6.21.2005 | Knowledge and Power

It is often said that "knowledge is power." The most perfect knowledge is that of the revelation of God, which is the basic subject for all of Scripture. Mere words, you say? Well, as John reminds us, "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God". Think on this: the Word was God.

This is a very Hebraic concept, acknowledging that God has chosen to reveal Himself to us through His Word -- the Word incarnate in the person of Jesus Christ; the words of the Bible, transcribed by men empowered and informed by His Spirit.

The Jewish kabbalists had put forward the notion that God, when He created the universe, first created the Hebrew alphabet to build it with, and that "mere" words in Hebrew have immense power beyond the concepts they may convey. John the Evangelist was, among other things, a Jew, and, to judge from his writings, would have been right at home among the kabbalists who came some 1,000 years later. I don't know how handicapped John may have felt to be writing in Greek, as opposed to Hebrew, but among his purposes was to acquaint all, Jew and Gentile, with the Word made flesh.

John's gospel, and his Book of Revelation, should remind those of us hung up on the literal meaning of words, that words can have power far beyond the mere arrangement of letters on a printed page. Knowledge is power? Yes; true as far as it goes. But the greatest power is that which God gives us in the Word. With a capital W.

| technorati tag | Christianity|