02 A. Word of God

Word of God

 Revelation 1:2:  Who bare record of the word of God, and of the testimony of Jesus Christ.” (RSV)

             Or perhaps: “…to the word of God even to the testimony of Jesus Christ.”  That is, the Word of God is the testimony of Jesus Christ.[1]

            When John speaks of “the Word of God,” he not only has in mind the concepts of the Greek logos,[2] which has been so extensively discussed, but also the Hebrew ideas, not only of the creatively powerful Word, but also of the artistically beautiful Word of Light, of poetry and music.  The Word, as logos, is:

Living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.  And before him no creature is hidden, but all are open and laid bare to the eyes of him with whom we have to do. (Hebrews 4:12-13 RSV).[3]

 The Word reveals the innermost Man and exposes him.  It also reveals the deep things of God to the very spirit of Man.

            Every word of God is literature in its highest and purest form.  In Genesis 1:3 when God said: “Let there be Light,” He brought Light to light, bearing it forth.  The New Testament writer must have had this in mind when he said:  “…hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel.” (2 Timothy 1:10.  See also Romans 2:7.)

            When God forbade the use of the art forms of graven images, the effect was to divert the energy of this artistic expression into the only form allowed to the engravers, writing.  Phonetic writing is the image of the spoken word, the spoken word made visible and durable.  In order that writing might not violate the commandment not to make any graven images, the characters could not be like those of the Egyptians, (and other ancient writing systems), hieroglyphic pictures of their idol gods, but had to be abstract designs.  In fact, this requirement for abstraction necessitated the development of a phonetic script, that is, a “picture” not of any creature in heaven, earth or sea, but an image of sound.  It is therefore almost certain that Moses did indeed develop the principle of phonetic writing, as tradition would also have it, probably using the alphabet as a syllabary, which would have been phonetic for the Hebrew language of that time.

            Thus the “Word of God” in the book of Revelation is a powerful and beautiful poem about the Loveliest Subject, Jesus Christ.


[1] John 5:39.  (‘Word’ = Greek logos’.  Used also in Revelation 1: 9; 3:8, 10; 6:9; 12:11; 17:17; 19:13; 20:4; 21:5; 22:18, 19.

[2] Strong‘s computer based lexicon says:  “A Greek philosopher named Heraclitus first used the term Logos around 600 BC to designate the divine reason or plan which coordinates a changing universe.  This word was well suited to John‘s purpose in John 1.”

[3] The “living and active” Word is spoken of in Psalm 107:20; 147:15, 18; Heb. 1:2-3; 1 Cor. 8:6; Colossians 1:15-17.

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