From my conversation and studies with Jehovah Witnesses they sincerely believe Jesus claims to be “a god” at John 10:33, but they would be wrong…not only from majority Christian standards but by Watchtower standards as well. I believe this is because the WT recognizes the dilemma of proclaiming Jesus “a god” at John 10:33 even if many Witnesses do not.
Let’s take a look at a traditional (NIV) and the Watchtower’s New World Translation (NWT) paying special attention to verse 33:
30 I and the Father are one.”
31 Again his Jewish opponents picked up stones to stone him, 32 but Jesus said to them, “I have shown you many good works from the Father. For which of these do you stone me?”
33“We are not stoning you for any good work,” they replied, “but for blasphemy, because you, a mere man, claim to be God.” NIV
OR:
33 The Jews answered him: “We are stoning you, not for a fine work, but for blasphemy; for you, although being a man,
make yourself a god.”
NWT
We’ll proceed with the “a god” translation
as if it were correct, just to see how much mileage we get. Unfortunately this crashes us head first into our first dilemma.
Dilemma #1: Blasphemy
As soon as Jesus said “The Father and I are one” the Jews picked up stones. When Jesus asked why, the Jews explained it was for making himself “a god” according to the Watchtower’s translation.
This presents us with our first dilemma. According to the NWT,
the blasphemy was for abusing Jehovah’s name, not some “gods’” name:
View attachment 41469
Source: https://www.jw.org/en/library/bible/nwt/books/john/10/#v43010033
In effect, both JW.ORG and the NWT are giving backhand support for the Trinitarian translation that the crowd was about to stone Jesus for calling himself Jehovah, and not for simply referring to himself as “a god”.
Dilemma #2: Biblical/Historical record
Jehovah Witnesses and other Arians are quick to tell us that judges, magistrates, and other powerful people were routinely considered or called “gods”. The problem here is that the NWT tells us the Jews were about to stone Jesus for calling himself “a god”. It doesn’t matter if the Jews were wrong or correct in their interpretation,
what matters is their explanation that Jesus should be stoned simply for calling himself “a god”.
Let’s think about this…If Jews are stoning Jesus for being “a god” then all the other “gods”…their judges, magistrates, and other “powerful people”…
were equally subject to being stoned by the Jews!
Yet the biblical and historical record is absolutely silent in this regard. There is no record of Jews stoning their judges, magistrates, or other “powerful people” simply for considering themselves “gods”.
So where’s the evidence?
Dilemma #3: Watchtower claims Jesus is “a god” (John 1:1) but not “a god” (John 10:33)
This is perhaps the most bizarre dilemma of all. Witnesses believe that the WT teaches Jesus is “a god”. Perhaps the Watchtower does, but as I am about to illustrate
they just don’t teach it all the time.
In fact, the WT claims that at John 10:33, Jesus specifically denies he’s “a god” at all! The reason for this will become clear.
Let go back to the Watchtower’s biblical scenario:
The mob is about to stone Jesus for blasphemy…calling himself “a god” according to the WT translation. They have rocks in hand, and they're itching to fly. But Jesus, having grabbed the crowd’s undivided attention does something curious. He quotes Psalm 82:6:
I have said, “You are gods; you are all sons of the Most High. But like mortals you will die, and like rulers you will fail.” Psalm 82:6-7.
The last thing you want to do with a stone wielding crowd is compare yourself to Israel’s judges of old. Why? Because the judges of old were condemned by Jehovah God! In other words, Jesus is saying “The judges of old were “sons of God”, I am the son of God, the judges of old were “gods” and I just told you I was “a god”, the judges of old were condemned by God…so what on earth is taking you so long to condemn me?”
If that doesn’t get a rock hurtling by your ear, I don’t know what would, and therein lays the Watchtower’s dilemma. They simply can’t have Jesus comparing himself to the corrupt judges of Israel by declaring he’s “a god” at John 10:33, and they certainly can’t have the crowd thinking that Jesus had just declared himself “God”.
But our clever “truth finding” friends at the Watchtower have a solution. A “twofer” they gleaned straight out of the text.
Not only does Jesus deny he’s God at John 10:33, he also denies he’s “a god”! :
· 66 Jesus told those who wanted to stone him that he had not claimed to be God or a god, even though Psalm 82:6 had called some men, some Israelite judges, “gods.”
- The Watchtower—9/15/1962 pp. 560-567
source: Prehuman Existence — Watchtower ONLINE LIBRARY (see paragraph 66)
How the WT got Jesus to deny being God and/or “a god” at John 10:33 is baffling, but I suppose if you’re a Jehovah Witness it’s all there right there, embedded somewhere in the text.
Unfortunately that still leaves us with a huge problem. Let’s not forget that Jehovah Witnesses tell us
Jesus is “a god” at John 1:1 so it’s really disconcerting to see them claiming
Jesus denies ever being “a god” by the time John 10:33 rolls around. But as the quote and link above shows, this is
“current truth” even to this day.
It’s a confusing, contradictory Christology.
