LIFE THROUGH HIS NAME

simply a statement with which he expected most of his hearers to be in

agreement. After the prologue of 1:1-18, the title Logos is never again

used of Christ, the whole object of the Gospel being to prove that the

Messiah, the Son of God, fulfils all and more than all that the ancient

philosophers, or the writers of the Hebrew Wisdom literature, ever

We referred above to Paul's attitude at Athens, which is actually

recorded, as an illustration of what was probably John's attitude at

Ephesus, which is left to be inferred. Let us now acquaint ourselves a

little further with the position at Athens. The philosopher Chrysiphus

had said that God pervades all nature and that He has many names to

match His operations.

`They all call him Dia, "through" whom are all things, and they call

him Zeus, inasmuch as he is the cause of "life"` (Diog. Laert vii.

According to Chrysiphus, Zeus is the Logos that regulates (dioikeo)

all things, and is the soul of the world.

On another occasion, when Paul stood before a group of Pharisees

and Sadducees, we find that he seized the opportunity presented by

their mutual antagonism to gain the ear of the Pharisees in the matter

of the resurrection.  So here, at Athens, before the Stoics and

Epicureans, he seizes upon their distinctive tenets and shows how they

meet in the person of Christ. Knowing the sayings that were current

among them, he refers to the fact that `we are also His offspring', and

also that He is not `like unto gold, or silver, or stone, graven by art and

man's device'. He teaches the Divine transcendence (the Epicurean

position): `Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though He

needeth anything', but he also teaches the Divine immanence (the Stoic

position) by adding: `If haply they should feel after Him ... for in Him

we live, and move, and have our being'. And then, when both parties

begin to realize that Paul has taken hold of both their conflicting

positions, he brings these opposite views into synthesis by focussing

their attention upon the `Man' that has been ordained (Acts 17:31).

Paul does not necessarily endorse the somewhat popular etymology of

Chrysiphus. Dia and Dion need not necessarily be derived from dia

`through', and there are other possible origins of Zeus besides zoe

`life'; nevertheless the idea was sufficient for the apostle to use as a

starting-point from which to direct the attention of his hearers to the