In the beginning was the logos

NOTE: This information in this entry is slightly inaccurate. Check blog entry "Clearing up the Articulars."

Have you ever seen the movie "Luther?" Not the old one, but the newer? There is a line in that movie that stuck with me, as Martin Luther is busy translating the Bible from Greek and Latin into German. He comes to the word "will," which in German has the connotation of power, authority, as in bending one to your will, but in the Greek, it means things along the lines of fire, passion and desire. After he ponders it a moment he says, "It's not the word that's important, but what it says about God."

I thought of that as I pondered this word λόγος (logos), which is found in John 1:1-2. I know I've already done bits and pieces on this chapter, but it gets better. I think it's amazing what this word says about God.

(1) Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. (2) οὗτος ἦν ἐν ἀρχῇ πρὸς τὸν θεόν.

John 1:1 - In the beginning was the word (logos), and the word (logos) was with God, and the word (logos) was God. He (the logos) was with God in the beginning.

This is my own personal analysis in this paragraph, but you'll notice that in John it says ὁ λόγος, using an article, "The word." It's characteristic of divine expression in this case. This is not any common word, but is the word. This is similar to the Greek phrase αἱ γραφαί, which translated to us as "Scripture" or "The Scriptures." In Greek, it literally means "the writings," but a writing could be any piece of work, so the definite article makes it specific. What writings? The writings. To the believers in Yahweh, those could mean only one set of writings; thus following, the word can only refer to one word, and it the word originated from God, and to a culture that treasures God above all things, there is nothing so specific, unique and set apart as that which originates from God (which, truthfully, is how we should all learn to think); yet we haven't touched yet,"Just what is this logos?"

I read something very interesting today about that word "logos." In Greek, there are two words for "word." One is rhema (ῥῆμα), the other is logos (λόγος). A question occured to me, "Why is it that one of these is used and not the other? Why not rhema?" My mother had bought a copy of the MacArthur Study Bible, and I began reading the commentary, and there it was! I have my Strong's Concordance with me, and there's nothing really unique about the word "rhema." Here's what it says:

"An utterance (collective, individual, specific); by implication, a matter or topic." Nothing very special about it.

However, logos is a different story.

According to John MacArthur, the word, and John's meaning behind it, drew both from Old Testament meaning and Greek philosophy. In Greek philosophy, logos meant another kind of word, which was usually impersonal, and signified principles such as divine reason, the mind or perhaps wisdom. This of course is a closer to John's intentions in talking about Jesus Christ than is the word "rhema." John doesn't rely on Greek philosophy itself to get the meaning across, but its cultural implications are needed to make it work. Instead, John uses it in the sense that it was used in the Old Testament; as God's divine and powerful expression, such as in Genesis 1:3. Read over John 1 and notice the glory that John attributes to this logos, and you can see immediately it is something unique, something unlike anything else. The beauty of the word though is that both the Greeks and the Jews would understand what was meant by it, and it's that Christ is something more than just mere words.

When I think about it, I believe John is conveying something through this word that actually gets into the mind of God, for John Chapter 1 is a powerful overview of Jesus Christ and all that He came to accomplish. All the things that Christ is, are the things that are even now in the heart of God. Think on these things:

He is not just the spoken words of God; He is the powerful expression of God.
He is the embodiment of what is in the mind of God.
This logos was there when the world was created, and before.
This logos was His companion when He created the world, a funnel (if you will) through which everything was run.
This logos was the mind and thoughts that God used when creating the world.
This logos was the revelation of God that the world had been waiting for since Genesis 3:15.
And He has come and been revealed to us, and is the one by which God even now speaks to us (Hebrews 1:1-2).

You know why the world hates Christ and disputes Him so much? The thing that the world hates about Christ is just what was mentioned above; He is the ultimate expression of the mind of God, all of Himself wrapped up in skin and bones, all brought down to something which we could potentially understand. Everything about Him was in the mind of God; He did not live a moment outside the will of God, for Him and the Father are One. The unity is very hard to comprehend, but when you see Christ, you see the Father! In no former moment in history did the light so shine in the darkness as to shatter it the way that Christ has. All is now in the light, and a sinful world cannot take it.

ὁ λόγος ἐστίν. He is the Word.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Jake