Jesus gave Rhema & Logos

Basics of Biblical Greek

When Jesus prayed “I have given them the words you gave me” (John 17:1-11) the writer used the Greek rhema meaning word. Poorly educated popular preachers place great emphasis on the word rhema claiming a fresh word from God today. A rhema from God is believed to be the latest and a logos antiquated. Yet the Bible’s uses logos and rhema interchangeably, as here. Later in this same chapter Jesus prayed “I have given them your word [logos]” (vs. 14) and “your word [logos] is truth” (vs. 17). Although rhema can refer to rhetoric and logos to logic, they do overlap in meaning and usage. The fact is that many of today’s so-called "rhema-words" contradict the rhema and logos in the Bible. Both words can mean a spoken word in the Bible. Both words translate a single Hebrew word.