Read Part I
If the Word does not refer to God’s spoken words out of his mouth, then what does it mean? To rephrase the question, what was the Logos to John’s audience in the 1st century? If I remember anything from high school world history, it is that by the 1st century, the Greek absolutely loved philosophy. They were philosophers. If they were not philosophers, they were philosopher-wannabes. This explains why you and I still remember there were those three very famous Greek philosophers: Plato, Socrates, and Aristotle. The Greek loved to think and to debate about wisdom. If you didn’t know this already, the English word, “philosophy” is a compound word combining Greek two words, philo (love) and sophia (wisdom). On any given lazy 1st century afternoon, and the Greek had nothing to do, they discussed philosophy to pass the time. They sat around tables, sipped their lattes, and talked to each other about love, ethics, morals, life, reason, logic, order, mathematics, and so on, day after day, after day. The Greek were known to spend their days pursuing the highest degree of truth. And here is what is so fascinating to me: the Greek called this thing they were pursuing, the Logos.
The Greek word, “Logos” is rightly translated, “Word”, in the English. To you and me in the 21st century, when we hear the word, “word”, don’t our minds immediately go to, well, word? We can think of nothing else. Not so in the 1st century. When the 1st century Greek person heard “Logos” in classical Greek, he or she may immediately think what we think. But “word” is only but one translation for Logos. Logos may, at the same time, be translated, “principle”, “thought”, or even “reason”. For example, the mathematician Pythagoras said “Logos” whenever he wanted to refer to the law that caused mathematics to work. Similarly, the thinkers, Heraclitus and Aristotle, said “Logos” to refer to the divine principle that created and sustained the world. If I say “word” to you this Sunday at church, you will scratch your head, and you should. But when a Greek person said “Logos” in the 1st century, everyone in the room understood exactly what he or she was talking about. There was no confusion (Keep in mind John did not write his gospel to you and me, but he wrote it to a 1st century audience). John took advantage of a word that everyone understood in his time to say to his readers, “This Logos that you keep talking about…We found him.”
At this point, there are two things we may say. Firstly, Logos was not even close to what we had thought before. He was much more than anything anyone had imagined. He was there in the beginning. Did you hear what I just said? He is eternal. There was nothing or no one before him. He was with God. He was God. He is the Creator of the universe, and he is the Giver of life. Secondly, and this should surprise everyone all the same: Logos was not some abstract concept or some impersonal highest degree of truth. He was an actual living person. He is a fully personal being.
But I don’t want you to think that when John wrote John 1.1, he had an important message for his Greek audience and nothing for his Jewish audience. The reason is because any Jewish person would have recognized John’s opening words in his gospel as a reference to Genesis 1:1. Genesis 1.1 begins, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” John 1.1 begins, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The Yahweh who created the heavens and the earth in the beginning, and Jesus, who was with God and was God, in the beginning, were one and the same. What God is, the Logos is. Any Jewish person would have immediately picked up on what John was doing.
If indeed this was what John was doing when he wrote John 1.1, and I do believe it was, what he wrote a little over two thousand years ago should have brought anyone to his knees, Jew or Gentile. It should bring all of us to our knees. The Logos came and lived among us. “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.”
I did a quick look at all the major English translations of the Bible, and every English Bible translates Logos as the “Word” in John 1.1, and I am not unhappy about that. Till this day, I think it is an accurate translation, and it is an accurate translation. I do not wish that any of the English Bible editors had gone with another word instead of “Word”. But I do think it is important for you and me to help each other better understand the Logos. John had an important message to give. He wrote John 1.1 thoughtfully and carefully to grab not only the Greek person’s attention, but also the attention of the Jewish person. One may say that he took care of both the Gentiles and the Jews with one stroke. To me, John 1.1 is at the same time shocking as it is powerful. A human could not have written John 1.1. Only the divine could have done this.