Posted by bene [63.12.142.57 - 2Cust57.tnt12.bne1.da.uu.net] on 26 February 2003 at 12.32.34 ZuluTime:

In Reply to: prooving CHrist Deity posted by jay on 24 February 2003 at 06.35.39 ZuluTime:

Jay - "the Word was God" is taken from Philo of Alexandria and is totally mistranslated..........it means "the Logos was an archangel" (theos here)............which was Philo's main point.

Whether you buy John's interpretation or not, the point remains that no one thought Jesus was God............many actually believed he was an angel.......at least they wrote that impression down, particularly in Revelation (compare Rev 2:18 and Daniel 10:6. They both describe angels using the same terms)

Here is Philo's Logos, where you can see the follow-through in John 1:1 - Referring to Gen. 31:13, Philo states: "We must understand this, that He [God] on that occasion took the place of an angel, as far as appearance went, without changing His own real nature." Philo claims that the angel who appeared to Hagar in Gen. 16:8 was "the word (Logos) of God." The Logos is the first-born and the eldest and chief of the angels:

And even if there be not as yet any one who is worthy to be called a son of God, nevertheless let him labor earnestly to be adorned according to his first-born Logos, the eldest of his angels, as the great archangel of many names, for he is called the Authority, and the name of God, and the Logos, and man according to God's image, and he who sees Israel. For which reason I was induced a little while ago to praise the principles of those who said, "We are all one man's sons." (Gen. 42:11). For even if we are not yet suitable to be called the sons of God, still we may deserve to be called the children of his eternal image, of his most sacred Logos; for the image of God is his most ancient Logos.