WHY "WORD" DOESN'T TRANSLATE
LOGOS--THE EPITHET FOR 
GOD THE SON IN JOHN 1

© 2000,2001 by Orchid Land Publications

[updated 7-6-01]

     The author of this page has been asked the question answered in the title so often that the editor has decided to put pertinent remarks online here.  The correct translation of LOGOS is of course "Reason" or "Creative Rational Principle."  Though the Father is the sole Source of all Being--divine Being beyond being as well as created being, the LOGOS is (regardless of what heretics contend) the Creator of created being--the cosmos.  See also comments on this page.

      Drawing on the studies of H. A. Wolfson, the great authority on Philo (the Jewish neo-Platonist, whose lifetime overlapped that of Jesus's)--cf. his two-volume, Philo, and his large volume on The philosophy of the Church Fathers  [PCF below], both published by Harvard University Press--I will summarize the history of the use of the name LOGOS for the Creator of the cosmos, as at the beginning of the Prologue of St. John's Gospel.    (See also the English translations in the large volume of Philo's works by C. D. Yonge--in the updated 1993 and published by Hendrickson Publishers).   I have read that Philo spoke of the Creator as LOGOS more than a thousand times.  It is in the interests of truth to get this straight.  The creation of a "wordy" cosmos by a "Word" being as objectionable as nonsense gets; and the anthropologists' view of word-magic make translations using "Word" doubly objectionable.  If St. John the Evangelist wrote his Gospel in Ephesos, he would have been aware that Herakleitos had introduced Logos there in the sixth century before the Incarnation; it was widely used in materialistic Stoicism.
     Logos refers to the Creator-Reason or creative rational Principle of the cosmos--which would be chaotic if not permeated by logos.  Pluralized and with a small "l," lógoi (as in St. Maximos's writings) was translated by the Latins as rationes "reasons" (thus in Thomas Aquinas)--not as verba "words" or sermones "sayings."  (See, e.g., Migne PG 91, 1133C-D and 1137B.)  I leave to others to relate this to Augustine's "seminal forms."
      With a small "l," logos can refer to special kinds of utterances.  (Greek rhêma, léxis, mythos, épos, phoné ["voice, spoken word, loud talk"], etc.--neuter and feminine words--are used for ordinary "word"; like Hebrew davar, rhêma can be used for a "thing," a "matter."  One finds variation even in a single book of the New Testament; cf.  Heb. 6:5--where rhêma and dynamis are linked--with  ll:3--where rhêma is linked with pístis "faith" in connection with the equipping, preparation, or completion of creation.)  The special senses of rational words that lógos can be translated as are "saying, statement, message."  Cognate translations are possible in some contexts--"discourse, report, sermon, proverb, prophecy, parable" (a non-rare use), "signal" (cf. English "give the word"), "command" (cf. decalogue "ten words/commandments"), "sentiment, scripture, admonition, promise" (cf. "keeping one's word" in English), etc.  It is worth nothing that the treatise by St. Athanasios the Great on the Incarnation of the LOGOS is a logos ("treatise, discourse") about the LOGOS ("Reason").  It should also be pointed out that (according to V. Lossky) St. Gregory the Theologian (of Nazianzos) wrote that Logos is used for God the Son in two  senses--"definition" and "reason."   
     The following table provides a comparison of the Hebrew and Greek terminology relevant to the present logos (discussion).

 

