Thursday, November 16, 2017

William Loader on John 1:1c

"The Word was 'God'

"The gospel begins with the words, 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was theos (`God').' 'The Word was theos' must not be isolated and made into a simple equation: the Word was God. Grammatically this is a possible translation, but not the only one. The statement's meaning, and so its translation, must be determined by its context. It could also be translated: 'the Word was a god' or 'the Word was divine'. Grammatical considerations alone fail to decide the question, since all three translations can be defended on grammatical grounds."
`The Christology of the Fourth Gospel-Structures and Issues

Also:

“[A]nd the Word was Divine.”—Ervin Edward Stringfellow, A.M. Professor of New Testament Language and Literature in Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa, The Gospels, A Translation, Harmony and Annotations, St. Louis, John S. Swift Co., Inc., 1943. Professor Stringfellow adds this footnote: “In the Greek this word is the same words translated ‘God’ in verse 1, except the definite article is lacking. In this manner the Word in not identified with God.”, p. 5.

“[T]he Word of Speech was a God”—John Crellius (Latin form of the German, Krell] The Two Books of John Crellius Fancus, Touching One God the Father, Wherein things also concerning the Nature of the Son of God, and the Holy Spirit are discoursed of, 1631.

“The Logos was with God, and the Logos was divine (a divine being).” (e.a.)—Robert Harvey, D.D., Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Westminster College, Cambridge, The Historic Jesus in the New Testament, London; Student Movement Christian  Press, 1931, p.129.    
                          
To translate it literally ‘a god was the Word’ is entirely misleading.—W.E.Vine, But, Vine, does admit that “a god was the Word,” is the literal translation!

Not that he [John] identified him [the Word] with the Godhead (ho Theos); on the contrary, he clearly distinguishes the Son and the Father and makes him inferior in dignity (“the Father is greater than I”), but he declares that the Son is “God” (Theos), that is, of divine essence or nature.—Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, edition of 1910, Vol. I, p. 690.

Therefore, Christians who spoke of Jesus as the Word were saying that he held the highest place in the order of things, second only to God himself...the Word shared all the attributes and powers of God.—J.C. Fenton, The Gospel According to John in the Revised Standard Version, p. 32.

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