John 1:1 – Cherev

The Johnine Prologue

Verse 1 Greek Text

1:1Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.

Verse 1 Sentence Flow

Ἐν - preposition +dative = in
ἀρχῇ - NDFS = beginning
ἦν - VImpAI3S = was (finite verb)
  ὁ λόγος - NNMS = the word (subject)
καὶ - logical conjunction = and
ἦν - VImpAI3S = was (finite verb)
  ὁ λόγος - NNMS = the word (subject)
  πρὸς - prepostion of association = with
    τὸν θεόν - NAMS = God
καὶ - logical conjunction = and
  ἦν - VImpAI3S = was (finite verb)
    ὁ λόγος - NNMS = the word (subject)
    θεὸς - NNMS = God (predicate nominative)

Verse 1 Translation Rationale

Our sentence in John 1 opens much like Genesis 1; in the beginning. “Ἐν” is a temporal preposition with “ἀρχῇ” being the object of the preposition. “ἀρχῇ” lacks the article, however, “the” is supplied in the translation for smoother English. As Wallace points out, “the object of a preposition is most often definite, however, it does not have to be definite. If the noun is articular, it is always definite. If the noun is anarthrous, it may be definite.”¹ This opening prepositional phrase is rendered “In the beginning.” The prepositional phrase is followed by the imperfect verb “ἦν.” The subject of “ἦν” is “ὁ λόγος.” Technically, a wooden translation here would be “the Word was.” This being an imperfect verb, there’s an illustration of an ongoing state of being from eternity past. So far, then, we have “In the beginning was the Word.” This could be strictly or woodenly translated as “The Word was in the beginning.” The idea being conveyed is the same regardless of word order. The idea being conveyed is the existence of ὁ λόγος in the beginning. A subtle nuance here, perhaps, is that ἦν is a stative verb. John is indicating here that the Word in His being was in the beginning. Therefore, the Word didn’t become a being at the incarnation. Indeed, ὁ λόγος has been a being from eternity past. Beginning here is eternity past. God has no beginning and strains human language. However, we see the point John is making in this opening remark.

Moving on, then, we arrive at the logical connector or conjunction “καὶ.” “καὶ” is very simply “and” here. “ὁ λόγος” is the subject of the next imperfect “ἦν.” “ὁ λόγος” is translated “the Word” and once again we have “ἦν” being translated “was.” “πρὸς” here is a preposition of association so we translate it “with.”² ³ We then close this clause with the object of the preposition “τὸν θεόν” which is translated as “God.” Thus far we have “In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God.” God here, with the article is taken to mean God the Father. Thus, the preposition of association locates Jesus in His preincarnate state with God the Father.

It is this third clause that is troubling to Jehovah’s Witnesses – The New World Translation. They will assert that the Greek here shows that Jesus (ὁ λόγος) was “a god.” This third clause opens with a simple logical connector “καὶ” and it is translated “and.” Here again we have “ὁ λόγος” as the subject of the verb “ἦν” followed by another nominative noun in θεὸς. “ὁ λόγος” is known to be the subject of the verb rather than “θεὸς” because “ὁ λόγος” contains the article. Wallace has a long explanation of why this is the case. Therefore, this is appropriately translated “the Word was God.” Where this becomes semi unusual for the Greek language is that θεὸς is an anarthrous predicate nominative noun. Therefore, technically “a god” would seem to be a reasonable conclusion. The New World translation takes such a position.

According to Wallace, Colwell’s Rule is often misunderstood to mean that a pre-verbal, anarthrous, predicate nominative noun is definite. However, that’s not what Colwell’s Rule means. Instead, Colwell’s Rule means definite predicate nouns which precede the verb usually lack the article and therefore one cannot translate the nominative as qualitative or indefinite without considering the context. The rule is there to get us to not jump the gun and translate solely based on the absence of the article without considering the context. Therefore, Colwell’s Rule isn’t a silver bullet in the translation of John 1:1 as some have thought. What we’ve just written relies heavily on “A Grammatical Analysis of John 1:1, Caragounis & Vander Watt”⁴ and “Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics, Wallace.”⁵

What is the best way to translate the predicate nominative? To translate the predicate nominative as though it’s definite seems to force Sabellianism/Modalism by making God the Father and God the Son the same person based on the claim of the second clause (πρὸς τὸν θεόν). Many scholars have noted this danger through the ages. However, “a god” as the New World Translation takes it, is also untenable as it would indicate Jesus is a god amongst more than one in a pantheistic sense. This is fundamentally incongruent with the message of the gospel of John and the Bible at large.

Still doing background work here to come to a final explanation.

Verse 1 English Translation

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Verse 1 Interpretation Questions

Why does καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος not mean “and a god was the Word?”