Logos and Rhema – Another example of word study in the Bible
In a previous post, I posted a word study on “lifted up” or “hypsoo.” I do realise that doing word studies can clarify some of the terminologies we use in church. Another example would be the use of logos and rhema. Conventional traditions teach us that logos is the written word and rhema is the spoken word. When I first received Christ, I learned that the Scripture I read in my devotion is the logos. And if any word struck me, it is the rhema. However, is that really the case? With this, we can embark on another word study on logos and rhema to find out more.
Occurrences of Logos and Rhema in the New Testament
Using Logos Bible Software, we know that the Greek word “logos” occurs in the New Testament a total of 330 times in 318 verses. It is impractical for the purpose of this post to list all the occurrences. Therefore, we will do a sampling of the verses. We can again turn back to John and see what we can glean from how John used the word. To add a little diversity, we will look at the Pauline usage of the word in Ephesians.
This will be the same approach for “rhema” as well. The word occurs 68 times in 65 verses. We will sample the verses in gospel of John and Ephesians to ascertain the biblical usage.
Occurrences of Logos and Rhema in Gospel of John
Below is a table on the occurrences of logos and rhema in the gospel of John.
| Verse | Text | Greek Word |
| John 1:1 | In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. | Logos |
| John 1:14 | The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. | Logos |
| John 2:22 | After he was raised from the dead, his disciples recalled what he had said. Then they believed the scripture and the words that Jesus had spoken. | Logos |
| John 3:34 | For the one whom God has sent speaks the words of God, for God gives the Spirit without limit. | Rhema |
| John 4:37 | Thus the saying ‘One sows and another reaps’ is true. | Logos |
| John 4:39 | Many of the Samaritans from that town believed in him because of the woman’s testimony, “He told me everything I ever did.” | Logos |
| John 4:41 | And because of his words many more became believers. | Logos |
| John 4:50 | “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”
The man took Jesus at his word and departed. |
Logos |
| John 5:24 | “Very truly I tell you, whoever hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and will not be judged but has crossed over from death to life. | Logos |
| John 5:38 | nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. | Logos |
| John 5:47 | But since you do not believe what he wrote, how are you going to believe what I say? | Rhema |
| John 6:60 | On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” | Logos |
| John 6:63 | The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you—they are full of the Spirit and life. | Rhema |
| John 6:68 | Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life | Rhema |
| John 7:36 | What did he mean when he said, ‘You will look for me, but you will not find me,’ and ‘Where I am, you cannot come’?” | Logos |
| John 7:40 | On hearing his words, some of the people said, “Surely this man is the Prophet.” | Logos |
| John 8:20 | He spoke these words while teaching in the temple courts near the place where the offerings were put. Yet no one seized him, because his hour had not yet come. | Rhema |
| John 8:31 | To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. | Logos |
| John 8:37 | I know that you are Abraham’s descendants. Yet you are looking for a way to kill me, because you have no room for my word | Logos |
| John 8:43 | Why is my language not clear to you? Because you are unable to hear what I say | Logos |
| John 8:47 | Whoever belongs to God hears what God says. The reason you do not hear is that you do not belong to God.” | Rhema |
| John 8:51 | Very truly I tell you, whoever obeys my word will never see death. | Logos |
| John 8:52 | At this they exclaimed, “Now we know that you are demon-possessed! Abraham died and so did the prophets, yet you say that whoever obeys your word will never taste death. | Logos |
| John 8:55 | Though you do not know him, I know him. If I said I did not, I would be a liar like you, but I do know him and obey his word. | Logos |
| John 10:19 | The Jews who heard these words were again divided. | Logos |
| John 10:21 | But others said, “These are not the sayings of a man possessed by a demon. Can a demon open the eyes of the blind? | Rhema |
| John 10:35 | If he called them ‘gods,’ to whom the word of God came—and Scripture cannot be set aside | Logos |
| John 12:38 | This was to fulfill the word of Isaiah the prophet:
“Lord, who has believed our message and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?” |
Logos |
