4. Christ as Word

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(Published in The Greek Australian VEMA, March 2005)

JESUS CHRIST THE CENTRE OF OUR FAITH:

The Scriptural Image of Christ

Jesus Christ - The Word Incarnate

It is in the Gospel according to St John that Jesus Christ is encountered with the title

'Logos' or 'Word'. Specifically it is seen in two places: in John 1:1 and 1:14. In the opening

lines of the Gospel we see highlighted the pre-existence of the Word:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word

was God" (Jn 1:1).

Applied to Jesus, the title 'Word' in this case affirmed Christ to be pre-existent, beyond the

confines of time and space, divine, and as we shall see later in the Gospel the agent of

creation and the mediator between the Father and the world. In fact as the Word of God,

Jesus Christ was depicted not only in an intercessory role but as the very revelation of God,

His Father. Jesus, as the Word of God is therefore both the revealerand the revelation of

God. As God's revealer, Jesus made known, by His actions, speeches, dialogues and indeed

His entire life those things that God wanted for the world. That is to say, the incarnated Word

revealed orexegeted1 the Father thereby making visible and comprehensible the invisible and

ineffable God. At the same time, as God's revelation, encountering Jesus meant beholding

God, His heavenly Father. As Word, Christ was not only the revealer of the Father's

revelation but the very embodiment of that revelation as well. And so in St John's Gospel, thephrase 'Word' became a title for Jesus since His very person and work came to be identified

completely with His proclamation that is, the person of Jesus became synonymously

identified with the Gospel itself. This idea of Christ as revelation of, and revealing the Father

was taken up by other New Testament writings which describe Jesus as the 'image'2,

'effulgence'3 and 'wisdom'4 of God. After examining the use of the expression 'Word' in the

New Testament, a brief outline of the various meanings of the term will be looked at from

certain extra-biblical sources to see how these shed light on Jesus Christ as the Word of God.

A careful exegesis of this opening verse of St John's Gospel (cited above) provides

us with an insightful acquaintance with the concept of 'word' in its relation to Jesus Christ.

Divided into three simple clauses, each however contains the same imperfect form of the verb

'to be', yet used slightly differently in each case. The first part of the first verse explains that

1 CfJn 1:18 "No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Fathers heart, who

has made him known (exegesato)".2 CfCol 1:5 ''He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation" and 'In their case the god

of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospelof the glory of Christ, who is the image of God' (2Cor 4:4);3 CfHeb 1:3 "He is the reflection of Gods glory and the exact imprint of Gods very being, and he

sustains all things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the

right hand of the Majesty on high".4 CfWis 7:26 " For she is a reflection of eternal light, a spotless mirror of the working of God, and an

image of his goodness".


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the Word existed from the very beginning with God the Father. In this way, it reveals that

there was never a time when God was without His Word. Later, the Fathers of the Church

would speak of the co-eternity of the Father and the Son in their confrontation with Arius5

by stating that even though the Son (and for that matter the Holy Spirit) were from the Father,

this did not mean that they came after Him. 6Just like the sun is not prior to its light, said St

Gregory the Theologian, so too was the Father not prior to His Son. 7 Ultimately the Patristic

tradition would claim that the Word of God was begotten from the Father in a non-temporal

manner (achronos) which goes beyond any logical explanations. It must be remembered that

even though the Fathers spoke of the co-eternity of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, they did

not say that all three persons were co-unoriginate since only the Father was the only cause

and source of the Godhead.

Turning now to the second clause of the opening verse of St John's Gospel, although

the same verb 'was' is used, its meaning does not describe existence, as in the first clause,

but a relationship "the Word was with God" in the sense that the Word was in the presence

of God or in communion with God. One can appreciate here the unity of the Word with God

yet also the Word's distinctiveness from God. For this reason the Eastern Orthodox tradition

would claim that the Father and the Word are one in essence, they are united in their

energies and action towards the world, but each is a distinct, unique mode of existence i.e.

a unique person. Therefore the second clause affirms the indivisible distinction and

unconfused unity between the Father and the Word of God.

Finally the third clause of the first verse of St John's first chapter uses the imperfect

from of the verb 'to be' in a predication which reveals the essential characteristic of the word

i.e. "the word was God" (kai; qeo;" h\n oJ lovgo") that is, the divine quality of the Word.

The word order in this case if significant since it implies that the Word in His nature was truly

God. If for example, the Gospel writer wanted to imply that the Word was a lesser god he

would have written o logos en theos the Word was a god. If, on the other hand, he wanted

to identify the Word completely with God without any distinction, he could have written o

theos en o logos God was the Word. From this verse taken as a whole, one can clearly see

what led the Church in subsequent years to conclude that the Word was in unity with, yet

distinct from, the Father and the Holy Spirit.

Now, for St John the Evangleist not only was the Word recognized to be divine with

exactly the same divinity as God His Father, but in total contrast to this, fully human as well:

"And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his

glory, the glory as of a fathers only son, full of grace and truth" (Jn 1:14).

5 Arius was a pious priest from Alexandria who lived in the fourth century but who did not believe in the

divinity of the Son of God believing instead that He was a creature (albeit the most exalted of all God'screatures) begotten in time. For this reason he was condemned at the first Ecumenical Council in325AD. Since the Scriptural Christ was depicted as co-eternal with the Father (and the Spirit), thenthere "was never a time when the Son of God was not."6 Cf St Gregory the Theologian, Third Theological Oration, 29.3.

