gulf between things said and things done.
In John 1:1, ôIn the beginning was the Wordö is obviously direct reference to the opening words of Genesis. JohnÆs use of ôWordö here is therefore a theological statement about GodÆs creative activity as described in Genesis 1, where, as has been said, whatever God says immediately comes to be. Like the Psalmist of Psalm 119, John is offering a theological explication of the omnipotent power of GodÆs word; what he offers is the theological revelation that Jesus Christ is GodÆs creative power. Jesus was not only present at the creation of the world, but was the Creator: ôwithout him was nothing made.ö
However, why did John make his point by equating Jesus with GodÆs word? Could he not instead have said, ôJesus said, æLet there be light,Æ and there was light?ö For a variety of reasons, explorations of which would go far outside the scope of this paper, John did not want to blur the distinction between the persons of the Father and the Son (or the Holy Spirit, who also plays many roles in the Genesis story). Instead, he seems to be proposing his theology in terms understandable to the Greek-speaking audience he is writing for.
The fist six words of JohnÆs Gospel are, in transliterated Greek, en archt tn ho logos. Here logos is the word translated in most English versions of the Bible as ôWord.ö But it doesnÆt mean a single spoken word. Rather, as any Greek dictionary shows, it means ôreason; rational speech; the ability to speak rationally.ö The Greeks referred to an insane person as alogon, unable to speak rationally. This is why the English word ôlogicö is derived from logos.
The other key word, archt, does have a meaning referring to beginnings, origins, etc., as used now in ôarcheology,ö the study of ancient origins, a word that combines both of the Greek roots under consideration here. However, it has an equally important second meaning h...