| John 12:47 | “If anyone hears my words but does not keep them, I do not judge that person. For I did not come to judge the world, but to save the world. | Logos |
| John 12:48 | There is a judge for the one who rejects me and does not accept my words; the very words I have spoken will condemn them at the last day. | First “words” = Rhema
Second “words” = Logos |
| John 14:10 | Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you I do not speak on my own authority. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. | Rhema |
| John 14:23 | Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. | Logos |
| John 15:3 | You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. | Logos |
| John 15:7 | If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. | Rhema |
| John 15:20 | Remember what I told you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. | Logos |
| John 15:25 | But this is to fulfil what is written in their Law: ‘They hated me without reason | Logos |
| John 17:6 | I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word | Logos |
| John 17:8 | For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. | Rhema |
| John 17:14 | I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world | Logos |
| John 17:17 | Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth | Logos |
| John 17:20 | “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message | Logos |
| John 18:9 | This happened so that the words he had spoken would be fulfilled: “I have not lost one of those you gave me. | Logos |
| John 18:32 | This took place to fulfill what Jesus had said about the kind of death he was going to die | Logos |
| John 19:8 | When Pilate heard this, he was even more afraid | Logos |
| John 19:13 | When Pilate heard this, he brought Jesus out and sat down on the judge’s seat at a place known as the Stone Pavement (which in Aramaic is Gabbatha) | Logos |
| John 21:23 | Because of this, the rumor spread among the believers that this disciple would not die. But Jesus did not say that he would not die; he only said, “If I want him to remain alive until I return, what is that to you?” | Logos |
Occurrences of Logos and Rhema in Ephesians
Below is a table on the occurrences of logos and rhema in the gospel of John.
| Verse | Text | Greek Word |
| Eph 1:13 | And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit | Logos |
| Eph 4:29 | Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. | Logos |
| Eph 5:6 | Let no one deceive you with empty words, for because of such things God’s wrath comes on those who are disobedient. | Logos |
| Eph 5:26 | to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word | Rhema |
| Eph 6:17 | Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God | Rhema |
| Eph 6:19 | Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel | Logos |
Observations from the Word Study
Now that we have our data, we can make some observations about logos and rhema in the New Testament. Firstly, when we look at how the two NT authors used the word “logos,” they did use it in the context of spoken words. In John 7:40 and 8:51, for example, “logos” translates to “words” which Jesus spoke in those contexts. In fact, almost all the cases translate the word this way. However, there is the notable exception of John description of Jesus as the Logos.
Similarly, Paul did use “logos” to mean the same thing as well. Ephesians 4:29, 5:6 and 6:19 all translate “logos” to mean spoken words.
Secondly, we notice that in Ephesians, Paul used “rhema” in a peculiar way compared to John. In Ephesians, Paul used “rhema” as written word. In the two verses, the context suggests that Paul was referring to the Hebrew Scripture rather than words that God “speaks” to us. This is contrary to John’s usage of the word, where he always meant it to be words which Jesus spoke and taught.
Thirdly, when we bring the first two observations together, then we find that logos and rhema are almost always interchangeable. The classic usage is John 12:48. You have Jesus saying that there is a judge for the one who rejects his “words.” This is the Greek word “rhema.” But in the same breath, he emphasized that these are the very “words” he has spoken. This is the Greek word “logos.” And so we see that there is no differentiation between logos and rhema in these instances.
A simple conclusion
We will need to rethink how we quote logos and rhema. A simple sampling of the New Testament shows that the Scripture does not differentiate between them. Practically speaking, this means that it should not be the case when we deal with the word. When we read the Bible, we ought to take each word we read seriously as God’s spoken word. No doubt that there will be times when certain verses struck out to us but it may well be the Holy Spirit moving in our hearts and not because there is something special about the verse.
