The Word

Gary Pollard

John emphasized Jesus’s identity as the Word. Many ancient traditions hold that the universe was created with the spoken word ¹— something slowly becoming more accepted by even scientific minds (always the last to understand or accept truths taught in religion) thanks to cymatics. The ancient concept of magic was absolutely nothing like ours today. Specific spoken words in specific tones were thought to influence reality. There is some evidence that this was practiced successfully. 

Words have power. Today we limit this power to the ability to potentially induce positive or negative emotions. That words and symbols contain more than just this power should be self-evident in this era with its deluge of ads and psyops. Words have great power! 

Jesus’s arrest was recorded in John 18, and when asked to identify himself, he gave the same name he used with Moses: “I am.” The simple act of speaking that name threw the mob of soldiers, guards, and religious leaders to the ground. John identified Jesus as the agent of creation, and not just the one who spoke everything into existence; Jesus is Word itself, the one whose voice wields his Father’s power. The language of creation is necessarily symbolic (our minds are too finite to comprehend a literal play-by-play), and obviously information-dense. The more we learn and discover today, the more our faith grows. When we look at what we’re able to comprehend of the meaning behind the symbols, it only reinforces the transcendent nature of the accounts. 

“The Word was already in the world. The world was made through him, but the world did not know him. He came to the world that was his own. And his own people did not accept him. But some people did accept him. They believed in him, and he gave them the right to become children of God. They became God’s children, but not in the way babies are usually born. It was not because of any human desire or plan. They were born from God himself. The Word became a man and lived among us. We saw his divine greatness—the greatness that belongs to the only Son of the Father. The Word was full of grace and truth.”

1 ^{Memphite Cosmology (Shabaka Stone), Popul Vuh, Rigveda and Brihadaranyaka Upanishad, and the inspired accounts in Jn 1.1-3, Ps 33.6, 9, Gen 1.3.}