Is the sword the word of God? Or is the Spirit the word?

[Paidion]

Most of us are quite familiar with Eph 6:11-17 — the passage concerning putting on the full armor of God so that we will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil, against the forces of darkness.

Paul asks us to put on the breastplate of righteousness and to take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit which is the word of God.

Recently I read an unusual translation of the last clause: “... take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which Spirit is the word of God.” My initial reaction was to think that by adding the word “Spirit” after “which” was an interpretation. For I have always heard it said that the sword is the word of God. Many of us have seen this depiction of our spiritual battles at children's summer camps. A helmet is placed on the child's head with the inscription “salvation”. A sword is placed in his hand with the inscription “the word of God.”

However, I decided to check out the Greek just in case it revealed something which is not evident in the vast majority of English translations. To my surprise, I found that the Greek word for “sword” is feminine, while the word for “Spirit” is neuter, and the relative pronoun translated as “which” is neuter. I remembered that a relative pronoun must agree in gender with its antecedent, but I thought I'd better check a Greek grammar book to be certain. William Mounce made the following statement in one of his texts:

The number and gender of a relative pronoun is the same as its antecedent.

So I knew for sure that the antecedent of the relative pronoun is “Spirit”, rather than “sword.”

In order to bring this out, I think the clause might also be translated as “... take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit who is the word of God.” The Greek word for “word” is not “logos” but “hrama”. This refers to the very words which come out a person's mouth. My thinking is that when we take sword which the Spirit, we have the means to hear God speak to us.

What do you think?