Philo of Alexandria and the Trinity

An Alexandrian Jew known as Philo lived and authored many writings around the same time the events of the New Testament were taking place.  Although Philo was contemporary to Jesus and the Apostles, there is no evidence that he was ever aware of the Christian sect. This is ironic, since much of what he writes is remarkably close to the Christian doctrine of the Trinity. The similarities were so striking, Rabbinic Judaism would come to disown Philo and abandon a great deal of Hellenistic Jewish thought. Outside of Christian works, Philo has been rendered by his own, a literary pariah – he is never mentioned or cited, as if to be deliberately forgotten.

The Word

Philo regarded God as far too infinite and remote to have any substantial contact with a finite creation. He reasoned that something needed to exist as a bridge, allowing for a finite creation, to in some degree, make contact with an infinite God. Philo would draw from his Greek education to find a solution: “The Word” (in Greek: “Logos”).

In Greek philosophy, the “Logos” represented the cosmic principle of order and logic sustaining the universe. However, the Alexandrian Jews often insisted that concepts commonly assumed to be Greek in origin, were actually much older. In fact, they accused the Greeks of intellectual theft. The Alexandrian Jews would point to scripture as proof. They contended that the Greeks only discovered and appropriated principles first found in the Hebrew Bible.

The Septuagint pairs the term Logos, with the Hebrew word “Davar” – translated into English as “Word”. The “Word of the Lord” makes his debut in Genesis 15. The term “Word of the Lord” seems to refer to a message coming from the Lord, however the text soon attributes to this supposed message, a designation for a subject:

“The word of the Lord came to him [Abraham]…Then HE [the Word] said to him [Abraham], so shall your offspring be.”

The Word of the Lord is referred to as a “He”. In verse 6, after Abraham is instructed by the “Word of the Lord”, scripture states: “Abraham believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” The Word of the Lord is not only mediating communication between Abraham and the Lord, but according to Genesis 15:6, the Word is the Lord himself.

Psalms chapter 33 states that the heavens were made by the Word of YHVH:

“By the Word of YHVH were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.”

The Hebrew word for “Word” is “Davar” and comes from the root: “Divra”, meaning “reason”.

Three things can therefore be concluded, using scripture alone:

1. The “Word” is connected to the concept of Logic/reason.
2. The “Word” is distinct from the Lord, yet one with the Lord himself.
3. The universe was created by the “Word”

All three concepts can also be found in the first three verses of the gospel of John:

“In the beginning was the Word/Logos [Logos – The divine principle of Logic/reason upholding creation], and the Word/Logos was with God, and the Word/Logos was God [the word is distinct from God, yet one with God]. He was with God in the beginning. Through Him all things were made, and without Him nothing was made that has been made [the universe was created by the Word].”

Philo was privy to all of this, which is why he felt justified in assuming a second member of the Godhead who resolved the incompatibility of an infinite God, communing with a finite creation. Philo held a vision of the “Word of God” serving as mediator between God and man.

The Word as creator

The “Word” (or Logos) would stand as the manifest “image” of God so that a finite creation could understand and relate to him. In turn, the “image” of the Word would provide the pattern for the creation of man. In other words, man was created in the “image” of the Word:

“But the divine Word (Logos) which is above these does not come into any visible appearance, inasmuch as it is not like to any of the things that come under the external senses, but is itself an image of God, the most ancient of all the objects of intellect in the whole world, and that which is placed in the closest proximity to the only truly existing God, without any partition or distance being interposed between them…” – On Flight and Finding XVIII (101)

“…For God does not seem to have availed himself of any other animal existing in creation as his model in the formation of man; but to have been guided, as I have said before, by his own Word (Logos) alone…” – Philo; On Creation XLVIII (139)

“Now, Bezaleel, being interpreted, means God in his shadow. But the shadow of God is his Word (Logos), which he used like an instrument when he was making the world. And this shadow, and, as it were, model, is the archetype of other things. For, as God is himself the model of that image which he has now called a shadow, so also that image is the model of other things, as he showed when he commenced giving the law to the Israelites, and said, “And God made man according to the image of God.”[Gen. 1:26] as the image was modeled according to God, and as man was modeled according to the image, which thus received the power and character of the model.” – Allegorical Interpretations III 96

