One of the main problems in understanding John 1:1-3 comes when people confuse grammatical gender with biological gender. In other words, the Greek logos is a grammatically masculine noun, but this doesn’t mean that God’s word is an actual person, a human male no less!
That “the word” should not be capitalized and therefore confused with a person is verified by the Old Testament meaning and usage of “word,” the Hebrew word davar. If you check any standard lexicon you’ll find that this word was simply understood as God's creative “speech, reason, plan,” etc.
Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the OT.
davar: a single word, in the proper sense (LXX logos, rhema) 2 Kings 18.36; Job 2.13. Also “decree, plan, proposal 2 Sam 17.6; 1 Kings 1.7.”
Liddell, Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon.
logos: word, speech, statement, discourse, refutation, account, explanation, and reason.
The word logos is never defined as another person separate from YHVH, God who is the Father. Hence, in the Old Testament the word of the LORD (i.e., the word of God) is never referred to as a “he” or “him” in either Hebrew or Greek (LXX/Septuagint).
As a matter of fact, all English translations from the Greek before the 1611 KJV describe the logos as an “it” and not a “he” in John 1:2-3: “All things were made by it, and without it was made nothing that was made. In it was life, and the life was the light of men” (Tyndale, Matthews’, Great Bible, Taverner, Whittingham, Geneva, Bishops’, and Tomson). Five of these eight translations also do not capitalize “word” in John 1:1.
So what does John 1:1 mean?
The word was God Himself, i.e., God’s word, as some translations show:
The 19th-century German scholar Hans Wendt summed it up well:
“Therefore we should not argue from Philo’s meaning of ‘word’ as a hypostasis [person] that John also meant by ‘word’ a preexisting personality. In the remainder of the Gospel and in 1 John, ‘word’ is never to be understood in a personal sense. It means rather the ‘revelation’ of God which had earlier been given to Israel (10:35), had come to the Jews in Holy Scripture (5:38) and which had been entrusted to Jesus and committed by him to his disciples (8:55; 12:48; 17:6, 8, 14, 17; 1 John 1:1) and which would now be preserved by them (1 John 1:10; 2:5, 14). It cannot be proved that the author of the prologue thought of the word as a real person. Only the historical Jesus and not the original word is said to be the Son (John 1:14, 18). But in this Son there dwelt and worked the eternal revelation of God.”
Points to Remember:
That “the word” should not be capitalized and therefore confused with a person is verified by the Old Testament meaning and usage of “word,” the Hebrew word davar. If you check any standard lexicon you’ll find that this word was simply understood as God's creative “speech, reason, plan,” etc.
Hebrew and Chaldee Lexicon to the OT.
davar: a single word, in the proper sense (LXX logos, rhema) 2 Kings 18.36; Job 2.13. Also “decree, plan, proposal 2 Sam 17.6; 1 Kings 1.7.”
Liddell, Scott, A Greek-English Lexicon.
logos: word, speech, statement, discourse, refutation, account, explanation, and reason.
The word logos is never defined as another person separate from YHVH, God who is the Father. Hence, in the Old Testament the word of the LORD (i.e., the word of God) is never referred to as a “he” or “him” in either Hebrew or Greek (LXX/Septuagint).
As a matter of fact, all English translations from the Greek before the 1611 KJV describe the logos as an “it” and not a “he” in John 1:2-3: “All things were made by it, and without it was made nothing that was made. In it was life, and the life was the light of men” (Tyndale, Matthews’, Great Bible, Taverner, Whittingham, Geneva, Bishops’, and Tomson). Five of these eight translations also do not capitalize “word” in John 1:1.
So what does John 1:1 mean?
The word was God Himself, i.e., God’s word, as some translations show:
- The Amplified Bible (1965 and 1987 update);
- A Translation in the Language of the People (Williams);
- Original Aramaic New Testament in Plain English
- Scholars Version (The Five Gospels), 1993;
- The Complete Gospels: Annotated Scholars Version (1992)
The 19th-century German scholar Hans Wendt summed it up well:
“Therefore we should not argue from Philo’s meaning of ‘word’ as a hypostasis [person] that John also meant by ‘word’ a preexisting personality. In the remainder of the Gospel and in 1 John, ‘word’ is never to be understood in a personal sense. It means rather the ‘revelation’ of God which had earlier been given to Israel (10:35), had come to the Jews in Holy Scripture (5:38) and which had been entrusted to Jesus and committed by him to his disciples (8:55; 12:48; 17:6, 8, 14, 17; 1 John 1:1) and which would now be preserved by them (1 John 1:10; 2:5, 14). It cannot be proved that the author of the prologue thought of the word as a real person. Only the historical Jesus and not the original word is said to be the Son (John 1:14, 18). But in this Son there dwelt and worked the eternal revelation of God.”
Points to Remember:
- The word and God never talk to each other.
- The word of God is not a procreated, unique Son.
- The word doesn’t have a separate “conscious will.”
