Table of Contents
"The
Word," in the sense of the creative or directive word or speech of God
manifesting His power in the world of matter or mind; a term used especially in
the Targum as a substitute for "the Lord" when an anthropomorphic
expression is to be avoided.
—Biblical
Data:
In Scripture
"the word of the Lord" commonly denotes the speech addressed to
patriarch or prophet (Gen. xv. 1; Num. xii. 6, xxiii. 5; I Sam. iii. 21; Amos
v. 1-8); but frequently it denotes also the creative word: "By the word of
the Lord were the heavens made" (Ps. xxxiii. 6; comp. "For He spake, and it was done"; "He sendeth
his word, and melteth them [the ice]";
"Fire and hail; snow, and vapors; stormy wind fulfilling his word";
Ps. xxxiii. 9, cxlvii. 18, cxlviii. 8). In this sense it is said, "For
ever, O Lord, thy word is settled in heaven" (Ps. cxix. 89). "The
Word," heard and announced by the prophet, often became, in the conception
of the seer, an efficacious power apart from God, as was the angel or messenger
of God: "The Lord sent a word into Jacob, and it hath lighted upon Israel"
(Isa. ix. 7 [A. V. 8], lv. 11); "He sent his word, and healed them"
(Ps. cvii. 20); and comp. "his word runneth very
swiftly" (Ps. cxlvii. 15).
Personification
of the Word.—In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature:
While in the Book
of Jubilees, xii. 22, the word of God is sent through the angel to Abraham, in
other cases it becomes more and more a personified agency: "By the word of
God exist His works" (Ecclus. [Sirach] xlii.
15); "The Holy One, blessed be He, created the world by the 'Ma'amar'" (Mek., Beshallaḥ, 10, with
reference to Ps. xxxiii. 6). Quite frequent is the expression, especially in
the liturgy, "Thou who hast made the universe with Thy word and ordained
man through Thy wisdom to rule over the creatures made by Thee" (Wisdom
ix. 1; comp. "Who by Thy words causest the
evenings to bring darkness, who openest the gates of
the sky by Thy wisdom"; . . . "who by His speech created the heavens,
and by the breath of His mouth all their hosts"; through whose "words
all things were created"; see Singer's "Daily Prayer-Book," pp.
96, 290, 292). So also in IV Esdras vi. 38
("Lord, Thou spakest on the first day of
Creation: 'Let there be heaven and earth,' and Thy word hath accomplished the
work"). "Thy word, O Lord, healeth all
things" (Wisdom xvi. 12); "Thy word preserveth
them that put their trust in Thee" (l.c.
xvi. 26). Especially strong is the personification of the word in Wisdom xviii.
15: "Thine Almighty Word leaped down from heaven out of Thy royal throne
as a fierce man of war." The Mishnah, with reference to the ten passages
in Genesis (ch. i.)
beginning with "And God said," speaks of the ten "ma'amarot" (= "speeches") by which the world
was created (Abot v. 1; comp. Gen. R. iv. 2:
"The upper heavens are held in suspense by the creative Ma'amar"). Out of every speech ["dibbur"] which emanated from God an angel was created
(Ḥag. 14a). "The Word ["dibbur"] called none but Moses" (Lev. R. i. 4, 5). "The Word ["dibbur"]
went forth from the right hand of God and made a circuit around the camp of
Israel" (Cant. R. i. 13).
—In
the Targum:
In the Targum the
Memra figures constantly as the manifestation of the divinepower,
or as God's messenger in place of God Himself, wherever the predicate is not in
conformity with the dignity or the spirituality of the Deity.
Instead of the
Scriptural "You have not believed in the Lord," Targ.
Deut. i. 32 has "You have not believed in the
word of the Lord"; instead of "I shall require it [vengeance] from
him," Targ. Deut. xviii. 19 has "My word
shall require it." "The Memra," instead of "the Lord,"
is "the consuming fire" (Targ. Deut. ix. 3;
comp. Targ. Isa. xxx. 27). The Memra "plagued
the people" (Targ. Yer.
to Ex. xxxii. 35). "The Memra smote him" (II
Sam. vi. 7; comp. Targ. I Kings xviii.
24; Hos. xiii. 14; et al.). Not "God," but "the
Memra," is met with in Targ. Ex. xix. 17 (Targ. Yer. "the Shekinah"; comp. Targ.
Ex. xxv. 22: "I will order My Memra to be there"). "I will cover
thee with My Memra," instead of "My hand" (Targ.
Ex. xxxiii. 22). Instead of "My soul," "My Memra shall reject
you" (Targ. Lev. xxvi. 30; comp. Isa. i. 14, xlii. 1; Jer. vi. 8; Ezek.
xxiii. 18). "The voice of the Memra," instead of "God," is
heard (Gen. iii. 8; Deut. iv. 33, 36; v. 21; Isa. vi.
8; et al.). Where Moses says, "I stood between the Lord and
you" (Deut. v. 5), the Targum has, "between the Memra of the Lord and
you"; and the "sign between Me and you"
becomes a "sign between My Memra and you" (Ex. xxxi. 13, 17; comp.
Lev. xxvi. 46; Gen. ix. 12; xvii. 2, 7, 10; Ezek. xx. 12). Instead of God, the
Memra comes to Abimelek (Gen. xx.
3), and to Balaam (Num. xxiii. 4). His Memra aids and accompanies Israel,
performing wonders for them (Targ. Num. xxiii. 21;
Deut. i. 30, xxxiii. 3; Targ.
