耶穌為什麼是神的「道」？Why Is Jesus the Word?
作者：Michael S. Heiser 譯者: 駱鴻銘
「太初有道，道與神同在，道就是神。」約翰福音一章1節是聖經中最為人所熟悉的經文之一。我們知道「道」（the
Word）所指的就是耶穌（約一14），但約翰在哪裏得到「道」可以指上帝是一個位格的觀念呢？
“In
the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
John 1:1 is, by far, one of the most familiar verses in the Bible. We know “the
Word” speaks of Jesus (John 1:14), but where did John get the idea that “the
Word” could refer to God as a person?
答案部分涉及到約翰使用的聖經譯本。雖然約翰在提到「道」時，使用了希臘語單詞 logos（λόγος），但他本人正在引用舊約亞蘭文的翻譯。在耶穌時代，亞蘭文是猶太人的母語。
Part
of the answer concerns the translation John used. While John used the Greek
word logos (λόγος) when referring to “the
Word,” he himself was drawing on Aramaic translations of the Old Testament. In
Jesus’ day, Aramaic was the native language of the Jewish people.
雖然舊約從希伯來文被翻譯成希臘文，即更廣泛的外邦世界的語言，但它也被翻譯成亞蘭文。這些亞蘭文翻譯被稱為「他爾根譯本」（Targums）。妥拉（Torah）的一個特定他爾根譯本，Targum Onkelos，被猶太教當局批准用於猶太會堂。
While
the Old Testament was translated from Hebrew into Greek, the language of the
wider Gentile world, it was also translated into Aramaic. These Aramaic
translations are called Targums. One specific Targum of the Torah, Targum
Onkelos, was sanctioned by Jewish religious authorities for use in the
synagogue.
他爾根譯本在很多地方都將上帝這個概念稱為「道」（話）——以生動的，有時令人吃驚的方式。約翰時代的許多猶太人都熟悉這個概念。亞蘭文中的「道」，即memra，經常被用來作指代上帝的另一種方式。考慮民數記十四章11節，請注意底下劃線（[]）和粗體（* *）的部分：
The
Targums telegraph the idea of God as “Word” in many places—in vivid, sometimes
startling ways. Many Jews of John’s day would have been familiar with the idea.
The Aramaic term for “word,” memra, was often used as another way to refer to God.
Consider Numbers 14:11, noting the underlined and bold portions:
耶和華對摩西說：「這百姓藐視*我*要到幾時呢？我在他們中間行了這一切[神蹟]，[他們還不信]*我*要到幾時呢？」
And
the Lord said to Moses, “How long will this people despise me? And how long
will they not believe in me, in spite of all the signs that I have done among
them?”
他爾根譯本（Neofiti）將舊約聖經的部分內容翻譯如下：
The
Targum (Neofiti) renders part of this Old Testament verse as follows:
「*我*在他們中間行了這一切[神蹟]，他們奉*我話*（my Word）的名[還要不信]我到幾時呢？
“How long will they not believe in the name of
my Word in spite of all the signs of my miracles which I have performed?”
在他爾根譯本的翻譯中，耶和華用亞蘭文memra 稱自己為「我的話」。
In
the Targum rendering, the Lord refers to Himself as “my Word,” using the
Aramaic term memra.
在約翰福音一章14節中，約翰稱耶穌為「道成了肉身」，指的便是民數記十四章11節。他之所以這樣做，是因為他在猶太會堂裏多次聽到的翻譯告訴他，上帝就是「道」—— memra ——而他相信耶穌就是上帝。約翰後來甚至回應了民數記一章14節的他爾根譯本：
John
calls Jesus “the Word made flesh” in John 1:14, referring to Numbers 14:11. He
does this because the translations he had heard so many times in the synagogue
had taught him that God was the Word—the memra—and he believed Jesus was God.
John even echoes the Targum rendering of Numbers 1:14 later on:
耶穌說了這話，就離開他們隱藏了。*祂*雖然在他們面前行了許多神蹟，他們[還是不信]*祂*。（約十二36～37）
When
Jesus had said these things, he departed and hid himself from them. Though he
had done so many signs before them, they still did not believe in him (John
12:36–37).
Memra在亞蘭文的他爾根譯本中，被用來形容上帝超過600次，通常是在亞蘭文中假設上帝以實體的、人類的樣式出現的段落：
Memra
is used more than 600 times in the Aramaic Targums to describe God, often in
passages where the language presumes God is present in physical, human form:
那人和他妻子聽見耶和華的memra在園中行走......（創三8）。
And
they heard the sound of the memra of the Lord God walking in the garden … (Gen
3:8).
由於他爾根譯本，耶穌和約翰時代的猶太人可以理解這個概念，即上帝可以用人的樣式來到他們身邊。約翰相信這正是他和門徒在耶穌身上所見證的，所以他很自然地將耶穌稱為「道」。約翰用希臘語寫了他的福音書，但他的神學是猶太人的神學，通過亞蘭文傳達給他。因此，猶太人和非猶太人都明確地認識到這點：舊約的「道」已成了肉身（約一14）並住在我們中間。
Because
of the Targums, Jews in the days of Jesus and John would have understood the
notion that God could come to them in human form. John believed that was
exactly what he and the disciples had witnessed in Jesus, so it was natural for
him to refer to Jesus as the Word. John wrote his Gospel in Greek, but his
theology was Jewish, conveyed to him through Aramaic. Therefore, both Jews and
non-Jewish people got the point in unmistakable terms: The Word of the Old
Testament had been made flesh (John 1:14) and walked among us.