Clement usesXivos 11 times. In 9 of the passages it is simply equivalent to ' word ' in the ordinary sense. IJut he twice introduces a quotation from the OT with the phrase ' For the holy X670S says' (ad Cor. 13, .56), and there the sense seems to ap- proach closely to that attached to the word in the quotations from the Pastoral Epistles given above, i.e. a statement of recognized authority.
\byoi is found three times in the Didache and twice in the Epistle of Barnabas. But in neither of these writings is it employed in any way which cannot be paralleled from the NT.
Ignatius has it tliree times (Magn. viii., Rom. ii., Smyrn. inscr. ). In the first of tliese he refers to our Lord as the Word of God ; in the second he calls himself a ' Word of God,' meaning that his life and death are a testimony which is not to be interfered with by his friends. He greets the church of Smyrna as being ' in the Word of God,' where
tlie Xo'vo! is conceived as the inward monitor which directs the Christian's life (cf. J. IS. Light- foot, Apostolic Fathers, pt. ii. [1889] vol. ii. p. 288).
Outside the Gospels jifnui is found only in 29 passages of the NT, 14 of these bein" in Acts. It IS always translated 'word' in the llV except in Ac 5'- ('things') and 10" ('saying'). Of the 15 passages in which it occurs elsewhere six are quota- tions from the OT. It is used once by Clement (ad Cor. 30) in a quotation from Job 11-- ^ It is not found in the Didache, Ep. Barn., or Ignatius. There is nothing in its use by the NT writers which calls for special comment.
In many passages of the NT no special signifi- cance attaches to X(i7os. It means simply 'that which is said.' But ' the AVord,' or ' the NVord of God,' or ' the Word of the Lord ' is frequently used in a semi-technical sense for the content of the message which the Church is charged to deliver. Thus in Ac i^ the infant Church prays for courage to speak ' thy word ' with boldness in the face of persecution. In Ac 6- the apostles refuse to for- sake ' the word of God ' to serve tables. After the appointment of the deacons ' the word of God in- creased.' It is unnecessary to multiply examples of this usage. In Ac 16^* Xd7os is used of the mes- sage sent by the magistrates at Philippi to St. Paul's jailer. We find it combined with a number of dift'erent substantives : e.g. ' grace ' (Ac 14^ 20*-), 'exhortation' (Ac 13", He 13==), 'salvation' (Ac 13=«), 'promise' (Ro 9^), 'the Cross,' i.e. the gospel of the Crucified Saviour (1 Co 1'*), ' wisdom and knowledge' (1 Co 128), 'truth' (2 Co 6', Eph l'^Coll^2Ti2'^Ja l'^), ' the word of Christ ' (Col S'"), ' life' (Ph 2'«, 1 Jn 1'), ' hearing ' (He 4=), 'righteousness' (5'^), 'oath' (7=*), 'prophecy' (Rev P 22'- »•'»•'*• '9 ; cf. the Tpotp-qnKbi \6yoi of 2 P 1'9), 'patience' (Rev 3'"), 'testimony' (12"). ' Word ' is contrasted with ' power ' or ' realitiy ' in 1 Co 4», 2 Co 10", Col 3", 1 Th P, 1 Jn 3'". This distinction is common in writers of the classical period, e.g. Thucydides.
In most of these passages the meaning is a spoken message. The content is not precisely defined, and might vary a good deal from time to time. But X(570s is also applied to written documents. Thus the mention of the ' word of promise ' in Ro 9' is followed by a quotation of the angels' pledge to Abraham (Gn 18'"). In 2 P 1" the whole corpus of the prophetic writings is summed up as the pro- phetic \6yo%. In Gal 5''' the whole Law is said to be summed up in one \6yos, ' Thou sbalt love thy neighbour as thyself.' In 2 Ti 1'^ the 'pattern of sound words ' which the Apostle exhorts Timothy to hold may be presumed to be some definite doc- trinal statement, of the nature of a creed. In Rev 22 the phrase ' the words of the prophecy of this book ' occurs 4 times, ' the words of this book ' once, meaning the exact text which the writer has just completed. Thus as a rule ' word ' in the NT means rather more than in current English. But the meaning is sometimes narrowed to the one customary among ourselves.
Xii7os is personal in two passages in the apos- tolic writings : 1 Jn 1', where the author speaks of having seen and handled the Word of life ; and Rev 19", where it is said that the name of the crowned heavenly horseman ' is called The Word of God.' But any discussion of the Johannine Logos- doctrine lies outside the scope of this article.
In He 4'^ ('For the word of God is living, and active,' etc.) there is perhaps a slight approach tow'ards a personification of the spoken or written Word. There is a somewhat similar metaphorical use of p-^/ia in Eph 6" ('Take the helmet of salva- tion, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God '). R. H. Malden.