This also means to be careful about our attitude towards ‘rhema words of wisdom/knowledge.’ I have seen Christians who attend prophetic prayer meetings chasing after such words. Some of them use this as a short cut to God. Some want a personal touch from God. But as one of my lecturers said, sometimes the personal touch from God comes from our reflections and meditation of the Scripture. And this lecturer is a Pentecostal, so he is no stranger to the prophetic and charismatic.
I hope that this simple study opens up new understanding to how we see the Scripture. At the heart of it, it has to be a desire to take the Scripture more seriously than we think. Let me know in the comments below if you have any thoughts on logos and rhema. I will love to hear from you.
I graduated from the National University of Singapore where I came to know Christ during his undergraduate days after studying the historicity of the gospel of Jesus Christ. My personal mission is to lead adult Christ disciples to engage the world with sound and biblical reasoning. And I am married to my pretty wife Angelina.
Hey! This is my first comment here so I just wanted to give a quick shout out and say I really enjoy reading through your articles. Can you recommend any other blogs/websites/forums that deal with the same topics? Thank you so much!
Wonderful beat ! I would like to apprentice while you amend your site, how could i subscribe for a blog web site? The account helped me a applicable deal. I were a little bit acquainted of this your broadcast offered vibrant clear idea
I love it when people come together and share views.
Great site, continue the good work!
Thank you for this careful study. May I ask if you have taken into account the oral background culture to the New Testament as you have particularly considered the usage of logos ?
Thanks for the comments. I did not consider the oral background culture in this study, primarily because it is a specific study into the usage of logos and rhema by John in his written gospel.
Thank you very much for this list of verses. It was very helpful. I was trying to find just such a list in trying to understand if there is indeed a difference between logos and rhema.
Btw, in your bio, there is one line where you forgot to change “he” to “my” (during “his” undergraduate days). You might want to change that :) It was so good to discover that it was a fellow Singaporean who wrote this by the way :)
Thanks Laura for visiting the site. Glad that the post has helped you a lot.
Hi there! This article could not be written any better!
Looking at this post reminds me of my previous roommate!
He constantly kept talking about this. I’ll send this article to him.
Fairly certain he’s going to have a great read.
Thank you for sharing!
This is very interesting, You are a very skilled blogger.
I have joined your feed and look forward to seeking more
of your wonderful post. Also, I have shared your web site in my social
networks!
very deep teachings……its what the world needs now.
Hi Daniel, thanks for reading and the encouragement. God bless
Thank you for making this simple! So often, things get sensationalized, and then become murky. I appreciate your biblical approach.
Amen!!! Thank you for breaking it down and making it easy to comprehend. May the Holy Spirit continues giving knowledge and you blessing us with the information. God bless you in the mighty name of Jesus.
Thanks for your clarity on this issue. Another e.g. of interchangeable use is: 1 Peter 1:23-2:2 “You have been born again…through the living & enduring word [logos] of God. 24 For ‘All flesh is like grass…25 but the word [rhema] of the Lord endures forever’ [quote Isaiah 40:6-8]. And this word [rhema] is the gospel that was proclaimed to you. Therefore…2:2 Like newborn infants, desire the pure milk of the word [logikos]…” (1 Pet. 1:23-2:2)
Thanks for the comment. I’m quite sure there are many more such examples when we do a proper word study on the two words. Glad that the work has blessed you.
Hello Brother, thank you for your perspective of logos and rhema. Just recently I heard that logos is “the written Word”, whereas rhema is more the “Spirit-breathed Word”. Doubting the accuracy of that, I decided to dig for myself, and came to the same conclusion that you did. If we let the Word itself teach us the difference between these 2 Greek words, it is very difficult to find any clear difference. Just another example of believers (including myself) parroting what we have heard from others, without knowing for sure that it agrees with the context of His Word. Thanks again. Bless you.
Thanks for the comment. Glad that the work has blessed you.
Beautifully executed and thank you for sharing the Scriptures and breaking them down clearly.