     Clearly, there is no sense of "word" that correlates with "Wisdom" the way "Reason" or "Rational Principle" does.    ("Word" and "thing" are davar [masc.] in Hebrew.)   The New Testament words for "word" were rhêma and  épos; as will noted below, one verse uses both rhêma (in the plural:  rhémata) and lógos.    Rhêma was the usual word for "word," especially a spoken word (cf. rhêsis "speaking"), though its meaning in Modern Greek is "verb."   Another lexical item that could mean "word" was mythos; in the New Testament, it meant "speech" or "narrative, story."  A later sense is "fable"--as opposed to lógos "true narrative."  Both Modern and Classical Greek have léxis--which   in Classical Greek meant "speech" as well as "word." 
     In the Table of contents of PCF are given summaries of Chh. Philo, I, 339; compare also 1 Cor. 1:24 and 2:7 (Christ is the recondite Wisdom or Ayia Sophia of God; see also Wisd. 8:1 and 1:6-7, where Wisdom is a loving Spirit).  Wolfson says  that Matthew and Luke revised Paul (see ch. Spirit of God or the divine or "prophetic" Spirit.  Several Christian authors in fact identified the Wisdom and Logos with the Spirit. 
     Wolfson says that St. John the Evangelist substituted LOGOS for Paul's Wisdom or Holy Spirit. [St. John referred to the third Person of the Trinity as the Spirit of Truth and the Paraclete].  Philo took creation to mean first of all the creation of the intelligible [he's using the Platonic sense here] world.  John remodeled this by holding that the LOGOS "was in the beginning."    (Early Christians differed, as Wolfson relates, over whether the word for "was" meant "existed" as in Greek; or whether, as in Philo, it Hebraically meant "came into existence").  John modeled his LOGOS on the pre-existent Christ, on Philo's LOGOS, and on Solomon's pre-existent Wisdom.  There is no hind of "word" here, not is there any sense of word that would correlate with wisdom the way reason does.  For Paul, Christ is God's own first-born Son as well as (Solomon's) "understanding [or logos-endowed] Spirit."  Agreeing with Philo and St. Paul, St. John says that all things that were created were created by the LOGOS (cf. the "artificer of all things" in Wisdom).   Like St. Paul (cf. Col. l:17), St. John speaks of all things being held together in the LOGOS.  Note that the whole cosmos is loyikós--logos-permeated, logical, ordered, structured, not chaotic--having been created by the

     Where is all of this is "word"?  What should be self-evident to a traditionalist will not necessarily be evident to a disciple of the Protestant Reformation because (i) s/he will believe in the loss of the Image of God--reason and freewill--in human nature; and (ii) will follow the Gnostic and Nominalist emphasis on "word(s)"--especially sermons.   
     It is certain that the loyikè latreía of Rom. 12:1 was not a "wordy Worship" but "reasonable Worship" or, given that our bodies are members of Christ's Body, "LOGOS-filled Worship."  This is evident in the derivation of words in Hebrew and Greek for "Worshipping"; cf. proskýnesis in Greek, which refers to that bending of the knee that we call prostration--an integral part of Orthodox Worship where the Orthodox have not (quite wrongly) installed seats in their temples--or kept the pews of inner-city buildings bought from otherdox Christians moving out to the suburbs. 
      Greek-speaking Orthodox have always known exactly what Worship means in all of the passages cited here, not least in the book of the Apocalypse.  They cannot have dreamed that a Word created the cosmos--a "wordy" cosmos.  It made as little sense to a Byzantine Christian as it does to anyone speaking English today.  And the associations of word with word-magic would make it undesirable at all events.  (The bringing of something into existence by saying a word is a widely practised thing called "word magic" by anthropologists.   More colloquially, it's called hocus-pocus.)

     In summary, (i) Reason, but not Word, gives order to the cosmos; it is not wordy but ordered.  (ii)  Reason, but not Word, is parallel with the Logos's other title, the holy Wisdom of God.  (iii) The frequent Patristic  parallel between the creation by the Logos and the new creation (2 Cor 5:17, Gal. 6:15) by the Logos would make no sense if Logos were a Word:  Words don't order cosmoses, and they don't--except for believers in word-magic--make new creations out of baptized believers.  Note in 2 Cor. 5:17 and Gal. 6:15 that one is a new creation "in Christ"--hardly "in a Word."     Incidentally, the word is ktísis "a creating," not "a creature," i.e. what has been created--which would be, as in Rev. 8:9. 

    Let's go through the Johannine texts that use "lógos."   

