What it means, in the context of John chapter 1 is "reason", "rational discourse", "communication", "logic". It is where we get the suffix "-ology" from - as in "biology" - "bio" (life) "ology" (the logic of).
As for why it is translated "word", I'm no expert, but here's what Chat GPT said when I asked it the same question...
1. Historical Translation Tradition
By the time the King James Version was produced in 1611, “Word” had already become the standard English rendering of
Logos:
- William Tyndale (1526) translated it as “Word.”
- The Geneva Bible (1560) followed the same.
- The Wycliffe Bible (1382) used “Word” based on the Latin Verbum from the Vulgate.
The KJV translators were deeply reverent toward this tradition. They did not aim to innovate in wording unless they found serious cause.
2. What Was Lost in Translation
Despite the above,
Logos carried
far more philosophical and theological meaning, especially to a Greek-speaking audience:
- To Greeks, logos was the rational principle governing the cosmos (e.g., Heraclitus, Stoics).
- In Hellenistic Judaism (like Philo of Alexandria), Logos was a divine intermediary, a rational expression of God’s mind.
Translating
Logos as merely “Word”
undercommunicates these rich ideas. A modern English reader won’t intuitively grasp that John is saying, "In the beginning was the Reason, the Logic, the Meaning, the Governing Principle—who is also a Person."
3. Alternative Renderings?
Translating
Logos more expansively might have helped today’s readers, but would have seemed speculative or awkward to 17th-century translators:
- “Reason” might suggest rationalism or abstraction.
- “Wisdom” would overlap with Proverbs 8 but isn’t quite the same.
- “Logic” sounds too cold and modern.
- “Meaning” is profound but abstract.
No single English word captures the full scope of
Logos. Perhaps something like
“Divine Reason”,
“Living Word”, or even
“the Mind of God” would hint more clearly at John’s intended depth—but these are interpretive paraphrases, not translations.
Summary
The KJV translators chose “Word” for
Logos out of
linguistic accuracy,
theological continuity, and
respect for tradition. However, they inevitably left
layers of meaning untranslated, especially the
rational, cosmic, and personal aspects of
Logos that John’s audience—particularly Greek thinkers—would have heard loud and clear.
If you're explaining this to others, it’s often helpful to say: "‘Word’ isn't entirely inaccurate, but
Logos meant so much more: divine logic, the principle of reality, the very mind of God expressed in human form.”
Because of the context.
In short, the translators of the King James Bible used “Word” to render
logos in John 1 because of tradition and because it reflected one of the legitimate senses of the term. However, as your and several other examples show,
logos is a versatile word. In the Septuagint it translates a key Hebrew concept, while in the New Testament it ranges from an ordinary term for “message” (as in Romans 10:17) to a highly exalted title for Christ (as in John 1:1–18). Thus, the word
logos is used through biblical literature both as a descriptive term for God’s spoken word and as a deeply philosophical idea bridging Jewish thought and Greek philosophy as John was clearly doing in the first chapter of his gospel.
