Logos and Rhema. If you have been commonly around Charismatic circles, you might have often heard those two words touted, and perhaps pondered about their meaning.
Logos, it is said, refers to the ‘written’ Word (of God). Rhema, on the other hand, is supposed to mean the ‘spoken’ Word (of God).
I used to both believe and say the same until I became a Greek student. Then I realised that using such terms only made me sound spiritual and sophisticated, but I was wrong— dead wrong.
Over time I have come to see that simplicity often strips sophistry. Sophistry is when one uses big words and fallacious arguments, especially to mislead and create an air of superiority.
Logos and Rhema had become deceptive jargon for me and continue to be for many, and my desire today is to help us demystify these two words, so that we may understand what they mean.
In so doing, I hope that it will enhance our usage of language, and help us use words whose meaning we understand, beyond popularised spiritual jargon. After all, to be genuinely spiritual is better than to sound so merely.
Before discovering the New Testament usage of these two words, there is something worthy of note: both logos and rhema were not words created by the Bible Writers. They thus have no spiritual significance inherent in them but were common words used by all.
It is the subject of discussion that may or may not be spiritual. The subject, not the two words, is what communicates spirituality. That said, let us now explore the meaning of the two terms.
Logos
The New Testament predominantly employs the word logos (λόγος) in three ways.
In the first instance, logos refers to an expression of the mind, hence word (Mt 5:37; 8:8; Lk 7:7; Hb 12:19). Here, logos suggests an utterance, chiefly oral, in the way people speak to one another.
This word spoken may be a statement (Luk 20:20), a question (Mat 21:24), an assertion or declaration (Mat 15:12), or speech, whether human or transcendent (Mat 12:37). Logos here can mean a matter or thing which is the subject of discussion, a topic.
Once (Acts 1:1), the NT uses logos to imply a written account from Luke to Theophilus and Hebrews 13:22 speaks of the written ‘word of exhortation.’ This written account, however, is different from what the New Testament calls Scripture, as we will see.
Under this first usage, logos means communication, overwhelmingly of an oral nature.
Secondly, the NT uses the word logos to refer to computation or reckoning or giving a formal account of one’s actions, as one who is under an audit (Rom 14:12, Heb 13:17, Mat 12:36; Act 19:40). It may also mean the very act of settling a mutual account (Php 4:15).
Here still, logos can be used to mean the grounding or reason, or motive for any action one does. It is a form of accounting, but of a moral or logical nature.
The last and perhaps most known way logos is used refers to Christ as the independent personification of God’s self-communication (Jn 1:1). Here, Christ is the personified message of God the Father, His self-revelation to us.
Rhema
Rhema (ῥῆμα) refers to ‘that which is said, word, saying, expression, or statement of any kind’ (BDAG). A statement of any king is rhema. For example, the utterance ‘(Crystal) Palace played poorly today’ is rhema. Or a command like ‘Do not give him that beer’ is a rhema word. Any saying is rhema.
This way, rhema and logos are synonyms.
The second way the NT uses rhema is as the Hebrew word דָבָר (dabar) to refer to ‘an event that can be spoken about, thing, object, matter, event’ (BDAG; c.f Mat 18:16; 2Co 13:1). In this other sense too, rhema is a synonym of logos.
Those are the only two ways rhema is used in the New Testament, both of them as a synonym and narrower version of logos.
Recap
Of the 330 times the NT uses the word logos, the three are its primary meanings. Never did the NT author use this term to refer to written Scripture, or canonical writings.
When referring to written Scripture, the NT uses the word graphe (γραφὴ), not logos (c.f. Mar 12:10; Mar 15:28; Luk 4:21; Joh 13:18; Joh 19:24; Joh 19:36 f; Act 1:16; Act 8:35; Rom 11:2; 2Ti 3:16; Jas 2:8; Jas 2:23; Jas 1:1-27).
Also, the word rhema (occurring 67 times in the NT) has never been used by any NT author as though it inherently refers to a certain form of special revelation. It merely either means any speech or a matter under discussion.
That is what the words mean, both according to their etymology, and usage in the New Testament.