The Johannine Gospel

Verse 1:1 refers to LOGOS (capital letters will be used in references to the second Person of the all-holy Trinity).  Here and in verse 14 of the Prologue, the Creator-Logos ("Rational Principle") is referred to; verse 4 says:  "All things were made by Him, and apart from Him was made not one [thing] that was made."  In 2:22, the statement which Jesus had spoken uses logos in its phrasal or sentential meaning; the lógos believed was not "a" word but ten words in Greek:  "Destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up."  Verse 4:37 has lógos for "proverb" or "saying."  One could render logos as "report" in 4:39.  Lógos means "saying" or "discourse" in 4:41.   In 4:50, lógos refers to four words in Greek:  "Go:  Your son is alive."  In 5:24, we should read "nessage."  Lógos can mean that or perhaps "promise" or "guarantee" in 5:38.  Lógos is "saying" in 6:60.  It is "speaking" in 7:36, but "saying" or even "sermon," in 7:40.  In 8:31,37,43 the sense can be "message" or "admonition" or "command."  The best rendering of lógos in 8:51,52,55, and 10:19 is "message"--or even "advice" or "admonition," possibly even "command"; but the "saying(s)" of various translations fits these verses also.  In verse 10:35, we read "message"--a scriptural message. Prophetic "saying," "message," or "report" fits 12:38,48. 
      NOTE that 12:48 also contains  rhémata "[ordinary] words."  Here, it is significant  that the Greeks knew the difference between rhêma and lógos; the Latin translators were less keen--and perhaps influenced by Gnostic renderings.  Lógos in the second part of 12:48 refers to what Jesus said, not to Him as the LOGOS--the rational Deliverer of a message of reason.  (This is not rationalism, since infinite Mysteries are in no way eliminated.) 
     John 14:23 uses lógos for "injunction"; the plural in 14:24 is "sayings."  "Saying" or "message" is also suitable in verses 15:3 and 15:20, though "admonition" also fits the latter--the alleged "word" (singular) being thirteen words long in Greek.  In 15:25, prophecy or saying fits.  In 17:6, the best translation is "command" or perhaps "advice." Lógos is message or promise in 17:14.  Verse 17:17 uses lógos for statement, message, or proclamation of a rational truth.   In 17:20, I leave it to readers to judge--is it "preaching"?  Lógos is "saying" or "prediction" in 18:9, 32, 19:8,13, and 21:23.    

St. John's first Epistle

     The very first verse speaks of the LOGOS or Rationale of Life that readers have heard and seen and even touched.    He is obviously the Principle or Cause of everlasting Life for rational creatures.   In verse 10, logos comes close to "reason" or even "rationality" but can be rendered as "message."  Lógos is obviously "commandment" in 2:5.   Verse 7 in the same chapter uses lógos in with like import, while verse 14 refers to "mind" (as when we say "like-minded" or "of the same mind."  A Greek could use phrónema "mindset" here.)   Another possibilty is LOGOS--God the Son.  Verse 3: 18 comes closest to English "word" or "speech"--it refers to oral communication generally.   As for 5:7, we have got to read LOGOS here, since one of the Persons of the all-holy Trinity is being referred to.

St. John's Third Epistle
    
     Verse 1:10  refers to verbal allegations--"charges."
    
The Apocalypse

     In verse 1:2, LOGOS is probably the reading, but "report," "message," "commandment," or "promise" is possible if the sense is understoood collectively.  In verse 3, verbal prophecies are alluded to.   In verse 9, the choice is probably "scripture" but could be LOGOS--the Person.  "Command" is perhaps the sense in 3:8, though a more neural "saying" may be preferable.  Verse 3:10 is curious--about keeping "the lógon [probably "command"]of my patience."   LOGOS, the Person, is understood in 6:9, though "Gospel" is perhaps possible.  Verse 12:11 speaks of a warrant or oath of testimony.  Verse 19:9 has "sayings."  LOGOS is found in 19:13--certainly not "word."  Verse 20:4 could have LOGOS or even "scripture" or "promise."  Verse 21:5 has "sayings" or the like.  In verses 22:6,7,9, we read "sayings."  Verse 10 can probably be read with "sayings"; and verse 18 has got prophetic sayings in mind.  Verse 19 could mean "sayings" or even "prophecies"; we would expect rhémata if the literal words of the book had been in the writer's mind.  

     The long and short of this exercise is that the Greeks knew how to speak and how to read and write Greek.  If the reader can find the most exiguous hint in any of these citations that the Creator was a word or that He created with a word, it will  be beyond my comprehension.  But there is no end to folly.

SEE HERE & HERE & HERE

     Ancient Greek had over a dozen words for "word" having different connotations--chiefly rhêma (modern ríma; cf. plural rhémata in John 5:63,68, &c) or léxis--but also épos, mỹthos (also "speech"), and phoné (where "o" = omega; "spoken word, voice"), phéme ("report, speech, tradition, prophetic utterance"), prophorá ("word"--as well as "utterance, (manner of) expression, fluency, eloquence, defintion," or "formula").  Lógos had about eighteen special senses of "word" (as in English "they kept their word," where word means "promise, commitment," and as in "give them the word"); the most general usual sense of lógos, when it didn't refer to "reason," was "saying, statement"--correctly translated in early Latin as sermo.   

     When I get time, I'll print out a much larger list of details.

 

LETTER FROM A VIEWER OF THIS SITE

 

Hi!

