John 1:1

From Textus Receptus

Revision as of 15:33, 12 December 2008

1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (King James Version)

Mistranslations

Translations by James Moffatt, Hugh J. Schonfield and Edgar Goodspeed render it:

"...and the Word was divine."

New World Translation

This scripture has been perverted by the Jehovah's Witnesses who render part of John 1:1 as "...and the word was a god" The New World Translation (NWT) translates the first ‘θεος’ in John 1:1 as ‘God’, and the second ‘θεος’ as ‘a god’. In the Greek, there is a definite article ‘the’ (‘ό ’) before the first occurrence of God (ό θεος = the God). However, there is no definite article ‘the’ before the second occurrence of ‘God’. The Jehovah's Witnesses falsly claim that, when a noun has a definite article (like ‘ό θεος’), it points to an identity or personality, such as the person of Jehovah God. Also that the same phrase (‘ό θεος’) is never used of Jesus Christ in the NT (Watchtower, 1 July 86, p31). (Note: ‘ό θεος’ is used of Christ in Matthew 1:23, John 20:28 and Hebrews 1:8). Also that when a singular predicate noun has no definite article, and it occurs before a verb (as theos in John 1:1c), then it points to a quality about someone, so that here it says that Jesus (the Word) has a divine quality, but is not God Almighty (KIT, p.1139).

The Jehovah's Witnesses believe Jesus is ‘a god’, i.e. not the God (Jehovah), but rather Michael the Archangel. To support this false doctrine by redering John 1:1 as ‘a god’, they quote: Johannes Greber New Testament (1937), a spiritist who claimed that spirits helped him translate the New Testament (Watchtower, 15 September 62, p.554; 15 October 73, p.640). The Jehovah's Witnesses knew he was a spiritist in 1956 (Watchtower, 15 February 1956, p 110, 111), yet they still quoted him.

Another source was Dr Julius Mantey, who refutes their translation saying: ‘They have forgotten entirely what the (word) order of the sentence indicates that the “ λογος” (“logos” or “Word” in English) has the same substance, nature or essence as the Father. To indicate that Jesus was “a god” would need a completely different construction in the Greek. They misquoted me in support of their translation. 99% of Greek scholars and Bible translators in the world disagree with JWs.’

Every Greek scholar in the world is against the NWT translation of John 1:1 ‘the word was a god’. Examples include:
M.R.Vincent: ‘The λογος (logos) of John is the real personal God’.(Word Studies in Gk N,T, p.383)
K.Wuest: ‘The Word was as to His essence absolute deity’.(Word Studies in Gk.NT p 209)
A.T.Robertson: ‘the Word was God, of Divine nature; not “a god”.’(Expositors Gk Testment, p.684)
Spiros Zodhiates: ‘In John 1:1, Jesus Christ in His pre-incarnate state is called the Word, presenting as the second person of the Godhead.’ (NT Word Study Dictionary, p 935)
W.E.Vine: ‘the λογος (logos), the Word, the personal manifestation, not of a part of the divine nature, but of the whole deity.’ (Complete Expository Dictionary of NT Words, p683)

JWs claim that, because the second ‘θεος’ (theos) has no definite article, we should translate it as ‘a god’. (KIT, p 1139). Yet the NWT used ‘θεος’ with no article as ‘God’ four times in John 1:6, 12, 13, 18

If the NWT was consistent, they should translate ‘θεος’ as ‘a god’ in these cases too:
v. 6 ‘There was a man sent from a god.’
v.12 ‘to them gave he power to become the children of a god.’
v.13 ‘nor of the will of man, but of a god.’
v.18 ‘no man hath seen a god at any time.’
This is clearly wrong and ridiculous. Why only in verse one do they refuse to translate ‘θεος’ as ‘God’? Because they don’t want Christ to be Jehovah God. The Watchtower’s mistranslation of John 1:1 is not supported by any Greek grammar textbook.

Many other verses have ‘θεος’ + no article, and yet are correctly translated as ‘God’, such as Matthew 5:9; 6:24; Luke 1:35, 78; 2:40; John 3:2, 21; 9:16, 33; I Corinthians 1:30; 15:10; Philippians 2:11,13; Titus 1:1; Romans 1:17, 18.

JWs say that by translating ‘θεος’ as ‘a god’, then Christ is a lesser god, a divine person. If John had intended this adjectival sense (ie ‘the Word was divine’), he had an adjective θειος (theios=godlike2304) available to use as found in II Peter 1:3, 4 (‘divine power’ and ‘divine nature’), if Christ was just a divine lesser god. Instead, John uses ‘θεος’ meaning ‘God’.

Spiros Zodhiates, in his book Was Christ God? ( p.102), states assertively: ‘It would, therefore, be totally wrong to translate the statement that John makes in John 1:1 as “the Word was divine”. The word which is used in the original Greek is θεος (theos) “God”, not θειος (theios) “divine”. Jesus Christ did not merely have divine attributes, but He was God in His essence and nature. He was not a man who attained divinity, but God who humbled Himself to take upon Himself human nature in addition to His deity.’

Contrary to the Watchtower claim, ‘θεος’ (God) with the definite article (‘ό’) is used of Jesus Christ in the New Testament: i) John 20:28. ii) Matthew 1:23. iii) Hebrews 1:8. Hence, the same word ‘ό θεος’ (ho theos) used of the Father is also used of Christ.

JWs say that Jesus is ‘a god’. Jehovah disagrees with them in Isaiah 44:8 by saying: ‘Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no God; I know not any.’ (KJV and NWT). Jehovah says that there is no ‘a God’ beside Him. This shows John 1:1 in the NWT to be wrong. Hence, Jesus cannot be ‘a God’, so He must be ‘the God’.

Ancient Uncial Greek manuscripts were all written in capital letters, so one could not distinguish between ‘God’ and ‘god’, except by the context, and whether the writer believed in one true God or in more than one god. JWs say that Jesus is ‘a god’ with Jehovah, as seen from ‘the Word was with God.’ They say that if Christ is ‘with’ God, He cannot be God. ‘with’ (Greek ‘ προς’) means that Christ was so intimately connected with God, that He is God. ‘There are no gods together with me’. (Deuteronomy 32:39 NWT) ‘There is no god with me.’ (Deuteronomy 32:39 KJV) Hence, Jehovah says that there are no gods with Jehovah, so Christ must be Jehovah God.

Church Writers writing before 325 AD all agree that John 1:1 is ‘the Word was God’, and that it means that Jesus is fully God and man. This verse was never disputed before the occultist Greber’s NT was published in 1937. 12 Church notable writers before 325 AD who all quote John 1:1 correctly as ‘the Word was God’, none of them quote it as ‘a god’?

The Kingdom Interlinear Translation (KIT, p.401) quote of John 1:1, in the left hand column has ‘god was the Word’, which contradicts the right hand column NWT translation which says ‘the word was a god’. Hence the Word (Christ who became flesh, v.14) is called ‘God’ on the LHS of the page, and ‘a god’ on the RHS of the page.