“For if it was necessary to examine the mortal body of the priest that it ought not be imperfect through any misfortune, much more was it necessary to look into his immortal soul, which they say is fashioned in the form of the living God. Now the image of God is the Word (Logos), by which all the world was made.” – The Special Laws I, 81

“What is the man who was created? And how is that man distinguished who was made after the image of God? (Gen. 2:7). This man was created as perceptible to the senses,
and in the similitude of a Being appreciable only by the intellect; but he who in respect of his form is intellectual and incorporeal, is the similitude of the archetypal model as to appearance, and he is the form of the principal character; but this is the Word (Logos) of God, the first beginning of all things, the original species or the archetypal idea, the first measure of the universe.” – Q & A on Gen. I, 4

“Why is it that he speaks as if of some other god, saying that he made man after the image of God, and not that he made him after his own image? (Gen. 9:6). Very appropriately and without any falsehood was this oracular sentence uttered by God, for no mortal thing could have been formed on the similitude of the supreme Father of the universe, but only after the pattern of the second deity, who is the Word (Logos) of the supreme Being; since it is fitting that the rational soul of man should bear it the type of the divine Word (Logos); since in his first Word (Logos) God is superior to the most rational possible nature. But he who is superior to the Word (Logos) holds his rank in a better and most singular pre-eminence, and how could the creature possibly exhibit a likeness of him in himself? Nevertheless he also wished to intimate this fact, that God does rightly and correctly require vengeance, in order to the defense of virtuous and consistent men, because such bear in themselves a familiar acquaintance with his Word (Logos), of which the human mind is the similitude and form.” – Q & A on Gen. II 62

According to Philo, The “Word” is the creator of the universe:

“As therefore the city, when previously shadowed out in the mind of architectural skill had no external place, but was stamped solely in the mind of the workman, so in the same manner neither can the world which existed in ideas have had any other local position except the Logos (Word) which made them…” Philo; On Creation V (20)

The Godhead

Philo believed in God, and his “powers”:

“The Creator of the world sends out His powers from an eternal and invisible place” – Q&A on Genesis, II, 48

Philo reveals that one of the “powers” is the “God-Word”:

“The primal existence is God, and second the God-Word” – Allegorical Interpretation II, 86

Philo attributes to the threefold nature of God the title: “triad” setting the foundation for the Christian “Trinity”. Philo expresses two “Chief Powers” within God – the Creative [Elohim], and Kingly [YHVH]:

“…it is reasonable for one to be three and for three to be one, for they were one by a higher principle… …in the place of one, He makes the appearance of a triad [trinity]… He cannot be seen in his oneness without something [else], the chief Powers that that exist immediately with him… the Creative, which is called “Elohim” and the Kingly, which is called “Lord”… he begins to see the sovereign, holy, and divine vision in such a way that a single appearance appears as a triad [trinity], and the triad [trinity] as a unity.” – Philo; Questions on Genesis, IV, 2

The Word is the central power that reconciles the two opposing powers:

“the Divine Word (Logos)…fills all things and becomes a mediator and arbitrator for the two sides….from the Divine Word (Logos), as from a spring, there divide and break forth two powers. One is the creative through which the Artificer placed and ordered all things. This is named “God”. And the royal, since through it the Creator rules over created things. This is called “Lord” And from these two powers have grown the others. For by the side of the creative power there grows the propitious of which is named “beneficial” while (besides) the royal the legislative, of which is aptly named “punitive”. And below these and beside them is the ark.” – Philo on Q&A on Exodus, II.68

The Word is the firstborn Son of Elohim:

“For there are, as it seems, two temples belonging to God; one being this world, in which the high priest is the divine Word, his own firstborn son. The other is the rational soul, the priest of which is the real true man…” – On Dreams 215

“And 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 Firstborn Word, 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 Word”, and “man according to God’s image”, and “He who sees Israel”. . . 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 Word; for the image of God is his most ancient word.” – On the Confusion of Tongues XXVIII:146-147