Thanks for the comment. Glad that the work has blessed you.
Blessings my brother,
I was reading and meditating on John chapter 1 verse 1 when the Bible says “in the beginning was the Word”or Logos. I was using my Bible Hub app and when I clicked on the word “Word” in the sentence “in the beginning was the Word” I noticed that the literal Greek definition of the word Logos didn’t actually mean that it was essentially just the written word of God. Coming from a Pentecostal and charismatic background I was taught that the logos was always considered the written word and that Rhema was always considered the spoken word of God but after looking at the literal Greek definition I began to doubt that and so I went to the internet to do a little research and to see what I could find and I came across your blog. And I noticed that after you had done your own thorough research on the subject that you came away with a different conclusion also concerning the logos and that confirmed what I had come to understand just a few minutes earlier after learning the literal Greek definition of the word logos. Logos doesn’t mean just the written word of God. Logos and Rhema both are used interchangeably throughout the New Testament. We all need to be studying to show ourselves approved unto God rightly dividing the word of truth. But many of us only take what we have heard from other people and use that rather than really reading and studying the word of God for ourselves.
Yours in Christ, Ernest
Great Skill by the HOLY SPIRIT, who is the ONLY true teacher of the WORD OF GOD!
The Logos and the Rhema
Thanks for that. Being a dyed-in-the-wool Pentecostal, I had always been taught the Logos was the whole corpus of the Bible, rhema (pl rhemata) is the one that speaks to you, the spoken word. I had long suspected, with the aid of a Young’s concoedance that this was not so. I am no Greek scholar, though i’m learning, I have acquired a Souter Greek-English Lexicon. THe principal definitians are rhema;a spoken word, an utterance, the concrete expression of logos……..logos(speech in progress) a word, utterance, speech discourse, saying (frequently of God or Hi s messengers). (b) the personalised word or divine utterance, John 1:1,14……
It’s important to note that the Bible doesn’t say Jesus is the Word of God, , just the Word was God (john 1:1). If He were, then the Bible would be a form of incarnation, and we could worship it, which would be idolatry.
Logos and rhema word study
http://reflectingtheologian.com/logos-and-rhema/
Rhema (ῥῆμα in Greek) literally means an “utterance” or “thing said” in Greek.
Logos is Ancient Greek: λόγος, Literal translation is word, discourse or reason. This definition seems to imply “word” could be translated spoken or written. However, the definition for the rhema does not leave itself open to such an ambivalent interpretation, is simply defined as an utterance. I have also seen the two words defined as follows: “Rhema is a sub-component of logos: Logos involves the entire communication process, writing, speaking and someone hearing and comprehending them. Rhema is just one part of this communication process, that being when words are spoken. So then the Logos can be considered the entire word of God in a general sense. Whereas rhema being a specific spoken word for a specific time and person, or a personal sense” So we can, according to the aforementioned definitions have rhema in the logos but you cannot have logos in the rhema. Rhema is not excluded from logos, but logos is excluded from being included in this definition for rhema.
The word dabar (Hebrew: דָּבָר) means “word”, “talk” or “thing” in Hebrew. Dabar occurs in various contexts in the Hebrew Bible.
The Septuagint, the oldest translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek uses the terms rhema and logos as equivalents because as in the definition of dabar it is appropriate to use both for this Hebrew word.
Since there are Hebrew words like the word dabar, which means “word” “talk” or “thing” then it may be translated correctly from the Greek word Logos for the definition of “word” and also correctly as being translated from the Greek word Rhema for the translation of the defining word “talk”. It depends the meaning(s) of the original Hebrew word to determine what the correct application is.
Do we not then need to know the original word translated from the Hebrew to ascertain and have clarification as to the determination of the one speaking or writing, whether it should have the intended interpretation of a spoken word (rhema) or a written word, logos?
