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mouth which could be heard by the human ear, or a word written with ink on a piece of paper. We therefore need to see what Scripture meant to convey to us when it says that Christ was the Word of God. It really means that He was the medium that God used to reveal Himself to man, that is, what He is essentially, so that it is said the Word was God. When it says the Word became flesh it means the medium became flesh and does not mean that God the source became flesh. That would bring in confusion between God and man and clearly contradict what is said in John 1:18, “No one has seen God at any time”. As another has said: “You cannot say because Scripture says the Word was God and the Word became flesh that God became flesh”. We must not lose sight of the fact that it is also said the Word was with God, that is, He had a personality distinct from God. What God was morally was seen in Christ, that is, in flesh, but things like omnipotence, omniscience and omnipresence were not. To say they were is getting away from reality and throws our apprehension of Christ into confusion. It actually takes away what is peculiarly the Father’s glory and the distinction between God and man is blurred if not lost.

In the Old Testament there were those that gave the sense when the law was read (Nehemiah 8:1-8). It is thought that this was because the returning Jews had spent time in Babylon and they were probably not conversant with the language in which the law of Moses was written. In other words, what those that read and gave the sense were doing was translating rather than interpreting. The distinction between translating and interpreting may not always be clear cut, but either way it is important that those who translate or interpret should be careful that they do not mislead any in what they say.

In practice we should be careful about leaning on any passage where the translation is doubtful or the underlying documents differ in their wording so that what should be translated is uncertain. John 1:18, Acts 20:28, Romans 9:5, 1 Timothy 3:16, are such passages. Basing doctrines on obscure or doubtful passages is a fruitful source of error.

Some things in Scripture have an allegorical sense as Paul says in Galatians 4:24. Some things may be “hard to be understood” (2 Peter 3:16). Paul could say to Timothy: “Think of what I say, for the Lord

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