Isa. lxiii. 14; Jer. xxxi. 1; Hos. ix. 10 [comp. xi. 3, "the
messenger-angel"]). The Memra goes before Cyrus (Isa. xlv. 12). The Lord
swears by His Memra (Gen. xxi. 23, xxii. 16, xxiv. 3;
Ex. xxxii. 13; Num. xiv. 30; Isa. xlv. 23; Ezek. xx. 5; et al.). It is
His Memra that repents (Targ. Gen. vi.
6, viii. 21; I Sam. xv. 11, 35). Not His "hand," but His "Memra
has laid the foundation of the earth" (Targ.
Isa. xlviii. 13); for His Memra's or Name's sake does
He act (l.c. xlviii. 11; II Kings xix.
34). Through the Memra God turns to His people (Targ.
Lev. xxvi. 90; II Kings xiii. 23), becomes the shield of Abraham (Gen. xv. 1), and is with Moses (Ex. iii. 12; iv. 12, 15) and with
Israel (Targ. Yer. to Num. x. 35, 36; Isa. lxiii. 14). It is the Memra, not God
Himself, against whom man offends (Ex. xvi. 8; Num. xiv. 5; I Kings viii. 50;
II Kings xix. 28; Isa. i. 2, 16; xlv. 3, 20; Hos. v.
7, vi. 7; Targ. Yer. to Lev. v. 21, vi. 2; Deut. v. 11); through His Memra Israel
shall be justified (Targ. Isa. xlv. 25); with the
Memra Israel stands in communion (Targ. Josh. xxii. 24,
27); in the Memra man puts his trust (Targ. Gen. xv. 6; Targ. Yer.
to Ex. xiv. 31; Jer. xxxix. 18, xlix. 11).
Mediatorship.
Like the Shekinah
(comp. Targ. Num. xxiii. 21), the Memra is
accordingly the manifestation of God. "The Memra brings Israel nigh unto
God and sits on His throne receiving the prayers of Israel" (Targ. Yer. to
Deut. iv. 7). It shielded Noah from the flood (Targ. Yer. to Gen. vii. 16) and brought about the dispersion of the seventy nations (l.c.
xi. 8); it is the guardian of Jacob (Gen. xxviii. 20-21, xxxv. 3) and of Israel
(Targ. Yer. to Ex. xii. 23, 29); it works all the wonders in Egypt (l.c. xiii. 8, xiv. 25); hardens the heart of
Pharaoh (l.c. xiii. 15); goes before Israel in the wilderness (Targ. Yer. to
Ex. xx. 1); blesses Israel (Targ. Yer.
to Num. xxiii. 8); battles for the people (Targ. Josh. iii. 7, x. 14, xxiii. 3). As
in ruling over the destiny of man the Memra is the agent of God (Targ. Yer. to
Num. xxvii. 16), so also is it in the creation of the earth (Isa. xlv. 12) and in
the execution of justice (Targ. Yer.
to Num. xxxiii. 4). So, in
the future, shall the Memra be the comforter (Targ.
Isa. lxvi. 13): "My Shekinah I shall put among you, My Memra shall be unto
you for a redeeming deity, and you shall be unto My Name a holy people" (Targ. Yer. to
Lev. xxii. 12). "My Memra shall be unto you like a good plowman who takes
off the yoke from the shoulder of the oxen"; "the Memra will roar to
gather the exiled" (Targ. Hos. xi. 5, 10). The
Memra is "the witness" (Targ. Yer. xxix. 23); it will be to Israel like a father (l.c. xxxi. 9) and "will rejoice over them
to do them good" (l.c. xxxii. 41). "In the Memra the
redemption will be found" (Targ. Zech. xii. 5).
"The holy Word" was the subject of the hymns of Job (Test. of Job,
xii. 3, ed. Kohler).
The
Logos.
It is difficult to
say how far the rabbinical concept of the Memra, which is used now as a
parallel to the divine Wisdom and again as a parallel to the Shekinah, had come
under the influence of the Greek term "Logos," which denotes both
word and reason, and, perhaps owing to Egyptian mythological notions, assumed
in the philosophical system of Heraclitos, of Plato,
and of the Stoa the metaphysical meaning of
world-constructive and world-permeating intelligence (see Reizenstein, "Zwei Religionsgeschichtliche Fragen," 1901, pp. 83-111; comp. Aall,
"Der Logos," and the Logos literature given by Schürer,
"Gesch." i. 3,
542-544). The Memra as a cosmic power furnished Philo the corner-stone upon
which he built his peculiar semi-Jewish philosophy. Philo's "divine
thought," "the image" and "first-born son" of God,
"the archpriest," "intercessor," and "paraclete" of humanity, the "arch type of
man" (see Philo),
paved the way for the Christian conceptions of the Incarnation ("the Word
become flesh") and the Trinity. The Word which "the unoriginated
Father created in His own likeness as a manifestation of His own power"
appears in the Gnostic system of Marcus (Irenæus,
"Adversus Hæreses,"
i. 14). In the ancient Church liturgy, adopted from
the Synagogue, it is especially interesting to notice how often the term
"Logos," in the sense of "the Word by which God made the world,
or made His Law or Himself known to man," was changed into
"Christ" (see "Apostolic Constitutions," vii. 25-26, 34-38,
et al.). Possibly on account of the Christian dogma, rabbinic theology,
outside of the Targum literature, made little use of the term
"Memra." See Logos.
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