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but beyond the wit or power of man to provide. The words of Prof. Burton on this point
are suggestive:
"St. John was as far as possible from being the first to apply the term Logos to Christ.
I suppose him to have found it so universally applied, that he did not attempt to stay the
current of popular language, but only kept it to its proper channel, and guarded it from
extraneous corruption" (Inquiries p. 220).
Our English translation of Logos as "the Word" has come to us through the Latin. In
early times, two words were used by the Latin translators: Sermo and Verbum, but as
time went on Sermo was dropped and Verbum universally adopted. Tertullian
(A.D.198-210), while giving us both Latin words as a translation of Logos, preferred
himself the word Ratio.
"Logos means the `word', not, however, in a grammatical sense, for which either
rhema, onoma, or epos is used, but always, like vox, of the living spoken word, the word,
not in its outward form, but with reference to the thought connected with the form"
(Passow).
The Logos of John 1: 1 denotes Christ as He Who represents, or in Whom had been
hidden from eternity, and especially from the beginning of the world, what God had to
say to man (see Cremer). Just as Christ had to say to His disciples, "I have yet many
things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now" (John 16: 12), so God has had to
speak to man in successive stages. In his original state of innocency, man walked and
talked with God (Gen. 3: 8), but subsequent to his expulsion from Eden, he walked and
talked with God to a less and less degree. To the nations at large, the only voice that was
heard was the voice of creation (Rom. 1: 19, 20; Acts 14: 17; Psa. 19: 1-4). Fallen
man, even though specially chosen, as were the people of Israel, could not bear to hear
the immediate word of God, and so we read:
"And they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear; but let not God
speak with us, lest we die" (Exod. 20: 19).
And then at length we have the coming of Christ Himself, and we read:
"God, Who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers
by the prophets, hath in these last days spoken to us by His Son" (Heb. 1: 1, 2).
But even though the time had come for "the Word" to appear among men, and do
what neither the Law nor the Prophets could accomplish, even then He could not reveal
all, until the time came for the advent of the Spirit of truth--Who, not "speaking from
Himself", would "take of the things that are Mine, and show them unto you".
We find in the N.T. a very close parallel between the living Logos, and the written
Logos. A lengthy list could be compiled, but the following will be sufficient to illustrate
our meaning: