B. Passages relating to the Angel of Jehovah.
(a) The angel of Jehovah identifies himself with Jehovah; (b) he is identified with Jehovah by others; (c) he accepts worship due only to God. Though the phrase “angel of Jehovah” is sometimes used in the later Scriptures to denote a merely human messenger or created angel, it seems in the Old Testament, with hardly more than a single exception, to designate the pre-incarnate Logos, whose manifestations in angelic or human form foreshadowed his final coming in the flesh.
(a) Gen. 22:11, 16—“the angel of Jehovah called unto him [Abraham, when about to sacrifice Isaac] ... By myself have I sworn, saith Jehovah”; 31:11, 13—“the angel of God said unto me [Jacob] ... I am the God of Beth-el.” (b) Gen. 16:9, 13—“angel of Jehovah said unto her ... and she called the name of Jehovah that spake unto her, Thou art a God that seeth”; 48:15, 16—“the God who hath fed me ... the angel who hath redeemed me.” (c) Ex. 3:2, 4, 5—“the angel of Jehovah appeared unto him ... God called unto him out of the midst of the bush ... put off thy shoes from off thy feet”; Judges 13:20-22—“angel of Jehovah ascended.... Manoah and his wife ... fell on their faces ... Manoah said ... We shall surely die, because we have seen God.”
The “angel of the Lord” appears to be a human messenger in Haggai 1:13—“Haggai, Jehovah's messenger”; a created angel in Mat. 1:20—“an angel of the Lord [called Gabriel] appeared unto” Joseph; in Acts 3:26—“an angel of the Lord spake unto Philip”; and in 12:7—“an angel of the Lord stood by him”(Peter). But commonly, in the O.T., the “angel of Jehovah” is a theophany, a self-manifestation of God. The only distinction is that between Jehovah in himself and Jehovah in manifestation. The appearances of “the angel of Jehovah” seem to be preliminary manifestations of the divine Logos, as in Gen. 18:2, 13—“three men stood over against him [Abraham] ... And Jehovah said unto Abraham”; Dan. 3:25, 28—“the aspect of the fourth is like a son of the gods.... Blessed be the God ... who hath sent his angel.” The N.T. “angel of the Lord” does not permit, the O.T. “angel of the Lord” requires, worship (Rev. 22:8, 9—“See thou do it not”; cf. Ex. 3:5—“put off thy shoes”). As supporting this interpretation, see Hengstenberg, Christology, 1:107-123; J. Pye Smith, [pg 320]Scripture Testimony to the Messiah. As opposing it, see Hofmann, Schriftbeweis, 1:329, 378; Kurtz, History of Old Covenant, 1:181. On the whole subject, see Bib. Sac., 1879:593-615.
C. Descriptions of the divine Wisdom and Word.
(a) Wisdom is represented as distinct from God, and as eternally existing with God; (b) the Word of God is distinguished from God, as executor of his will from everlasting.
(a) Prov. 8:1—“Doth not wisdom cry?” Cf. Mat. 11:19—“wisdom is justified by her works”; Luke 7:35—“wisdom is justified of all her children”; 11:49—“Therefore also said the wisdom of God, I will send unto them prophets and apostles”; Prov. 8:22, 30, 31—“Jehovah possessed me in the beginning of his way, Before his works of old.... I was by him, as a master workman: And I was daily his delight.... And my delight was with the sons of men”; cf. 3:19—“Jehovah by wisdom founded the earth,” and Heb. 1:2—“his Son ... through whom ... he made the worlds.” (b) Ps. 107:20—“He sendeth his word, and healeth them”; 119:89—“For ever, O Jehovah, Thy word is settled in heaven”; 147:15-18—“He sendeth out his commandment.... He sendeth out his word.”
In the Apocryphal book entitled Wisdom, 7:26, 28, wisdom is described as “the brightness of the eternal light,” “the unspotted mirror of God's majesty,” and “the image of his goodness”—reminding us of Heb. 1:3—“the effulgence of his glory, and the very image of his substance.” In Wisdom, 9:9, 10, wisdom is represented as being present with God when he made the world, and the author of the book prays that wisdom may be sent to him out of God's holy heavens and from the throne of his glory. In 1 Esdras 4:35-38, Truth in a similar way is spoken of as personal: “Great is the Truth and stronger than all things. All the earth calleth upon the Truth, and the heaven blesseth it; all works shake and tremble at it, and with it is no unrighteous thing. As for the Truth, it endureth and is always strong; it liveth and conquereth forevermore.”
It must be acknowledged that in none of these descriptions is the idea of personality clearly developed. Still less is it true that John the apostle derived his doctrine of the Logos from the interpretations of these descriptions in Philo Judæus. John's doctrine (John 1:1-18) is radically different from the Alexandrian Logos-idea of Philo. This last is a Platonizing speculation upon the mediating principle between God and the world. Philo seems at times to verge towards a recognition of personality in the Logos, though his monotheistic scruples lead him at other times to take back what he has given, and to describe the Logos either as the thought of God or as its expression in the world. But John is the first to present to us a consistent view of this personality, to identify the Logos with the Messiah, and to distinguish the Word from the Spirit of God.