Before I lay aside the Jewish Targums and go on to something else, I think I should mention that the targumist saw the Word of the Lord as the Savior of Israel. Notice two pertinent Scriptures:
45:17 JPS O Israel, that art saved by the LORD with an everlasting salvation; ye shall not be ashamed nor confounded world without end.
Hosea 1:7 JPS But I will have compassion upon the house of Judah, and will save them by the LORD their God, and will not save them by bow, nor by sword, nor by battle, nor by horses, nor by horsemen.’
Obviously, if the LORD is speaking (Hosea 1:4) and he says that he will save the house of Judah by the LORD (YHWH) their God, there is more than one called LORD (YHWH) in Hosea 1:7. In Isaiah 45 above the LORD is speaking in the beginning of the chapter; yet, he spoke of the LORD (YHWH) in the third person in both verses 17 and 25. There is a plurality in the text and Targum Jonathan addresses this plurality by changing or interpreting various references to the LORD in the third person. Notice:
But Israel shall be saved by the Word of the LORD with an everlasting salvation… By the Word of the LORD shall all the seed of Israel be justified. (Targum Jonathan; Compare Isaiah 45:17, 25) (emphasis mine)
But I will have mercy upon the house of Judah, and I will save them by the Word of the LORD, their God. (Targum Jonathan; Compare Hosea 1:7) (emphasis mine)
Clearly the targumist believed the one he called the “Word of the Lord” was the God and Savior of Israel. It also seems clear that this same Savior is called the LORD (YHWH) in the Hebrew Scriptures. However, Hosea clearly identifies another, the Speaker, as the LORD (YHWH), but the Speaker refers to the God and Savior of Israel in the third person, showing there are two called LORD (YHWH). The targumist addressed this plurality within the Godhead with the phrase: Word of the LORD, and this seems to be how John addresses the same plurality in his prologue, John 1:1-18. John’s Logos has a Jewish foundation and has nothing to do with Hellenism or Plato’s philosophy as some modern critics had supposed. Jesus, the Word made flesh (John 1:14), is the same as the Word of the Lord whom the targumists say is the God and Savior of all Israel.
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