To say that the two Greek words rhema and logos are used interchangeably without having a different intent in the meaning of the two words by the writer is to suggest a disordered writing style, by one who indiscriminately uses these words in a random fashion. I don’t believe anyone would ever accuse the New Testament writers as being guilty of such. Therefore we must assume that when they use the word rhema the specific intent is for a spoken word. We may be well advised to search the origin of the Hebrew word in helping us decide whether the writer intended us to understand it as rhema. Whereas rhema clearly and exclusively means “spoken”, the spoken word (of the Spirit), logos does not clearly share the same meaning.
Rhema (ῥῆμα in Greek) literally means an “utterance” or “thing said” in Greek.
Logos is Ancient Greek: λόγος, Literal translation is word, discourse or reason. This definition seems to imply “word” could be translated spoken or written. However, the definition for the rhema does not leave itself open to such an ambivalent interpretation, is simply defined as an utterance. I have also seen the two words defined as follows: “Rhema is a sub-component of logos: Logos involves the entire communication process, writing, speaking and someone hearing and comprehending them. Rhema is just one part of this communication process, that being when words are spoken. So then the Logos can be considered the entire word of God in a general sense. Whereas rhema being a specific spoken word for a specific time and person, or a personal sense” So we can, according to the aforementioned definitions have rhema in the logos but you cannot have logos in the rhema. Rhema is not excluded from logos, but logos is excluded from being included in this definition for rhema.
The word dabar (Hebrew: דָּבָר) means “word”, “talk” or “thing” in Hebrew. Dabar occurs in various contexts in the Hebrew Bible.
The Septuagint, the oldest translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek uses the terms rhema and logos as equivalents because as in the definition of dabar it is appropriate to use both for this Hebrew word.
Since there are Hebrew words like the word dabar, which means “word” “talk” or “thing” then it may be translated correctly from the Greek word Logos for the definition of “word” and also correctly as being translated from the Greek word Rhema for the translation of the defining word “talk”. It depends the meaning(s) of the original Hebrew word to determine what the correct application is.
Do we not then need to know the original word translated from the Hebrew to ascertain and have clarification as to the determination of the one speaking or writing, whether it should have the intended interpretation of a spoken word (rhema) or a written word, logos?
To say that the two Greek words rhema and logos are used interchangeably without having a different intent in the meaning of the two words by the writer is to suggest a disordered writing style, by one who indiscriminately uses these words in a random fashion. I don’t believe anyone would ever accuse the New Testament writers as being guilty of such. Therefore we must assume that when they use the word rhema the specific intent is for a spoken word. We may be well advised to search the origin of the Hebrew word in helping us decide whether the writer intended us to understand it as rhema. Whereas rhema clearly and exclusively means “spoken”, the spoken word (of the Spirit), logos does not clearly share the same meaning.
You seem to know Greek and Hebrew.Is that true? It is one thing to do a surface study through a strong concordance and another to know Greek and Hebrew. I understand that you disagree with the author who wrote this blog…he said it wasn’t a difference in the two words and you appearing to know original language says it’s not a difference. No disrespect to the author who wrote this blog…but you pretty much by knowing Greek proved him wrong.
hello there and thank you for your info – I’ve definitely picked up anything new from right here. I did however expertise a few technical issues using this web site, since I experienced to reload the site many times previous to I could get it to load correctly. I had been wondering if your web hosting is OK? Not that I’m complaining, but slow loading instances times will sometimes affect your placement in google and can damage your quality score if advertising and marketing with Adwords. Well I’m adding this RSS to my email and could look out for a lot more of your respective interesting content. Ensure that you update this again very soon..
Paul E. Commits clearly show he knows the original Greek and Hebrew. By that he clearly proved there is a difference in the two words as you stated. It’s one thing to do a study with a strong concordance and another to know Greek and Hebrew. That is why I don’t listen to people who don’t know the original language. Greek is a very complex language and it takes more than a superficial study of just looking up words. That is why I always go to Greek and Hebrew scholars who know the language and can translated from Greek to English.