14), and also from John’s usage, who never employs the phrase Word of God to designate the Bible, but usually the term Scriptures or writings (John 2:22; 5:39; 7:38, 42; 19:24, 28, 36, 37, etc.). Moreover he does employ this phraseology elsewhere to designate Jesus Christ (1 John 1:1; Rev. 19:13). It cannot mean _the Speaking One_ nor _the Promised One_. Though both these meanings have been attributed to it, it is not grammatically capable of either interpretation. There is classical authority for rendering it _Reason_ or _Order_, and this meaning it still retains in words ending with _ology_, such as _ge-ology_ (ge-logos), the order, _i. e._, science of the earth; _path-ology_ (pathos-logos), the order, _i. e._, science of disease. But it is never used with this signification by John, and is never but once so used in the N. T. (1 Peter 3:15), if even there the translation is strictly accurate, which is doubtful. Seeking, then, to understand John as he would have been understood by his contemporaries, I think it clear that he declares, not that Reason or Wisdom was in the beginning with God, nor Speech, nor the Promised Messiah, but _the Word_, _i. e._, _the One by and through whom he was chiefly to be manifested to the world_, as one soul is to another by utterance.--=And the Word was with God and the Word was God.= Grammatically the last clause of the sentence may be read, _and God was the Word_. But the obvious connection calls for the rendering of our English version, and it is the rendering adopted by the best scholars. There is a difference in the language of the first and last clause of this sentence in the original which is significant, but difficult, if not impossible, to render in the English. In the first clause, “_the Word was with God_,” the article accompanies the word God; in the second clause, “_the Word was God_,” it is wanting. We should measurably reflect the meaning by reading the passage, “the Word was with God and the Word was divine;” or “the Word was with the Father and the Word was God.” 2 The same was in the beginning with God.