El logos y la creación. La referencia al logos en el `principio´ de Gen 1,1 según Filón de Alejandría

Abstract

Although in his book De Opificio Mundi Philo does not interpret the word «beginning» as found in Gen 1,1 as being referred to the Logos, there are nontheless sufficient indications in his writings to show that he did indeed understand it thus: «In the Logos God made heaven and earth». First of all, the Logos with respect to the creation of the world plays the instrumental function of being the «place» of the intelligible world; that is, it is the Divine Understanding who, like an architect, thinks of the ideas relating fo the sensible world. Or else, using another metaphor, it is the maternal womb in which the world is conceived. In this sense Philo relates Prov 8,22ss with the Logos and with the beginning of creation. Second, one of the names which the Logos receives is that of «beginning» which means the Eternal Law of the creation and the exemplary cause of all things. Now then, this denomination is based upon Gen 1,1. Lastly, Philo very frequently calls the Logos «archetype» because it is the seal with which God gives form to the world, reproducing ideas. This name is united to that of «beginning» and determines the mode in which the Logos exercises exemplary causality. This interpretation is not an entirely original discovery restricted to Philo since already in same Jewish targumin and in medrashistic commentaries the «beginning» of creation is related with Wisdom. However Philo introduces the word Logos, thus trying to express his flaith by means of the philosophical language of his time. Many primitive ecclesiastical writers would later on carry out a similar exegesis referring themselves to the Word in the Christian sense.