Already in antiquity it was recognized that the Gospel According to John is different from the other three canonical gospels. The narratives in According to Matthew, According toMark and According to Luke tell a single congruent story, while containing elements peculiar to each In them, the life and ministry of Jesus consist, basically, of a short period spent in Galilee of the Gentiles during which Jesus distinguishes himself by his miracles and his controversies with Pharisees. During a trip to the North, at Caesarea Philippi close to the fountains of the Jordan River, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Christ (the Messiah, Mk. 8: 29), and this confession causes Jesus to demand complete silence about his identity. In the past, evil spirits that Jesus expelled from possessed people cried out that Jesus was the Son of God. Jesus gave them, also, strict orders to keep silent and not reveal his identity.
Yes, the Word is God. Jesus is divine in his identity, even though he chose to take human form, thus putting limitations on himself. Is this a contradiction to the very definition of God as all powerful, all present and all knowing? Not if Jesus’ very identity is God.
On another train of thought: Interesting, how Paul opens up his letters usually along the lines of acknowledging God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Is it more appropriate to pray along similar lines of “Father God through our Lord Jesus…” or is it okay to just pray directly to Jesus considering how Paul chooses to open his letters.
LOGOS is an Ancient Greek concept predating organized Christianity. It is (disembodied) intelligence able to create, to reason, to put into words, to understand, to interpret. In order to be able to read the Bible and understand it, or indeed any text, you need LOGOS. It derives from a Proto-Indo-European root, “LEG”, which means “put in order, arrange, gather, choose, count, reckon, say, speak, discourse”.
Heraclitus was the first to use LOGOS as a technical term around 500 BC for a principle of order and knowledge. Aristotle considered LOGOS as one of the three modes of persuasion alongside ETHOS and PATHOS. Plato used the term LOGOS along with RHEMA to refer to sentences and propositions.
The Stoic philosophers referred to LOGOS SPERMATIKOS (SEMINAL LOGOS) or the law of generation in the Universe, which was the principle of the active reason working in inanimate matter and saw the LOGOS as active, pervading and animating the universe. It was conceived as material and is identified with God or Nature. According to the Stoics, each human also possesses a portion of the divine LOGOS.
Philo distinguished between LOGOS PROPHORIKOS (“the spoken word”) and the LOGOS ENDIATHETOS (“the thought remaining within”).
The Gospel of John identifies the LOGOS as divine, the intelligence through which all things are created, and further identifies Jesus Christ as the incarnate LOGOS.