What word is Jesus called in the Gospel of John?

Answer 1

I'm not quite sure of the meaning of the question. Perhaps this will answer.

In The Bible there are many 'titles' given to individuals. Some are descriptive of a function served, or a duty performed by the bearer.

Jesus is called 'the Word' by the apostle John. Likely indicating that Jesus would serve as his Father's spokesman. Jesus would communicate the Father's instructions and information to other creatures, spirit and human sons of God. Jesus was there 'in the beginning'; the angels were not. Jesus was: 'the Word'. He's also called: 'the Word of God' (Revelation 19:16 among others.)

John 12:49, 50: "For I have not spoken from myself, but the Father who sent me has himself given me commandment what I should say and what I should speak; . . . What therefore I speak, as the Father has said to me, so I speak. (Darby's Translation) (also John 7:16,17 Young's Translation)

Another example of this usage in the Bible is in Exodus 4:16. Aaron is called 'a mouth' for Moses. (Some translations call him a 'mouthpiece', or a 'spokesman'.) He spoke in behalf of Moses.

Answer 2

In 400 BC, Plato wrote a series of dialogues (most especially "Republic") which developed the theme that reality is a hidden realm of which this world is merely a reflection. This world we think of as reality was created by a demiurge or hypostasis of eternal and unchanging reality. He called this hypostasis "Logos".

This theme was developed further and further by his successors until the time of Philo of Alexandria, who reinterpreted the Old Testament in terms of Platonism and identified the second deity of the Old Testament, Wisdom, Shekinah, Messiah, or Captain of the Lord's Host (Joshua) with Plato's Logos, and assigned the creation of the mundane world to that Logos.

When the Gospel of John was written, the poem in the first chapter comes from the neo-Platonic doctrine of the world being created by an emanation of the eternal. The writer of John's Gospel decided it would be interesting to claim that Jesus was this Logos.

Answer 3

The Logos was a concept of the ancient Greek philosophers, only approximately translated into English as 'Word'. This was adopted and elaborated on by Philo of Alexandria, a notable leader of the Jewish diaspora in Egypt. According to Philo, Logos was God's son, a second god, through whom the world was created as a rational and ordered universe. Born of mother Wisdom and appearing in the world, the Logos was the agent through whom the great leaders of Israel learned what God expected of them.

From Philo, the 'Word' reached Christianity, with John's Gospel beginning by referring to Jesus as the 'Word' of God.

Answer 4

The Greek term logos as defined in The Enhanced Strong's Lexicon (1992) offers the following meanings among others: "A word, uttered by a living voice . . . what someone has said . . . a continuous speaking discourse . . . doctrine, teaching . . . reason, the mental faculty of thinking."

Likewise, the HCSB Study Bible notes: "Like the related verb LEGO [ to speak ],the noun logos most often refers to either oral or written communication. It means statement or report in some contexts" (2010, p. 1801, "Logos," emphasis in original).

The New Unger's Bible Dictionary sheds further light on the matter, pointing out: "Words are the vehicle for the revelation of the thoughts and intents of the mind to others. In the Person of the incarnate Logos, God made Himself fully known to man. Nothing knowable by man concerning God is undisclosed by incarnate deity. Christ as the Word constitutes the complete and ultimate divine revelation" (1988, p. 780, "Logos").

With the above in mind then, the Bible has several Scriptures placing more light on the 'Word:'

John 1:1-3New International Version (NIV)The Word Became Flesh
1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.

Other Scripture include but are not limited to: Psalm 33:6; John 12:49-50; 2 Corinthians 3:2; and Revelation 1:1.

Answer 5

Much of Greek philosophy by the first century CE was based around monotheism in one form or another. As the relevant god became more transcendent the Greeks regarded any form of contact with the inferior world of matter to be inappropriate and indeed impossible, and so the idea arose that any relationship between the god and the world had to take place through some form of intermediary. The Greek solution was the Logos, a kind of subsidiary god or divine force, an emanation of the deity. The Alexandrian Jew, Philo, is commonly associated with the development of the Logos (which translates as the Word) in hellenestic Judaism.

The opening verses of John, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" allude to this and possibly also to a Gnostic concept of the Word. He was referring to Jesus, and attributing to him the eternal pre-existence that had come to be associated with the Word.

Whereas the Synoptic gospels did not portray Jesus as either divine (see Mark 10:18: Why call me good. There is none good but God.) or pre-existent, John did so in this verse and at other times through the Gospel. The ancient Greek philosophers developed the concept of the Logos, or 'Word', although this term is sometimes translated as 'reason', since it has a much deeper meaning than just a word. This concept entered Christianity as a reference to Jesus, who is called the Word of God in John's Gospel.

Answer 6

• the Word
• the Word of God
• the Way
• the Truth
• the Life
• the Lamb of God
• Rabbi
• the Son of Man
• a teacher

Answer 7

Jesus.