In the Beginning was Sermo: Reopening the Conversation on John 1:1 (Ad Navseam, Episode 140)

In the beginning was the…conversation? In this episode Jeff and Dave tackle a fascinating 1977 article by Marjorie O’Rourke Boyle in which she reviews the history of the translation of John 1:1, particularly the Latin words used to express the Greek ὁ λόγος (logos), usually taken in English as “Word”. We learn that the earliest Latin translations used the word sermo (“conversation”), which seems to have a broader range of meanings and referents (connotation vs. denotation) than the verbum Jerome selected, and which then dominated translations for a millennium. And just when you thought it was safe to crack open the Vulgate, along comes Erasmus in 1516, who rocks the theological and philological worlds by suggesting a return to sermo. Which word better expresses the range of the Greek logos? How might our choice change the way we read John 1:1?

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