“Thus, indeed, being a shepherd is a good thing, so that it is justly attributed, not only to kings, and to wise men, and to souls who are perfectly purified, but also to God, the ruler of all things; and he who confirms this is not any ordinary person, but a prophet, whom it is good to believe, he namely who wrote the psalms; for he speaks thus, “The Lord is my shepherd, and he shall cause me to lack Nothing;” (Ps. 23:1.) and let every one in his turn say the same thing, for it is very becoming to every man who loves God to study such a song as this, but above all this world should sing it. For God, like a shepherd and a king, governs (as if they were a flock of sheep) the earth, and the water, and the air, and the fire, and all the plants, and living creatures that are in them, whether mortal or divine; and he regulates the nature of the heaven, and the periodical revolutions of the sun and moon, and the variations and harmonious movements of the other stars, ruling them according to law and justice; appointing, as their immediate superintendent, his own right reason, his first-born son, who is to receive the charge of this sacred company, as the lieutenant of the great king; for it is said somewhere, “Behold, I am he! I will send my messenger before thy face, who shall keep thee in the Road.”(Ex. 23:20.) – On Husbandry 50-51

God is the “Father” the Word is “his son” and the Word procures “forgiveness of sins”:

…the twelve stones arranged on the breast in four rows of three stones each, namely the logeum, being also an emblem of that reason (Logos, Word) which holds together and regulates the universe. For it was indispensable that the man who was consecrated to the Father of the world, should have as a paraclete, his son, the being most perfect in all virtue, to procure forgiveness of sins, and a supply of unlimited blessings…” –  Life of Moses II, 133-134

The Word is a priest, and Philo compares the Word to Melchizedek:

XXVI. (82) But Melchisedek shall bring forward wine instead of water, and shall give your souls to drink, and shall cheer them with unmixed wine, in order that they may be wholly occupied with a divine intoxication, more sober than sobriety itself. For the Word is a priest, having, as its inheritance the true God, and entertaining lofty and sublime and magnificent ideas about him, “for he is the priest of the most high God.”{38}{Genesis 14:18.} Not that there is any other God who is not the most high; for God being one, is in the heaven above, and in the earth beneath, and there is no other besides Him.”{39}{Deuteronomy 4:39.} But he sets in motion the notion of the Most High, from his conceiving of God not in a low and grovelling spirit, but in one of exceeding greatness, and exceeding sublimity, apart from any conceptions of matter. – “De Allegoriis Legum,” iii. 26

The fourth and last of the points which we proposed to discuss, is the appointing as a period for the return of the fugitives the death of the high priest, which, if taken in the literal sense, causes me great perplexity; for a very unequal punishment is imposed by this enactment on those who have done the very same things, since some will be in banishment for a longer time, and others for a shorter time; for some of the high priests live to a very old age, and others die very early, and some are appointed while young men, and others not until they are old. And again of those who are convicted of unintentional homicide, some have been banished at the beginning of the high priest’s entrance into office, and some when the high priest has been at the very point of death. So that some are deprived of their country for a very long time, and others suffer the same infliction only for a day, if it chance to be so; after which they lift up their heads, and exult, and so return among those whose nearest relations have been slain by them. This difficult and scarcely explicable perplexity we may escape if we adopt the inner and allegorical explanation in accordance with natural philosophy. For we say that the high priest is not a man, but is the Word (Logos) of God, who has not only no participation in intentional errors, but none even in those which are involuntary. – On Flight 106-108

The Word/Logos is the Messiah!

“The head of all things is the eternal Word (Logos) of the eternal God, under which, as if it were his feet or other limbs, is placed the whole world, over which He passes and firmly stands. Now it is not because Messiah is Lord that He passes and sits over the whole world, for His seat with His Father and God but because for its perfect fullness the world is in need of the care and superintendence of the best ordered dispensation, and for its own complete piety, of the Divine Word (Logos), just as living creatures (need) a head, without which it is impossible to live.” – Q&A on Exodus, II, 117

Imagine that all of this was written by a Jew who was unware of the Christian movement growing in Judea, a movement that would uphold essentially the same teachings and promote them worldwide!