Part III, Chapter XXXVI, 1

OF THE WORD OF GOD, AND OF PROPHETS

When the Word of God, or of man, is mentioned, it does not mean a part of speech such as grammarians call a noun or a verb, or any single utterance without other words joined to it to give it meaning. It means a complete speech or discourse in which the speaker affirms, denies, commands, promises, threatens, wishes, or asks a question. In this sense the word signifying a Word is not vocabulum but sermo (in Greek, logos): a speech, discourse, or saying.

Again, if we say the Word of God or of man, it may refer sometimes to the speaker, as when we speak of words God or a person has spoken. In this sense, when we say the Gospel of St. Matthew, we understand St. Matthew to be its writer. At other times it refers to the subject: when we read in the Bible, “The words of the days of the Kings of Israel, or Judah,” the acts performed in those days are the subject of those words. In Greek, which retains many Hebraisms in Scripture, the Word of God often means not what God has spoken but what is spoken concerning God and his government: that is, the doctrine of religion. Thus to say Logos Theou is the same as to say Theologia, the doctrine we usually call divinity, as the following passages show. (Acts 13.46.) “Then Paul and Barnabas grew bold, and said, It was necessary that the Word of God should first have been spoken to you, but since you reject it, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles.” What is here called the Word of God was the doctrine of the Christian religion, as the preceding account plainly shows. And (Acts 5.20.) where an angel tells the apostles, “Go stand and speak in the Temple all the Words of this life,” the Words of this life mean the doctrine of the Gospel, as their actions in the Temple show, and as the last verse of that chapter expressly says: “Daily in the Temple, and in every house they did not cease to teach and preach Christ Jesus.” Clearly Jesus Christ was the subject of this Word of Life; or, equivalently, the subject of the Words of the Eternal Life our Savior offered them. So (Acts 15.7.) the Word of God is called the Word of the Gospel because it contains the doctrine of the Kingdom of Christ; and this same Word (Rom. 10.8,9.) is called the Word of Faith: that is, as the passage explains, the doctrine of Christ's coming and rising from the dead. Likewise (Mat. 13. 19.), “When anyone hears the Word of the Kingdom” means the doctrine of the Kingdom taught by Christ. Again, the same Word is said (Acts 12. 24.) “to grow and to multiply”; this is easily understood of the evangelical doctrine, but is hard and strange if understood of God's voice or speech. In the same sense, the doctrine of devils does not mean words spoken by any devil, but the doctrine of pagans concerning demons and the phantoms they worshiped as gods. (1 Tim. 4.1.)

Considering these two meanings of the WORD OF GOD in Scripture, it is plain that in the latter sense, meaning the doctrine of the Christian religion, all Scripture is the Word of God; but not in the former sense. For example, although God spoke to Moses the words “I am the Lord your God, etc.” and the rest of the Ten Commandments, the preface, “God spoke these words and said,” must be understood as the words of the writer of the sacred history. The Word of God, when it means something he has spoken, is understood sometimes properly and sometimes metaphorically. Properly, it means the words he spoke to his prophets. Metaphorically, it means his wisdom, power, and eternal decree in making the world. In this sense the commands “Let there be light,” “Let there be a firmament,” “Let us make man,” etc. (Gen. 1.) are the Word of God. In the same sense it is said (John 1.3.), “All things were made by it, and without it nothing was made that was made”; and (Heb. 1.3.), “He upholds all things by the word of his Power,” meaning by the power of his Word, that is, by his Power; and (Heb. 11.3.), “The worlds were formed by the Word of God”; and there are many other passages to the same effect. Similarly, among the Latins, the name fate, properly meaning the spoken word, is used in this sense.

