Title of Christ
The Word
God's self-expression, present before creation and personal
What the text teaches
John opens his gospel by saying that the Word already was in the beginning, that the Word was with God, and that the Word was God. Three claims are made in one sentence: the Word is eternal, the Word is distinct from the Father, and the Word is fully God.
The Word is not an idea. Verse 3 says all things were made through him, and verse 14 says among us. Scripture moves from eternity to a person you could look at.
First in Scripture
John 1:1. John opens his whole gospel with this title before Jesus is even named, so that every later scene is read in light of who this person eternally is.
Verses to carry with you
- John 1:1. States in one breath that the Word is eternal, distinct from the Father, and fully God.
- John 1:3. Everything that exists came into being through him, which rules out reading the Word as merely a symbol or an idea.
- John 1:14. The pivot of the whole prologue: the eternal Word takes on a body and can be seen.
- Revelation 19:13. At the end of Scripture the same title returns, tying the beginning and the end of the Bible to one person.
The original language
λόγος
In ordinary Greek it covers a spoken word, a message and a reasoned account. John uses it for a person, which no ordinary use of the term would have prepared a reader for.
דָּבָר
In the Old Testament the word of the LORD creates in Genesis 1, comes to the prophets, and does not return empty. John writes into that background.
Historical and cultural background
Greek philosophy used logos for the ordering principle of the universe, and Jewish writers spoke of God's word and wisdom as almost personal. John borrows a term both worlds recognised and then says something neither expected: this Word has a name, a body and a mother. Scripture
Through the whole Bible
God speaks and the world exists. Genesis 1 is a chapter of speech.
The word of the LORD comes to men, and what it says happens.
The Word becomes flesh and is seen, heard and touched.
The rider on the white horse is named the Word of God.
Where this appears across the Bible
Audela traces the word through 7 chapters in 7 books, from Genesis to Revelation.
Old Testament
God speaks and the world exists. Genesis 1 is a chapter of speech.
By the word of the LORD the heavens were made.
God's word does not return to him empty.
New Testament
John opens his whole gospel with this title before Jesus is even named, so that every later scene is read in light of who this person eternally is.
The Word of life, heard, seen and handled.
At the end of Scripture the same title returns, tying the beginning and the end of the Bible to one person.
Cross references
- Genesis 1:3. God said, and there was. Creation happens by speech.
- Psalm 33:6. By the word of the LORD the heavens were made.
- Isaiah 55:11. God's word does not return to him empty.
- John 1:1. The Word was in the beginning, with God, and was God.
- 1 John 1:1. The Word of life, heard, seen and handled.
- Revelation 19:13. His name is called the Word of God.
How it points to Christ
John 1:14 makes the identification himself: . The one who spoke creation into being entered it.
Hebrews 1:1 to 3 says the same thing in different words. God spoke by the prophets, and in these last days he has spoken by his Son.
Teaching on the subject
John could have opened his gospel with a birth, the way Matthew and Luke do, or with a genealogy. Instead he reaches behind Bethlehem altogether and starts where Genesis starts, in the beginning. That phrase is not decoration. It tells the reader that whatever is coming has to be read against the opening page of the whole Bible, where God speaks and the world comes into being.
The three clauses of John 1:1 build on each other. The Word was in the beginning, so he has no starting point of his own within creation. The Word was with God, a phrase that in the Greek carries the sense of face to face nearness, so he is a person distinct from the Father and not simply another name for him. And the Word was God, so whatever the Father is by nature, the Word is too. John will not let a reader soften any of the three claims to make the others easier to hold.
Verse 14 is the turn the whole prologue has been building toward. The Word who spoke creation into being becomes flesh, the plainest word John could use for a real human body, and dwells among us, literally pitches his tent among us, the way God's glory once filled a tent in the middle of Israel's camp. John says plainly that he and others saw that glory, so this is not a private religious experience being described but a claim about something that happened in public, among witnesses.
By the time John wrote, some in the churches were already to think of Jesus as a spiritual figure who only seemed to have a body. John's opening chapter will not allow that. The Word who was with God in eternity is the same Word who became flesh in time, and both halves of that sentence are equally serious.
Often misunderstood
John 1:1 says the Word was with God and the Word was God, both statements about a person, and verse 14 says this Word became flesh and was seen. A message cannot be dwelt among, seen, or touched.
The Old Testament already speaks of the word of the LORD as active and personal, creating in Genesis 1 and never returning empty in Isaiah 55. John draws on that background and then goes further by saying this Word became a man.
