John 1:1
From Theopedia
It is clear that the "Word" is God the Son, the pre-incarnate Christ. He is the one who became flesh (Jn 1:14), and thus John identifies the Word with Jesus. At the very least this passage teaches that Jesus pre-existed before the creation of the world. Frame asserts that John 1:1a-b could easily be translated, "When all things began, the Word was already in existence" (Doctrine of God, p. 664).
Also clear from this passage is the deity of Jesus. John clearly writes that "All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made," (Jn 1:3). As Creator he cannot be a creature (i.e. created).
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The Word was God, not "a God"
Much has been made by Jehovah's Witnesses and other groups of the absence of the article in John 1:1: 'In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was A God,' is the preferred translation of such cults. There are good grammatical reasons to reject this translation and interpretation . . .
—Peter J. Leithart, The Word Was "A God"?
θεόν without the article
θεόν is used with or without the article indiscriminately in the New Testament. In the Prologue to the Fourth Gospel it never has the article except in verses 1 and 2. In verses 5, 12, 13, and 18 it appears without the article.
—Arthur Wainwright, The Trinity in the New Testament, p. 60.
Predicate Nominative
In this passage, θεὸς is a predicate. A predicate is the second noun attached to an "is" statement ("the man is king" - "man" is the subject and "king" is the predicate). In NT Greek, the predicate often does not have an article, especially when the predicate precedes the subject in word order. In fact, since word order is flexible in Greek, often the only way to determine which word is the subject and which is the predicate is by looking at the article - the subject usually has an article and the predicate usually does not. Thus if the article had been attached to θεὸς, the sentence would have read "and God was the Word."[1]
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See also
External links
Trinitarian
- The Word Was "A God"?, by Peter Leithart
- John 1:1 - Meaning and Translation, by James White
- 60 Questions For The Christians Answered Part 1 - Scroll down for section on John 1:1 (Question 13)
