One of the errors of understanding that has arisen from the English translation of the scriptures is the use of “WORD” to mean two different things. The Hebrew “dabar” and the Greek “logos” are linguistic equivalents—they both mean the same thing–“utterances,” but the focus of dabar/logos is on the one doing the uttering, not the words that are being uttered.
In scripture, the WORD (dabar/logos) is the living being who speaks as Elohim (God). The dabar/logos was WITH Elohim at creation, and WAS Elohim (John 1:1).
During the OT, before Messiah came and dwelt among us, the WORD (dabar/logos) was the Holy Spirit—we see in the scriptures that the WORD (dabar/logos) CAME and SPOKE to the prophets. Obviously, that is not something written, or a scroll. It was a living being. That was before the WORD (dabar/logos) was made flesh, who was Messiah on the earth.
In Revelation 19:13, we see that Messiah is the WORD (dabar/logos) in heaven. But, because of the wedding traditions, He had to go away from the earth for a mandatory period of separation from His bride while He prepares a dwelling place. So, there was another sent in His place—the Holy Spirit. He is the WORD (dabar/logos) to the bride—He is the one who is the utterance of Yah to the bride, just as Messiah said in John 16:13. So, verses like Hebrews 4:12 are not about the scriptures, but they speak of the Holy Spirit.
The translators chose to use the same English word “word” to be the translation of a completely different word, which also means utterances—however, the focus is not the speaker, but the words themselves. In the Hebrew, it is “imrah,” and in the Greek, it is “rhema.” Now, that word can mean either “words,” generally, or it can also specifically mean “commandments.”
So, the WORD (dabar/logos) is the One who inspired the words (imrah/rhema) found in the scriptures.
What happens often in christianity is that, because of a lack of spiritual understanding that comes only from the Holy Spirit, people equate the role of scripture with the role and authority of the Holy Spirit, claiming that scripture is the final arbiter of spiritual truth, when it is actually the Holy Spirit who is that standard. They even claim they are saved because of what is written in scripture, when only the Holy Spirit can make such a declaration about a person.
There are more than 41,000 christian denominations who all purport to believe and teach the same scriptures, but who all disagree with one another on actual meanings within those scriptures. When one conflates the imrah/rhema with the dabar/logos, then he makes the written words his god, and the interpretation of those words, coming from his own physical knowledge, essentially sets him up as the arbiter of his own truth, and his misinterpretation of the scriptures becomes his doctrine. Hence, denominations.
1 Corinthians 2:14 explains why, without the Holy Spirit, the scriptures are little more than a history book, for man is not capable, by and of himself, to understand the spiritual meanings in the scriptures that come only by the illumination of the Holy Spirit. That’s what the disciples found out in Luke 24:45. So many lost christians will fight vehemently for false carnal interpretations of scripture, because they don’t actually have the leading and instruction of the Holy Spirit.
BTW—the Holy Spirit has been the WORD on earth while Messiah has not been here in the flesh, but, during the coming tribulation, the Holy Spirit, who indwells the bride as the covenant, will be taken with her to the wedding chamber. He will then seal 144,000 physical Jews to be witnesses, and until all those who profess Messiah are killed right before the end of the 7-year peace treaty, THEY will speak the WORD (dabar/logos) to the world, which will be the Holy Spirit speaking through them.
For more information: Christianity’s Holy Spirit–Some Water and a Book