Texts in Conversation
Philo describes God’s Word as a sword that divides creation into balanced opposites. Hebrews uses similar language, closer to Philo rather than the Hebrew Bible’s more common “sword of judgment.”
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2500 BCE
1000+ CE
Philo Who is the Heir of Divine Things 130
Classical
Again, of the mortals he made two divisions, one of which he called men, and the other women; and, in the same manner, he divided the irrational animals into male and female. And these things were also subjected to other necessary divisions, which made distinctions between them; winged animals being distinguished from terrestrial, terrestrial from aquatic creatures, and aquatic creatures, again, from both extremities. Thus God, having sharpened his own word, the divider of all things, divides the essence of the universe which is destitute of form, and destitute of all distinctive qualities, and the four elements of the world which were separated from this essence, and the plants and animals which were consolidated by means of these elements.
Date: 20-50 C.E. (based on scholarly estimates)
Hebrews 4:12
New Testament
11 Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. 12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart. 13 And no creature is hidden from God, but everything is naked and exposed to the eyes of him to whom we must render an account.
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Notes and References
... The tradition on which it is based is anchored in the Old Testament and familiar in contemporary Judaism and early Christianity. A complex combination of these metaphors is found in Wisdom of Solomon 18:14-16 where the word of God is personified as a warrior who bears the sharp sword of God's decrees of judgment upon the Egyptians at the exodus. Philo knows this traditional imagery and exploits it in his own characteristic ways, particularly by finding an allegorical reference to his complex notion of the Logos in various biblical swords. Finally, in interpreting the sacrifice between the pieces of Genesis 15:10, Philo introduces the image of the ‘severing Logos’ (logos tomeus), the cosmic principle that created a harmoniously balanced universe, intelligible to the human reason that exercises the analytical process of dichotomous division (compare Who is the Heir of Divine Things 130-32, 225, 234-36) ...
* The use of references are not endorsements of their contents. Please read the entirety of the provided reference(s) to understand the author's full intentions regarding the use of these texts.
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