John 1:1Wikipedia
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Two issues need to be remembered as regards the original text. First, old Greek manuscripts of the Bible are in capital letters only. Second, the word theos in the original text cannot grammatically have the definite article.[5] John 10:35 has similar usage of Greek word theos (god), with and without ho (the) when describing human rulers as "gods".
Difficulties
There are two issues affecting
the translating of the verse, theology and proper application of grammatical rules. The
commonly held theology that Jesus is God naturally leads one to believe that
the proper way to render the verse is the one which is most popular. [6]
The opposing theology that Jesus is subordinate to God as his Chief agent leads
to the conclusion that "...a god" is the proper rendering.[7]
Some scholars staunchly oppose the translation ...a god,[8][9][10]
while other scholars believe it is possible or even preferable.[11][12][13]
The two competing beliefs which
cause great controversy over this scripture center on whether Jesus was the
one and only God, or was a god, lesser than and completely distinct from
God. The latter believing that Jesus is the first created (spirit) being, the
son of The God, through whom God created all things, in fact, the image of the
God. (Colossians 1:15-20)
A major point of contention,
since the theos in question occurs without the definite article (the),
within the grammatical debate is the proper application of Colwell's
rule, set out by Greek scholar E.C. Colwell, which states:
"In
sentences in which the copula is expressed, a definite predicate nominative has
the article when it follows the verb; it does not have the article when it
precedes the verb."
At issue is whether Cowell's rule
applies to John 1:1 and if it is a reliable standard by which grammatical
constructions of this type should be measured. [14]
On the other hand Philip Harner
commented [15]
The RSV and
The Jerusalem Bible translate, "the Word was God." The New English
Bible has, "what God was, the Word was." Good News for Modern Man
has, "he was the same as God." The problem with all of these
translations is that they could represent clause A, in our analysis above, as
well as B. This does not mean, of course, that the translators were not aware
of the issues involved, nor does it necessarily mean that they regarded the
anarthrous theos as definite because it precedes the verb. But in all of these
cases the English reader might not understand exactly what John was trying to
express. Perhaps the clause could be translated, "the Word had the same
nature as God." This would be one way of representing John's thought,
which is, as I understand it, that ho logos, no less than ho theos, had the
nature of theos.
By clause A Harner meant
"that logos and theos are equivalent and interchangeable". So he
concluded that
"In John
1:1 i think that the qualitative force of the predicate is so prominent that
the noun cannot be regarded as definite."
Interestingly, Origen of
Alexandria, who was a teacher in Greek grammar in the third century wrote about
the use of the definite article here:[16]
"We next
notice John's use of the article in these sentences. He does not write without
care in this respect, nor is he unfamiliar with the niceties of the Greek
tongue. In some cases he uses the article, and in some he omits it. He adds the
article to the Logos, but to the name of God he adds it sometimes only. He uses
the article, when the name of God refers to the uncreated cause of all things,
and omits it when the Logos is named God......The true God, then, is The God
(ho theos)."
It might suggest that an ancient
Greek reader could take the anarthrous noun theos applied to the Word as
indefinite. The Coptic translators comtemporaries to Origen seemed to
understand it in the same sense. For instance, The SAHIDIC COPTIC JOHN 1:1
says :
Hn tehoueite
nefshoop ngi pshaje Auw pshaje nefshoop nnahrm pnoute Auw neunoute pe pshaje
A literal translation of the
Sahidic Coptic:
In the
beginning existed the word And the word existed in the presence of the god And
a god was the word
The Coptic noun "noute"
means "god". Also, unlike the ancient Greek and latin the Sahidic
Coptic language had an indefinite article. Here those translators used the
definite article "p" for the first theos (as the Koine Greek does),
but they used the indefinite article "u" before the second theos.
Unlike the English language, this indefinite article may be also applied to
mass nouns, which could not be translated into English. Accordingly, some have
argued that "noute" in John 1:1c should be regarded as a mass noun,
thus it would suggest that this noun should be taken as purely qualitative,
rather than indefinite. So according to this view the translation should be
"The Word was Divine". Nonetheless, others have argued that here
"noute" is a count noun, thus the Coptic indefnite article is the
same as the english indefinite article.
Actual usage of the Sahidic
Coptic noun "noute" in the Coptic New Testament strongly suggests
that it is a count noun that, when bound with the Coptic indefinite article,
should be translated into English as "a god." For example, Coptic
scholar George Horner's English translation of the Coptic at Acts 28:6
(Bohairic) has "a god." Coptic scholar Bentley Layton gives "a
god" for the literal interlinear translation of "u.noute" in his
grammar book, "Coptic in 20 Lessons," page 7. (Peeters, Leuven, 2007)
Coptic grammar does not apply the
term "qualitative" to nouns. But it does recognize adjectival usage
of nouns, in which case, if the context called for it, "u.noute"
could be rendered into English as "divine." However, at John 1:1 in
Coptic, we have a distinction between "p.noute," or "the
god," i.e., "God" in English, and another entity, the Logos or
Word (Shaje in Coptic) identified as "u.noute," or "a god."
Whereas "divine" could fit here as a paraphrase, there is no
contextual or grammatical reason to overlook the entirely proper literal
translation, "a god."
See also: Jesus Christ the Logos
The Greek
word λόγος or logos is a word with
various meanings. It is often translated into English
as "Word"
but can also mean thought, speech, account, meaning, reason, proportion, principle, standard, or logic, among other
things. It has varied use in the fields of philosophy,
analytical psychology, rhetoric and religion.
Main article: Christology
See also: Jesus Christ the Logos
Of the Gospels, John has the
highest Christology. Here Jesus is the only begotten Son of God, the Way, the
Truth, the Life, the True Vine, etc. In 1:1, John identifies Jesus as the Logos,
that which made the existence of the created world possible.
In John's Christology,
the conception that Jesus Christ is the Logos has been
important in establishing the doctrine of Jesus' divinity, as
well as that of the Trinity, as set forth in the Chalcedonian Creed.
The debate about the nature of Christ from the
first century through the Council of Chalcedon in 451 CE must be
understood in light of the pervasive world view of Platonic dualism. Platonism is
normally divided into four periods: Old Academy (347-267 BCE), New Academy
(267-80 BCE), Middle Platonism (80BCE-250 CE), and Neoplatonism
(250 CE through the Reformation).[17][18]
Some scholars of the Bible have suggested
that John made creative use of double meaning in the word "Logos" to
communicate to both Jews,
who were familiar with the Wisdom
tradition in Judaism,
and Hellenic polytheism, especially followers of Philo, often called Hellenistic Judaism. Each of these two groups
had its own history associated with the concept of the Logos, and each could
understand John's use of the term from one or both of those contexts.
Especially for the Hellenists, however, John turns the concept of the Logos on
its head when he claimed "the Logos became flesh and dwelt among
us" (v. 14). Similarly, some translations of the Gospel of John into Chinese
have used the word "Tao (道)" to translate the "Logos" in a
provocative way.
Gordon
Clark famously translated Logos as "Logic" in the opening
verses of the Gospel: "In the beginning was the Logic, and the Logic was
with God and the Logic was God." He meant to imply by this translation
that the laws of logic were contained in the Bible itself and
were therefore not a secular principle imposed on the Christian worldview.
For a comparison with the opening
verse of the Hebrew Bible, see Genesis 1:1.