Saturday 02 August 2008

Background

Apart from John's Gospel, no other New Testament writing refersto God as "Word". For today's audience this might seem a strangeterm to use for God. However, the term "Word" (from the Greek'logos') as used in John 1, has a verylong history indeed. It is in Ephesus (a Greek trading colony inwhat is now western Turkey) during the late 6th century BC thatlogos first appears as a 'universal governing principle' in thephilosophy of Heraclitus (a Greek philosopher).

Nearly three centuries later the Stoic philosophers developed theirphilosophy around the logos, which was the principle of allrationality in the universe. The Stoics referred to God as 'seminallogos', which contains the seed, essence or idea of all that iscreated. With that sort of pedigree it should be no surprise thatEphesus has been considered the traditional site of John's Gospelwith its marvellous prologue "In the beginning was the Word ..."

As complex as this might seem at first glance, there is a simplerside to it. Language and words are the very things which enable usto think. A word is the most basic building block in our thinking.With this basic building block we create our art, feats ofengineering, literature, music, as well as express our love andemotions.

Genesis1 tells us that we humans are made in the image of ourcreator. Is it any wonder then that we should be endowed with thecreative and imaginative power of the Word?

To Ponder

Words, as we know, have the power to build up ortear down. Knowing now some of the background to God as 'Word', howare you more likely to weigh more wisely the words you use?

What difference does it make knowing that yourvery processes of reasoning are a gift of God?