What is bereshith?

Who and when was the 'Doctrine of Logos' introduced in Christianity?

That the "Word of God", is a persona or hypostasis of the living God, and yet strangely separate from Him, is an entirely Biblical, and acceptable pre-Christain Jewish concept. Here let me show you! The concept of God's "Word" as a person, or as the temporal expression of the Eternal Godhead, primarily has it's roots in, and develops out of Scripture, and is also present in pre-Christian traditions, and the works, and commentaries of Rabbinical scholarship. From before the time that Y'shua was born, and I can only assume since the time of Ezra and the formation of Synagogue system, the various Rabbis often debated and commented on passages from the Tanakh. The summation of their perspectives and oral commentaries were represented and brought out more clearly in the Targums (100 B.C. to 100 A.D.), and these were considered by many as nearly as authoritative as the Scriptures themselves! Sometimes different Rabbis brought out more subtle shades of meaning, and still others offered more unique renditions, supporting the traditions and teachings of their particular school of thought. Basically though, the Targums were expanded or amplified versions of the Scriptures, written in a Western Aramaic/Hebrew. The early Targums were written by both Babylonian and Jerusalem Rabbis, usually by individual scholars of renowned such as the gentile proselyte Onkelos, and the famed Rabbi Jonathan ben-Uzziel, student, and possibly grandson of the also famous well respected Rabbi Hillel. Many of the renderings of these Aramaic paraphrases helped form the basis of what was later alleged to be the "Oral Torah" of the later Talmudic period. Almost unanimously, in the various Targums, whenever YHVH is personified, or anthropomorphisms are implied in the language, or whenever YHVH is somehow manifest to His chosen recipients or the Scriptures seem to indicate more than one YHVH, the Rabbis referred to this expressed image of God, or appearances of YHVH Himself, as "the Word" (Memra/Logos )! Later, in the New Testament Scriptures, we see this idea of the "visible image of the invisible God" as being applied to Jesus Christ (Messiah), and is emphasized, as we have seen, by the use of two words. One of the two Greek words, interpreted "image" is Karacter, and this literally refers to a die or a seal. From this concept we derive our word Character. It is an outward picture, or sign, that identifies who an important individual actually is in person, role, or status, and such a seal often carried with it a sense of that person's full presence and authority! The second Greek word "Ikon" is alleged to be a true representation of something or someone. In the Targum Jonathan on Genesis 19:24 he writes, "and the Memra (Word) of YHVH caused to descend upon the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the YHVH in heaven". If you compare this passage in the Masoretic or the Septuagint, or even the KJV or NASV, this "Word of YHVH" is referred to as simply "the LORD", yet here He is, sitting with father Abraham in his tent, in the form of a man, in the fields of Mamre, breaking bread. They have just shared bread together, and this YHVH has sent forth the other two "men" who came with Him (actually angels), to perform this historical act of God's judgment. This "Word" was actually believed by the Targumim to be none other than YHVH Himself manifest, and we Christians call this unique person of the Godhead "the Son". The reference to "Son" in the Hebrew refers more to likeness rather than a progressive lineage. So Messiah ben-Yosef is one like unto Joseph, and Messiah ben-David is one like unto David. We Christians simply believe they are the same one who comes twice. Wherever "the Word" is represented in the Tanakh, He is on one hand represented as if He is separate from YHVH in Heaven, yet is also identified as YHVH Himself. The Angel of the LORD who spoke to Moses from within the burning bush, later in the dialogue, identifies Himself as the God "I AM". Now there is only one God (yachid), and that God is the Father. The same one God is also the Son. The same one God is also the Holy Spirit. And from the perspective of these persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one (echad, Unity). Each is referred to as "the Lord" through out the Scripture, which is YHVH. Yet the Sh'ma says "...The LORD is one" (echad)! The word "one" meaning a Unity! On Exodus 24:1, The Targum Jonathan understands the Scripture to be saying, "the Word of YHVH said to Moses, come up to YHVH", and just previously in 20:1, he said, "and the Word of the LORD spoke all these glorious words"! Targum Onkelos renders Genesis 15:6 as, "and Abraham trusted in the Word of YHVH, and He counted it to him for