Greek: λόγος (logos) – word, logic, wisdom

Hebrew equivalents: חָכְמָה (chokmah) – wisdom; דָּבָר (davar) – word, matter, event;

“In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and the Logos was God…

All things came into being through Him…

And the Logos became flesh and dwelt among us.”

— John 1:1, 3, 14

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❌ MISUNDERSTOOD: Logos

 Is Not Just “The Word”

When English Bibles translate logos as simply “Word,” something crucial is lost.

“Word” is too small.

And what’s worse: it blurs together three very different Greek terms:

• Graphe – a written word (often translated “Scripture” but sometimes translated “word”)
  
• Rhema – a spoken word or message (also sometimes translated just “word”)
  
• Logos – divine logic, reason, wisdom, or thought (also often incorrectly translated as “word”)
  

All three are important. But they’re not interchangeable. And when we mistranslate logos as “word,” especially in places like John 1, 1 John, or Hebrews we risk thinking Jesus is just the Bible made flesh—or that God’s logic is fully contained in a single book, sentence, or even a single statement.

But Logos is not a sound or a scroll.

It is God’s living reason, the wisdom by which all things were made, sustained, and given meaning.

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🧠 What Logos Really Means

In its original Greek context, logos meant far more than a single word on a page. It referred to:

• Internal reason or logic
• The ordering principle behind reality
• Mind, thought, or understanding
• The inner coherence that makes something intelligible

This is where we get English words like:

• Logic – the structure of thought
  
• Theology – reasoning about God
  
• Biology – the logic of life
  
• Psychology – the logic of the soul
  

In other words, logos is what makes things make sense. It is the wisdom-structure behind the world, the rationality behind speech, and the divine mind and pattern behind all creation.

📚 Logos Is the Wisdom Tradition Fulfilled

This idea didn’t begin with the Greeks or with Paul or John. It began in Hebrew wisdom literature, where Chokmah (Wisdom) is described as the first of God’s works (Proverbs 8):

“The Lord begot me at the beginning of His work…

In the begining I was beside Him, like a master builder…

Rejoicing always before Him, delighting in the human race.”

Later Jewish thinkers—like Philo of Alexandria—saw the connection between Chokmah and the Greek Logos. They taught that:

Logos is Wisdom personified—God’s agent of creation, reason, and revelation.

John’s Gospel takes this and radicalizes it:

• The Logos wasn’t just with God—it was God.
  
• And this Logos didn’t stay abstract—it became incarnate in Jesus.
  

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🔄 Logos ≠ Graphe or Rhema

Many today assume Logos just means word and then equate it with “Bible.” But as we have shown, Logos is not the same as Graphe or Rhema:

• Graphe – Written word (Scripture, or the Bible)
  
• Rhema – Spoken message
  
• Logos – The inner logic behind both
  

Whenever God speaks a rhema, or inspires a graphe, that message is only life-giving insofar as it contains and reflects God’s Logos.

This is why Jesus could say, “The words (rhemata) I speak are spirit and life”—not because the soundwaves had magic power, but because those words revealed God’s wisdom, His Logos.

And it’s why Paul could say that “All Scripture (graphe) is God-breathed,” not because every written word is divine in itself, but because it carries and transmits the living logic and wisdom of God.

So we honor rhema and graphe—but we follow, know and love Logos, the very mind of God become flesh in Jesus.

Not ink on a page. Not syllables in the air. But the person of divine reason made flesh in Jesus.

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🕊️ Logos Is God’s Creative Logic

In Genesis 1, God speaks—and creation takes shape:

“Let there be light…”

But this isn’t just a command. It’s a wisdom act. God’s speaking is structured, orderly, and coherent. This is Logos made verbal to put things in order.

God brings function out of chaos.

Meaning out of void.

Structure out of formlessness.

Creation is not haphazard.

It’s intelligible, relational, rhythmic—because it is born from Logos.

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👤 The Logos Became Flesh

Here is the mystery at the heart of Christianity:

The Logic of the Universe…

The Wisdom that ordered creation…

The Thought of God that gives all things meaning…

Became a person.

Jesus is not simply a divine spokesperson.

He is the Wisdom of God in human form—the living logic of life and love.

“What was from the beginning, what we have seen with our eyes… concerning the Logos of life…” (1 John 1:1)

So when John declares, “In the beginning was the Logos,” he’s not just saying, “God had something to say.”

He’s saying:

“God’s eternal wisdom—His very logic—was present at the dawn of creation.”

And when he adds, “The Logos became flesh,” he doesn’t mean Scripture put on skin.

He means:

God’s living logic took on a human flesh.

This is God’s Logos in action. Each word expressed by God is a piece of wisdom expressed to bring about reasoned order, bringing function and form out of chaos, flourishing from love and harmony. Creation itself is speech structured by wisdom.

The world is not random.

It was shaped by Logos—God’s divine understanding.

Creation is intelligible because it was made by Wisdom.

So when John says, “All things came into being through Him,” he means that Jesus is that same Logos—the eternal Wisdom that gave rise to everything, from galaxies to gravity, to your capacity for beauty, justice, and love.

This is why Paul can say of Christ:

“All things were created through Him and for Him… and in Him all things hold together.”

—Colossians 1:16–17

And this is what John means in 1 John 1:1–2:

“What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes… concerning the Logos of life… and the life was made manifest.”

Jesus is not merely a moral teacher or divine messenger.

He is the embodied Wisdom of God—the very logic of creation, come to restore and fulfill it from within.

To follow Jesus, then, is not merely to obey a good man.

It is to align oneself with the wisdom and logic of the universe.

It is to align your life with the very structure of reality.

It is to live according to the logic and wisdom of God.

🔄 Logos Is the “How” of Agape

As we’ve seen in this series:

• Shabbat is the goal of creation—restful harmony with God.
  
• Agape is the why of creation—God’s self-giving love.
  
• And now, Logos is the how—the wisdom by which love is expressed, ordered, and brought to fullness.
  

Agape is the heartbeat.

Logos is the structure.

Jesus is both.

The Logos of God is not a concept to study, but a person to follow.

To walk in step with Jesus is to walk in step with the inner logic of God.

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🔑 Word Summary: 

Logos

• Literal Meaning: logic, wisdom, reason, and understanding
  
• Biblical Function: God’s mind, His very reason, wisdom and logic—present at creation and embodied in Christ
  
• Theological Meaning: The “how” of creation and redemption; the wisdom-structure through which agape gives life
  
• In Our Words:
  
  Logos is the inner logic of divine love—God’s wisdom made flesh in Jesus, through whom all things were made and are being remade.
  

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🔜 What Comes Next:

Tselem – What it means that Humans are made in the Image of God?

Mistranslated Series: Word 4 – Tselem – Image of God