Greek Name
Logos — the Word
Logos · Meltha
λόγος · ܡܠܬܐ
- Meaning
- 'Word, reason, account, rational principle'.
- Occurrences
- ~330 times in the NT; as a title of Christ, John 1:1, 1:14, 1 John 1:1, Revelation 19:13
- First occurrence
- John 1:1
- Languages
- Koine GreekSyriacLatin
Pronunciation
LOG-os
Origin
A Greek philosophical term (Heraclitus, the Stoics) and simultaneously a Jewish one — the Aramaic Targums use Memra ('word') for God's active presence, and Philo of Alexandria developed a Logos theology decades before John wrote.
Usage & scribal practice
John 1:1's third clause, kai theos ēn ho logos, is one of the most argued sentences in Greek.
Cross-references
John 1:1
'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.'
John 1:14
'And the Word became flesh.'
Revelation 19:13
'his name is called The Word of God.'
How translations render it
Theories, myths & conspiracy claims
Each claim is stated as its proponents state it, then assessed against the manuscript and linguistic evidence.
The anarthrous theos in John 1:1c
The claim: The absence of the definite article before theos is used to argue for 'a god'.
Assessment: The consensus reading is qualitative: the Word shares the nature of God. Greek regularly drops the article on a preverbal predicate nominative; 'a god' is grammatically possible but contextually and theologically isolated.
John borrowed Logos wholesale from paganism
The claim: The prologue is Greek philosophy grafted onto Jewish faith.
Assessment: Overstated. John's Logos is personal, incarnate, and creator — categories the Stoic logos and Philo's Logos both refuse. The vocabulary is shared; the content is not.