Was the Word “a god”? Or was the Word “God”? John 1:1
Channel: Galen Currah
Date: 2020-06-30

Was the Word “a god”? Or was the Word “God”? Gospel of John 1:1
An opinion of Dr Galen Currah
June 2020
wordwatchers.currah.us

Those calling themselves Jehovah’s Witnesses publish an unusual version of the Bible called New World Translation.

In that version, John 1:1 reads, “the Word was a god,” whereas all other English translations read, “the Word was God.”

JWs base their translation on the absence of the Greek definite article (“the”) before the word θεος (theos: “God” or “god”).

There are lengthy scholarly refutations of their translation, but there is a simpler approach that you can employ with JWs who do not know Greek.

Doctor Heiser poses two queries of John chapter 1:
(https://drmsh.com/of-yehovah-and-jeho...)

1. Are there any other instances in John 1 where theos lacks the definite article?

2. If there are, does it make any sense to translate those occurrences “a god” instead of “God”?

In the following chart of eleven verses from John chapter 1, in which the Greek word theos occurs, it is highlighted in yellow and the definite article is highlighted in red. 

(Download the chart from currah.download/docs/jw_nwt_jn1.pdf)

We make three observations from this chart:

• The noun theos occurs six times without a definite article, in verses 1:1, 1:6, 1:12, 1:13 and 1:18.

• The JWs version translates theos without a Greek article “a god” in 1:1, and “the god” in 1:18b.

• The JWs version translates theos without a Greek article four times “God” in 1:6, 1:12, 1:13 and 1:18a.

How would their translation read if all occurrences of theos without a Greek article were translated “a god”? 

1:6 “There came a man who was sent as a representative of a god.”

1:12 “He gave authority to become a god’s children.”

1:13 “They were born … from a god.”

1:18a “No man has seen a god at any time.”

For reasons of grammar, logic, usage, context and coherence, the better translation remains “the Word was God.”

In John 1:1, θεος (theos) is a predicate nominative noun that identifies the nature of the subject “the Word” as God.

All of John’s Gospel including John 1:1 stands as an affirmation of the godhood of Jesus Christ, the eternal Word who has become incarnate in human flesh.

In John 1:14, σαρξ (sarx) is a predicate nominative noun that identifies the nature of the subject “the Word” as flesh.