# G3056 - logos

<!-- type: lexicon | created: 2026-04-26 | updated: 2026-04-26 -->

**Strong's:** [G3056](https://www.blueletterbible.org/lexicon/g3056/) · BLB lookup
**Pronunciation:** log′-os
**Part of speech:** masculine noun
**Root:** from *G3004 - lego* (λέγω, "to say, speak")

## Semantic range (Thayer / BDAG)

1. **A word uttered**, a single saying spoken aloud, embodying thought.
2. **Discourse, account, narrative**, extended speech; what someone has said.
3. **The act of speaking, continuous discourse**, speech as ongoing teaching.
4. **Doctrine, teaching, message**, the content taught (e.g. "the *logos* of the cross").
5. **Reason, the mental faculty**, internal reasoning; rationality itself.
6. **Reckoning, account**, financial or judicial accounting ([Hebrews 4:13](/codex/hebrews-4-13/), "to whom we must give *logos*").
7. **The Word of God personified**, in Johannine theology, the eternal divine *Logos*, Jesus Christ as God's self-expression and creative agent.

## Theological force

John's prologue ([John 1.1](/codex/john-1-1/), [John 1.14](/codex/john-1-14/)) is the deliberate fusion of two streams: (a) the **Hebrew memra / dabar YHWH**, the creative word that goes out from God ("And God said…" [Gen 1:3](/codex/genesis-1-3/); "By the word of the LORD the heavens were made," [Psalm 33:6](/codex/psalms-33-6/)), and (b) the **Greek philosophical logos**, Heraclitus's organizing principle, the Stoic divine reason, Philo of Alexandria's intermediary *Logos* between transcendent God and matter. John identifies that Word with the personal pre-incarnate Son and asserts the Word *became* flesh, a claim alien to all prior Greek logos doctrine.

## Notable verses

- **[John 1.1](/codex/john-1-1/)**, *ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος*, eternal pre-existence
- **[John 1.1-3](/codex/john-1-1-3/)**, agent of all creation
- **[John 1.14](/codex/john-1-14/)**, *ὁ λόγος σὰρξ ἐγένετο*, the incarnation
- **[1 John 1:1](/codex/1-john-1-1/)**, "the *logos* of life, which we have heard, seen, handled"
- **[Revelation 19:13](/codex/revelation-19-13/)**, "His name is *The Word of God*"
- **[Hebrews 4.12](/codex/hebrews-4-12/)**, "the *logos* of God is living and active"
- **[Luke 8:11](/codex/luke-8-11/)**, the seed in the parable is "the *logos* of God" (gospel-message sense)
- **[Matthew 24:35](/codex/matthew-24-35/)**, "my *logos* will not pass away"
- **[Acts 6:7](/codex/acts-6-7/)**, "the *logos* of God kept on spreading"
- **[Romans 9:6](/codex/romans-9-6/)**, "it is not as though the *logos* of God has failed"
- **[1 Corinthians 1:18](/codex/1-corinthians-1-18/)**, "the *logos* of the cross"
- **[2 Timothy 4:2](/codex/2-timothy-4-2/)**, "preach the *logos*"
- **[Hebrews 4:13](/codex/hebrews-4-13/)**, give an *account* (logos) (judicial-reckoning sense)

## OT background (Hebrew dabar / memra)

- **[Genesis 1:3](/codex/genesis-1-3/)**, "And God said…"
- **[Psalm 33:6](/codex/psalms-33-6/)**, "By the word of the LORD the heavens were made"
- **[Isaiah 55:11](/codex/isaiah-55-11/)**, "My word that goes out from My mouth shall not return to Me empty"
- **[Jeremiah 23:29](/codex/jeremiah-23-29/)**, "Is not My word like fire, declares the LORD?"

## Patristic note

[Justin Martyr](/codex/justin-martyr/) (*First Apology* 46, c. AD 155) developed the *Logos spermatikos*, the seed-Logos, as a bridge concept arguing that pre-Christian philosophers who reasoned well partook of the same eternal Word incarnated in Christ. Origen (*Comm. Jn.* I) elaborated the Word's eternal generation. Irenaeus (*Against Heresies* III.16) used the Word's eternal pre-existence to refute Gnostic emanationism.

## Verses in this codex

_See Obsidian's backlinks pane for every verse page linking here._

## See also

- [G0746 - arche](/codex/g0746-arche/)
- [G2316 - theos](/codex/g2316-theos/)
- [G4151 - pneuma](/codex/g4151-pneuma/)
- [G4561 - sarx](/codex/g4561-sarx/)
- *G3004 - lego* (pending, the verb root)