Monday, March 26, 2018

Using Acts 28:4 to Understand How to Translate John 1:1 in the Greek


Using Acts 28:4 to Understand How to Translate John 1:1 in the Greek

The construction of Acts 28:4, being a pre-verbal Predicate Nominative (PN) is a great way to demonstrate how to translate John 1:1c. Here the subject is "the man" which has the article "the" and in John 1:1 the subject is "the Word" which also has the article "the." Also at Acts 28:4 there is an anarthrous (no article) predicate noun "murderer" before the verb "is" while in John 1:1 we have the anarthrous predicate noun "god" before the verb "was." These two passages are perfect parallels.

Almost all Bible Versions that I perused translated PANTWS FONEUS ESTIN hO ANQRWPOS with the indefinite article "a."

No doubt this man is a murderer. Revised Version Improved and Corrected 
No doubt this man is a murderer. Revised English Version
This man must be a murderer! Moffatt Bible
This man is certainly a murderer. Anderson NT
This man is undoubtedly a murderer. Goodspeed NT
No doubt this man is a murderer. Montgomery NT.
No doubt this man is a murderer. Noyes NT.
Certainly this man is a murderer. Riverside NT.
Evidently this man is a murderer. Twentieth Century New Testament. 
This man must be a murderer. Wilbur Pickering NT.
Beyond doubt this man is a murderer. Weymouth.
This man must certainly be a murderer. New American Bible
No doubt this man is a murderer. Revised Version
Surely this man is a murderer. NWT, Kleist & Lilly NT
Unquestionably this man is a murderer. Modern Language Bible

However, very few Bibles will translated John 1:1c correctly, as it is theologically critical to Christian translators who need this passage to say that the Word/Jesus is God. If you try to translate this verse correctly you will be universally condemned as a heretic and an amateur. The above demonstrates that (a) you no longer need to take those accusations seriously, and (b) that you really cannot trust most mainstream Bible versions when it comes to translating passages that appear to touch on the deity of Christ. Other passages within the same Gospel of John could be included as a parallel as well, such as John 8:48 "thou art a Samaritan" and John 4:19 "I perceive thou art a prophet" etc.


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