Revealer" to descend through the heavenly spheres and fan the slumbering sparks of spiritual knowledge which lie dormant within the soul, leading to the recognition of one's authentic nature and spiritual destiny. In Christianity, Jesus is personified as the Gnostic Revealer, the teacher of saving knowledge, especially in such works as the Gospel ofJohn and the Gospel of Thomas. In the Hermetic writings, Hermes Trismegistos represents another Hellenistic manifestation of the "Logos", also personified as the Gnostic Revealer. While one may have many teachers in life, Clement of Alexandria states that the ultimate spiritual teacher is the "Logos" itself, "the Teacher from whom all instruction comes" (Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation the Greeks 11 (Ante-Nicene Fathers, II, 203). Accordingto the ancients, the "Logos" exists without, yet also within. We can never be separated from the harmony of the universe because we are its living reflection, even if in our slumber, this recognition has been temporarily obscured.
Like the teachings of the early Christians, the Hermetic writings focus upon the mystery of the soul's "rebirth" and transfiguration, the discovery of "the inner man," which results in a divinization of the personality. Through this existential realization, the gnostic - the true initiate - discovers who he is, where he has been, and where he is going. The gnostic realization is that awakened, transfigured humanity is a manifestation of Nous, the Divine Intellect, the first emanation of the unknowable Source (God). In one of the Hermetic writings, The Cup or the Monad, the story is told of how the world creator, while giving each person a share of reason (logos), did not bestow on every soul an equal portion of Mind. Rather, Mind was "set up in the midst for souls, just as it were a prize" (Corpus Hermeticum 4 ("The Cup or Monad"), 3 (Mead translation, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, II, 56). In language which strongly parallels that of early Christianity, Hermes explains the liberating baptism in the Cup of Mind. The world creator, he says
filled a mighty cup with it, and sent it down, joining a Herald to it, to whom He gave command to make this proclamation to the hearts of men: Baptize thyself with this Cup's baptism, what heart can do so; you who have faith can ascend to Him who sent down the cup, you who know why you have come into being! As many then as understood the Herald's tiding and doused themselves in Mind, became partakers in the Gnosis; and when they had "received the Mind" they were made "perfect men." But they who do not understand the tidings, these, since they possess the aid of Reason ("Logos") only and not Mind (Nous), are ignorant of why and how they have come into being (Corpus Hermeticum 4.4 (Mead translation, Thrice-Greatest Hermes, II, 57).
Elsewhere, in another work, The Secret Discourse Concerning Rebirth, Hermes explains the process through which this divinization is experienced. Recalling the passage in the Fourth Gospel where Nicodemus asks, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?",
Tat proclaims "I know not, thrice-greatest one, from what womb a man can be born again, nor from what seed" (Corpus Hermeticum 13 ("The Secret Discourse Concerning Rebirth"), I (Scott translation, Hermetica, 1, 239).
Answer for yourself: Can this be just a coincidence in such exact wording?
Hermes explains that the womb of rebirth is Wisdom and that the Will of God is the begetter. The mystery of rebirth-the race of the Divine Sonship-cannot be taught, but, when the time is right, God recalls the knowledge of the spiritual realities to one's awareness, the knowledge the soul possessed before being born into a body. As Walter Scott summarizes the teaching of this tractate:
The man whom the Rebirth brings into being is a son of God; he belongs to the world of Mind; he is composed of divine Powers. He who has been born again has become an incorporeal being; he is no longer a thing visible to bodily eyes.... He sees things no longer by bodily sense; he sees with the eye ofMind. And thus seeing, he finds himself to be one with all that exists; he feels himself to be omnipresent and eternal. The new self which has thus come into being is imperishable. He who has once become a god, and son of God, can never cease to be that which he has become (Scott, Hermetica, II, 372).
In this ecstatic, transcendent state, both Christian and Hermetic mystics entered into divine union with the "Logos", the Divine Intellect, the source of Life and Light. Instructed by the "Logos" itself, they became its mouthpiece, and could thus honestly proclaim that the realizations they experienced were the direct teachings of Christ or Hermes. It is no doubt from such ecstatic, heightened states of consciousness that many of the inspired logia or "sayings of the Lord" originated that later found their way into the early Christian literature. That is why Jesus - the "Logos" personified as the "Gnostic Revealer"- can accurately say in the Gospel of Thomas, "He who will drink from My mouth will become like Me. I myself shall become he, and the things that are hidden will be revealed to him" (Gospel of Thomas 108 (in Robinson, The Nag Hammadi Library, 137).
