God’s Multidimensional Activity: The “Word” Is More than Ink on Paper

The phrase “Word of God” refers to a rich concept with many dimensions. It refers both to Jesus, who is the living Word, and the Scriptures, which are the written Word.

The Hebrew term is dabar, which can be translated not only as ‘word,’ but also more broadly as ‘thing’ or ‘matter’ or ‘situation.’ God’s Word is therefore more than a strictly linguistic concept.

The Greek term logos points beyond ‘word’ to the actions of speaking and conversing. God’s Word is active and interactive.

The concept of the “Word of God” is central in the thought and writings of Martin Luther because of its multidimensionality. As Frank Seilhamer explains:

Because it is so crucial a doctrine it becomes a motif which recurs repeatedly in nearly all Luther’s work. Whether he is writing about the Scriptures, the Sacraments, Christian vocation, education, or sexual union in marriage, his concept of the “Word of God” is there undergirding his conclusions and providing the basis from which he argues and advises. To the great Reformer the “Word” is not a label plastered on a Book, or on a tradition, or on an ecclesiastical proclamation from the hierarchy of the church, though it could be in any or all of these. The “Word of God” is a living Force, a Power, an act of God, that speaks to and is normative for every conceivable life situation.

Because of this phrase’s broad semantic field, it also points to the concept of incarnation. “The Word became flesh.” It was not merely a linguistic phenomenon which became flesh, but God’s activity which became flesh, and His desire to interact and converse with human beings.

The “Word of God” is for Luther one of his master terms like “grace” and “faith.” And like these it is a concept that is many-sided. Only when he is misread and misapplied can one think his understanding of the “Word” to be narrow and restricted, i.e., to be applied to the Scriptures alone. When seen against the background of his voluminous writing, one cannot fail to be impressed by the rich, dynamic, spiritually throbbing Power inherent in his concept of the “Word,” as well as to be captivated by the wide range of experience and action in which Luther is able to see God operative in his “Word.”

So it is that “the Word” includes more than the text itself, but also interpreting, applying, expounding, preaching, etc. — and more: the encouragement and counsel that one Christian might give to another in conversation.

If the “Word” were merely a linguistic item, then “In the beginning was the Word” would be a poor ontology indeed. But “in the beginning” was God’s thought and action, physical and metaphysical, and a conversation, perhaps first among the persons of the trinity, and then with humans.

The Midrash and the Sermon: The Exploration, Interpretation, and Application of Text to, in, and about Ever-Changing Cultural and Social Environments

In a spiritual context, texts are found in a hierarchy of authority: at the top are the absolute, inerrant, inspired, divine texts; next are those which are inspired and authoritative; one step lower are those which embody, express, and codify dogma and doctrine; lower still are interpretive texts; near the bottom are Streitschriften which express debatable and polemic opinions.

In non-spiritual contexts, similar hierarchies may be observed.

In some spiritual traditions, the top level of this hierarchy is closed, ossified, and finalized. The collection of texts which are absolute, inerrant, inspired, and divine is a closed collection: nothing will be added to it; nothing will be subtracted from it. This is the case with Judaism and with Christianity, and perhaps with other religious traditions.

This solidification of primary text necessitates the ongoing development of secondary texts, as Johannes Wachten notes:

Als Offenbarungsreligion mit abgeschlossener Offenbarung muß das Judentum, wollte es nicht untergehen, die ihm am Sinai offenbarte Torah — und zwar sowohl die »schriftliche« als auch die »mündliche« — zur Anpassung an die sich wandelnden Lebensumstände immer wieder neu interpretieren.

In Judaism, the finalization of the Tanak, was one of several factors which began the development of the Talmud. The finalization of the Talmud, in turn, triggered the growth of midrash, as Johannes Wachten writes:

So entstand mit der Zeit ein ständig zunehmendes halachisches und haggadisches, das heißt ein rechtlich verbindliches und ethisch motivierendes Traditionsgut, aus dem sich bis zum Ende der talmudischen Epoche (Ende des fünften / Anfang des sechsten Jahrhunderts) und in den ersten Jahrhunderten der nachtalmudischen Zeit bis in frühe Mittelalter hinein das umfangreiche Korpus der rabbinischen Literatur entwickelte.

In Christianity, likewise, the closure of the canon of the New Testament necessitated the development of an interpretive and kerygmatic tradition.

The expansive collection of commentaries and homilies which has accreted within the Christian tradition is immense and wildly variegated.

In this way, the collected mass of midrash within the Jewish tradition has some similarities with Christian tradition of sermons.

Because of the great degree of variation among the individual texts in these traditions, it is easy to assume that they have nothing in common. But, as Johannes Wachten explains, a more nuanced and perceptive reading reveals commonalities among this diverse collection of texts:

Bei deren vorwiegend kompilatorischem Charakter mit einer fast enzyklopädischen Stofffülle treten feste literarische Formen stark in den Hintergrund. Auch wenn sie leicht übersehen werden, lohnt ihre Erforschung.

It is important to note that this dynamic plays out in a similar way in both the Christian tradition and the Jewish tradition. The text-centric nature of Judaism, and rabbinic Judaism, points to the fact that Protestantism is not the only, and not the first, tradition to be text-centric.

Some scholars have hypothesized a “Protestant bias” in which a text-centric approach is seen as projected by Protestantism onto other traditions. These scholars argue that it is a Protestant innovation, and a uniquely Protestant trait, to give text an important and central role in the tradition. These scholars point to Luther’s text-centric approach, and to the introduction of the printing press at the time of both the Lutheran Reformation and the Radical Reformation.

An understanding of the role of text in Judaism, and in rabbinic Judaism, points however to a text-centric pattern in religious traditions long antedating Christian Protestantism.