Greek λόγος · ῥῆμα. Also called Logos, Rhema, The Word, logos · rhēma.
The two Greek nouns English Bibles translate “word”: logos, 331 times in the New Testament, and rhēma, 67 times.
Logos is the broader word: a word, a message, a saying, an account given, and in John’s opening the Word himself. Rhēma is something said, a word or a statement, and most of its uses are in Luke, Acts and John. English has one word for both, so a reader cannot see which stands behind “the word of God” without the Greek: Hebrews 4:12 has logos, Ephesians 6:17 has rhēma. The New Testament does not keep them strictly apart. First Peter calls the gospel logos and then, quoting Isaiah, rhēma, two verses later and for the same thing.
Which Greek word stands behind “word” in the New Testament, book by book
When the BSB’s New Testament says “word”
198λόγοςlogos
36ῥῆμαrhēma
13λέγωlegō, to say
33 other words
Of the 280 times the BSB’s English for a Greek word includes “word” or “words”. Seven times in ten it is logos.
One message, both words
1 Peter 1:23“the living and enduring word of God”λόγος logos
1 Peter 1:25“the word of the Lord stands forever”ῥῆμα rhēma
1 Peter 1:25“this is the word that was proclaimed to you”ῥῆμα rhēma
Peter calls the gospel logos, then quotes Isaiah 40:8, “the word of our God stands forever”, where the Greek Old Testament has rhēma, and goes on: “this is the word that was proclaimed to you.” The two are not kept apart. Some teaching treats rhēma as a word spoken to someone now and logos as the written word; the New Testament uses rhēma for anything said, from God’s command to “every careless word” (Matthew 12:36, the same verse that has logos for the “account” given for it).
Well-known verses
John 1:1“In the beginning was the Word”λόγος logos
Hebrews 4:12“the word of God is living and active”λόγος logos
Matthew 4:4“every word that comes from the mouth of God”ῥῆμα rhēma
Romans 10:17“hearing by the word of Christ”ῥῆμα rhēma
Ephesians 6:17“the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God”ῥῆμα rhēma
Rhēma belongs mostly to Luke and Acts (32 of its 67 uses) and John; most of Paul’s letters never use it. Jude is the only book with rhēma and no logos.
How the BSB translates each
λόγοςlogos
word136×
words51×
message32×
account9×
saying8×
speech8×
ῥῆμαrhēma
words19×
word15×
message6×
statement4×
things3×
matter2×
Counted in the site’s Greek text (Nestle 1904) by Strong’s number, G3056 and G4487, with the BSB’s English for each word from its translation tables. Tap any “word” in the reader’s BSB text with the Words tab open to see which one it is.