“To understand Logos is, in a very real sense, to understand John’s Gospel itself.” — Charles Ellicott
There are few words more fascinating—or more edifying—than the word Word, or logos, in John 1. It is as though all the ancient streams of thought flow into it, only to find their fulfillment in Christ.
What follows is a modernized version of the great nineteenth-century commentator Charles Ellicott’s explanation of this word in the Gospel of John. It captures the meaning of logos as beautifully as anything I have read. Reading it will repay you richly in encouragement and Christmas wonder, and it will help you understand the Gospel of John more deeply. Here it is:
Why John Chose the Word Logos
One of the greatest difficulties—and one of the greatest keys—to understanding the Gospel of John lies in a single word: λόγος (Logos).
Our English Bibles translate it as “Word.” But that translation, helpful as it is, cannot fully carry the meaning John intended. To understand Logos is, in a very real sense, to understand John’s Gospel itself.
Why “Word” Isn’t Enough
From the earliest centuries, translators struggled with this term. Latin versions rendered it Verbum, but some also used Sermo (discourse) or Ratio (reason). One early Latin translation of Athanasius even rendered Logos as “Verbum et Ratio”—Word and Reason—capturing its double meaning.
That double meaning is essential.
In Greek, logos refers both to thought and to expression—to reason within and speech without. Aristotle distinguished between the logos within (thought) and the logos without (spoken discourse). The Stoics sharpened this distinction, speaking of the logos endiathetos (the word within the mind) and the logos prophorikos (the word expressed outwardly).
Our English word “Word” misses much of this. It suggests a detached utterance, whereas logos suggests living reason—thought that expresses itself, meaning that acts.
How John Uses Logos
The New Testament often uses logos simply to mean speech or message. John himself uses it this way many times. But in the opening of his Gospel, he uses Logos absolutely and personally—and only there.
In the Prologue (John 1:1–18), Logos refers not to an idea, not to a doctrine, but to a person. This personal use of Logos is unique in the New Testament, and it demands explanation.
John does not explain the term. He assumes his readers already know it. That tells us something important: Logos was already a familiar and weighty concept in the world of the first century.
The World John Was Writing Into
That world had three overlapping streams of thought.
1. Gnostic Speculation (Rejected)
Some second-century Gnostic systems used Logos as one divine emanation among many. These systems borrowed Christian language but turned it into elaborate mythologies.
John’s Gospel cannot be derived from these. Historically and theologically, they are developments after John, not sources for him.
2. Jewish Scripture and the Targums
Far more important is the Jewish background.
The Old Testament already speaks of God’s Word as active, powerful, and life-giving. Wisdom literature goes further, personifying God’s Wisdom as present with Him in creation.
In the Aramaic paraphrases of Scripture—the Targums—this becomes even more concrete. There, the Memra da-Yeya (“the Word of the Lord”) appears again and again as the way God acts in the world.
For many Jews, the Word of the Lord functioned as a reverent way of speaking about God present and active among His people.
3. Judaeo-Alexandrian Thought (Philo)
Then there is Philo of Alexandria, a Jewish thinker steeped in Greek philosophy. For Philo, God is too glorious to be approached directly. The Logos becomes the bridge between God and the world—the divine Reason, the firstborn of God, the agent of creation, the mediator between heaven and earth.
Sometimes Philo speaks of the Logos almost as a person; sometimes almost as an idea. The boundary is fluid. But the concept is unmistakable.
John’s Claim: All the Shadows Point to One Reality
John knows this world. He has lived in it for decades.
He knows the Hebrew Scriptures. He knows the Targums. He knows the categories of Greek and Jewish thought circulating in places like Ephesus. He hears people talking about Beginning, Logos, Life, Light, Glory, Grace, Truth.
And then he writes his Gospel.
In a short prologue, John declares that all these ideas were shadows.
There is a Logos—eternal, face to face with God, truly God.
Through Him the universe came into existence.
In Him was life, and that life was the light of humanity.
And then comes the decisive claim:
The Logos became flesh.
Not an idea.
Not a system.
Not a philosophical bridge.
A man.
The Logos was not only truly God; He was truly human. The divine Reason entered history. The Word became visible. The glory once hidden now tabernacled among us.
Why This Matters
John’s doctrine of the Logos does not reject the thought-world of his time; it fulfills and corrects it. It speaks in familiar terms—but gives them a content no one had dared to claim.
The gulf between God and humanity is bridged, not by speculation, but by incarnation.
And this is possible because there is, even in us, a logos within—reason, conscience, thought—that can respond to God’s self-disclosure. The Logos who became flesh speaks to something already present in human nature, because we were made to know Him.
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Photo by Ussama Azam on Unsplash
Modernization from ChatGPT. You can find a free version of the original here