What Word was in the Beginning?

[Dracula Girl]

What is John 1:1 talking about when it says in the beginning the Word was with God and was God? What is the Word there?

[BereanAardvark]

What is John 1:1 talking about when it says in the beginning the Word was with God and was God? What is the Word there?

The word in Greek is Logos, and carries with it much more than our English word.

according to Thayer's Greek Definitions,

In John, denotes the essential Word of God, Jesus Christ, the personal wisdom and power in union with God, his minister in creation and government of the universe, the cause of all the world’s life both physical and ethical, which for the procurement of man’s salvation put on human nature in the person of Jesus the Messiah, the second person in the Godhead, and shone forth conspicuously from His words and deeds.

Quite a mouth full for a single syllable to juggle... For a lexicographer Thayer sounds more like a commentary writer here, but I suspect that he is close.

[lee_merrill]

Yes, Hebrews bears this out as well:

Hebrews 1:2 In these last days has spoken to us in His Son...

And 1 John! Which starts very similarly, mentions "the word," and (as it turns out) is speaking specifically of Jesus:

1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we looked upon and have touched with our hands, concerning the word of life...

Blessings,
Lee

[Dracula Girl]

So, In the begining was Jesus and Jesus was with God and Jesus became God. Then Jesus came to live with us in human form. I still don't understand why Jesus is called the Word.

[andiwashere]

Hmmm...I've never studied trinity theology...but, I've always considered The Word to be the Holy Spirit. "Spirit", in Hebrew, can also be translated as 'wind' or 'breath'.

GEN 1:2-3 "And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness [was] upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. "

When God 'said', he directed his breath (Spirit) toward a positive act.

Jesus is spoken of as 'The Light' throughout the NT. 'The Light', in the OT, is symbolic of Gods Law (guiding us down the path of righteousness). The Light, in the OT, is also spoken of as 'life', because, the opposite (death) comes from not following Gods Law.

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

I've never really decided if this means the light (life) was in God or in the Spirit of God...before being brought forth into the material world.

[James Peter]

Its the second person on the trinity, not the third that John is talking about. The Spirit did not "become flesh and lived among us" did it? For John the logos was the pre-incarnate Jesus, or rather jesus was the incarnate logos. 'Word' really is a lousy choice of translation because although 'word' is one of the things which logos can mean there is an awful lot of other things it can mean too. I won't list them here but if you want to see what I mean grab a greek lexicon.

Anyway the reason that Jesus was called 'the word' (or rather the logos) is that the logos was a concept within Greek philosophy. The whole point of John's opening is to argue that the two are the same - that Jesus of Nazareth was the logos of philosophy and that Jesus was not simply a man but that he had always existed, always been God, and that the entire universe was created through him.

Problems are encountered when people refer to the written words of God (the scriptures) as the Word of God but that title is really the name/description of Jesus in his eternal form. It has nothing to do with words or language but is much more than that. The Logos is the Son of the Father, and Jesus was the incarnation of that Logos. Jesus is merely 'God Saves' - a perfect description of the incarnation I hope you'll agree.

Simply transliterating 'logos' whenever Jesus is the object is a far better choice than using 'Word' because 'Word' just doesn't cut it. Although people can argue that somebody picking a bible up for the first time would have no idea what the Logos was surely thats better than them getting misconceptions because of the use of 'Word'? Of course a translation with 'Word' has a nicer rhythm when read aloud, but maybe thats just because its what we're used to. At the very least it should be footnoted.

[BereanAardvark]

So, In the begining was Jesus and Jesus was with God and Jesus became God. Then Jesus came to live with us in human form. I still don't understand why Jesus is called the Word.

In one sense Jesus is God’s final word:
Long ago God spoke to the fathers by the prophets at different times and in different ways. In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things and through whom He made the universe. He is the radiance of His glory, the exact expression of His nature, and He sustains all things by His powerful word. After making purification for sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. (Hebrews 1:1-3 HCSB)
There is also the fact that the word logos has with it more than merely the idea of a collection of letters which convey an idea.

In Greek philosophy the logos was the pure essence of reason and logic, what held the world in balance and kept it from chaos. The problem the Greek philosophers had with the scriptural logos was that to them becoming the logos becoming flesh was inconceivable, as all things material were considered to be corrupt beyond all redemption…which is why Gnostics (one of the first heresies in the early church) said that Christ only appeared to be human and have flesh…hence John’s admonition:
Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to determine if they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you know the Spirit of God: Every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God. But every spirit who does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist; you have heard that he is coming, and he is already in the world now. (1 John 4:1-3 HCSB)
Since he was addressing a specific heresy the test isn’t quite as simple as that these days, none the less the admonition holds true…always test every teacher, every spirit against the truth of scripture.

Also, if you note:

In these last days, He has spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things and through whom He made the universe. (Hebrews 1:2 HCSB)

Since God spoke the universe into being (Genesis 1), and made all things through His Son, it is only logical to claim the metaphor of the Word for the Son.

Don't you believe that I am one with the Father and that the Father is one with me? What I say isn't said on my own. The Father who lives in me does these things. Have faith in me when I say that the Father is one with me and that I am one with the Father. (John 14:10-11 CEV)

If for no other reason that He, Himself says that the very words He speaks are put into His mouth by God.

By the way, Jesus didn't become Giod, according to John 1:1 He WAS God.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (John 1:1 HCSB)

Since one of the atributes of God is self existance (He cannot NOT be) one canot become God, as that would imply a beginning, a time when He didn't exist (an impossibility for God).

Tim