Acclaimed Bible scholar and
Roman Catholic priest John L. McKenzie, S.J., in his Dictionary of the Bible, says: “Jn 1:1 should
rigorously be translated ‘the word was with the God [= the Father], and
the word was a divine being.’”—(Brackets are his. Published with nihil obstat and imprimatur.) (New York, 1965), p. 317. (
Bold type is mine.)
Now, why would a Trinitarian not accept this passage as evidence promoting Jesus as God?
Because of the context, and Koine Greek grammar. (Koine Greek was the language the Apostle John wrote this.)
Let’s look at the context...
John 1:18 says: “No one has
ever seen God.”
John 1:14 clearly says that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . . we have beheld his glory.” Also, vss.1 & 2 say that in the beginning he was “with God.” Can one be
with someone and
at the same time be that person? Would John really write something so confusing and ambiguous, if he meant to convey that Jesus was God?
In consideration of this (and the grammar issues detailed below),
The New Testament, in An Improved Version, Upon the Basis of Archbishop Newcome’s New Translation: With a Corrected Text, London, 1808, renders
John 1:1b, ““and the word was
a god””;
The Emphatic Diaglott (J21, interlinear reading), by Benjamin Wilson, New York and London, 1864: ““and
a god was the Word””;
The Bible—An American Translation, by J. M. P. Smith and E. J. Goodspeed, Chicago, 1935: ““and the Word
was divine””;
New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, Brooklyn, 1950: ““and the Word was a god””;
Das Evangelium nach Johannes, by Siegfried Schulz, Göttingen, Germany, 1975: ““and
a god (or,
of a divine kind) was the Word””;
Das Evangelium nach Johannes, by Johannes Schneider, Berlin,
1978: ““and
godlike sort was the Logos””;
Das Evangelium nach Johannes, by Jürgen Becker, Würzburg, Germany, 1979: ““and
a god was the Logos””;
and 2001translation.com renders it, “the Word was
a powerful one“.
At
John 17:3, Jesus addresses his
Father as “the
only true God”; so, Jesus as “a god” merely reflects his Father’s divine qualities.—
Hebrews 1:3.
Is the rendering “a god” consistent with the rules of Greek grammar?
Yes. In his article “Qualitative Anarthrous Predicate Nouns:
Mark 15:39 and John 1:1,” Philip B. Harner said that such clauses as the one in
John 1:1, “with an
anarthrous predicate preceding the verb, are primarily
qualitative in meaning. They indicate that the logos
has the nature of theos.” He suggests: “Perhaps the clause could be translated, ‘the Word
had the same nature as God.’” (Journal of Biblical Literature, 1973, pp. 85, 87) Thus, in this text, the fact that the word the·osʹ in its second occurrence is
without the definite article (ho) and is
placed before the verb in the sentence in Greek is significant. Interestingly, translators that insist on rendering
John 1:1, “The Word was God,”
do not hesitate to use the indefinite article (a, an) in their rendering of other passages where a singular anarthrous predicate noun occurs before the verb. Thus at
John 6:70, The Jerusalem Bible and King James both refer to Judas Iscariot as “
a devil,” and at
John 9:17 they describe Jesus as “
a prophet.”
— Excerpt from “Reasoning on the Scriptures”;
Trinity — Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY
