Tractates on the Gospel of John

^10. Perhaps some one now answers me, “Who so conceives this Word?” Do not then imagine, as it were, some paltry thing when you hear, “the Word,” nor suppose it to be words such as you hear them every day— “he spoke such words,” “such words he uttered,” “such words you tell me;” for by constant repetition the term word has become, so to speak, worthless. And when you hear, “In the beginning was the Word,” lest you should imagine something worthless, such as you have been accustomed to think of when you were wont to listen to human words, hearken to what you must think of: “The Word was God.”