The Greek word translated “word” is logos (reasoning expressed by words) and “scripture” is graphe (writing, scripture). So, the logos is maybe like the concept, or the big idea, and the graphe is what’s written about it.

See how they’re different:

Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message (logos) with great eagerness and examined the scriptures (graphe) every day to see if what Paul said was true. As a result, many of them believed, as did also a number of prominent Greek women and many Greek men. But when the Jews in Thessalonica learned that Paul was preaching the word (logos) of God at Berea, some of them went there too, agitating the crowds and stirring them up. – Acts 17:11-13 NIV

I went through every occurrence of both words (logos and graphe) in the Greek New Testament and looked at the verbs used with each. Admittedly, this could be taking some of the sentences out of context, but it gives you the general idea.

Regarding scripture, it is for us to “understand” what it “says” and how it is “fulfilled”. For the Word, the scriptures give us mostly different verbs.

So what is the Word if it’s not exactly the same as the Bible?

For the sake the time, I just looked up the phrase “Word of God” in the NIV. It’s just a sample, but it has a definite theme that I think is relatively consistent across scripture.

1 time: Jesus “his name is the Word of God” – Revelation 19:13. (This is consistent with Jesus being “the Word” in John 14.)

3 times: prophetic words, like “But that night the word of God came to Nathan” – 1 Chronicles 17:3 (This is consistent with 239 “Word of the Lord” phrases in the Bible.)

4 times: references to the Old Testament “you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition.” – Matthew 15:6 (and Mark 7:13), and “to whom the word of God came–and scripture cannot be set aside” – John 10:35

31 times: the message of Jesus and his apostles, like “And we also thank God continually because, when you received the word of God, which you heard from us, you accepted it not as a human word, but as it actually is, the word of God, which is indeed at work in you who believe.” – 1 Thessalonians 2:13 (This is consistent with the definition of logos.)

When Jesus and the apostles went out, their message wasn’t the Old Testament scriptures, and the New Testament scriptures hadn’t been written yet.

Look again at the verbs above, in the context of the Word being Jesus, prophecy and the whole message of the kingdom of God.

Praise God for his infinite, powerful and present Word!