Logia

The term logia (Greek: λόγια), plural of logion (Greek: λόγιον), is used variously in ancient writings and modern scholarship in reference to communications of divine origin. In pagan contexts, the principal meaning was "oracles", while Jewish and Christian writings used logia in reference especially to "the divinely inspired Scriptures". A famous and much-debated occurrence of the term is in the account by Papias of Hierapolis on the origins of the canonical Gospels. Since the 19th century, New Testament scholarship has tended to reserve the term logion for a divine saying, especially one spoken by Jesus, in contrast to narrative, and to call a collection of such sayings, as exemplified by the Gospel of Thomas, logia.

In pagan usage, logion was used interchangeably with chresmos (χρησμός) and other such terms in reference to oracles, the pronouncements of the gods obtained usually through divination.

The Septuagint adapted the term logion to mean "Word of God", using it especially for translating אּמְרַת. In Philo, however, the entire Old Testament was considered the Word of God and thus spoken of as the logia, with any passage of Scripture, whatever its length or content, designated a logion; the sense of the word is the same as in the Septuagint, but applied broadly to inspired Scriptures. In this sense logia is used four times in the New Testament and often among the Church Fathers, who also counted the New Testament books among inspired Scripture.

From logia is distinguished a related word logoi (λόγοι), meaning simply "words", often in contrast to "deeds" (πράξεις). Words spoken by Jesus are consistently designated as logoi in ancient documents.

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