Theos-Talk Archives (October 1996 Message tl00127)

In message <9610082158.AA24073@toto.csustan.edu>, Jerry Hejka-Ekins
<jhe@toto.csustan.edu> writes
>JHE
>Yes, John 1:1-14 is a very profound passage.  I quote it often in
>our Theosophical study groups, and require them to read the
>entire Gospel according to John.  But this passage means one
>thing to a Christian, and a very different thing to a student of
>Theosophy.  By the way, "Word" is translated from Greek "Logos,"
>is very clearly a Greek philosophical argument.  If John had
>actually written this, what word would he have used for logos?
>Maybe in another discussion we can get into the meanings here.

Alan (poking nose in):

In Kabbalist groups I have run, I too have placed importance on John
1:1, but rendered it as I think the author of John *might* have intended
it, assuming a Greek provenance, "In the beginning was the teaching."

For "word" the Aramaic Peshitta text has "Miltha" which is the
equivalent of the Hebrew "Dbr".  The Aramaic has "Alha" (fem. sing.) for
"God" while the Hebrew translation therefrom has "Alhim" (masc. plur.)

George Lamsa's rendering from the Peshitta reads:

"The Word was in the beginning, and that very Word was with God, and God
was that Word."

The Capitalisation is Lamsa's, as Aramaic a) has no capital letters, b)
has only capital letters - but not both.

(Might mean something useful to someone)

Alan :-|
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