7ibid.


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In stating that the divine Word became flesh, John wonderfully combined, in the meaning of

'Word', two diametrically opposed notions those of divinity and humanity. The surprising

unity between these two antithetical elements was now incorporated into Jesus Christ the

Word. In Christ the Word, divinity became inseparably bound to humanity to such an extent

that from now on Christ could most authentically be described only in a theanthropic manner

(i.e. both as fully God and fully human). Even though the Word dwelt with the Father from all

eternity, as the Prologue observed, in having now assumed the flesh of humanity, Christ was

now depicted as a real human being. Hence those scholars who argue today that the notion

of the true incarnation is not found in the New Testament does not stand since St John's

Gospel strongly emphasized the 'flesh' of the Word of God. In fact the importance of the

incarnational nature of Christ is further emphasised in the first letter of John to such a degree

that those who reject this foundational truth are referred to as 'antichrist':

"By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus

Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not

confess Jesus is not from God. And this is the spirit of the antichrist, of

which you have heard that it is coming; and now it is already in the world"

(1Jn 4:2-3).

The emphasis is clearly upon the historical reality of the existence of Jesus Christ, the Logos

incarnate in the flesh since Jesus Christ is the incarnation of the pre-existent Word. Having

looked at the biblical notion of 'Word' as it applied to Jesus Christ, we now turn our attention

to its use in certain extra-biblical literature as this will give us insights into the various other

meanings of Christ as the Word of God.

In the ancient world, the notion of 'word' was heavily reflected upon by many

philosophers as it conveyed important and meaningful insights from which they were able to

explain the meaning and existence of the world. In its attempt today to determine the source

of the various nuances of this profoundly rich expression of the term 'word', much literature

and debate have arisen within biblical scholarship. There is however agreement that the

phrase the 'word' originated either from within Hellenistic philosophy, Gnosticism8 or Jewish

literature. Whilst the contention of many scholars who argue that the term came to

predominate in St John's Gospel as a reaction to the Gnostic frequent use of God as wisdom,

is not entirely incorrect, it is more plausible, though to conclude that Christ came to be

referred to in this way since He was believed to be the all pervading 'reason' (logos) or 'cause'which created and sustained the universe. Besides, this was the interpretation that many

fathers, such as Justin Martyr and Maximus the Confessor gave to the title 'Word' in

reference to Jesus. Furthermore this was how Greek philosophy understood the title as this

too is evidenced in the ancient Greek philosophers, such as Plato, Heraclitus, the Stoics

and Philo.

8 Gnosticism basically was a sect of the early Church which believed that though Jesus was a divine

figure, He nevertheless was one of the many aeons and therefore not divine like the absolute God. Their

general view was that God could not assume a materially human nature since matter was consideredevil and therefore was not divine like God the Father who was utterly transcendent and far removedfrom the material world.


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Coupled with this notion, the concept of 'word' implied much more than simply an

expression of thought, but included its result, that is the analogous action or deed. Therefore

beyond speech and thought the notion of 'word' implied the reason of existence, that power

which gathered together the various scattered elements of the world and put harmony into

them. For example Heraclitus wrote that the Logos was "the omnipresent wisdom by which all

things are steered"9 thereby attributing the Word with divine qualities. On the other hand, for

the Stoics, the 'word' was the common law of nature, the raison d'etre of existence, immanent

in the world and maintaining the unity of the universe. And for Philo, the Logos was the agent

of creation, the means by which God could be known. And so for St John the Evangelist it is

Jesus as the Word of God by whom, through whom for whom all things were made, the one in

whom all things hold together.

So rich was the meaning of 'word' in the ancient world, that the Gospel of St John

was able at once to convey with this title not only the divinity of Jesus, but also His powerful

action as the life-force behind the entire universe. This dynamic character of the meaning of

'Word', as God's expression and accomplishing act is found everywhere in the Scriptures.

And so in the Old Testament it is through the mighty utterance of God's word that the entire

world is created from non being:

"By the word of the LORD the heavens were made, and all their host by the

breath of his mouth" (Ps 33:6).

In the Psalms of the Old Testament, the Word is even personified:

"he sent out his word and healed them, and delivered them from

destruction (Ps 107:20) [He] sends out his command to the earth; his

word runs swiftlyHe sends out his word, and melts them; he makes his

wind blow, and the waters flow (Ps 147:15;18).

The Patristic tradition interpreted these passages as sustaining actions by the Son of God,

the Father's Word, betraying also God's continued care and providence for the world which

He created out of love. Unlike the ancient use of the term, St John's gospel never described

the Word as a faceless emanation overflowing out from God's divinity, but identified the Word

with the person of Jesus. It is this personification of the Word that the author of the Gospel of

John takes up, to begin his Gospel in order to affirm that it was through His Word, that God,

the Father brought about His entire divine purpose in history. And so, in reference to Jesus,

as the Word of God, this implied Christ's identification with God whose expression, deed andunifying cause He was. And as the unique expression of God Himself, divine sonship was

now possible for all believers. Communion with God the Father was only possible because

Jesus Christ was ultimately depicted as the Word of 'God', divine with the exactly the same

divinity as His Father. In the next issue ofVEMA we will examine those landmark statements

which explicitly refer to Jesus Christ as God.

9 James Adam, The Religious Teachers of Ancient Greece (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1909),216-34.


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Dr Philip KariatlisAcademic Secretary

Associate LecturerSt Andrews Greek Orthodox Theological College

4. Christ as Word

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