The concept of God’s “Word“ as a person, or as the temporal visible or audible expression of God, primarily has its roots in, and develops out of the Hebrew scriptures, and is also present in the non-Christian traditions (in the works, and commentaries) of the ancient 1st and 2nd century Rabbinical scholarship.
The summation of their perspectives and oral commentaries were represented and brought out in the Targums (100 B.C. to 200 A.D.). These were considered by many as nearly as authoritative as the Scriptures themselves! Sometimes different Rabbis brought out more subtle shades of meaning, and still others offered more unique renditions, supporting the traditions and teachings of their particular school of thought (of which there were a few) but in most places the Targums agreed.
Almost unanimously, in the various Targums, whenever YHVH is personified, or anthropomorphisms are being implied in the original language, or whenever YHVH is somehow made manifest to His chosen recipients, or when the scriptures seem to indicate more than one YHVH, the Rabbis referred to this expressed image of God, or appearances of YHVH Himself, as “the Word“ (the Memra)! This is exactly the application made by John in John 1:1. For example…in the Targum Jonathan on Genesis 19:24 Jonathan writes, “and the Memra (Word) of YHVH caused to descend upon the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, brimstone and fire from the YHVH in heaven“. If you compare this passage in the Masoretic or the Septuagint, or even the KJV or NASV, this “Word of YHVH“ is referred here as the LORD (YHVH), yet here He is, sitting with father Abraham in his tent, in the form of a man, in the fields of Mamre, breaking bread. It takes little effort to see that this "Word of God" was actually believed by the Jewish Targumim to be none other than YHVH Himself manifest (either in the flesh or as a theophany).
On Exodus 24:1, The Targum Jonathan understands the scripture to be saying, “the Word of YHVH said to Moses, come up to YHVH“, and just previously in 20:1, he said, “and the Word of the LORD spoke all these glorious words“!
Targum Onkelos renders Genesis 15:6 as, “and Abraham trusted in the Word of YHVH, and He counted it to him for righteousness“, while the Jerusalem Targum on Genesis 22:14 says, “and Abraham worshipped and prayed in the name of the Word of YHVH and said, You are the YHVH who does see, but You cannot be seen“. In Genesis 16:3 he has Hagar praying “in the name of the Word of YHVH“, as if God had made Himself seeable, and yet she was not consumed!
Targum Onkelos on Genesis 28 reveals to us that the Memra (the Word) was Jacob’s God. The one with whom He wrestled (in the form of a man) and about whom he said "I have seen God face to face”. In Psalm 62:9 He is David’s God as well. Targum Jonathan says “the Word of YHVH created man in His likeness, in the likeness of YHVH, YHVH created...”. In the Jerusalem Targum the Word is the “I Am“ of Exodus 3:14! If the Targumim were correct then all the “I Am with you”passages are referring to the Word or Memra, thus Immanu-El.
According to the Targumim, Hosea 1:7 says that God will save the House of Judah by the Word of YHVH and Isaiah 45:17 and 25 also tells us that the true Israel shall be saved by the Word of YHVH, “with an everlasting salvation” (yeshuah), and that “by the Word of YHVH...shall all the offspring of Israel be justified“. Who with even a vestige of intellectual integrity can deny such a witness?
Finally, the Targums on Genesis 49:18 say that Jacob (Israel) waits for the yeshuah (salvation) that comes through the Memra (the Word of God), and on His yeshuah, Jacob’s soul hopes. Wow! Behold the Lamb! Therefore, wherever God manifests Himself to the people of God, even as the K’vod-YHVH (the Lord of Glory, or the Glory of the Lord) in the Sh’kan (the Shekinah). He is YHVH Himself, and at the same time He is the Word! Therefore, YHVH is the Word and the Word is YHVH! This is the written Torah that the Word is the living Torah!
There are many more examples I can point to if you’d like but these should suffice….the Word IS YHVH