Secondly, it means the effect of his Word: the very thing affirmed, commanded, threatened, or promised by his Word. Thus (Psalm 105.19.) Joseph is said to have been kept in prison “until his Word came”; that is, until what he had foretold (Gen. 40.13.) to Pharaoh's butler concerning the latter's restoration to office came to pass. For “his Word came” there means that the event itself came to pass. Likewise (1 King. 18.36.) Elijah says to God, “I have done all these your Words,” rather than “I have done all these things at your Word,” or command. And (Jer. 17.15.), “Where is the Word of the Lord?” stands for “Where is the evil he threatened?” And (Ezek. 12.28.), “None of my Words shall be delayed any more”: by Words are meant the things God promised his people. And in the New Testament (Mat. 24.35.), “Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my Words shall not pass away” means that nothing I have promised or foretold will fail to come to pass. It is in this sense that St. John the Evangelist—and, I think, St. John alone—calls our Savior himself in the flesh “the Word of God,” as in Joh. 1.14., “the Word was made Flesh.” That is, the Word or promise that Christ would come into the world, “which in the beginning was with God,” was God's purpose as Father to send God the Son into the world to enlighten humanity about the way to eternal life; but it was not until then carried out and actually incarnated. Thus our Savior is called “the Word” not because he was the promise but because he was what was promised. Those who take this passage as an occasion to call him the Verb of God merely make the text more obscure. They might as well call him the Noun of God: for people understand a noun and a verb alike as nothing but a part of speech, an utterance or sound that neither affirms nor denies, commands nor promises, and has no substance, bodily or spiritual; therefore it cannot be said to be either God or man, whereas our Savior is both. And this Word, which St. John says in his Gospel was with God, is called (in his 1 Epistle, verse 1.) “the Word of Life,” and (verse 2.) “The eternal life, which was with the Father.” He can therefore be called the Word only in the same sense in which he is called Eternal Life: that is, “he who has procured eternal life for us” by coming in the flesh. Likewise (Apocalypse 19.13.) the apostle says of Christ, clothed in a garment dipped in blood, that his name is “the Word of God”; as though he had said that his name was “He who came according to God's purpose from the beginning, and according to his Word and promises delivered by the prophets.” There is nothing here about the incarnation of a word, but about the incarnation of God the Son, called the Word because his incarnation fulfilled the promise; just as the Holy Ghost is called the Promise. (Acts 1.4. Luke 24.49.)

There are also passages of Scripture in which the Word of God means words consonant with reason and equity, even when spoken neither by a prophet nor by a holy person. Pharaoh Necho was an idolater, yet the words he sent through messengers to advise the good King Josiah not to oppose his march against Carchemish are said to have come from the mouth of God; and Josiah, not heeding them, was killed in battle, as we read in 2 Chron. 35. vers. 21,22,23. It is true that when the same history is told in the first book of Esdras, Jeremiah, not Pharaoh, speaks these words to Josiah from the mouth of the Lord. But we must credit canonical Scripture, whatever is written in the Apocrypha.

The Word of God must also be taken to mean the dictates of reason and equity when Scripture says it is written in the human heart, as in Psalm 36.31. Jerem. 31.33. Deut.30.11, 14. and many similar places.

The name PROPHET in Scripture sometimes means a spokesman, one who speaks from God to man or from man to God; sometimes a predictor, one who foretells future things; and sometimes one who speaks incoherently, as distracted people do. It is most often used of someone speaking from God to the people. Thus Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others were prophets. And in this sense the High Priest was a prophet, for he alone entered the Sanctum Sanctorum to inquire of God and was to declare his answer to the people. Therefore, when Caiaphas said that it was expedient for one man to die for the people, St. John says (chap. 11.51.) that “He did not say this of himself, but being High Priest that year, he prophesied that one man should die for the nation.” Those who taught the people in Christian congregations (1 Cor. 14.3.) are also said to prophesy. In the same sense God says to Moses (Exod. 4.16.) concerning Aaron, “He shall be your spokesman to the people; he shall be a mouth for you, and you shall be to him in place of God.” What is called spokesman here is called prophet (chap.7.1.): “See,” says God, “I have made you a God to Pharaoh, and Aaron your brother shall be your prophet.” In the sense of speaking from man to God, Abraham is called a prophet (Genes. 20.7.), where God speaks thus to Abimelech in a dream: “Now therefore restore the man his wife, for he is a prophet, and shall pray for you.” From this we may also gather that the name prophet may fittingly be given to those called to say public prayers for the congregation in Christian churches. In this same sense the prophets who came down from the high place (or hill of God) with a psaltery, a tambourine, a pipe, and a harp (1 Sam. 10.5,6.), and Saul among them (vers. 10.), are said to prophesy because in this manner they praised God publicly. In the same sense Miriam (Exod. 15.20.) is called a prophetess. So too it should be understood in (1 Cor. 11.4,5.), where St. Paul says, “Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered, etc., and every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered.” For prophesying here means nothing more than praising God in psalms and holy songs, which women could do in church although they were not permitted to address the congregation. And in this sense the pagan poets who composed hymns and other poems honoring their gods were called vates (prophets), as everyone familiar with the books of the Gentiles knows; and as is evident in (Tit. 1.12.), where St. Paul says that a prophet of the Cretans' own called them liars. This is not because St. Paul regarded their poets as prophets, but because he acknowledged that the word prophet was commonly used for people who celebrated the honor of God in verse.

