Bible Question: Why have the Jehovahs witnesses changed John Chapter One verse one from "In the beginning the Word was and the Word was with God and the Word was God" to "a god"? |
Bible Answer: Hello, If you were to follow the rules of Greek grammer strictly, then in order for a word to be declared definite, a definite article must be present. If the defininte article isn't present, then the word is to be declared undefinite. Basically, "the" for definite. "a" for undefinite. However that is not always the case, as we shall see here. Now, with that explained, let's look at the text. In the greek, you have three primary phrases in John 1:1. It is the last two phrases which we will focus on. In the first of these two, you have in english, "and the Word was with God,". IN greek, the word for God, specifically the God of the Bible, is "ho Theos". "Ho" being the Definite article, and "Theos" being the word meaning "God". This is basically what is in this phrase. IN the greek, when you are talking about God, Jehovah, you say, "The God." Now look at the remaining phrase of verse 1. In strict a english translation, you have, "and the Word was a god." Now, the J. W. stop there in translation. However, there is a matter of syntax that can, and is applied to this and similar sentances. IN this sentance, you have a verb with two subject nouns. The subject can be either, "God" or "Word". However, greek syntax reveals to us that is this case, the noun with the Definite article is to be placed as the subject, and the other noun is to be placed as the Direct Object, also called the "Predicate Nominative". That is what is taking place here. "Theos" is to be treated in every respect as if it had a Definite Article. However, due to the grammer dealing with this, the article was removed for clarity, so that we may know which noun was to be the subject of the verb. I hope this clears things up. Jesus Loves You! Jesusman |