It's imperative that the serious student of the Bible come to a basic understanding of logos, which is translated as "Word" in John 1:1. Most Trinitarians believe that the word logos refers directly to Jesus Christ, so in most versions of John logos is capitalized and translated "Word" (some versions even write "Christ" in John 1:1 - TLB & NLV). However, a study of the Greek word logos shows that it occurs more than 300 times in the New Testament, and in both the NIV and the KJV it is capitalized only 7 times (and even those versions disagree on exactly when to capitalize it). When a word that occurs more than 300 times is capitalized fewer than 10 times, it's obvious that when to capitalize and when not to capitalize is a translator's decision based on their particular understanding of Scripture.
As it's used throughout Scripture, logos has a very wide range of meanings along two basic lines of thought. One is the mind and products of the mind like "reason" (thus "logic" is related to logos) and the other is the expression of that reason as a "word" "saying" "command" etc. The Bible itself demonstrates the wide range of meaning logos has, and some of the ways it's translated in Scripture are: account, appearance, book, command, conversation, eloquence, flattery, grievance, heard, instruction, matter, message, ministry, news, proposal, question, reason, reasonable, reply, report, rule, rumor, said, say, saying, sentence, speaker, speaking, speech, stories, story, talk, talking, teaching, testimony, thing, things, this, truths, what, why, word and words.
Any good Greek lexicon will also show this wide range of meaning (the words underlined are translated from logos):
Romans 15:18 ...what I have said and done
Matthew 21:24 ...I will also ask you one question
1 Timothy 5:17 ...especially those whose work is preaching and teaching
Galatians 5:14 The entire law is summed up in a single command
John 4:37 Thus the saying, One sows, and another reaps
Luke 4:32 his message had authority
John 6:60 ...This is a hard teaching
Acts 8:21 You have no part or share in this ministry
Matthew 15:6 ...you nullify the word of God
Hebrews 13:7 ...leaders, who spoke the word of God
Matthew 12:36 ...men will have to give account on the day of judgment
Matthew 18:23 ...a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants
Philippians 4:15 ...the matter of giving and receiving
As it's used throughout Scripture, logos has a very wide range of meanings along two basic lines of thought. One is the mind and products of the mind like "reason" (thus "logic" is related to logos) and the other is the expression of that reason as a "word" "saying" "command" etc. The Bible itself demonstrates the wide range of meaning logos has, and some of the ways it's translated in Scripture are: account, appearance, book, command, conversation, eloquence, flattery, grievance, heard, instruction, matter, message, ministry, news, proposal, question, reason, reasonable, reply, report, rule, rumor, said, say, saying, sentence, speaker, speaking, speech, stories, story, talk, talking, teaching, testimony, thing, things, this, truths, what, why, word and words.
Any good Greek lexicon will also show this wide range of meaning (the words underlined are translated from logos):
Romans 15:18 ...what I have said and done
Matthew 21:24 ...I will also ask you one question
1 Timothy 5:17 ...especially those whose work is preaching and teaching
Galatians 5:14 The entire law is summed up in a single command
John 4:37 Thus the saying, One sows, and another reaps
Luke 4:32 his message had authority
John 6:60 ...This is a hard teaching
Acts 8:21 You have no part or share in this ministry
Matthew 15:6 ...you nullify the word of God
Hebrews 13:7 ...leaders, who spoke the word of God
Matthew 12:36 ...men will have to give account on the day of judgment
Matthew 18:23 ...a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants
Philippians 4:15 ...the matter of giving and receiving
