Understanding “The Word” … Jesus Christ, the Word Became Flesh
by Skip Heitzig | Billy Graham Evangelical Association – DECISION MAGAZINE
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May 18, 2006
Photo by Jaimie Trueblood/newline.wireimage.com / heyuguys.com
The statement in John 1:14 that “The Word became flesh and dwelt among us” is really the Christmas story pressed into a nutshell. This is the Main Event—Jesus, the eternal Word, became a human being and lived among us in obedience to the Father’s eternal, redemptive plan.
Where did the term the Word come from? It was actually a common first-century concept, especially among the Jews. In Hebrew and Aramaic (the languages of the Old Testament), the Word is the term memrah, which simply means the self-expression of God to people. Just like an author would choose words to write in a book or on a scroll, so the memrah is the self-expression of God to humanity.
On the other hand, the Greek (the language of the New Testament) term for Word is logos, the ordering principle or reason behind the universe. Greeks used the term as the reason there is predictability in the world—stars moving in patterns and seasons coming and going. So, in this one word, John was describing Jesus as both the rational mind that rules the universe and the self-expression of God, the ultimate form of communication.
