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.
