ῥῆμα

The Greek New Testament has three different words it can use for word. Volume One of this project opened with the first of them: logos — the Word as content, message, principle, or (in John’s prologue) the personal Word who is Christ. Chapter 21 of this volume named the second: graphē — the writing, the Scripture, the inscribed text. This chapter names the third: rhēma — the spoken word, the utterance, the saying that is addressed to the hearer in the moment of speaking.

The three words are not exact synonyms. They overlap; they can sometimes substitute for one another; the New Testament writers use them with considerable freedom. But each carries its own emphasis. Logos is the word as content (what is said). Graphē is the word as inscribed text (what is written). Rhēma is the word as spoken utterance (what is said aloud, in the moment, to the hearer).

The distinction matters for how the Lutheran tradition thinks about the means of grace. The Word reaches the believer in multiple forms. It comes as graphē in the believer’s reading of Scripture. It comes as rhēma in the believer’s hearing of preaching, in the words of absolution, in the pastoral application of Scripture to particular situations, in the spoken assurance of the gospel from one Christian to another. Both forms — the written and the spoken — are the same Word. Both are means by which the Spirit applies Christ’s work to the believer.

The most concentrated New Testament statement of this dynamic is in Paul’s letter to the Romans:

“But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim)… So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” (Romans 10:8, 17)

Twice in three verses Paul uses rhēma. The word (rhēma) is near the believer in mouth and heart. Faith comes through hearing, and hearing comes through the rhēma of Christ. The chapter that follows is about that word — the spoken Word that the Spirit uses to bring the believer to faith and to keep him in it.

The Word

The Greek word is ῥῆμα (rhēma), pronounced in the Erasmian convention as RAY-ma, with the accent on the first syllable. The word is a third-declension neuter noun and appears throughout the New Testament in standard inflected forms.

The etymology is straightforward and theologically suggestive. Rhēma is built from the Greek verbal root erō (to say, to speak), which is the future and aorist stem of the most basic Greek “speaking” verb. In classical Greek, erō is largely supplanted in the present tense by legō (to say, to speak — the verb behind logos), but the erō stem survives in tenses other than the present, and the rhēma noun is derived from it. The compound name rhē-ma combines the verbal root with the -ma suffix that produces result-nouns. The result-noun captures the thing said — the spoken utterance that has come out of someone’s mouth.

The word family is moderate in size:

Rhēma (ῥῆμα) — spoken word, utterance, saying. The chapter’s main word.

Rhētōr (ῥήτωρ) — speaker, orator, rhetorician. Used at Acts 24:1 — Tertullus, the Roman rhētōr (orator) hired by the Jewish leaders to prosecute Paul before Felix. The English “rhetoric” comes from this Greek root.

Rhētōs (ῥητῶς) — expressly, in spoken terms. Used at 1 Timothy 4:1 — “the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith.” The adverb names what is said with particular clarity or emphasis.

Erō (ἐρῶ) — to say, to speak. The verbal root from which rhēma derives. In the New Testament the verb appears mostly in future and aorist forms.

The relationship between rhēma and the other “word” vocabulary deserves attention. The Greek New Testament has three terms whose ranges overlap but whose centers of gravity differ:

Logos (λόγος) — word, message, account, principle. The most theologically loaded of the three. Volume One Chapter 1 treated this at length. Logos tends toward the content-side of speaking: the message communicated, the rational structure, the principle articulated. In John’s prologue, logos is the personal Word who is Christ Himself.

Graphē (γραφή) — writing, Scripture. Chapter 21 of this volume. Graphē names the word in its written, inscribed, preserved form. The authoritative text.

Rhēma (ῥῆμα) — spoken word, utterance. The chapter’s word. Rhēma names the word in its act of being spoken, in the moment of utterance, in the relational dynamic between speaker and hearer.