 

That is a perfectly okay way to address me.  If the Editor were a priest, you would want to begin by asking him for a blessing.

I read your page on the Word and this is how I see it, this is from letters I post on a news group, I would appreciate your comments  The Word was made flesh, God gave his Word or Promise that he would send a Messiah and through him we could have eternal life, thus the Word of Life.

I'll reply as I go along, and maybe (if I have time) go back and correct.  In the Old Testament (where the LOGOS is called YHWH, the Angel of God, the Ancient of Days, etc., God did make the promise you say.  But the Greek doesn't say a Word was made flesh in either Testament.  John says that the LOGOS (Reason) and Paul says that Christ is SOPHIA (Wisdom, i.e. practical Reason).  If your translation says otherwise, perhaps you should get the Orthodox New Testament from the sisters of the Holy Apostles' Monastery (see link on my /opR26.html).  It also translates the energy words of the Greek correctly--which no other translation even understands, let alone translates right.  In passing is the word of life (New Testament vios, Classical bios) or of LIFE (zoe)?

 

John the apostle wrote in 1 John 1:1 that the Word was [“is”?  Orlapubs] the word of life.  1Jo 1:1  That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life;     Jesus is of the Word of life, or Promise of life. The promise was made flesh when God kept his Word.

 

If that is what it says, it's not what John said in Greek.  He said what Philo the Jew (Jesus's contemporary) and the Platonists and Stoics and everyone else said and believed==that the cosmos is logikos (reason-filled) because created by the LOGOS or Reason of God.  No one but Protestants (or so I suppose) thinks that the cosmos is wordy (lexikos, rhematikos, mythikos) because created by a Word--a totally silly idea in my paradigm.

 

    Titus 1:2 In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot

lie, promised before the world began;

    Titus 1:3 But hath in due times manifested his word through

preaching,which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God

our Saviour.

 

Does the passage say LOGOS-or does it say rhema or lexis or mythos?  The latter mean "word" and other things but LOGOS can mean "reckoning, saying" (and hence "promise," etc, rather like we say "He kept/broke his word"), and reason.  When LOGOS referred to the Creator, it meant for all of the ancients "Reason" in parallel with "Wisdom" (practical reason).  The ONT has "word" here, but that is the extended use of "saying" for promise, prophecy, and other kinds of sayings or utterances. 

 

Bible translations are pretty atrocious.  One way to recognize a Gnostic translator is to real "sinful nature" for sarx "flesh"  (NIV).  Of course, natures cannot sin, only people can--but Gnostics (the oldest heresy) don't believe in the role of matter (Mysteries, resurrection, etc.) in Salvation or in that of time (tradition, a developmental creation, developmental Salvation, as opposed to a sometimes instantaneous conversion).  They think that a bad God made matter (and of course flesh) "evil."

 

That takes care of your verses below.  But I should add another failing of bad Greek:  Writing "likeness" for "assimilation" or new "creature" for new "creating."  Those who don't understand the morphology of deverbative nouns in Greek are bound to miss the boat.  There are feminines in -sis (-tis after -s-) corresponding to English gerunds except that they lack voice and modality).  The pair result verbal nouns are neuters ending in -ma(t)- from Indo-European "ment-" from which "mind" derives.  (Final –t deletes in Greek, but remains before a vowel.)  The Bible says "Assimilation" in Gen. 1:26 and many other places where translators miswrite "likeness."  It's a new creating in St. Paul, not a creature.   Likeness is the RESULT OF ASSIMILATING and creature is the RESULT OF CREATING.

 

Thanks for writing.  Not being a priest, I cannot bless you; but I wish you all blessings and ever-greater insights into the Truth.

 

in Christ our true God, of one Essence with the Father and the Son,   [signed]

  1Jo 1:2  (For the life was manifested, and we have seen [it], and bear witness, and shew unto you that eternal life, which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us;)        (The eternal life was with the Father, Jesus is not the eternal life but it is in him.)

1Jo 5:11 And this is the record, that God hath given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son.            

Jhn 1:1  In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  (The Word being with God, means it can't physically be God, but a Word can describe God or be a Promise.)   

 Jhn 1:2  The same was in the beginning with God.      

 Jhn 1:3  All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.    

Act 14:15 And saying, Sirs, why do ye these things? We also are men of like passions with you, and preach unto you that ye should turn from these vanities unto the living God (YHVH), which made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and all things that are therein:

Act 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands;  

Jhn 1:4  In him was life; and the life was the light of men.  

