"What's in a [Word]?"

Word for the Week: Word/logos

A word is a thought. A word can be a name. A word can be a place. A word is spoken or written or shown. A word can be… a person?

There are multiple differentiations in the English translation of “Word” in Scripture, so this week we’ll focus on the “logos” (Jn 1:1).

New Word Study Resources:

I got myself the NASB Hebrew Greek Keyword Study Bible and Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance, and my mother-in-law got me the Dictionary of Word Origins. So, if you need me, I’ll be flipping through hundreds of pages of thousands of words and their definitions alongside the Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic translations. You’ll get to see the fruit of that labor in these weekly emails!

The Word: Word (logos)

It’s hard to even begin to unpack this simple word, “word” because the meaning of it in Scripture greatly overshadows our English understanding.

• We think of these little black inked lines and swoops that fill this page you’re reading.

• We think of the thoughts that form together to explain our feelings.

• We think of the sounds that come out of someone’s mouth as they attempt to communicate.

• We think—words.

So when John says, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” —What the heck does that even mean? How can a person or deity be an utterance or a thought expressed? (John 1:1)

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In English, we see the roots of word align closely with that of verb.¹ It holds an Indo-European base of wer — to speak or say, which also produced the Greek rhētōr, meaning “public speaker.” There is an active connotation here—the act of speaking and communicating through expressed thought.

Word is used to translate the original Greek and Hebrew in the KJV Bible 697 times, but as we know, it doesn’t always mean “expressed thoughts” or “speaking” as we often think of it.

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In Greek, one of the original words translated as word is logos (log'-os) and appears 330 times in the New Testament.

Strong’s G3056 | logos (log'-os)
something said (including the thought), reasoning, divine expression—both the act of speaking AND the thing spoken

utterance by a living voice—”the reasoning faculty as that power of the soul which is the basis of speech.”²

the personal word—distinct personality, relation to the godhead, “not mere company, but the most intimate communion,” “the personal manifestation of, not a part of the divine nature, but the whole deity.”³

In other words, the main distinction of logos versus other uses of “word” is that this is the whole kit and caboodle. It is relational and personal, and it is a presentation of the entirety and distinction of a thing—of a person.

Logos is not just the spoken word but it is the meaning and action of everything the spoken word carries with it. It is personified in the incarnation of Jesus Christ because He is more than just a spoken promise, He is the promise fulfilled and complete.

We’ll get to the other Greek word, rhéma in our next Word for the Week segment, but I do want to give you a teaser to clarify how it differs from logos.

Rhéma is the declaration and utterance, the words spoken themselves. It doesn’t mean there is no weight to the rhéma, but when used in Scripture, it often means it’s not the entirety of the expression or spoken thing. The difference between the word of God (rhema) and the word that is God (logos).

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There are at least four different root words that we translate to “word” in English from the Hebrew Bible. It’s hard to choose just one to hone in on, but we’ll go with pé and save dâbâr for our next segment with the greek, rhéma.

In Hebrew, word is translated from peh 498 times in the KJV Old Testament.

Strong’s H6310 | pé (peh)*
mouth—the act of blowing—as in blowing words out, literal or figurative—most often figurative in the sense of an instrument of speech or speech itself (hence, word).

“When Moses claimed to be an ineffective speaker, he was heavy of mouth (Exodus 4:10).”⁴

It is also used to denote an opening, like that of a cave; or an edge, like the mouth of a sword. Used to denote figuratively “word,” it can be defined as command, appointment, speech, talk, word.

*By the way, I link these mostly so you can click the sound icon and hear the pronunciation!

“Now it came about, as they were sitting down at the table, that the word of the Lord came to the prophet who had brought him back;” (1 Kings 13:20)

I love thinking about the active side of this word, the blowing out of words from the mouth, because it harkens back to the same idea of logos—an active, relational communication.

This phrase, “word of the Lord” is used 258 times in Scripture, either from pé or dâbâr.

There is a relational connection—the breath and thoughts of God billow out of His mouth to form commands and parts of speech that guide and direct us and draw us into communion with Him.

“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.”
1 John 1:14

To God, words are not always just thoughts formed together.

Our small understanding of a word goes far deeper when we begin to understand the personified presence of promised words in the active reality that Christ came down to be with us, forever.

Scripture I’m Meditating On

“So He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by! And a great and powerful wind was tearing out the mountains and breaking the rocks in pieces before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire, a sound of a gentle blowing*.” 1 Kings 19:12 (NASB)

*often translated “whisper” or “voice”

Song(s) On Repeat

Saying I Can’t Stop Thinking About

“He did not study God; he was dazzled by him.”
—description of the Bishop in Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables

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If you have a word to suggest for an upcoming Word for the Week email, comment or reply and let me know. Also, you can always refer back to the previous words here.

1. Dictionary of Word Origins (576)

2. NASB Keyword Study Bible (2215)

3. Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance (Greek, 152)

4. NASB Keyword Study Bible (1990)