Sunday, August 19, 2018

More Interesting Quotes on John 1:1


There is Philo 's distinction between God and the God; the former indicated the Logos, the second God, whereas the latter, the God indicated God Most High: 'In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with the God and the Word was God' (John 1.1). The Word was the agent of the creation (John 1.10), and tabernacled on earth (John 1 . 1 4), just as the Memra/Logos had been associated with the tabernacle in the desert and its successor, the temple, and the
visions of the Lord in the prophets and the apocalyptic writings had been set there. There were many traditions of the Angel who lived in the sanctuary and appeared in times of crisis. These, too, were a part of the same belief in the presence and manifestation of the presence of the Lord with his people. ~Margaret Barker - The Great Angel: A Study of Israel’s Second God https://www.amazon.com/dp/0664253954
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The Gospel of John, for example, is usually regarded as reflecting a very "high" view of Jesus, his divine status explicit from the outset of the writing in a statement well known in Christian tradition: "In the beginning was the Word [Logos], and the Word was with God, and the Word was God" (John 1:1). Certainly, this statement is notable both for explicitly positing the "pre-existence" of Jesus and for the designation of Jesus as the divine "Word" and even as "God." Yet, even in this astonishingly exalted view of Jesus, he is still defined with reference to the one God. The "Word" is there at the beginning (of the cosmos) with God. Moreover, in the next lines of the passage, the Word is
posited as the one through whom (Greek: dia) all things were created (1:2). That is, the Word is the unique agent through whom God's creation of all things took place. This certainly amounts to an impressive claim. But my point here is that this claim is expressed with a concern to "locate" the Word/Jesus, so to speak, in a way that reflects a monotheistic stance, with the role of the Word implicitly (but clearly) subordinate to the one God. ~How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God?: Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus by Larry W. Hurtado, p.51 https://www.amazon.com/How-Earth-Did-Jesus-Become/dp/0802828612

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"In the beginning was the Logos, and the Logos was with God, and divine [of the category divinity] was the Logos. ... "In order to avoid misunderstanding, it may be inserted here that [the.os'] and [ho the.os'] ('god, divine' and 'the God') were not the same thing in this period. . . . In fact, for the . . . Evangelist, only the Father was 'God' ([ho the.os']; cf. Joh 17:3); 'the Son' was subordinate to him (cf. Joh 14:28). But that is only hinted at in this passage because here the emphasis is on the proximity of the one to the other . . . . It was quite possible in Jewish and Christian monotheism to speak of divine beings that existed alongside and under God but were not identical with him. Phil 2:6-10 proves that. In that passage Paul depicts just such a divine being, who later became man in Jesus Christ . . . Thus, in both Philippians and John 1:1 it is not a matter of a dialectical relationship between two-in-one, but of a personal union of two entities." ~Ernst Haenchen (Das Johannesevangelium. Ein Kommentar) (1984). [John 1. A Commentary on the Gospel of John Chapters 1-6, pages 108-10, translated by Robert W. Funk.] https://www.amazon.com/dp/0800660137

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I am pretty well convinced that this word, with the article, is always definite, without it, always indefinite. I take the meaning to be, simply, "the Word was a Divine Being" but, as this is the more obvious meaning of the E. V., "the Word was God," I would not at present propose any change. I hope to give this subject a more thorough investigation at a future time, and in „a connection where the discussion of it more properly belongs.
~The Gospel by John https://tinyurl.com/gospelbyjohn
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"If an author wants to talk about "what something is like," he or she might use an anarthous noun construction by dropping the article or articles from the usage." (Greek for preachers, Escrito por Joseph M. Webb, Robert Kysar, pg. 35, 2002)

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"If a noun has no definite article in front of it, we would normally translate it as 'a'. (Exploring New Testament Greek: a way in, Escrito por Peter Kevern, Paula Gooder, pg. 60-61, 2004)

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"Many view theos here as an adjetive describing a quality of the Logos." (Nazarene Commentary, Escrito por Mark Heber Miller, pg. 478, 2010)