Living this today
If Jesus is the Word, then to know him is to know God as he actually is, not as we imagine him to be. There is no need to guess at God's character from nature or feeling alone, because God has spoken definitively in a person we can read about in the gospels.
It also means the Bible you hold is not detached from Christ. The same God who spoke the world into being through his Word has spoken to you in Scripture, and the two are meant to be read together, the written word pointing you to the living one.
Related people, places, events and themes
Related chapters
John 1, Genesis 1, Hebrews 1
Study this further in Audela
Sources and evidence
Explore the passage
These are questions the text can actually answer. Take one, go back to the passage with it, and read until Scripture answers rather than until you have an explanation you like. Each question names where this study, or another passage, does the answering.
What this reveals about God
Start here, because every passage of Scripture is first about God before it is about us. Read for what He does, what He says, and what He is called.
What does this word in Scripture teach about God?
Underline every verb God is the subject of. What He does tells you who He is.
What does this word in Scripture reveal about God's character?
Look for the words the text itself uses of Him: holy, merciful, faithful, jealous, patient. Take the text's own vocabulary rather than your own.
What this reveals about us
Scripture is honest about people. Read for what it says of human need, human failure, and the kind of response it calls for.
What does this word in Scripture teach about humanity?
Watch what the people in the text want, fear, and trust. Scripture rarely flatters them.
Where this arrives in Christ
Jesus said the Scriptures testify of Him. Follow the line the Bible itself draws rather than inventing one.
What does this word in Scripture reveal about Jesus Christ?
Look for what the New Testament does with this text. A connection Scripture makes is a connection you can stand on.
What does this word in Scripture reveal about salvation?
Ask who does the saving, who is saved, from what, and by what means. Let the text answer each part.
The world behind the words
The first readers knew things we have to learn. Recovering what they knew is study, not speculation.
How would the original audience have understood this word in Scripture?
Ask what they had already been told, what they were living through, and what this would have cost them to believe.
What historical or cultural background helps explain this word in Scripture?
Look at the work, the worship, the law and the customs the text assumes you already understand.
What do these words carry in the original: λόγος, דָּבָר?
Take the word to its root, its first appearance, and its range of use. Then let the context choose the meaning.
How this connects to the rest of Scripture
Scripture is its own best commentary. The clearest answers usually come from another passage rather than from a scholar.
Which Old and New Testament passages help explain this word in Scripture?
Prefer passages that quote or clearly echo this text. Those links are the Bible's own, not ours.
What biblical themes are developed in this word in Scripture, and where do they begin?
Trace one theme backwards to where Scripture first raises it, then forwards to where it lands.
What this asks of you
Application is the last step, never the first, and it must come out of the passage rather than out of general advice.
What does this word in Scripture teach believers to do today?
Say it as one sentence you could obey this week, and be able to point at the verse it came from.
Questions Audela will not answer
Where Scripture does not answer a question, Audela says so plainly rather than filling the silence. An honest “the Bible does not tell us” is more faithful than a confident guess, and it keeps the reader’s trust in God’s Word rather than in our reasoning.
The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever.
- Ask instead: What does the passage say God did, and what does that reveal about His character?
- Ask instead: What has God told us about His purpose here, in this text or elsewhere in Scripture?
- Ask instead: What does Scripture say about how God acts, and where does it say it?
- Ask instead: What happened, and what does the rest of Scripture make of it?
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Where this is taught in full
These are the deepest studies Audela has written that stand on this concept. Start with the chapter study if you want the passage itself, or the topic study if you want the theme traced across the whole Bible.
Studies standing on the same passages
How this connects across Audela
Scripture teaches one story, so Audela is one library. These are the pages standing on the same passages, themes, doctrines and people as this one.
Same passage
- Light of the WorldBoth pages teach Genesis 1:3, so they stand on the same text.
- Son of GodBoth pages teach Hebrews 1, so they stand on the same text.
- The IncarnationBoth pages teach John 1:14, so they stand on the same text.
- The Word became fleshBoth pages teach John 1:14, so they stand on the same text.
Same chapter
- Genesis 22: The Mountain Where God Revealed the GospelBoth stand in John 1, at different points in the chapter.
- Why does Abraham say God will provide a lamb, when God provides a ram?Both stand in John 1, at different points in the chapter.
- DeceptionBoth stand in 1 John 1, at different points in the chapter.
- GraceBoth stand in John 1, at different points in the chapter.
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