On the Word of God and Prophets

When we speak of the Word of God or the word of a person, we do not mean a part of speech, like what grammarians call a noun or a verb. Nor do we mean a single sound, without other words to give it meaning. We mean a complete speech or statement in which someone affirms, denies, commands, promises, threatens, wishes, or asks something. The Latin word in this sense is not vocabulum, meaning an individual word, but sermo, or logos in Greek, meaning a speech, statement, or saying.

Again, “the Word of God” or “the word of a person” can refer to the speaker, meaning the words God or a person spoke. When we say “the Gospel of St. Matthew,” for example, we understand St. Matthew to have written it. But the phrase can also refer to its subject. When the Bible mentions “the words of the days of the kings of Israel or Judah,” it means that events in those days are the subject of those words. Biblical Greek retains many Hebrew expressions. In that Greek, “the Word of God” often means not speech delivered by God but speech about God and his government: the teaching of religion. Thus logos theou can mean the same as theologia, the subject we usually call divinity. The following passages make this clear. In Acts 13.46. Paul and Barnabas spoke boldly: “It was necessary that the Word of God be spoken to you first. But since you reject it and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, look: we turn to the Gentiles.” What is called the Word of God here is the teaching of the Christian religion, as the preceding account clearly shows. In Acts 5.20. an angel tells the apostles, “Go and stand in the Temple, and speak all the words of this life.” “The words of this life” means the teaching of the Gospel. This is clear from what they did in the Temple, as the chapter’s last verse states: “Every day, in the Temple and in every house, they never stopped teaching and preaching Christ Jesus.” Jesus Christ was thus the subject of this Word of Life, or, equivalently, of the words about the eternal life our Savior offered them. Similarly, Acts 15.7. calls the Word of God “the Word of the Gospel,” because it contains teaching about Christ’s Kingdom. Romans 10.8,9. calls the same Word “the Word of Faith”: teaching, as the passage explains, that Christ has come and risen from the dead. Matthew 13. 19. says, “When anyone hears the Word of the Kingdom,” meaning the teaching about the Kingdom given by Christ. Acts 12. 24. says that the same Word “grew and multiplied.” That is easy to understand if it means the teaching of the Gospel, but difficult and strange if it means God’s voice or speech. In the same way, “the teaching of devils” does not mean words spoken by a devil. It means what pagan people teach about demons and the apparitions they worshiped as gods (1 Tim. 4.1.).

Given these two meanings of “the Word of God” in Scripture, it is clear that all Scripture is the Word of God in the second sense, as teaching about the Christian religion. But not all of it is the Word of God in the first sense, as speech spoken by God. For example, God spoke the words “I am the Lord your God, etc.” through the end of the Ten Commandments to Moses. But the introduction, “God spoke these words and said,” is the wording of the writer of the sacred history. When “the Word of God” means what God has spoken, it is sometimes used literally and sometimes figuratively. Literally, it means the words he spoke to his prophets. Figuratively, it means his wisdom, power, and eternal decision in making the world. In this sense the commands “Let there be light,” “Let there be a firmament,” “Let us make man,” and so on (Gen. 1.) are the Word of God. The same sense appears in John 1.3.: “All things were made by it, and without it nothing was made that was made”; in Heb. 1.3.: “He upholds all things by the word of his power,” meaning by the power of his Word, or simply by his power; and in Heb. 11.3.: “The worlds were formed by the Word of God.” Many other passages have this meaning. The Latin word for fate, which literally means “the spoken word,” is also used in this sense.

