Simply put, the word logos in capitalized only in the book of John. As others have stated, God created this world using only his breath in the form of commands. Logos are the instructions of Yahweh.
The English term "word" is possibly the worst possible translation of John's use of the term "Logos". First of all, the English term "word" is NEVER used in this manner anywhere else in all of English literature or speech. Secondly, and more importantly, John's audience was a Greek audience. His gospel was likely written in the Greek city of Ephesus and so ignoring the Greek meaning of "logos" would be a disastrous mistake.
Dealing first the with English term "word", the term simply conveys no meaning in the contexts of John chapter one. And I mean that quite literally. It is simply meaningless. The only way to understand it at all is for someone to explain what logos means and then you're left hoping that the person who explained it to you knows what he's talking about and from that point on, you just cognitively insert that meaning into the term "word" whenever you read John's gospel and ONLY when you read John's gospel. Nowhere else in the whole of the English language is the term "word" used in such a fashion unless it is either directly quoting or making reference to the first chapter of John.
As for the Greek, what does the term "logos" mean? Well, it is the root of the word "logic". Logos is where we get the English suffix "-ology" from, as in "biology" or "theology", etc. "Bio" means "life", "-ology" means logic, thus biology is the logic of life and that which pertains to biology is said to be biological. Similarly, "Theology" is the logos of the theos, the logic of God and that which pertains to theology is said to be theological.
Now, that's the dictionary definition of the term but that isn't quite what John is referring to when he uses the term because the Greeks had this idea about an underlying organizing force behind the working of nature which they called the logos. It wasn't merely rational thought that John was getting at but it was this idea of a divine mind that he was referring to and that his Greek audience would have instantly and intuitively understood him to be saying.
Incidentally, some have pointed out that the term "reason" is more accurate than "logic" because technically speaking "logic" refers to the rules that surround sound reason while logos is more making reference to the act of reasoning. However, in English, the terms "logic" and "reason" are mostly interchangeable in common use. They are very often used as perfect synonyms and so either term would work as a translation for "logos".
Thus, with this better understanding of the term "logos" the following translation of John 1 is offered....
John 1:1 In the beginning was Logic, and Logic was with God, and Logic was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
14 And Logic became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Noice how much better that works with verses 4 & 5 when John, after making reference to a divine Logic, talks about the light of understanding and the world's failure to comprehend it. It's just a better translation in every conceivable way.
Now, there are some who object to such a translation thinking it improper to equate the living God with some abstract concept such as logic. But it should be noted that those who make such an objection never object to God being equated with the abstract concept of "Word", nor are they typically capable of offering any explanation as to what exactly it means to say "the Word was God". In other words, people who object on the grounds of referring to God as an abstraction, typically have no real problem with abstractions so long as the abstraction being used makes no sense.
This is, however, quite a new idea to most of those reading this and so let me just cite a couple of others who have used and acknowledged the validity of such a translation. Not that doing so helps to prove anything other than that this teaching is not unique to, nor can it's genesis be attributed to me. Indeed, this idea is as old as Christianity. As evidence of both its veracity and its antiquity, I offer the following quotations, the likes of which there are many...
"...this translation––may not only sound strange to devout ears, it may even sound obnoxious and offensive. But the shock only measures the devout person's distance from the language and thought of the Greek New Testament. Why it is offensive to call Christ Logic, when it does not offend to call him a word, is hard to explain. But such is often the case. Even Augustine, because he insisted that God is truth, has been subjected to the anti–intellectualistic accusation of "reducing" God to a proposition. At any rate, the strong intellectualism of the word Logos is seen in its several possible translations: to wit, computation, (financial) accounts, esteem, proportion and (mathematical) ratio, explanation, theory or argument, principle or law, reason, formula, debate, narrative, speech, deliberation, discussion, oracle, sentence, and wisdom.
Any translation of John 1:1 that obscures this emphasis on mind or reason is a bad translation. And if anyone complains that the idea of ratio or debate obscures the personality of the second person of the Trinity, he should alter his concept of personality. In the beginning, then, was Logic." - Gordon H. Clark; Against The World. The Trinity Review, 1978-1988. [God And Logic, Gordon H. Clark, p. 52-56] John W. Robbins, Editor.
"For not only among the Greeks did reason (Logos) prevail to condemn these things through Socrates, but also among the Barbarians were they condemned by Reason (or the Word, the Logos) Himself, who took shape, and became man, and was called Jesus Christ;" Justin Martyr: The First Apology of Justin Chapter V
Logos n. < Gr, a word: see Logic 1 Gr. Philos. reason, thought of as constituting the controlling principle of the universe and as being manifested by speech 2 Christian Theol. the eternal thought or word of God, made incarnate in Jesus Christ: John 1 - Webster's Dictionary
