What is the logos (Word)?

The Greek words logos (λόγος) and cosmos (κόσμος) lie at the heart of both Christian theology and of universities. Both words have a long history of being associated with a diverse range of meanings, concepts, and entities.

I am particularly interested in these because I am involved in the Logos and Cosmos Initiative of IFES. In a series of three blog posts I will discuss separately what logos and cosmos each represent and then how they might interact with one another, and how this may be helpful in considering how theology and the sciences might interact with one another.

Logos can also be translated as “subject matter’’ and is related to the Latin word logia which is the basis of the English suffix -logy that is part of the names of many academic disciplines: sociology, anthropology, geology, ecology, biology, theology, and cosmology.

Logos in the New Testament

Logos is central to the Gospel of John, which clearly identifies Jesus Christ with it. In English logos is translated as "The Word”. 

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (1:1)

The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. (1:14)

Amongst other passages, logos also appears in the following verses.

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. (17:17)

That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life. (1 John 1:1)

He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. (Revelation 19:13)

Translators of the Greek New Testament, from Jerome to Luther, have struggled to find a single appropriate word that captures the richness of the association between logos and Christ.

John’s choice to equate logos with Christ in John 1 was creative and profound as he achieved two things. First, he brought the Gospel into dialogue with Greek culture and intellectual life. Second, he made the point that the truth, wisdom, and meaning associated with the incarnation of God in Christ, was the ultimate knowledge and far surpassed the greatest human knowledge and wisdom of his time. To appreciate this it is helpful to survey how logos was used prior to John.

Logos in Greek and Jewish culture before Christ

The New Bible Dictionary has an entry LOGOS, written by J.N. Birdsall. He states that the Greek word, logos

carries a large number of different meanings: its basic translation is ‘word ', i.e., meaningful utterance, whence develop its many senses 'statement, declaration, discourse, subject-matter, doctrine, affair' and, by another development, 'reason, cause, sake, respect'. As a grammatical term it means a finite sentence, in logic a factual statement, definition, or judgment, in rhetoric a correctly constructed piece of oratory. 

Birdsall, says that the Greek Philosopher Heraclitus (c. 535 - c.475 B.C.) used logos

to signify the divine power or function by which the universe is given unity, coherence, and meaning (Logos Spermatikos, 'seminal Word', which , like seed , gives form to  unformed matter): man is made in accordance with the same principle, and is himself said to possess Logos, both inwardly (Logos Endiathetos, reason) and expressed in speech (Logos Prophorikos). 

These ideas were then used by Stoic philosophers. 

The Septuagint (LXX) was the first Greek translation of the complete Hebrew text of the Old Testament, completed in the second century B.C. Many Old Testament quotations used by the authors of the New Testament are directly taken from the Septuagint. According to Birdsall,

In the LXX Logos is used to translate the Hebrew word dabar ( דָּבָר‎). The root of this signifies 'that which lies behind ', and so when translated as 'word' it, too means meaningful sound; it may also mean thing '. In accordance with a common feature of Hebrew psychology a man's dābār is regarded as in some sense an extension of his personality and further as possessing a substantive existence of its own. The Word of God, then, is His self-revelation through Moses and the prophets; it may be used to designate both single visions and oracles and the whole content of the total revelation and thus especially the Pentateuch. The Word possesses a like power to the God who speaks it (cf. Isaiah 55:11) and effects His will without hindrance. Hence the term may refer to the creative word of God. In the Wisdom literature the creative power of God is referred to as His wisdom, …

Isaiah 55:11 states, 

so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

    It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.

Philo (20 B.C.–50 A.D.) was a Hellenistic Jew who brought together Stoic philosophy and exegesis of the Old Testament. Birdsall states that

Philo made frequent use of the term Logos, to which he gave a highly developed significance and a central place in his theological scheme. He derived the term from Stoic sources and, in accordance with his discovery of Greek thought in the Hebrew Scriptures, made use of it on the basis of such passages as Psalm 33:6 to express the means whereby the transcendent God may be the Creator of the universe and the Revealer of Himself to Moses and the Patriarchs.

Psalm 33:6 states, “By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.” Birdsall comments:

On the Greek, side Philo equates the Logos with the Platonic concept of the World of Ideas so that it becomes both God's plan and God's power of creation. On the side of biblical exegesis the Logos is identified with the Angel of the Lord and the Name of God, and is described by a variety of terms as High Priest, Captain and Steersman, Advocate (Paraclete), and Son of God. It is termed a second God and, on the other hand, described as the Ideal Man, the Pattern of God's earthly creation of man. In spite of all this terminology of personification however, the term remains inevitably, in view of Philo's staunch Judaism (at least, in intention) a philosophical and theological term and tool.

That is, Philo does not go as far as the Apostle John who identifies the logos with a specific person in history, Jesus. Reflecting on the use of logos in John 1:1, Birdsall considers that identifications of logos with dabar or with Wisdom in the Old Testament are not adequate.

Only the Philonic Logos-teaching provides a clear theological scheme in which the Word possesses a like unity with God and a like distinction from Him, and in which both creative and sustaining activity in the universe and revelatory activity towards man is ascribed to it. Further, the necessarily unique concept of incarnation is nevertheless a proper development of the identification of Philo's Logos with the Ideal Man. Either a direct use of Philo or a similar background in intellectual circles of Hellenistic Jewry may lie behind this.

Reflecting also on 1 John 1:1 and Revelation 19:13, Birdsall concludes that the three texts

illustrate how the fulness of Christ consistently exhausts all preparatory imagery and thought; and how many places need an exegesis which draws on many sources for full exposition. Jesus gives fresh meaning to terminology which prior to Him was expressive of lesser mysteries.

In conclusion, John’s use of logos provides a significant example of doing theology in cultural and intellectual context. Jesus Christ is the logos, the Word, the embodiment of all knowledge and wisdom.

Next post will be about cosmos.