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Good Morning, Folks:
...and yes I know that its early on a Saturday morning.
All the same I wanted to broach a subject and see if anyone
else is in such a place with their own spiritual growth.

For about the last couple of years I have been investigating
the tradition of Christian mystics and have found a concept
that seems to be particularly difficult to define. Apparently
the first use of the term "the Word" is found in the gospel of
John and generally it refers to the unincarnated nature of God, or, generally, to Holy Scripture. Leaving the second application to one side for a moment, I am more interested in hearing peoples thoughts on the first application. Commonly, we say that Jesus is "the Word made flesh". My question is meant to discover what the nature of God is/was before the Incarnation. When people use the term "the Word" in what context do they frame this? Help? Thoughts?

BTW: To date I have only been able to characterize this construct by using the simile of a fish in water. With that simile' I recognize that a fish swims in water, contains water and is made up of tissue that contains water. I suggest that "the Word" relates to us in similar fashion. What I don't know is how to get my head around what that nature is.

Best Wishes,

Bruce

Don't know where you got the idea that the Word is God's nature. Catholic and Orthodox believe the Word is the Second Person of the Trinity, the Son. The Nature/Essence of God is unknowable. We "know" God through participation with his Energies.

Thanks for the response. Right now any discussion would be a help.

My thought that "The Word" might be the "nature" of God comes from the idea that it IS unknowable and so needed to be incarnated in the form of Jesus so that we would have something with which to begin. I can see that you also know that there is something else to understand since, though you admit (as do I) that God is "unknowable" you also mention "His Energies". I think we know that one such "energy" is "love" and quite a bit is made of this. However, I can easily imagine that God must also encompass and express Himself through other energies as well. Thoughts? How do Orthodox Christians regard, say, Gnostics or Syrians who may have differing regard in this fashion?

Best Wishes,

Bruce

The East would not apply any label to God's Energies other than to identify them with the Uncreated Light as was revealed on Mt Tabor. Orthodox and Catholics regard Gnostics as heretics. As to the Syrians, I am not aware they have any differing teachings.

Thanks for your time and patience...believe it or not you have helped quite a bit. Its not like a person can strike up a conversation on such subjects with just Anyone, right? Thanks again....

Best Wishes,

Bruce

If I may add...the Word, or logos in Greek has several meanings besides "word" but none of them mean word in the sense of "a word". This is philosophical language, which is way over my head, and is used analogically for the second Person of the Trinity.
Christian theology teaches that the second Person, as all three do, exists throughout eternity and is accepted as a given by faith. The Incarnation, or taking on of flesh, of the second Person, Christ, exists in time from the Annunciation of the Mother of God, Mary the mother of Jesus.
Some use the term "Word" analogically still to describe the relation of the Father to the Son, as if the Father is the "definition" and the Son is the "word". St. John's Gospel and Christian theology teaches that all was created through the Word. This is expanded upon in the Eastern Churches' (and the early Church's) interpretation of the Old Testament in which the Word is the person or principle by which the Almighty interfaces with humanity through the prophets.
The Incarnate Logos, Christ, has a divine nature and a human nature. He is NOT divine on his Fathers side and human on his mother's. He is fully divine and fully human. This is accepted on faith. There is no way to prove this other than from the witness of the prophets and the apostles and the tradition of the Church through the ages. Some of us grasp this through our upbringing, for others it can be driven home to us later in life but in both cases this acknowledgement occurs through the power of the Holy Spirit, the third Person.
The human nature of Christ has its own soul and its own will. In order to save man (by that I mean all humanity), the Logos must assume not only the human body but also the free will and the soul. "What has not been assumed has not been healed," to quote St. Gregory the Theologian.
Christ's Incarnation, or becoming human, elevates the human nature (that all people share) for through Him we have a link to the Almighty in His divine Nature.
In sum, there has always been and always will be the Logos, or Word, always sharing the Divinity of the Trinity; at a point in time the Logos became human and will always remain fully human and fully divine. This was a service of love to His creation, to humans specifically.
(I am not a theologian, anyone correct me if I am wrong. I thought the basics could come from a "basic" person.)