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NESTORIUS : UNDERSTANDING INCARNATION PROF. M. M. NINAN religion, it was not even heard among the extreme monotheistic children of Abraham all over the world.. The belief that Jesus is God, the Son of God, or a person of the Trinity, is incompatible with Jewish theology. For that matter the concept of Trinity - God in three persons - was itself a strange idea to the, That God had an agenda for all the children of idea itself was re-pungent to the elect of YHVH who was understood simply as a tribal God of that region. Jews believe that Jesus did not fulfill messianic prophecies that establish the criteria for the coming of the messiah. Authoritative texts of Judaism reject Jesus as God, Divine Being, intermediary between humans and God, messiah or even as a saint. Belief in the Trinity is also held to be incompatible with Judaism, as are a number of other tenets of Christianity. Disputation between Christian and Jewish scholars Woodcut carved by Johann von Armssheim (1483). But how did the concept of incarnation came about? At that time of history a semblance of incarnation was only taught in the Greco-Roman religions. In those myths gods were just another class of beings in the universe. So were the gods of Vedas of the Aryans. In fact we do not have any form of incarnation of God in any religion except in Christianity at anytime in the history of mankind. Hence it must have originated from the teachings of Jesus and the susequent experience of the disciples of Jesus in the final triumph of resurrection. But Resurrection was a personal experience of the disciples of Jesus and evidently the Jews did not accept it by hearsay. If we find Christology in terms of Hellenism and its philosophy it should be expected since, the early Christian writings were directed to the Greco-Roman culture and to the gentiles and not to the Jews. Jews could assign the Man Jesus a status of Messaiah, but that need not in necessarily connect him to God except as an annointed man chosen for a particular job in Jewish history. So who is Jesus? For the Christian, the doctrine of the incarnation affords Jesus, to stand apart from any other founder of a world religion. Incarnation as a concept was new to the world. The concept of incarnation - God coming into the world as a human - was essentially Apostle John’s declaration. He used the Greek concept of Logos. 11
NESTORIUS : UNDERSTANDING INCARNATION PROF. M. M. NINAN Logos (Ancient Greek: λόγος, from λέγω lego "I say") is a term in western philosophy, psychology, rhetoric, and religion derived from a Greek word meaning "ground", "plea", "opinion", "expectation", "word", "speech", "account", "reason", "proportion", "discourse" The Stoic philosophers identified the term with the divine animating principle pervading the Universe. Under Hellenistic Judaism, Philo (c. 20 BCE – 50 CE) adopted the term into Jewish philosophy. The Gospel of John identifies the Logos, through which all things are made, as divine (theos), and further identifies Jesus Christ as the incarnate Logos. Although the term "Logos" is widely used in this Christian sense, in academic circles it often refers to the various ancient Greek uses, or to post-Christian uses within contemporary philosophy, Sufism, and the analytical psychology of Carl Jung. It is the purposeful desire leading to logical creative ends. Logos in itself therefore is really part of the humans as the ultimate spirit within man as against all other living forms. This of course is attributed to the breath of God in the creation of Adam. Yet “Logos” is not necessarily spoken word, it is the spirit of God desiring. It is part of the essence of God. It does not depend on the sound which needs air for transmission. The creative power was breathed into man so that man can be co-creators with God . This power is in the spoken word or unspoken prayers enhanced by agreement of several believers. It is still in the ‘mouth’ of every believer. It can still be tested by anyone and they can behold His glory and come to faith. Taken alone without even the assumption of God leads you to the christian science church. Theologian Frank Stagg (Frank Stagg, New Testament Theology, Broadman, 1962. )writes: As the Logos, Jesus Christ is God in self-revelation (Light) and redemption (Life). He is God to the extent that he can be present to man and knowable to man. The Logos is God,[Jn 1:1] ... Yet the Logos is in some sense distinguishable from God, for "the Logos was with God".[Jn 1:1] God and the Logos are not two beings, and yet they are also not simply identical. ... The Logos is God active in creation, revelation, and redemption. Since it was new to the world the process of incarnation is still a mystery. We are still processing the idea. It is no wonder early saints had a painful time to make sense out of it. Even when they came to some consensus it was apparent that all parties involved were at least partially right. It was an open collective thinking process The disagreement was itself the conclusion. 12
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