
John 1.1-5.
I wrote about
John 1.1-5 KWL - 1 In the beginning is the word,
- and the word’s with God,
- and the word is God.
- 2 This word is in the beginning with God.
- 3 Everything comes to be through the word,
- and not one thing, nothing, comes to be without him.
- 4 What came to be though the word, is life.
- Life’s the light of humanity.
- 5 Light shines in darkness,
- and darkness can’t get hold of it.
“The word” which the author of John wrote of, exists at the beginning of creation, is with God, is God, and is the means by which everything is created.
And round 7
Why’d the author of John (and for convenience we’ll just figure he’s the apostle John; he probably was) use “word” to describe the pre-incarnation Jesus? You realize this passage is the reason so many Christians are hugely fascinated by the word “word,” and have written endless stuff about the Word of God—some of it extremely profound and useful, and some of it sour horsepiss. I grew up hearing a lot of both.
The John passage tends to get translated in past tense: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God,” as
Okay, now to the concept of
For centuries, Christians assumed lóyos comes from ancient Greek philosophy. Blame ancient
Ancient Greek philosophers had written a whole bunch of navel-gazing gibberish about the word lóyos. ’Cause they were exploring the nature of truth: What is it, how do we find it, how do we prove it, how do we recognize logical fallacies, and what’s the deal with words which can mean more than one thing? For that matter, what’s a “word” anyway? Is it just a label for a thing, or a substantial thing on its own? Maybe that’s why God can create things by merely saying a word.
Follow the Greek philosophers’ intellectual rabbit trails, and you’ll go all sorts of weird,
Now let’s practice some actual logic. John wasn’t a gentile; he was a Galilean Jew who grew up attending, and getting educated by, Pharisee synagogues. So let’s look at that culture: What’d Pharisees teach about what a memrá is and means? And it turns out Pharisees had a lot of interesting ideas attached to it.
The word of the Lord.
Synagogues were a Pharisee thing. They created the synagogue system because they feared their fellow Jews might forget
Sound like a good plan? It did turn the Jews into a literate nation. But it actually didn’t make ’em any more devout. In fact
Thing is, the bible was written in Hebrew, and from the sixth to first century
And, as people will, sometimes they got a little loose with their translations. They’d avoid the
Likewise whenever God did something a little too manlike for the Pharisees’ comfort, it’d trigger them too. ’Cause Moses said he’s not a man.
Numbers 23.19 KJV - God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should repent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?
Yet the scriptures describe God as sitting, eating, or otherwise physically interacting with his people. ’Cause he does that. But it made Pharisees feel all weird about the idea,
Hence whenever Pharisees thought the L
Psalm 33.6 KJV - By the word of the L
ORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth.
Yep, exactly like John 1.3 has it—everything comes to be through the word, and not one thing comes to be without him.
“Word of God” and “Word of the L
But the apostle John did.
And when he wrote his gospel, he reminded his readers about the word of God. It’s in the beginning. It’s with God. It is God. And guess what: It became human.
If you grew up regularly attending a first-century Pharisee synagogue, you’d know exactly what John meant.
Whereas if you were an ancient Christian gentile—or a medieval Christian gentile, a modern Christian gentile, or any present-day Christian who knows bupkis about history—you’ll think, “What’s this ‘word’ concept mean?” and start asking around. And probably find out from fellow Christian gentiles that the ancient Greeks had a whole lot of fascinating ideas. None of ’em actually help, though. Like I said, sour horsepiss. But they’ll sure keep you distracted.
The very beginning of John’s gospel wasn’t a radical idea at all to first-century Jews. They’d have totally agreed. The word in the beginning?—sure. The word with God and is God?—no problem here. Now, a few verses down, when the word became flesh—that would’ve startled them.
Rhema-words and logos-words.
In the Old Testament,
Ancient Greek has more than one word for “word.” (As do we: Term, name, saying, expression, designation, noun, prompt, utterance.) The more concrete of them is the word
So it’s totally fine to think of lóyos and ríma as interchangeable. ’Cause the bible does.
- Blessed are those who hear and keep the lóyos of God.
Lk 11.28 - We don’t live by bread alone, but by every ríma of God.
Mt 4.4 - The lóyos of God is living, active, and sharper than a sword.
He 4.12 - And the sword of the Spirit is the ríma of God.
Ep 6.17
Getting the idea? The writers of the bible didn’t care which word they used. Neither should we. They both mean “word.”
The word of God, and the WORD OF GOD .
Unfortunately, some Christians are a little too quick to frappé together all the biblical ideas of “word”—the lóyos who’s with and is God, and is Jesus; and every other “word of God” they find in the bible. I’ve heard Christians actually teach that the word of God (i.e. the bible) and the word of God (i.e. Jesus) are one and the same. After all, they’re both “words.” Perhaps the same word?
No. Don’t be a moron.
John’s description of “word of God,” found in both his gospel and Revelation, refers to the Pharisees’ memrá Elahín—the person of
Confusing the scriptures with Jesus will of course lead to worshiping the bible instead of God.
Anyway, because of this and many other reasons, “word” has become a popular term in Christianese. “A word from the Lord” is how Christians will describe a sermon, a prophecy, a particularly cool bible passage, or any Christian message. “Speaking the word” will do the same. “Trusting the word” can mean trusting the bible, a prophecy, or even Jesus (if by “word” we mean him). In our hands, “word” is a really flexible term.
That’s not necessarily a bad thing. God can communicate to us any way he wants, and we can share him with others all sorts of ways. God has truths to share with us which are beyond our ability to even imagine yet. When the writer of Hebrews described the word as living and active, that’s really under-representing everything God wants to share with us. It’s too great for words. (Pun unintended.)
Now let’s strive to find the right words.