Jhn 5:26 For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself;

Jhn 1:5  And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.      2Cr 4:6 For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to [give] the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.  

Jhn 1:6  There was a man sent from God, whose name [was] John.

Jhn 1:7  The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all [men] through him might believe.    

Isa 40:3  The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the LORD, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. 

Isa 40:4  Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain:    

Isa 40:5  And the glory of the LORD shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see [it] together: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken [it].  (The glory of the LORD (Jehovah) shall be revealed, who is the revealer of God? Jesus.

Mat 11:27 All things are delivered unto me of my Father: and no man knoweth the Son, but the Father; neither knoweth any man the Father, save the Son, and [he] to whomsoever the Son will reveal [him].

Luk 10:22 All things are delivered to me of my Father: and no man knoweth who the Son is, but the Father; and who the Father is, but the Son, and [he] to whom the Son will reveal [him].

1Jo 1:5 This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.   

Jhn 1:8  He was not that Light, but [was sent] to bear witness of that Light.    

Jhn 1:9  [That] was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world. (The true light is God).   

Mic 7:8 Rejoice not against me, O mine enemy: when I fall, I shall arise; when I sit in darkness, the LORD [shall be] a light unto me.   

Jhn 1:10  He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.    

Jhn 17:25  O righteous Father, the world hath not known thee: but I have known thee, and these have known that thou hast sent me.

Jhn 1:11  He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 

Neh 9:16  But they and our fathers dealt proudly, and hardened their necks, and hearkened not to thy commandments,       

Neh 9:17  And refused to obey, neither were mindful of thy wonders that thou didst among them; but hardened their necks, and in their rebellion appointed a captain to return to their bondage: but thou [art] a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness, and forsookest them not.     

Jhn 1:12  But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name:  

1Jo 3:1 Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God: therefore the world knoweth us not, because it knew him not.

Jhn 1:13  Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.    

Jhn 1:14  And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth. (Wouldn't the Word become flesh at verse 1:3, If Jesus was a Word and the next 10 verses were about him?) ( I see Jhn 1:1-13 being about God (YHVH) and his Promise, that is why Jhn 1:14 is when the Word becomes flesh and dwelt amongst us, the Word is fulfilled, the Word is the Promise of eternal life and Jesus was of the Word of life.)        

Act 2:39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, [even] as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Act 13:23 Of this man's seed hath God according to [his] promise raised unto Israel a Saviour, Jesus:                   

 Act 13:32 And we declare unto you glad tidings, how that the promise which was made unto the fathers,             

Act 26:6 And now I stand and am judged for the hope of the promise made of God unto our fathers:

Rom 9:8 That is, They which are the children of the flesh, these [are] not the children of God: but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.

Gal 3:14 That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.

Gal 3:17 And this I say, [that] the covenant, that was confirmed before

of God in Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect, but God gave [it] to Abraham by promise.

Gal 3:19 Wherefore then [serveth] the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come to whom the promise was made; [and it was] ordained by angels in the hand of a mediator.

Gal 3:22 But the scripture hath concluded all under sin, that the promise by faith of Jesus Christ might be given to them that believe.

Gal 3:29 And if ye [be] Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

Gal 4:23 But he [who was] of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman [was] by promise.     

Gal 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also [trusted], after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,

Eph 3:6 That the Gentiles should be fellow heirs , and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel:

1Ti 4:8 For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come.

2Ti 1:1 Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus.

Hbr 6:15 And so, after he had patiently endured, he obtained the promise.

Hbr 6:17 Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed [it] by an oath:

Hbr 9:15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the new testament, that by means of death, for the redemption of the transgressions [that were] under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance. Hbr 10:36 For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise.

2Pe 3:9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is long suffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.

2Pe 3:13 Nevertheless we, according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness.

1Jo 2:25 And this is the promise that he hath promised us, [even] eternal life.

(Word in the dictionary means Promise, So the Promise was with God, the eternal life, Jesus was the one to fulfill the Word of God or Promise, that is how the Word becomes flesh.

 Maybe you could explain to me how Jesus could be God, when John the Apostle who clearly saw Jesus, wrote no man has seen God except Jesus, was Jesus invisible?   Most trinitarians I write to ignore this question.  I'm not sure if you are a trinitarian, but I have found that all verses that they use to show Jesus to be God are easily explained.

Ask me and I will show you.

Peace be with you, [signed]

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