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"word" games

> I haven't tackled the Hebrew Bible much yet at all. 
> Not on a linguistic level.
> I've got a Tanakh, but only in English.  Still, I am
> pretty sure that when 2
> Chronicles says that "the word of God came to
> Nathan" (or Shemaiah), it didn't
> mean that a scroll showed up on the doorstep. 
> Jeremaiah (ch. 23) clearly uses
> the phrase with respect to a vivid personal
> experience, in contrast to false
> prophets who simply speak their own opinions.

and my questions have to do with whether or not these
things are mutually exclusive.  it's funny
though--often it's with dispensationalists that i talk
about this and wonder my hours away.  that god does or
doesn't communicate to his people in any other form
than scripture itself is an interesting topic
conversely.

> It is, of course, quite possible that there isn't
> one single consistent usage
> of the phrase.

yeah, i really need to study this.  'cause garsh.  a
good, quick reference on the net, btw, is:

http://www.blueletterbible.org

you can do word studies more quickly with it.  plus i
_think_ you can varry the english translation used.

> "the word of the LORD is perfect", or something like
> that.  What does the
> author mean by that?

one way to perhaps view the "word" is as his creative
intentions and direction.  when i think of the
creation story and that he spoke all that into being. 
i dunno--discuss?

> centuries.  Was the Law of God the same as the Word
> of God, or were they
> complementary?

i don't know enough to separate it--but i do think
that in some ways they are the same--considering that
the spirit and the letter still combine to form "the
law."

> the Greek, the words "rhema" and "logos" (both
> translated "word"; I don't know
> enough Greek to understand the differences between
> them)

i looked into this a _long_ time ago--i'll try and dig
out what i found once i'm back in tallahassee.  but
peter or somebody: do you remember offhand?  i pasted
some things below--but i don't understand the
significance with regard to the greek way of thinking.

that site says (using strong's i think) rhema is:

1) that which is or has been uttered by the living
voice, thing
spoken, word
1a) any sound produced by the voice and having
definite meaning
1b) speech, discourse
1b1) what one has said
1c) a series of words joined together into a sentence
(a
declaration of one's mind made in words)
1c1) an utterance
1c2) a saying of any sort as a message, a narrative
1c2a) concerning some occurrence
2) subject matter of speech, thing spoken of
2a) so far forth as it is a matter of narration
2b) so far as it is a matter of command
2c) a matter of dispute, case at law
 always seem to be used

and that logos is:

1) of speech
1a) a word, uttered by a living voice, embodies a
conception or idea
1b) what someone has said
1b1) a word
1b2) the sayings of God
1b3) decree, mandate or order
1b4) of the moral precepts given by God
1b5) Old Testament prophecy given by the prophets
1b6) what is declared, a thought, declaration,
aphorism, a
weighty saying, a dictum, a maxim
1c) discourse
1c1) the act of speaking, speech
1c2) the faculty of speech, skill and practice in
speaking
1c3) a kind or style of speaking
1c4) a continuous speaking discourse - instruction
1d) doctrine, teaching
1e) anything reported in speech; a narration,
narrative
1f) matter under discussion, thing spoken of, affair,
a matter
in dispute, case, suit at law
1g) the thing spoken of or talked about; event, deed
2) its use as respect to the MIND alone
2a) reason, the mental faculty of thinking,
meditating,
reasoning, calculating
2b) account, i.e. regard, consideration
2c) account, i.e. reckoning, score
2d) account, i.e. answer or explanation in reference
to judgment
2e) relation, i.e. with whom as judge we stand in
relation
2e1) reason would
2f) reason, cause, ground
3) In John, denotes the essential Word of God, Jesus
Christ, the
personal wisdom and power in union with God, his
minister in
creation and government of the universe, the cause of
all the
world's life both physical and ethical, which for the
procurement
of man's salvation put on human nature in the person
of Jesus the
Messiah, the second person in the Godhead, and shone
forth
conspicuously from His words and deeds.

++++
A Greek philosopher named Heraclitus first used the
term Logos around 600 
B.C. to designate the divine reason or plan which
coordinates a
changing universe. This word was well suited to John's
purpose in
John 1.
____________________________________

well, i'm ready for dinner!,
j. marie

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