MEMRA. This Word is often found in the Chaldee Paraphrases of the Books of Moses. It signifies the Word, and it is pretended, that under this Term the Authors of those Paraphrases would intimate the Son of God, the second Person of the Trinity. Now their Testimony is so much the more considerable, as having lived before Jesus Christ, or at the Time of Jesus Christ, they are irrefragable Witnesses of the Sentiments of their Nation concerning this Article, since their Targum or Explication has always been, and still is, in universal Esteem among the Jews. In the greatest Part of the Passages where the sacred Name of Jehovah is to be found, the Paraphrasts have there substituted the Word Memra, which signifies the Word, and which differs from Pitgama, which in Chaldee signifies Discourse. And as they ascribe to Memra all the Attributes of the Deity, ‘tis concluded from thence, that they believed the Divinity of the Word.
In Effect, ‘twas Memra that created the World. ‘Twas the same that appeared to Abraham in the Plain of Mamre, and to Jacob on the Top of Bethel. ‘Twas the same whom Jacob appealed to as a Witness of the Covenant made between him and Laban. Let the Word see between thee and me. ‘Twas the same Word that appeared to Moses at the Foot of Sinai, and that gave the Law to the Israelites, that spoke Face to Face with this Lawgiver, that marched at the Head of this People, and made them conquer Nations, and was a revenging and consuming Fire for all those that violated the Law of the Lord. All these Characters, where the Paraphrast makes Use of the Word Memra, clearly mark out the Almighty God. This Word therefore was God, and the Hebrews were of this Opinion, at the Time that the Targum was composed.
This Memra answers to the Cachema, or to the Wisdom mentioned by Solomon, in the Book of Proverbs, and by Jesus the Son of Sirach in his Book called Ecclesiasticus. And Prov. iii. 9, 20. viii. 11, 12, &c. Eccl. i, ii, iii, &c.to the Almighty Word, omnipotens sermo1Wisd. xviii. 15. Wisd. xvi. 26.tuus, of the Book of Wisdom ; and again, That thy Children, O Lord, whom thou lovest might know, that it is not the growing of Fruits that nourisheth Man, but that it is thy Word which preserveth them that put their Trust in thee. And the Logos, the Word of which Philo speaks in so many Places2, and the same Logos, the Mystery of which St. John the Evangelist has so divinely discovered in the Beginning of his Gospel.
All this has perplexed those who deny the Divinity of the Word. In Order to elude the Authority of the Targum, Grotius has pretended, that according to the Jews God created a subaltern Being, or secondary Deity, whose Ministry he made Use of in the Creation of the World. But this Being that creates, whoever he be, must of Necessity be God, since nothing can have this Power but God alone, and this the Targum ascribes to the Memra.
M. le Clerc says almost the same Thing, writing upon the first Chapter of St. John. He maintains, that in all that Philo says of the Logos, he does not look upon the Word as a distinct Person, but that he makes an Angel of it, and a Principle inferior to the Deity. But tho’ Philo might have come short of due Accuracy, in some Passage wherein he discourses of the Word, treating of a Matter so sublime and abstruse as this was to him, we are not much to wonder at it; this Inaccuracy ought not to be imputed to the Word it self. But we should enquire whether St. John has not more fully explained it in his Gospel, who was much better informed than Philo in the Nature of the Memra. We may securely rely upon the Authority of this divine Writer, who had his Instructions from the Mouth of Jesus Christ himself, and by the Inspiration of his Spirit.
See the Article WORD in this Dictionary.
Read this article in its place on the printed pages