righteousness". The Jerusalem Targum on Genesis 22:14 says, "and Abraham worshipped and prayed in the name of the Word of YHVH (the Memra/Logos) and said, You are the YHVH who does see, but You cannot be seen". In Genesis 16:3 however, he has Hagar praying "in the name of the Word of YHVH", as if God had made Himself seeable, and yet she was not consumed! God Himself is always "the Word", and therefore John the Apostle is in no wise imposing a Greek notion, but rather expressing an entirely acceptable Jewish concept based on Torah, as was then being extrapolated by the best of the best of the Rabbinical commentators of his day, and by this, sending a direct message to the Rabbis of his time, even though he wrote in Greek (see John 1:1). John is saying that "Bereshith (In the Beginning) was the Memra (the Word referred to by all the Targumim), and the Memra was 'face to face' (with) Elohim (God), and was Elohim (God). He is saying that this Messiah, who is Y'shua, is the very Memra referred to in the Targums by the great and wise sages of Judaism from both Jerusalem and Babylonia. No Greek mystery religion or writer would ever make such a claim. Targum Onkelos on Genesis 28 reveals to us that the Memra (the Word) was Jacob's God. The one with whom He wrestled (in the form of a man) about whom He said "I have seen God face to face". In Psalm 62:9 He is David's God as well. Targum Jonathan reveals to us that, "the Memra of YHVH created man in His likeness, in the likeness of YHVH, YHVH created...", and in the Jerusalem Targum the Word is the "I Am" of Exodus 3:14! So the "I Am with you" passages, are all referring to the Word or Memra, i.e., Immanu-El. According to the Targumim, Hosea 1:7 says that God will save the House of Judah by the Word of YHVH. Isaiah 45:17 and 25 also tells us that the true Israel shall be saved by the Word of YHVH, "with an everlasting salvation" (yeshuah), and that "by the Word of YHVH...shall all the offspring of Israel be justified". Finally, the Targums on Genesis 49:18 say that Jacob (Israel) waits for the yeshuah (salvation) that comes through the Memra (the Word of God), and on His yeshuah Jacob's soul hopes. Therefore, wherever God manifests Himself to the people of God, even as the K'vod-YHVH (the Lord of Glory, or the Glory of the Lord) in the Sh'kan (the Shekinah), He is YHVH Himself, and at the same time the Word! Therefore, YHVH is the Word and the Word is YHVH! This is Torah, and the Word is the living Torah! So John is declaring to the Rabbis that Messiah Y'shua is then the ultimate Mish'kan or Tabernacle. He is the ultimate and eternally clarified communication of God to man. The LORD Himself was incarnate in a tabernacle not made with hands in and as the son of David, King of all the Earth who was to first come forth as a man and be rejected and killed. To paraphrase the famous commentator Matthew Henry, just as we use words to explain our mind (will and intent) to others, God chose to make the Son to be the revelation of the Father's mind, regarding humankind dilemma and redemption! Messiah then is God's first Word (and God said), and His final word (the living Teaching), on the subject of God's will and intent. This was a direct threat to the assumed spiritual and political authority, power, and mind-control held by the apostate religious leaders of Y'shua's day, the so-called learned ones. Hey, but what about their sheepskins? To that I say, "too bah-ah-ah-ah-add"!!! * (Parenthesis mine)! Dr. Ron Moseley in his book, Yeshua: a guide to the real Jesus and the original Church (Messianic Jewish Publishers, 1996), lists six attributes of the Memra as the P'rushim or Pharisees would have understood this Shem (Name/Word). 1. The Memra or Word, is YHVH expressed or manifest, yet is distinct in person. At one and the same time that the Word can be a temporal phenomena locally, He totally maintains His attribute of Omnipresence. 2. The Memra is likewise the/an agent of Creation, one of the "us" and "our" of Genesis 1! 3. The Memra (the Word) is the/an agent of salvation. 4. The Memra is the/an agent of theophany or appearances of God to His chosen ones ever since the everlasting past. 5. The Memra is the/an agent of all the covenant agreements throughout the Scriptures. 6. The Memra is the/an ultimate means of illumination and/or revelation from God to man. Dr. Moseley points out that Y'shua of Natzaret, as John presents Him, fulfills all six of these attributes! This fact alone should assure you that the Apostle John had no interest whatsoever in Greek mystery religions as has been perpetrated by these modern wolves with their fancy sheepskins. He was clearly sending this message directly to the Pharisees at the time of the Diaspora, just after the fall of Jerusalem, when the sacrifices had ceased (Daniel 9).