Theological glossary · FaithLogic

Logos (the Word)

John's title for the Son in his pre-incarnate existence — the eternal Word who was with God, was God, made all things, and became flesh.

Greek logos: 'word, speech, reason, account, principle'. In the LXX it renders Hebrew dabar ('word') and stands behind the Targumic memra ('Word of the LORD').

John 1:1, 14; 1 John 1:1; Revelation 19:13; the concept (without the term) in Colossians 1:15–17 and Hebrews 1:1–3.

John draws mainly on the OT creative/revelatory 'word' and the Wisdom tradition (Proverbs 8), choosing a term that also communicated to Greek readers (for whom logos named the cosmic rational principle) and to Philo (for whom the Logos was God's instrument in creation). The apologists (Justin) developed Logos-Christology; Nicaea turned 'the Word was God' into homoousios.

The Logos is a person, not a principle or a plan; distinct from the Father ('with God') yet fully God ('was God'); the agent of creation and the content of revelation — 'no one has ever seen God; the only God … has made him known'.

Socinians and some liberals read 'the Word' as God's plan or self-expression personified only at the incarnation; Jehovah's Witnesses render John 1:1c 'a god'. Both are answered on grammatical and contextual grounds.

Open in the glossary for related terms and the doctrines this concept appears in.