Words · Greek Words · Lesson 1, word 1 of 5
λόγοςlogos
A word, saying, message, and the Word made flesh.
Why this word is here. John 1 opens with it; the Septuagint uses it for Hebrew dabar; its range explains both 'word of God' phrases and everyday sayings in the Gospels.
What it means
Abbott-Smith's range: a word (as embodying an idea, not a mere sound); a saying, statement or declaration; the sayings, commands and promises of teachers; especially the word of God, the message of the gospel; also a matter, a reason, an account or reckoning. Logos is speech with content and weight: what is said, and often the thing said about.
John 1 takes the word's whole history (creation by speech in Genesis, God's word in the prophets, Greek ideas of reason) and asserts that this Word is a person, who 'was with God' and 'was God' and 'became flesh'.
Where you meet it
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
John 1:1 (BSB)
Anchor verse 'In the beginning was the Word (logos), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.' The most concentrated use of the word in Scripture.
The Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
John 1:14 (BSB)
'The Word (logos) became flesh and dwelt among us.' The claim everything else in John's Gospel unpacks.
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it pierces even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.
Hebrews 4:12 (BSB)
'The word (logos) of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword.' Here logos is God's spoken Scripture and address, not a title of Christ.
Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.
Matthew 7:24 (BSB)
'Everyone who hears these words (logos) of Mine and acts on them...' Logos as Jesus' teaching, to be obeyed.
Why it matters
Logos is where the Bible's doctrine of God's speech becomes personal. Creation, revelation and redemption all run through God's speaking, and John claims the Speaker himself has come. Knowing the word's ordinary range (a saying, a message, an account) keeps the title from floating into abstraction: this is the God who talks, finally in a human life.
Watch out
Two over-claims. First, 'logos in John means the Bible': John 1's Logos is a person, while in other passages logos does mean Scripture or the gospel message, context, not the word alone, tells you. Second, importing the whole of Greek Stoic philosophy into John 1: John uses the word his readers knew, but his content is set by the Old Testament's word of God, which creates, promises and judges.
In this lesson
- agape (ἀγάπη): Love: the bond of God and his people, in Christ.
- pistis (πίστις): Faith: trust, belief, and faithfulness in one word.
- metanoia (μετάνοια): Repentance: a change of mind that turns the life.
- ekklesia (ἐκκλησία): An assembly, the gathered people of God, the church.
Sources
- Thayer's Greek-English Lexicon (1889)
- STEP Bible lexicon data (Abbott-Smith)
- SBL Greek New Testament (SBLGNT)
Review status: in-theological-review. Every Contend page passes a human theological review against the Statement of Faith before it is published as approved teaching. This section is in that queue.