John 1:1 (NWT)

From Textus Receptus

The corrupted New World Translation

John 1:1 has been perverted by the cult of 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 falsely claim that, when a noun has a definite article (like ‘ό’ in ‘ό θεος’), it points to an identity or personality, such as the person of Jehovah God. They also claim that the same phrase (‘ό θεος’) is never used of Jesus Christ in the New Testament (Watchtower, 1 July 86, p31). Contrary to the Watchtower claim, ‘θεος’ (God) with the definite article (‘ό’) is clearly 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.

They also falsely claim 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 reading John 1:1 as ‘a god’, they quote Johannes Greber's New Testament (1937), who was 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. More than 99% of all Greek scholars and Bible translators in the world disagree with JWs.’

‘a god’ refuted by most Greek scholars

Almost 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)

θεος and ό θεος

Jehovah's Witnesses 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 also:

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.’

The NWT's ‘a god’ is clearly a distortion of God's word. Why do they refuse to translate ‘θεος’ as ‘God’ one verse only? The obviously have a translational bias and don’t want Christ to appear to be Jehovah God as John 1:1 clearly teaches. The Watchtower’s mistranslation of John 1:1 is not supported by any Greek grammar textbook.

θεος as ‘God,’ not ‘a god’

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

Jehovah's Witnesses 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 = godlike 2304) available to use as found in 2 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.’

Jesus is Jehovah

Jehovah's Witnesses 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’.

Jesus with God

Jehovah's Witnesses 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. This verse was never disputed before the occultist Greber’s NT was published in 1937. 12 notable Church writers before 325 AD 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.

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