Tom Hodgkinson looks to the Bible, ancient philosophers, an encyclopaedia and even The Beatles for a definitive answer, but no one seems to agree…

On our recent retreat to Egypt, I gave a talk on the mysterious and baffling subject of the Greek word logos. The term was much loved by the Stoic philosophers, who used logos as a synonym for “divine reason” or “providence”. To them, logos was something like the Taoist idea of “the Way”.

But it’s more usually translated as “the word”. Hence we get various words of Greek origin like dialogue, monologue, catalogue, analogue, prologue and so on.

In the 4th gospel, it’s translated as “Word”:

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

And every time I read that, I think: “I wish I knew what it meant.” Does it mean that the written word was there from the beginning of time? That seems unlikely.

In a piece for the Idler, the late Charles Handy translates logos as “the natural order of things”:

“if you retranslate logos as ‘the natural order of things’, you get “in the beginning was the natural order of things, and the natural order of things was with God, and the natural order of things was God and there was nothing that was not in the natural order of things and God.’”

That sounds much more like the Stoic idea of the logos. But why does “the natural order of things” also get translated as “the word”?

Sometimes logos is seen as a word for Jesus, a sort of in-between being, a godlike human, divine emissary.

For John Lennon, in his contribution to logostical studies – the 1965 Beatles song “The Word” – the logos was very simply “love”. “Say the word and you’ll be free,” he sings. He also uses Biblical language to indicate that the song is a spiritual exploration. “In the beginning, I misunderstood.” But now he gets it: “The word is good.”

Logos also seems to mean something like “study of”, hence psychology (the study of the soul), astrology (the study of the stars) and so on.

I sought help from my Encyclopaedia Britannica 1911 edition, but got more baffled. The long and scholarly entry talks about how ideas of the logos appear in Egyptian, Hebrew, Greek and Christian thought but that its meaning seems to change.

Here is an example:

“In [Alexandrian philosopher] Philo’s conception the Logos is much more than ‘the principle of reason, informing the infinite variety of things, and so creating the World-Order’; it is also the divine dynamic, the energy and self-revelation of God.”

To make matters more confusing, we also get a word like “logistics” which seems a long way away from mystical, as it’s normally concerned with the efficient delivery of freight.

If anyone can help produce a good working definition of logos, please write.

SELECTED COMMENTS

These comments were mailed to us after an earlier version of this piece was sent out as a newsletter. We like to publish a selection and reserve the right to edit them for clarity. Please add your thoughts in the box below.

John Lloyd writes:
Sir: As it happens, this question forms part of my standard (now rather venerable) after-dinner speech, as below:

The truth is, nobody knows why things are funny. We don’t even know what laughter is or what it’s for, and there’s never been a really convincing Theory of Humour. But here’s a thing. You know that bit at the beginning of St John’s Gospel that’s often read out at Carol Services, ‘In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God’? What the heck does that mean? And it occurred to me that, like a few other key passages of the Bible, it might be a mistranslation. So, I did a bit of research – as we do at QI – and started thumbing through a few dictionaries and so on, and I discovered that the word ‘word’ in that sentence is translated from the Greek ‘logos’ which doesn’t just mean word, it also means ‘thought’ or ‘reason’. ‘In the beginning was the reason, and the reason was with God and the reason was God’. Well, it doesn’t say what the reason is, but at least it’s kind of getting somewhere quite interesting. Now, in Latin, and for all I know in Greek too, because the Romans pinched pretty much all the Greeks’ ideas, and many of their words too, the word logos means all of those things (word, thought and reason) but it also means ‘joke’. ‘In the beginning was the joke, and the joke was with God, and the joke was God.’ And, you know, ever since I found out that the Universe might in fact be some kind of enormous, unnecessarily ornate practical joke, I’ve cheered up a lot.
John Lloyd
@johnlloydqi

Sir: My transpersonal training in psychotherapy focuses on the union of the Logos principle of logic and reason and the Eros principle of relatedness, the former usually associated with masculine expression and the latter usually associated with feminine receptivity.  Cross fertilisaiton results in the qualities of a feeling mind and a thinking heart!
Maggie

Sir: Well you’ve asked a very good question and I’m accredited in Logotherapy and Existential with the Viktor Frankl Institute of Vienna and I couldn’t give you a straight answer. It varies on who’s interpreting it and also there’s most likely to be a bit of bias thrown in the mix. Throughout my studies from 2012 – 2020 I was told by my very philosophical and theological teacher in Ireland that it means ‘meaning’…..but I’m still not sure and I keep researching it. I also volunteer with Modern Stoicism and you won’t get a universal answer there either…but Dr Gregory Sadler and Massimo Pigluicci will be reliable enough sources on the Logos in Stoicism. Also, a classicist who speaks Greek may be a good help. And a Christian theologian. I had to leave it all alone and move on to other philosophies or I’d have gone mad! At least I find more questions then, but never answers. What does Mark Vernon say? I’d love to hear what all the different opinions are. Best wishes from Ireland.
Alison

Sir: An understanding of Logos, in the St. John sense was given to me by a professor of religion and Greek philosophy as “the meaning/purpose/point of it all”. Just as a judge at the beginning of a trial might call the barristers together and ask What’s the point of this case? The logos?. Ah, Divorce, I get it! So reading the words, In the beginning was The Point of it All, is distinctly encouraging . And the logos was with God and the logos was God. How comforting to go through life knowing there is a point to it all. And to the greater universal project. The idea also has resonance with the chakra system. From the sixth chakra of thought and mental command initiated from the seventh chakra of divine connection comes the need to express all this. That is achieved through the fifth chakra, situated in the throat, the chakra of speech (logos). The fifth chakra also controls the aesthetic sense and ethical sensitivity.

So thought, word, deed.
A Divine thought not expressed in the word has no meaning to us.
And so it goes: The divine purpose of it all, logos, embedded in the very nature of divinity becomes logos, the word, now comprehensible to us.

A bit long winded. But something you and your readers can play with. But at heart, There is a point to it all. My students gather meaning and comfort through this interpretation. One can go on and on, looking at Logo, the sign that in a fraction of a second sums up the essence of all that it means to be a Mercedes car, for example. Ha ha! And on we go. But take it into meditation or contemplation and see what emerges but above all take comfort in the notion that there is a point to it all and that is with God and is God.
Andrew Salkeld, Quebec, Canada

Sir: Logos… Biblically, God is “three in one”, those three being the father, the son and the Holy spirit. So, before Jesus was born of Mary, that third part of the trinity was literally “the word”. Hence “the word became flesh” with the birth of Jesus. There is also the interpretation that it was that “word” element that created everything in the first place (God said “let there be light” and there was light, etc.). You can go down a big rabbit hole with this one! Be idle.
Rev Peter Dixon, PhD (Hon), Doctor of Philosophy from Abide University

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