The three terms are not water-tight categories. The New Testament writers move freely among them, and in many passages the choice of word seems to be largely stylistic. But the broad distinction holds. When Paul speaks of “the word of Christ” producing faith in Romans 10:17, he uses rhēma — the Word as spoken address to the hearer. When John says “the Word was God” in John 1:1, he uses logos — the Word as personal substance. When the Synoptic writers say “it is written” in their Old Testament quotations, they use graphē — the Word as inscribed text.

The Lutheran tradition has held all three together as the means by which the Word of God reaches the believer. The written graphē is read by the believer; the spoken rhēma is heard by the believer in preaching and pastoral conversation; the personal logos is Christ Himself, who comes to the believer through the written and spoken forms. The three are inseparable.

The Septuagint background of rhēma is substantial. The Greek translators used rhēma extensively to render Hebrew dabar (דָּבָר), the standard Hebrew word for “word,” “speech,” “thing,” or “matter.” The Hebrew dabar has remarkable semantic range — it can mean both the word spoken and the thing accomplished by the word. The Hebrew mind did not always separate the saying from the doing; a word spoken by God is a word that does what it says.

Several Old Testament passages illuminate the New Testament development:

Genesis 1 — “And God said… and it was so.” The repeated formula throughout the creation account. The LXX uses eipen (the aorist of legō), but the underlying theology is the dabar of God that creates by being spoken. The world exists because God said it.

Deuteronomy 8:3 — “Man shall not live by bread alone, but man lives by every word (dabar, LXX rhēma) that comes from the mouth of the LORD.” The verse Jesus quotes in His temptation in the wilderness (Matthew 4:4 / Luke 4:4). The LXX translates dabar as rhēma — every utterance from God’s mouth is what the believer lives by.

Isaiah 55:10-11 — “For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven and do not return there but water the earth, making it bring forth and sprout, giving seed to the sower and bread to the eater, so shall my word (dabar, LXX rhēma) be that goes out from my mouth; it shall not return to me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it.” One of the most theologically loaded Old Testament passages on the spoken word’s effective power. God’s rhēma accomplishes what it says.

Psalm 33:6, 9 — “By the word (dabar, LXX logos here) of the LORD the heavens were made… For he spoke, and it came to be; he commanded, and it stood firm.” The psalmist’s confession of creation by the divine word.

Jeremiah 23:29 — “Is not my word (dabar) like fire, declares the LORD, and like a hammer that breaks the rock in pieces?” The Old Testament’s image of God’s word as powerful, effective, capable of breaking what is hard.

The Old Testament’s high view of the divine spoken word — creative in Genesis, effective in Isaiah, like fire and hammer in Jeremiah — is foundational for the New Testament’s rhēma doctrine. When the New Testament says the rhēma of God created the worlds (Hebrews 11:3), or that the rhēma of God is the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6:17), or that faith comes through hearing the rhēma of Christ (Romans 10:17), the whole Old Testament tradition of the powerful spoken Word is in view.

Range of Meaning

Rhēma in the New Testament covers a meaningful range:

A particular saying or statement. The most common sense. Matthew 12:36 — “every careless word (rhēma) they speak.” Luke 1:38 — Mary’s “let it be to me according to your rhēma.” Luke 9:45 — the disciples not understanding the rhēma about Jesus’s coming suffering. The word names a specific spoken utterance.

The collective body of Jesus’s teaching. John 6:68 — “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the rhēmata of eternal life.” Peter’s confession after many disciples turned away from Jesus. The plural rhēmata names what Jesus has said as a body of teaching that gives eternal life.

A divine word, an utterance from God. Luke 3:2 — “the word (rhēma) of God came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.” The standard Old Testament prophetic formula carried into the New Testament. Romans 10:17 — “the rhēma of Christ.”

The creative word of God. Hebrews 11:3 — “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word (rhēma) of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.” The same divine word that created in Genesis is here named rhēma.

The gospel as preached. 1 Peter 1:25 — “And this word (rhēma) is the good news that was preached to you.” The rhēma identified with the gospel proclamation.

