Who is the Word of God before becoming flesh, and who are the prophets calling the Lord of Host in the Old Testament?
July 9th, 2009 by DannyNelsonQuestion posted on Yahoo! Answers: Who is the Word of God before becoming flesh, and who are the prophets calling the Lord of Host in the Old Testament? Who in the old Testament is Lord and who is the Lord of Host; and who is yhwh (Jehovah) the Lord God the Father or the Lord of host, the Word of God, the second person of the trinity. My dad is having me ask this question we are trying to get him saved from? Please help my mom and I God bless you.
July 9th, 2009 at 8:28 AM
The prologue to John’s Gospel (1:1-18) makes this pretty clear: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word WAS FULLY GOD” (1:1). Jehovah’s Witnesses and others have made arguments that the Greek text here in fact does not say “the Word was God,” but rather “the Word was a God,” since the noun theos (“God”) lacks a definite article. This is a rather nuanced grammatical discussion; however, I will say that according to certain rules of Greek grammar along with the author’s use of a literary device apparent in the Greek text called a ‘chiasm’ and the author’s clear understanding of Jesus as divine in this Gospel (cf. 5:18; 8:58; 20:28, e.g.), there can be little doubt that John 1:1 does indeed call the Word “God.” Much more can be said, but I will leave it at that.
As for the names “Lord of hosts” found in the Old Testament, this is simply another name for God. In fact, in every instance I’m aware of, what is usually translated “Lord of hosts” in our English Bibles actually says “Yahweh of hosts” (or, perhaps better, “Yahweh of armies”) in Hebrew. When you see “LORD” in capital letters in your Bible, it means that the Hebrew text actually says “Yahweh;” however, out of reverence for the Divine Name, it was not translated.