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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God
According to John 1:1, "The Word is god". We all know that the Bible is the word of God; therefore, is John 1:1 is telling us that the Bible is God?
[Note: Please supply authentic and scholarly explanations from Protestant Christians]
The Bible itself shows that there are two meanings to the word, "word". One is about the written word of God, which we collectively call "The Bible", or the holy scriptures that Christians go by. (Other world faiths have their own holy scriptures, so it's clearer just to say 'The Bible' when we refer to the written word of God.)
The second meaning is where it means the uncreated Son of God, who is shown in John chapter 1 to be the one who later became the man, Jesus. This is where a capital 'W' is used, giving us "the Word of God". If you read all of the apostle John's first chapter in his written gospel, you will discover that the Word of God was with God in the beginning, and "God was the Word" (to put the Greek text more accurately). This one was with God in the beginning, and this one made everything that was made. Logically, that means the Word was not made himself. The world was made by him, but the world did not recognize him, or know him.
Then John shows that he became flesh, that is, a human, come of a woman, so that he was fully human. He remained fully divine (that is, God) as he goes on to show. He says that Jesus "dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." He later goes on to call this Jesus "the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world," and "the Son of God".
All of this information has been written down as part of the written record of God's dealings with humanity, which we call The Bible. It says itself that it is "God-breathed" and inspired of God, meaning that the 40 writers (over a period of some 1,600 years) were directed by the invisible Holy Spirit to write the exact word he wanted written. Those initial, original written manuscripts were perfect but we have none of them now. The last originals were worn to a frazzle and many copies made. Those written accounts should never be worshipped, or treated as if such inanimate records were God. God is Spirit, Jesus said, and those worshipping him must worship in spirit and truth" (John chapter 4). We worship God, not objects. I hope that brief explanation of orthodoxly Christian belief is helpful to you.
The confusion is partly derived from the 3 primary meanings of logos in the New Testament. See Lexham Bible dictionary entry on logos by Douglas Estes, a Protestant Bible scholar:
- Logos in its standard meaning designates a word, speech, or the act of speaking (Acts 7:22).
- Logos in its special meaning refers to the special revelation of God to people (Mark 7:13).
- Logos in its unique meaning personifies the revelation of God as Jesus the Messiah (John 1:14).
In John 1:1, the 3rd meaning is used (as in John 1:14), but when Christians colloquially calls the Bible the "word of God", the 1st and 2nd meanings are used. Note, that in John 1:1 the "Word" is capitalized, denoting a Person, not a thing, so the Bible translator directs us to use the 3rd meaning.
Therefore, the Bible is NOT God. The Bible is a collection of books considered to be sacred by the Christian community, and its status as sacred writing is reflected in the Greek word graphḗ translated "Scripture" in English, used in verses such as 2 Tim 3:16:
Every Scripture (graphḗ) is God-breathed and profitable for instruction for conviction, for correction, and for training in righteousness.
"word of God" is a frequent synonym to Bible / Scripture because Christians believe that a Biblical author (per 2 Tim 3:16 above) is inspired to receive God-breathed speech / rhema, (see also Got-Questions article on rhema) through the gift of prophecy that prompted the author to combine it with his/her own thoughts that under God's divine guidance resulted in the inerrant logos (word as embodying an idea) which were later committed to writing (graphḗ). Thus each word in the Bible is a combination of Divine source (rhema) and human thoughts, but the process is protected by God himself so the written words can in a sense be "God's written words" (graphḗ / Scripture).
In the Prologue of the Gospel of John (John 1:1-18), frequently given the pericope title such as Prologue: Christ, the Eternal Word (see NLT translation), logos is used in the 3rd meaning to refer to the 2nd person of the Trinity, who is named God the Word or God the Son, the 1st person being God the Father, and the 3rd person being God the Holy Spirit.
In John 1:1, it is God the Son/Word (NOT the Bible) who existed from the beginning, who was with God the Father, and who was identified by John as having the same nature of the other 2 "persons" of the Trinity. In one Trinitarian theology, we can understand (through the analogy of knowing) that God the Son/Word is eternally generated, meaning that the One God who Knows produces Knowledge in His Mind. That is why "God the Son" is synonymous with "God the Word" (God the Word is Knowledge & Wisdom personified, literally!!).
In the previous section, God the Holy Spirit has already been speaking God's mind to Biblical authors to direct the production of Scripture / Bible. But prophecies & Scripture are NOT enough to save us, so the Triune God decided that God the Son / Word took on flesh (human nature) (John 1:14) so this Knowledge/Wisdom becomes visible to us (personified) as Jesus. Thus Jesus speaking is identical to the Holy Spirit speaking through prophetic gift to Biblical author, since the source is the same God. But since Jesus has a human nature, his speech accompanied by his action becomes a more effective revelation FOR US (because human knowledge by nature has to be mediated through human senses), just as a King's ambassador is more effective in communicating what's in the King's mind rather than the King merely sending a letter.
