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Jesus is the Word
by A.J. Wilson

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  ” John 1:1

“And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” John 20:30-31

Jesus is unique as a prophet/teacher because he did not claim that he knew all about God and the scriptures, but that he was God and the scriptures (John 14:4-11, Matthew 5:17).  I love the book of John because of the above verses.  John wrote his gospel so that we could know who Jesus is, and that is God incarnate.  There is so much behind these verses, and they are so wonderful.

To begin with, the Greek word translated as “Word” in verse 1 is ‘logos.’  When John used this word, he knew that he would stir up deep thoughts in both the Jews and the Greeks.  For the Jews, the “Word” stirred up thoughts of the scriptures, but also the wisdom/force behind them.  Scriptures such as Psalms 33:6 “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made”, Proverbs 3:19, 8:22-30, and some of the extra-biblical writings of the Jews during the time in between the Old and New Testaments.  Jews were well aware of the power of God’s word.  God spoke the world into existence in the power of his word.

Greeks also had their own ideas in mind when they heard John call Jesus, the Logos.  Philo, a Greek philosopher, of Jewish background, used the term to refer to the image of God, divine wisdom, and the creative principle.  Most Greeks would associate the term with the power which made and controlled the universe.  Many ideas have been proposed to why John used the term Logos for Jesus.  Most believe it was to evangelize a Greek audience and further teach dispersed Jews, familiar with their neighbors’ Greek beliefs.

There are many facets of Jesus, like the facets of a diamond, which can be viewed.  Each of the Gospel writers presented a unique view of Jesus by emphasizing different events and teachings of Jesus.  In the next few weeks we will look at these different views.  Other good passages about the nature of Jesus include Philippians 2:5-11, Colossians 1:15-23, and Hebrews 1.

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