A second figurative meaning of God’s Word is the result of his Word: the thing he affirms, commands, threatens, or promises. Psalm 105.19. says Joseph was kept in prison “until his word came.” This means until what he had foretold to Pharaoh’s butler about being restored to his office (Gen. 40.13.) actually happened. “His word came” means the event came about. Similarly, Elijah says to God in 1 King. 18.36., “I have done all these your words,” instead of “I have done all these things at your command.” “Where is the Word of the Lord?” in Jer. 17.15. means “Where is the evil he threatened?” In Ezek. 12.28., “None of my words shall be delayed any longer” refers to the things God promised his people. In the New Testament, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away” (Mat. 24.35.) means that everything I promised or foretold will happen. In this sense St. John the Evangelist—and, I think, only St. John—calls our Savior in the flesh “the Word of God.” Thus John 1.14. says “the Word became flesh”: that is, the Word or promise that Christ would come into the world. This Word “was with God in the beginning”: God the Father had planned to send God the Son into the world to show people the way to eternal life. But only then was the plan carried out and actually made flesh. Our Savior is called “the Word” not because he was the promise, but because he was what was promised. People who take this passage as a reason to call him “the Verb of God” only make it harder to understand. They might as well call him “the Noun of God.” Both a noun and a verb mean, to ordinary people, only a part of speech: a sound that by itself neither affirms, denies, commands, nor promises, and is neither a physical nor a spiritual substance. Such a thing cannot be called God or man, while our Savior is both. The Word that St. John says was with God in his Gospel is called “the Word of Life” in his first Epistle, verse 1, and “the eternal life, which was with the Father” in verse 2. He can be called the Word only in the same sense in which he is called Eternal Life: he brought us eternal life by coming in the flesh. Similarly, in Apocalypse 19.13. the apostle says of Christ, dressed in a garment dipped in blood, that his name is “the Word of God.” This means “He who came in accordance with God’s purpose from the beginning and with his Word and promises delivered by the prophets.” What became flesh here was not a word but God the Son. He is called the Word because his becoming flesh fulfilled the promise. In the same way the Holy Ghost is called “the Promise” (Acts 1.4. Luke 24.49.).

Some passages of Scripture also use “the Word of God” for words consistent with reason and fairness, even if neither a prophet nor a holy person speaks them. Pharaoh Necho worshiped idols. Yet the words he sent to the good King Josiah, advising him not to oppose Necho’s march against Carchemish, are said to have come from God’s mouth. Josiah ignored them and was killed in battle, as 2 Chron. 35. vers. 21,22,23. relates. It is true that the first book of Esdras tells the same story differently: there it is Jeremiah, not Pharaoh, who speaks these words to Josiah from the Lord’s mouth. But we should trust canonical Scripture over whatever the Apocrypha says.

The Word of God also means what reason and fairness tell us to do when Scripture says it is written in a person’s heart, as in Psalm 36.31. Jerem. 31.33. Deut.30.11, 14. and many similar passages.

In Scripture “prophet” sometimes means a spokesperson: someone who speaks from God to people or from people to God. Sometimes it means a person who predicts future events. Sometimes it means someone who speaks without making sense, like a person who has lost his reason. Its most common meaning is someone who speaks from God to the people. Moses, Samuel, Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and others were prophets in this sense. So was the High Priest, because only he entered the Holy of Holies to ask God questions and report his answer to the people. Thus when Caiaphas said that it was best for one man to die for the people, St. John says (chap. 11.51.) that “he did not say this on his own, but as High Priest that year he prophesied that one man should die for the nation.” Those who taught people in Christian congregations are also said to prophesy (1 Cor. 14.3.). The word has the same sense when God tells Moses about Aaron (Exod. 4.16.), “He shall be your spokesperson to the people; he shall be a mouth for you, and you shall stand in place of God for him.” Chapter 7.1. calls this spokesperson a prophet: “See,” God says, “I have made you a god to Pharaoh, and your brother Aaron shall be your prophet.” In the sense of speaking from people to God, Abraham is called a prophet in Genes. 20.7. There God tells Abimelech in a dream, “Now return the man’s wife, for he is a prophet and will pray for you.” This suggests that those appointed to say public prayers for a Christian congregation can also properly be called prophets. In the same sense, the prophets who came down from the high place, or hill of God, with a psaltery, tambourine, pipe, and harp (1 Sam. 10.5,6.), and Saul among them (vers. 10.), are said to prophesy because they praised God publicly in that way. Miriam is also called a prophetess in this sense (Exod. 15.20.). The same applies when St. Paul says in 1 Cor. 11.4,5., “Every man who prays or prophesies with his head covered, etc., and every woman who prays or prophesies with her head uncovered.” Here prophesying means no more than praising God with psalms and sacred songs. Women could do that in church, though they were not permitted to address the congregation. In this sense pagan poets who composed hymns and other poems honoring their gods were called vates, or prophets. Anyone familiar with pagan books knows this, and it is clear from Tit. 1.12., where St. Paul says that one of the Cretans’ own prophets called them liars. Paul did not regard their poets as true prophets. He acknowledged the common use of the word “prophet” for people who praised a god in verse.