The sword of the Spirit. Ephesians 6:17 — “the sword of the Spirit, which is the word (rhēma) of God.” The believer’s offensive weapon in the spiritual armor.

A thing or event. Less common, but the word can extend to the thing accomplished by the word, paralleling the Hebrew dabar. Luke 2:15 — the shepherds’ “let us go to Bethlehem and see this thing (rhēma) that has happened.” Acts 5:32 — “we are witnesses to these things (rhēmata).” The extension reflects the Hebrew background where the word and the thing-the-word-accomplishes could share the same vocabulary.

Where You’ll Meet It

Romans 10:8, 17. “But what does it say? ‘The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart’ (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim)… So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” The Greek of verse 17: ara hē pistis ex akoēs, hē de akoē dia rhēmatos Christou.

The passage is the foundational New Testament text for the doctrine of preaching as means of grace. Paul has been arguing the universality of the gospel’s offer (Romans 10:1-13); he has named the necessity of preaching for hearing, hearing for faith (10:14-16); and he reaches the climactic statement in verse 17.

The Greek grammar is precise. Pistis (faith) comes ex akoēs (from hearing). Akoē (hearing) comes dia rhēmatos Christou (through the word of Christ). The sequence is: word of Christ → hearing → faith. The believer’s faith is not a self-generated response to general religious yearning; the believer’s faith is the Spirit’s gift produced through the hearing of the rhēma of Christ. And the rhēma is what is preached — the spoken Word delivered by the preacher to the hearer.

This is the Lutheran doctrine of preaching as means of grace in its most concentrated form. The believer’s faith does not arise from within; faith arises from outside, through the spoken Word, brought by the Spirit. The implication is direct: where the gospel is preached, the Spirit is at work; where the gospel is not preached, faith cannot arise (apart from the spoken Word in some form). The means of grace are not interchangeable with general religious feeling; they are the specific channels through which the Spirit works.

The Lutheran tradition has held this with particular weight against various forms of revivalism that locate faith in the believer’s emotional response, against rationalist Christianity that locates faith in the believer’s reasoned conviction, and against enthusiast Christianity that locates faith in the believer’s direct spiritual experience. The Lutheran answer in all cases: faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the rhēma of Christ. The preached Word is the means; the Spirit working through the Word is the agent; the believer receives.

Matthew 4:4 (and parallel Luke 4:4). “But he answered, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.”’” The Greek: epi panti rhēmati ekporeuomenō dia stomatos theou.

Jesus’s response to Satan in the first temptation. The wilderness, the forty days of fasting, the tempter’s invitation to turn stones to bread — and Jesus’s reply quoting Deuteronomy 8:3. Two observations matter.

First, Jesus locates human life in dependence on God’s rhēma. Man does not live by bread alone — that is, by mere physical sustenance. Man lives by every rhēma that comes from God’s mouth. The phrase “every rhēma” is striking: not just the central messages, not just the high-priority commands, but every utterance from God’s mouth. The believer’s life is sustained by what God speaks.

Second, the citation is from Scripture. Jesus, in response to Satan, quotes Deuteronomy. The written Scripture is the source of the rhēma Jesus draws on. The relationship between graphē (Chapter 21) and rhēma (this chapter) is here illustrated: the written Word in Deuteronomy provides the Word Jesus speaks to Satan. The two forms of the Word are interlocked; the graphē yields the rhēma in the moment when it is most needed.

The application is direct. The believer who is tempted, suffering, or under pressure draws on the rhēma of God — the specific spoken Word that addresses the moment. The source of the rhēma is the graphē. The believer who has been reading and meditating on Scripture has rhēma available when the moment of need comes. The believer who has not been engaging Scripture has nothing to draw on. The two forms of the Word work together in the believer’s life.

Ephesians 6:17. “And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” The Greek: kai tēn machairan tou pneumatos, ho estin rhēma theou.

