Word, Glorious Word!

Word...

Urban dictionary defines this as a greeting: Word…wassup? Yet it also can be used as an affirmation: Word…tha’s right, Bro.

Christians refer to the word “word” a lot.

In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was with God, and the WORD was God. John 1:1

I don’t know about the rest of you, but this verse always confused me. I was taught that Jesus is the Word referred to in this verse, and simply accepted it as such. Blind faith? Perhaps…but I also tend to think in my formable faith years it was never really explained.

Maybe some theology is simply too deep for the formable faith-filled follower to fathom. But, au contraire, (that’s fancy French) I will give it a good non-college try.

Some of you may have read somewhere…oh let’s say in the book of Revelations, that Jesus is called the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end.  We know Alpha and Omega are the first and last letters in the Greek alphabet, equivalent to our A and Z. (Nod and smile.)

I want to point out to you an interesting tidbit; the Hebrew equivalent is the Aleph and Tav. From the beginning…the VERY beginning, God revealed Himself to be the Aleph and Tav. We all know Genesis 1:1 “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  In the Hebrew language Genesis 1:1 looks like this:

See those two grey characters? Those are the letters Aleph and Tav. So in essence Genesis 1:1 says: In the beginning God AZ created the heavens and the earth.

I’m not a theologian, per se (that’s Latin), so give me the freedom to be less formal and a bit unorthodox.

Our alphabet has 26 letters. As a wordsmith, I know there are oodles of words that can be made with 26 letters. (I happen to like the word oodles.) Grant it, the Greek alphabet only has 24 letters and the Hebrew 22. But think of it…the entire Bible, 66 books, is full of words made with 22-26 different letter characters.

The Bible is the WORD of God. The words in there are God’s words. Everything from Genesis to Revelation is God’s words. Isn’t it interesting that according to the Hebrew language, God is called the Aleph and Tav, and in the book of Revelation Jesus “reveals” that He is the Alpha and Omega?  

The Old Testament: God’s words spoken to His people. 

The New Testament: God’s word living among His people…ergo, Jesus is the Living Word. 

In the beginning the word was…and is…to the end.

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