The "Word of God" or the "Word of the LORD" in pre-Christian Judaism was the Hebrew/Aramaic word "Memra" which means "a manifestation of" or hypostasis if said in the Greek.
Therefore, and I will give some examples, the Jewish Rabbis had a tradition of understanding the Scriptures which defined that aspect of YHVH which we could see or hear (or had ever been seen or heard) as the "Word" or Memra (in Greek the Logos was the closest term which could be used to describe this). So when John uses the Logos to describe the Son he was not saying this was this principle of Greek philosophy or part of the Greek Mystery religions, he was saying Christ was this "Memra" spoken of by the Rabbis. John was sending a direct message to the diaspora Jews.
IN the 1st and 2nd centuries the Rabbis decided to write down an assessment of their understanding (the culmination of their traditional interpretation) in Aramaic. These are called the Targums. Here are some examples...
The Targum Neofiti, and the Targum of Jonathan ben-Uzziel, both reflect the most widely accepted, pre-Christian, Rabbinical understanding of Scripture, so I felt it appropriate to start with those examples:
Neofiti says, And the Word (Memra) of the LORD created man in His likeness. (parentheses mine).
Jonathan interprets it even further when he declares, And the Word of YHVH created man in His Likeness, in the likeness of YHVH, YHVH created
! So not only did they see the Word as being Elohim, but also as YHVH. Now this remains consistent as the respected belief even after the Yshua events as you will see
Targum Onkelos on Deuteronomy 33:27 as and by His Memra (Word) was the world created!
And finally, the Jerusalem Targum on Exodus 3 has the Word of the LORD (YHVH) tell Moses, I Am He who said to the world be and it was
!
In the Targum Jonathan on Genesis 19:24 Jonathan writes, and the Memra (Word) of YHVH caused to descend upon the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the YHVH in heaven. If you compare this passage in the Masoretic or the Septuagint, or even the KJV or NASV, this Word of YHVH is referred here as the LORD (YHVH), yet here He is, sitting with father Abraham in his tent, in the form of a man, in the fields of Mamre, breaking bread. They have just shared bread together, and this YHVH has sent forth the other two "men" (actually angels) who came with Him, to perform this historical act of Gods judgment. (Parenthesis mine)
These are only a few examples but there are many, so for further study google "The Memra"...for even the early Jewish Rabbis understood this being as one Who was YHVH manifest (God with us).
Targum Onkelos on Genesis 28 reveals to us that the Memra (the Word) was Jacobs God. The one with whom He wrestled (in the form of a man) and about whom he said "I have seen God face to face. In Psalm 62:9 He is Davids God as well. Targum Jonathan says the Memra of YHVH created man in His likeness, in the likeness of YHVH, YHVH created.... In the Jerusalem Targum the Word is the I Am of Exodus 3:14! If the Targumim were correct then all the I Am with you passages are referring to the Word or Memra, thus Immanu-El.
According to the Targumim, Hosea 1:7 says that God will save the House of Judah by the Word of YHVH and Isaiah 45:17 and 25 also tells us that the true Israel shall be saved by the Word of YHVH, with an everlasting salvation (yeshuah), and that by the Word of YHVH...shall all the offspring of Israel be justified. Who with even a vestige of intellectual integrity can deny such a witness?
Finally, the Targums on Genesis 49:18 say that Jacob (Israel) waits for the yeshuah (salvation) that comes through the Memra (the Word of God), and on His yeshuah Jacobs soul hopes. Wow! Behold the Lamb! Therefore, wherever God manifests Himself to the people of God, even as the Kvod-YHVH (the Lord of Glory, or the Glory of the Lord) in the Shkan (the Shekinah). He is YHVH Himself, and at the same time He is the Word! Therefore, YHVH is the Word and the Word is YHVH! This is the written Torah that the Word is the living Torah!
So John is declaring to the Rabbis that Messiah Y'shua is the ultimate Mishkan or Tabernacle. He is the ultimate and eternally clarified communication of God to man. The LORD Himself was incarnate in a tabernacle not made with hands and as the son of David, He is King of all the Earth who was to first come forth as a man and be rejected and killed who will return at the appropriate time to judge the quick and the dead.
In His love
Paul