The verse appears within Paul’s “armor of God” passage (Ephesians 6:10-20). The believer is to put on the whole armor of God for the spiritual battle. The defensive pieces are listed (the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shoes of the gospel of peace, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation). The single offensive weapon is the sword of the Spirit, which is the rhēma of God.

The Greek is precise. Machaira (sword) was the short Roman sword, the gladius — the close-quarter weapon of the Roman legionary, designed for thrusting in tight combat. The image is not the long broadsword of ceremonial display but the working sword of the soldier in the moment of engagement.

The sword is the rhēma — the spoken Word. Not the graphē in its quiet preserved form, but the rhēma in its act of being spoken. The believer who is in spiritual battle takes up the Word as it is spoken — the specific scriptural truth applied to the present situation. The “sword of the Spirit” is the Word wielded in real time against the spiritual enemy.

This is the New Testament’s foundational text for the believer’s use of Scripture in spiritual conflict. The believer who has been steeping in graphē has rhēma available for the battle. The Spirit’s sword is wielded as the believer speaks the Word — to himself in temptation, to others in pastoral need, to spiritual enemies in resistance. The image rules out passive familiarity with Scripture; the believer who has the sword has it for using.

Luke 1:38, 1:37-38. “And Mary said, ‘Behold, I am the servant of the Lord; let it be to me according to your word.’ And the angel departed from her.” The Greek of Mary’s response: genoito moi kata to rhēma sou.

One of the most pastorally rich uses of rhēma in the New Testament. The angel Gabriel has announced to Mary that she will conceive and bear the Son of the Most High. Mary’s response is reception of the rhēma: let it be to me according to your word.

The verse names the believer’s right disposition toward the rhēma of God. The rhēma comes; the believer receives. Mary does not analyze, debate, hedge, or condition her response. She receives the rhēma and submits to what it announces. The disposition is what the Lutheran tradition calls passive righteousness — the believer’s receptive posture before the Word that comes from outside.

The earlier verse (Luke 1:37) carries an interesting textual variation. The traditional reading is “for nothing will be impossible with God” (ouk adynatēsei para tou theou pan rhēma), with rhēma in the sense of “thing” or “matter.” A more literal rendering might be “no word from God will be impossible.” The Greek admits both readings, and the underlying theology is the same: the rhēma of God will accomplish what it says, because nothing God says is impossible to bring about. The Isaiah 55:11 background is in view.

1 Peter 1:23-25. “Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God; for ‘All flesh is like grass, and all its glory like the flower of grass. The grass withers, and the flower falls, but the word of the Lord remains forever.’ And this word is the good news that was preached to you.” The Greek of verse 25: touto de estin to rhēma to euangelisthen eis hymas.

The passage develops the connection between the rhēma of God and the new birth. The believer has been born again through the living and abiding word of God (verse 23). Peter then quotes Isaiah 40:6-8 on the contrast between human transience (grass that withers) and the divine Word that remains forever. And Peter identifies the rhēma explicitly: this word is the good news that was preached to you.

Several observations matter. First, the believer’s new birth is through the Word — through logos (verse 23) and rhēma (verses 24-25), used interchangeably in the passage. The new birth is not a self-generated psychological event; it is the Spirit’s work through the Word. Second, the Word is living and abiding — alive and lasting, in contrast to the perishable nature of human existence. Third, the Word is specifically the rhēma of the preached gospel. The good news (euangelisthen) that was preached (verb form of euangelizō) to the believers is the rhēma through which they were born again.

This is the New Testament’s foundational text for the connection between preaching, the new birth, and the gospel. The Lutheran tradition has held all three tightly: the new birth comes through the Word; the Word is the gospel; the gospel is preached. The means of grace are not abstract theological concepts; they are the specific channels — preaching, the Sacraments, absolution, the Word read and meditated upon — through which the Spirit works to give and sustain the new birth.