“The Logos”

Sunday, March 02, 2025

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

(John 1.1)

The premier lexicon of New Testament Greek bears the unwieldy name, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and Other Early Christian Literature, Third Edition. While this title certainly lets the reader know what to expect of its contents, the book is colloquially known as BDAG, an acronym for the names of its authors and editors, W. Bauer, F.W. Danker, W.F. Arndt, and F.W. Gingrich. From this information you can already tell this book will be an incredibly dense, academically rigorous work capable of making most would-be scholars dizzy, and putting many of the rest to sleep. This is, in part, a self-referential illustration of the special power of words. On one hand, a few words can have an astonishing effect on people and events—

Look at the ships also: though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are guided by a very small rudder wherever the will of the pilot directs. So also the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things.

(James 3.4-5)

But on the other hand countless words can be expended in even a failed attempt to adequately explain fairly simple truths—

Of making many books there is no end, and much study is a weariness of the flesh.

(Ecclesiastes 12.12)

This is most apparent where the spiritual realm is concerned. Even if we possess a firm understanding of many true things, the job of articulating them to others is by no means easy! While we make sense of our thoughts using language, and express them to others by the same method, the words themselves don’t do justice to the full picture.

So also no one comprehends the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might understand the things freely given us by God. And we impart this in words not taught by human wisdom but taught by the Spirit, interpreting spiritual truths to those who are spiritual.

(1 Corinthians 2.11-13)

In BDAG, the abovementioned lexicon, the entry for λόγος-logos-“word” fills three large pages with minuscule 9-point font. It uses approximately four thousand words to define the word, word—and to catalog appearances of each of its eleven distinct senses in the Bible and other pertinent Greek literature. Why must it be so complicated? Well, if you consult a sizeable English dictionary, you’ll find a similarly thorough explanation, although most likely lacking the literary references. In both languages, what seems like it ought to be among the simplest words to define, is actually used in a variety of ways.

The primary sense of λόγος-logos is, “a communication whereby the mind finds expression, word” (BDAG, p.599). The English sense is a bit different. Although we use word to describe a wide variety of more complex, multi-word expressions, it boils down to the smallest meaningful, self-contained linguistic element—a word. Perhaps this subtle distinction is why the Bible uses λόγος-logos to convey everything from “statement,” to “question,” to “message,” to “report,” to “instruction,” to “a speech,” to “gospel,” to “commandment,” to “subject,” to “book,” to “reckoning,” to “reason,” to “motive” (BDAG, pp.599-601). But there’s another prominent sense, the culmination of all the others: “the independent personified expression of God, the Logos” (p.601).

The Apostle John repeatedly identifies this Logos as Jesus. He is the personification of God’s Word, the expression of God’s mind, by which he has communicated his purposes to his creations. As Paul told us in the passage quoted above, only God’s Spirit comprehends his thoughts (1Co 2.11); but his point was that God has given us his Spirit, and therefore the ability to comprehend at least part of his mind! How do we express God’s thoughts to others? Using “words,” of course (v13)!

By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.

(Hebrews 11.3)

God’s Word has always been paramount. He spoke the universe into existence, and since then, while he has made ample use of visions, spirits, and silent providence, by far his most valuable and purposeful influence over man has been though his word. He spoke to Adam in the garden “saying, ‘You may surely eat of every tree of the garden, but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat’” (Ge 2.16-17). He “said to Abram, ‘Go from your country and your kindred and your father’s house to the land that I will show you.’” (12.1). From a burning bush, to Moses he “said, ‘I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.’” (Ex 3.6). From Mount Sinai, to Israel “God spoke all these words, saying,

‘I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery’” (20.1). God promised to replace Moses with another prophet, saying, “I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them all that I command him” (De 18.18). Through countless prophets he kept his word, through one invoking yet another sense of λόγος-logos, “Come now, let us reason together, says the Lord” (Is 1.18).

God has shared his Word with his people in many fashions, and over vast stretches of time; but in former days, our inherent limitations led to almost universal failure to comprehend the spiritual truths God communicated by his spoken word. But praise be to God, “in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son” (He 1.1). Jesus is the perfect expression of the mind of God, his Word made flesh. Listen to him.

Jeremy Nettles

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