Generally speaking, the ancient gnostics primarily viewed Christ as an eternal, celestial power, the "Logos", with which it is possible to have an intimate, personal relation, since our higher consciousness is made in its image. For this reason, gnostics stressed the experiential union with the divine, and showed little interest in the historical Jesus, whom it has always been impossible to know in a concrete sense, or even accurately in a historical sense. Because of this, gnostic speculation has always possessed a very strong ahistorical, cosmological tendency and dimension, preferring to concentrate on the liberating realization of Christ within. Now you know Paul as a Gnostic not only because of many of his religious teachings in the New Testament but he was also unconcerned about the teachings of the historical Jesus.
This realization, of which the mystics speak, is the secret of initiation, and was referred to by the early Christians in a number of ways. The Prologue to the Fourth Gospel makes it clear that those who "received" the "Logos" experienced a divinizing energy, thus "becoming Sons of God," a transformation also referred to in the Hermetic writings. Elsewhere in the Fourth Gospel, this is referred to in Greek as "the birth from above" (John 3:3). Origen, in his workAgainst Celsus, states that those who follow the example of "the Sun of Righteousness," who sent forth His rays from Judaea, become not only followers of Christ, but Christs in their own right (Origen, Contra Celsum 6.79). An even more appealing analogy is offered by Clement, who writes that not even the sun can show us the true God. That is because:
The healthful Word or Reason, who is the Sun of the soul, alone can do that; through Him alone, when He has risen within in the depth of the mind, the soul's eye is illuminated (Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks 6 (Loeb Classical Library translation, 155).
One of the primary roles of the "Logos" in Greek thought is its function as celestial mediator, the "geometric mean" between extremes. That is whyJesus proclaims, in the Gospel of John, "I am the Way" and "I am the Door." As the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel states, "No one has at any time seen God." However, "The only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he has revealed him." Not only is the "Logos" the image and manifestation of the otherwise transcendent Source, but it is the connecting principle through which we are joined back to the One, and that is why Jesus is represented as the mediator between heaven and earth in Christian symbolism.But again make no mistake about it; we can look at the "Logos" within each of us as a mediator between the realm of change and the realm of Being; between matter and Spirit. Jesus was symbolic of "the Christ" as explained above but when this understanding become literalized then the symbolic meaning of mediatorship is completely lost and the end result is idolatry as taught by the Laws of Noah as well as the Hebrew Torah!
As Christianity evolved into a collective belief system, it developed a political structure and creeds, teaching that Jesus came and left at a particular point in time, and that it was only possible to achieve salvation by joining the ranks of the organized church. At the same time, it outlawed other forms of religious expression, and confiscated the property of prominent individuals who resisted conversion to the new faith. The church thereby proclaimed itself the official mediator between man and God, thus usurping the original function of Christ the "Logos". However, according to the gnostic approach, the "Logos" is an ever-present celestial power, not limited by time, space, or political boundaries-nor to a single appearance. It underlies the structure of the universe and consciousness, and, for those attuned to its nature, the "Logos" illuminates the inner recesses of the heart with eternal, spiritual knowledge. That is why Jesus, in the ancient Gospel of Thomas, can accurately say"
"It is I who am the light which is above them all. It is I who am the All. From Me did the All come forth, and unto Me did the All extend. Split a piece of wood and l am there.
Now hopefully you have followed the logic and teaching concerning the "Logos" as it was originally understood by those to whom it was given by Divine Revelation. Hopefully you can see how Gentile Christianty has diverted completely from the original concept as understood not only by the Egyptians but the Jewish faith and religion as well. Today 2.5 billion Christians are entagled in the hideous sin of idolatry and blasphemy because of this loss of knowledge and truth concerning the "Logos" and its role in creation let alone its role in humanity and how it is to be properly understood as applied to Yeshua/Jesus. I pray that you now fully understand how these allegorical and symbolic concepts were "LITERALIZED" by Roman Catholicism. The adherents to such "literalized" religious beliefs strayed from truth and were led into idolatry and blasphemy where they end up with more than one God. This goes against the whole of Old Testament Revealation as Israel was led out of polytheism into Ethical Monotheism. That was their purpose; to reveal the ONE God to the world. Then the antisemitic Gentile Church reverses this course and moves backward into polytheism and idolatry and takes untold millions of unknowledgeable believers with them. I pray these articles have exposed the truth to you and you can see these truths for yourself and that you seriously consider the need for repentance in your life if you have fallen prey to such distorions of truth as taught by Gentile Christianity these last 1800 years. Repentance from idolatry brings you back into close relationship with God; the way it was originally intended. Shalom.