Word

WORD, put for the Eternal Word, or the second Person of the Trinity, we have already took notice of, under the Article MEMRA, which the Chaldee Paraphrasts, the most ancient Jewish Writers extant, generally make use of in those Places where Moses puts the Name Jehovah.ª They say, for example, that it was the Memra, or the Word, which created the World, which appeared to Moses on Mount Sinai, which gave him the Law, which spoke to him Face to Face, which brought Israel out of Egypt, which marched before the People, which wrought all those Miracles that are recorded in Exodus. It was the same Word that appeared to Abraham, in the Plain of Mamre, that was seen of Jacob at Bethel, to whom Jacob made his Vow, and acknowledged as God, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, &c. then shall the Lord be my God.

The Author of the Book of Wisdom, who lived before Jesus Christ, expresses himself pretty much after the same Manner. He says, that God created all things by his Word: Qui fecisti omnia verbo tuo; that it is not what the Earth produces that feeds Men; but it is the Word of the Almighty that supports him: Quoniam non nativitatis fructus pascunt homines, sed Wisd. xvi. 26.sermo tuus hos, qui in te crediderint, conservat. It was this Word that fed the Israelites in the Desart: It was the same Word that healed them after the Biting of the Serpents: Neque herba neque malagma Wisd. xvi. 12.sanavit eos, sed tuus Domine, sermo qui sanat omnia. It was the same Word that by his Power destroyed the First-born of the Egyptians:¹ Omnipotens sermo tuus de cœlo à regalibus sedibus durus debellator in mediam exterminis terram prosilivit, &c.

Lastly, it was by the same Word that Aaron stopt the Impetuosity of the Fire that was kindled in the Camp, and which threatened the Destruction of all Israel:² Non in virtute corporis, sed verbo illum qui se vexabat subjecit, &c.

Philo, a famous Jew, who lived at the time of Jesus Christ, and who much studied Plato, makes use of almost the same manner of speaking. He says, for example, that God created the World by his Word.³ That the intelligible World is no other than the Word of God that created the World; that this invisible Word is the true Image of God. The Platonists, to express the Creator of all things, sometimes made use of the Term Logos, which St. John also uses to signify the Eternal Word. The Stoicks also made use of it against the Epicureans, who maintained, that all things were produced by Chance, and without any Design: Whereas the Platonists and the Stoicks pretended, that every thing was made by the Logos, or the Reason, or by Divine Wisdom. But it may be reasonably doubted whether the Platonists, the Stoicks, and Philo, by this Word Logos, meant the Word of God, and God himself, after the manner that we understand it.

However this be, the Apostle St. John, in his Gospel, in his first Epistle, and in his Revelations, has perfectly cleared up to us the Nature of the Divine Word. The Councils have fixed the Language of the Church on this important Point, and the Church by its Decisions has restrained the Temerity of those Hereticks who have dared to attack its Doctrine, concerning the Consubstantiality of the Word, his Nature, his Unity, and the Divinity of his Person.

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