Logos – This word is used throughout the New Testament and virtually all translators translate it to the “Word”. However, as shocking as it may seem this is a very poor translation because while logos has a popular Greek use in that time period there is virtually no reason based off of the use in the New Testament period to render logos as “word”. This is because when it was used at that time period it carried a much wider meaning than “word” does. Now, logos really has 2 uses in the times of the New Testament.

1. The first use for logos we will talk about is its common use in the everyday speech of the Greeks of the time. It carries a much wider meaning than “word” in that it is basically the thinking or understanding behind the words one uses to communicate. With this in mind it could be described simply as ones inner thinking or that voice you hear inside yourself when you are thinking, or ones thought process. At least, that’s a rough estimation of what logos meant in the common Greek populace and usage. In this, you can see how it is the word from which we get our English word “logic”. In addition to “logic” it could also be translated similarly as “reason” or perhaps even “wisdom” (this would be significant in its other use in the New Testament that will be discussed below). Basically, at its base it could be understood to mean ones “thought process of understanding the way the world works” and when in reference to an individual (or for example God’s logos in places like Romans 9:6) logos could be referred to as their specific way of thinking on things or their line of thought regarding life or a given situation. Logic, reason and wisdom all find their meaning somewhere in this base.  In this common use it is used in a large part of the New Testament. So this is the common use of the word logos and it is my estimation that it is used this way in the vast majority of the New Testament (specifically in anything predating John’s writings and the writing of Hebrews).
2. However, a second use of Logos is seen in scripture. It is often times seen in scripture that was written later then the majority of the New Testament (specifically it seems to be used this way in John’s writings and then in the letter of Hebrews) Logos is used with special significance to denote the being which all things were made by. Logos was used by Greek philosophers of the time to denote an undefined thing (logic) through which everything was made and has its being and it is the rule of the way things are for everything and everyone. Around the time of the early writers of the New Testament a Jewish philosopher named Philo tied the Greek philosophical “Logos” to the Jewish understanding of personified Wisdom (in the wisdom literature of the Old Testament – See Proverbs 8 and Proverbs 9:1-6; Also this can be seen in several passages in the Deutero-canonical books of the Wisdom of Solomon and the Wisdom of Sirach). Philo does connect this personified Wisdom found in the Old Testament scriptures to this Greek philosophical Logos of the time period.  As such John (and whoever you think wrote Hebrews) seems to agree with Philo (at least in correlating the New Testament Logos and the Old Testament Wisdom) and they then use Logos to describe the second person of the trinity (Jesus himself) by whom all things were made and have their being (Colossians 1:16). Logos is correlated to God himself (John 1:1-2),  this would be astonishing to the Hebrew and Greek world alike especially when saying that this Wisdom/Logos came in Human Flesh (John 1:14) and the church unanimously has said that this Logos is Jesus himself – the Logos/Logic of God that has always existed in the Mind of God (see 1 John 1:1-4) and the Logic of Life (1 John 1:1) that became manifested to us in the Flesh (1 John 1:2 and 1 John 1:14) and through Jesus (as the Logic of God and Life) all things shall be held accountable (Hebrews 4: 12-13, Revelation 9: 11-16).