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"When the article occurs it indicates a specific thing; when it is lacking (anarthous) it means one of many or a type." (Nazarene Commentary, Escrito por Mark Heber Miller, pg. 478, 2010)
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“If a noun has no definite article in front of it, we would normally translate it as 'a'”. (Exploring New Testament Greek, Escrito por Peter Kevern, Paula Gooder, pg. 60-61, 2004)
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 “Rather, it stresses that, although the person of Christ is not the person of the Father, their essence is identical. The idea of a qualitative qeovs here is that the Word had all the attributes and qualities that “the God” (of 1:1b) had.”(The basics of new Testament Syntaxis (an intermediate greek grammar), Daniel B. Wallace, Zondervan, pg. 120, 2009)
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"Part of the explanation of why the author of the Prologue chose to use "God" without the article to refer to the Word while he used "God" with the article to refer to the Father is that he desired to keep the Word distinct from the Father. Even if the Word shares something with the Father that deserves to be called theos, the Word (Jesus) is not the Father, as will be patently clear throughout the Gospel." (Introduction to the New Testament Christology, Escrito por Raymond Edward Brown, pg. 187, 1994)
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"It avoids using the definite article (ho theos) and simply says that the Word was theos-we should perhaps translate 'was divine'"(The Bible: the basics, Escrito por John Barton, pg. 87,88, 2010)
"'God', without article, is predicate here and not subject. It is therefore not identical with ho theos mentioned earlier." (JESUS THE CHRIST, NEW EDITION, BY WALTER KASPER pg. 158, 2011)
"The article can only be omitted before abstracts when they denote virtues, vices, etc." (Harless, on Eph. S. 320)
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"Many view theos here as an adjetive describing a quality of the Logos." (Nazarene Commentary, Escrito por Mark Heber Miller, pg. 478, 2010)
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“John was speaking of “a god” or “a divine being”.” (Truth in Translation, Jason David BeDuhn, pg. 127, 2003)
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"in fact sometimes the meaning of the English indefinite article a or an, cannot well be denied; and in conformity with this usage, the Greek article might sometimes be so employed en the New Testament. (Geseb. Lehrgeb, pg. 655. Stuart 163.4)
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"But are interested in the nature of the articular nouns as they differ from the anarthrous nouns. In the two clauses above... the first use of God (0eóc) is articular, and the second is not. So we might logically consider that the first use of 0eóc names or identifies God as divine personality, while its second use indicates something God-like or the qualities of God, whatever they might be." (Greek for preachers, Escrito por Joseph M. Webb, Robert Kysar, pg. 39, 2002)
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"When the predicate nominative precedes the linking verb, the noun preceding this copula emphasizes quality. So the predicate "God" (theos) preceding "was" indicates that the Logos is divine" (Magnifying God in Christ: A Summary of New Testament Theology, Escrito por Thomas R. Schreiner, cap. The centrai, 2010)
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"a or, Deity, Divine (wich is actually a better translation, because the Greek definite article is not present before this Greek word)" (The Great Book: The New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ in Plain English, Escrito por Destiny Image Publishers, pg. 181, 2003)
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"Part of the explanation of why the author of the Prologue chose to use "God" without the article to refer to the Word while he used "God" with the article to refer to the Father is that he desired to keep the Word distinct from the Father. (An introduction to New Testament Christology, Escrito por Raymond Edward Brown, Professor Emeritus of Biblical Studies at Union Theological Seminary, pg. 187, 1994)
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"When QEOS is anarthrous, however, it may signify divine essence or divine attributes or activities. In short, it may mean "like God". (Greek for preachers, Escrito por Joseph M. Webb, Robert Kysar, pg. 38, 2002)
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"the non-use of the article with God stresses the qualitative character of the Logos, indicating that the Logos is divine." (Light from the Greek New Testament, Boyce W. Blackwelder, pg. 146, 1976)

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