Though for many Christians today “the Word of God” means a book of Scriptures or the Bible, in the Bible itself the Word of God is associated with a spoken word or a word we hear but not a written word. Or, as early Christians would come to understand it “the Word of God” means the Second Person of the Holy Trinity especially obvious in chapter 1 of John’s Gospel but also in the Old Testament prophets when the Word of the Lord comes too them and speaks to them. The Word of God has power to act and enact while the written word bears witness to the Word of God which is heard and obeyed.
Just read the Acts of the Apostles to get a sense of this. The Word of God is spoken (4:31, 13:46), preached (6:2), received (8:14, 11:1), proclaimed (13:5), sought (13:7), heard (13:44), glorified (13:48) and taught (18:11). The Word of God both increases (6:7) as well as grows & multiplies (12:24). Clearly the Word of God is not a book but something more. As it says in Hebrews 4:12 – “For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and spirit, of joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” There is a relationship between the written letters on a page and the Word of God, but the Word of God is living, is a spiritual force. For Christians the Word of God is Jesus Christ, the God who becomes incarnate as a human (John 1:14).
Look at 2 Chronicles 34:21-
“Go, inquire of the LORD for me and for those who are left in Israel and in Judah, concerning the words of the book that has been found; for great is the wrath of the LORD that is poured out on us, because our fathers have not kept the word of the LORD, to do according to all that is written in this book.”
King Josiah sees the writings in the book that the priest reads to him, not as the Word of the Lord but rather the written word in the book is what the Word of the Lord commanded. Or, perhaps, the written word is simply what needed to be done to show that people listened to the Word of God and obeyed. But the written word is not equivalent to the Word of God. Rather the written word bears witness to the Word of God. We see a similar thing in the New Testament when Jesus says to Satan:
“It is written, ‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.'” (Matthew 4:4)
What is written is not the Word of God but rather only the commandments related to how people should live. The written word bears witness to the Word of God. Which is what Jesus teaches in John 5:39-46 –
You search the scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness to me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. … If you believed Moses, you would believe me, for he wrote of me.
As Jesus understands Torah, Torah is about Jesus. Moses in writing the books of the Law was really writing about Jesus. Moses is a prophet who bears witness to Jesus more than a historian writing the narration of human history.
We see an interesting relationship between the Word of God and a written word in Exodus. “Moses came and told the people all the words of the LORD and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, ‘All the words which the LORD has spoken we will do.’ And Moses wrote all the words of the LORD.” (Exodus 24:3-4) Moses comes to the people and tells them the words of the Lord – God’s word is spoken and to be heard. Only after all the people hear the words and agree to obey them does Moses write them down. They are not put into a written form until the people agree to do them. The covenant will involve a written agreement, but the Word of God must first be heard and willingly accepted as that which is to be obeyed; Only then is it put into writing. After this, the written covenant is accepted again this time in ritual worship – it is sanctified as the people once more agree to it: “Then Moses took the book of the covenant, and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, ‘All that the LORD has spoken we will do, and we will be obedient.’ And Moses took the blood and threw it upon the people, and said, ‘Behold the blood of the covenant which the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.’” (Exodus 24:7-8)
It is the same for us today, for in the Liturgy again we have the Blood of Christ and the spoken Word proclaimed and we agree to God’s new covenant. And interestingly the very next thing that happens in Exodus is a meal eaten before God:
Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel; and there was under his feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And he did not lay his hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank. (Exodus 24:9-11)
It is only after Moses spoke God’s words to the people and the people agreed to obey that the covenant was confirmed in liturgical ritual that involved blood. Only after all of this does God speak about putting His words into writing. In Exodus 24:12, we read: The LORD said to Moses, “Come up to me on the mountain, and wait there; and I will give you the tables of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction.” But even then another 40 days will pass before it happens (Exodus 24:18).
Only in Exodus 31 does God finally write the words which Moses proclaimed to the people and wrote down for the people. But first God tells Moses he must once again proclaim (verbally) these words of the perpetual covenant. Only then do we read in Exodus 31:18 – And he gave to Moses, when he had made an end of speaking with him upon Mount Sinai, the two tables of the testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God.
In Deuteronomy 9:10-11 we read another version of this same narrative:
And the LORD gave me the two tables of stone written with the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the LORD had spoken with you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And at the end of forty days and forty nights the LORD gave me the two tables of stone, the tables of the covenant.
God’s Word is first spoken, it was written down by God on the stone tablets only after the people agreed to the terms of the covenant. Moses was to smash God’s written words, the stone tablets, when the people disobeyed God even before Moses could bring the written word to them. But even tablets of stone written by God’s own hand were not permanent and cannot be equated with God’s word. For as it says in 1 Peter 1:24 -25 – ‘The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord abides for ever.‘ That word is the good news which was preached to you.”
God’s Word cannot be equated with a written form. God’s Word is not coterminous with the scriptures for the scriptures bear witness to God’s Word. The Word of God is Jesus Christ.
Fraternized 