JOHN 1:1
Greek
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
In beginning was the word and the word was with God and God was the word
Latin
In principio erat Verbum et Verbum erat apud Deum et Deus erat Verbum
In beginning was word and word was with/at/by near God and God was Word
English Translations with variant readings:
Standard: In the beginning was the word and the word was with God and the word was God.
AMP: In the beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ), and the Word was with God, and the Word was God Himself.
CEV: In the beginning was the one who is called the Word. The Word was with God and was truly God.
EMPH: Originally was the Word, And the Word was with God; And the Word was God.
GNB: In the beginning the Word already existed; the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
LB: Before anything else existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God.
TM: The Word was first, the Word present to God, God present to the Word. The Word was God.
NET: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was fully God.
NEB: WHEN ALL THINGS BEGAN, the Word already was. The Word dwelt with God, and what God was, the Word was. [Or: The Word was at the creation.]
Comments and Commentaries:
In Genesis 1, God speaks, and his word creates the universe. In John 1 God’s word becomes flesh and is now a living person. In the fullest sense you might say that God’s Word, Jesus, encompasses his entire works and words as well as his entire ministry. Jesus is the Communication of God to us. Through creation his works show his love for mankind. In Jesus he demonstrates the depth of that love on the cross.
The Logos according to the stoics represents the rational principle by which everything exists.
Philo, ancient Jewish philosopher influenced by Plato, distinguished between the ideal world of concepts and the real world of which to Plato was just a shadow of the ideal. Philo called the ideal world “the logos of God.”
Logos can mean inner thought or idea.
Logos can refer to the content of speech or the message that is spoken.
Logos is how God expresses Himself and/or reveals himself to mankind.
Tertullian suggested that the Logos was the thought expressed by the spoken word.
Early Latin Church used three terms for it: sermo, verbum, and ratio. Verbum officially won out and from that we got “word” in all our modern translations which still falls short.
The word “logos” is repeated three times in the first verse alone.
The first time draws our attention back to Genesis 1:1 because of the opening phrase “in the beginning.” But Genesis seems to be focused on what happened “in the beginning” and John focuses on “who was there at the beginning.” Jesus was already there. It’s like “the beginning” marked the difference between eternity past, and the starting of the clock, time. The barrier between time and eternity. John says Jesus was there before the barrier into time was crossed.
The second us of logos states that the word was “with God.” This suggests an intimacy between Father and Son. Jesus speaks of it often. It did not begin as his birth, baptism or any other time but existed from eternity past, on the other side of the time barrier.
The third use of Logos in verse one insists that the logos was in and of itself God. This is not saying that they are one and the same. We can say “the word was God” but we cannot say “God was the word.” One commentator says, “Such is the case, for example, when a single individual is known as both ‘Mr. Thomas’ and ‘the manager.’ Two or more expressions may refer to the same person, making it completely natural to say, ‘Mr. Thomas is the manager,’ or the reverse, ‘The manager is Mr. Thomas.’” But throughout the NT we see the distinction between the two “persons” of the God head as suggested in the 2nd use of Logos.
CLV (Chuck Larsen Version): The Word existed in eternity past in company with God and actually was of the same nature as God.