Greek grammar rules out ‘a god’.
JWs say that for Jesus to be Jehovah God here, there should be the definite article ‘the’ (Greek ‘ό’) before God (θεος).
Because ‘θεος’ does not have the definite article ‘ό’ before it, JWs conclude that ‘the word’ was indefinite, and means ‘a god’.
Answer: A.T. Robertson Greek authority says (A Grammar of Greek NT, p.767):
‘Nouns in the Predicate: The article is not essential to speech....The word with the article (“ό”) is then the subject of the sentence, whatever the word order may be. So in John 1:1, “ό λογος” , the subject is perfectly clear (“the word” = “ό λογος”, and it can only be “the word was God”.’
Key: Hence the article ‘the’ (ό) points out the subject (ό λογος) of the clause, and points out the predicate (θεος ) without the article.
If John had written ‘ό θεος ην ό λογος’ as the JWs would want, then John would be teaching false doctrine of Sabellianism (that Christ is all of God, that God and Christ are interchangeable, that the Father was the one who became incarnate, suffered and died).
Note: If the article is used with both the subject (ie. λογος ) and the predicate (ie. θεος), they would then be interchangeable as the subject nouns are in I John 3:4 (η αμαρτια εστιν η
ανομια) then both ‘sin is transgression’ and ‘transgression is sin’ are true’.
But in I John 4:16, ‘ ’ can only be ‘God is Love’, not ‘Love is God’ (because the article points out the subject). If the Greek language allowed us to say ‘Love is God’ just as readily as ‘God is Love’ in this verse, then God would not be a person, but just an abstract quality. (see Was Christ God?, Spiros Zodhiates, p.98).
Conclusion: Hence, the absence of the definite article ‘’ in John 1:1 is deliberate in order to identify ‘the Word’ as the subject of the sentence and to make it only to read as ‘the Word was God’. It has nothing to do with Christ being a lesser god as the JWs claim. Hence, contrary to the NWT and The Emphatic Diaglott, the Greek grammatical construction leaves no doubt whatsoever that ‘the Word was God’ is the only possible rendering of the text.
Colwell’s Rule of Greek grammar clearly states that a predicate nominative (=God) NEVER takes a definite article (‘’) when it precedes the verb ‘was’, as in John 1:1.
Translations which render the Greek in this verse as ‘a god’ or ‘divine’ are motivated by theological, not grammatical considerations.
The phrase ‘a god’ is particularly objectionable because it makes Christ a lesser god, which is polytheism and contrary to
Deuteronomy 32:39.
If Christ is ‘a god’, then He must be either a ‘true God’ or a ‘false god’. If a ‘true God’, then we have polytheism. If a ‘false god’, then He is unworthy of our belief.
Of course, the correct translation found in the KJV and most other translations (‘the word was God’), presents Christ as the one and only true God, Jehovah.
Therefore, He is monotheistic and worthy of our belief. John’s high view of Christ as God begins with John 1:1 and ends his gospel with Thomas addressing Christ as ‘my Lord and my God’ in John
20:28.
