Dr. Couch, John 1:1 is one of the strongest verses about the deity of Christ and yet the Jehovah Witnesses use it to say that Christ was just another "god." How do we answer?
ANSWER: doctrine without knowing the biblical languages. A lady phoned in who did not know what she was saying, and castigated me terribly. Her ignorance and woman's emotionalism came through loud and clear! She was screaming into the telephone!
But it is true— - doctrine is really only proven and made clear in the grammar of the Old Testament Hebrew, and the New Testament Greek. We are moving into a spiritual dark age because young "theologes" are not taking the time to study out thoroughly, with discipline, the biblical languages.
But back to your question, the clause in question (John 1:1c) reads this way in the English: "and the Word was God." (The Word (logos) of course in this context is Christ.)
In the Greek text it reads this way: "And God was the Word." The English translations are correct because of what is happening in the Greek. The Greek reader in biblical days understood what John was saying but we need just a little clarification and explanation.
In the Greek there is no article with God. The JWs say that without the article you should translate this as "a God" as if Jesus is a God but one of many Gods! However, they are wrong! Quite often there is no article before God in the New Testament and yet the many passages without it are still discussing the true God of Scripture as if He is the only One, and there is no other!
But there is more here grammatically!
The "is" is the "to be" verb and that verb has the subject case (the nominative) on both sides in the verse. But another rule comes into place. The noun that has an article is the SUBJECT, with the one without an article being what is called the PREDICATE. "The Word" then is the subject and "God" is the predicate. In my AMG Commentary series, in his work on the book of John, Elmer Towns correctly writes:
John very carefully concludes the first verse of this gospel with a statement declaring the deity of the Word—"the Word was God." In this expression the World Translation (Jehovah Witnesses) has erroneously translated this phrase "the Word was a god," violating both the context of the phrase and the rules of Greek grammar but making it fit as well with the Jehovah's Witness denial of Christ's deity. Theos without the article emphasizes quality rather than individuality. Had John included the article, this phrase would tend to support the error of Sabellianism, which taught one God manifested in three different modes.
I am looking for students who have had one year of Greek to study the deity passages with me. They can get a scholarship for seminary credit. Those interested should email me.
Thanks for asking.
Dr. Mal Couch
