From Metaphor to Incarnation: Johannine Variations on the Ancient Topos of the Logos as a Living Body

The metaphor of the body is one of the most widely used by ancient Greek and Latin authors to reflect on their theoretical and creative practices, becoming a well-established topos. In the works of Plato and Aristotle, this topos associates the “logos” – understood as speech or narrative – with the “sôma”, the body, of a “zôon”, a living being. In the opening of the Fourth Gospel, however, the Logos – divine speech, narration of the Father – literally becomes an “ánthrôpos”, a human being, embodied in the living body of Jesus. This study explores how the johannine variations on this ancient topos are likely to have profoundly influenced the conception of his gospel. Does his reinterpretation frame the incarnation as both a theological and poetic proposition? How does the fleshly body of the incarnate Logos relate to the textual body of the written logos?