One of Many Mysterious Sayings

This is one of many mysterious sayings in the writings of the Apostle John, and it is one over which many young students are apt to stumble. They take it for granted that “the word,” in every case in which it occurs in this chapter, can be substituted by “Christ,” and that here we have support for the doctrine of the Trinity, for if the “word” existed from the beginning and “was God,” and if that “word” is Christ, then Jesus was with the Father in the beginning, and was identical with Him in person.

But as the Scriptures declare plainly that God (the Creator, the eternally self-existent Being) is One in identity, in character, and in attributes, and that Jesus had no real, corporeal existence prior to his birth of the Virgin Mary, we are obliged to search for an interpretation of John’s words which is in harmony with the general teaching of Scripture.

It is hardly possible in these days to ascertain the full and exact meaning of logos, the Greek word used by John and translated into English as “the word”. The idea of “the word” (or “words,” i.e. utterances) of God may be a part of the real meaning of logos, but it is inadequate to convey to our minds the full meaning of the Greek word.

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Author: H. E. Adams

Keywords: Logos, Word made flesh, Jesus is the Word, Trinity, Tri-unity, Pre-existent word, Pre-existence, Pre-existent, Jesus is God, God the Son, Three in one, God in three persons, Deity of Jesus, Deity of Christ, Doctrine of the Trinity

Bible reference(s): John 1:1

Source: “Understandest Thou What Thou Readest?,” The Testimony, Vol. 8, No. 94, October 1938, pp. 427-8.

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