Jehovah Witnesses Rendering of "the Word was a god" in John 1:1
</a><br>Greek Scholars Set The Record Straight
Jehovah Witnesses Rendering of "the Word was a god" in John
1:1
Greek
Scholars Set The Record
Straight
When the Watchtower Organization
released their own Bible (New World Translation) in the 1950's, one of
their main goals in this venture was to remove all Biblical evidence of the
deity of Jesus. Over the years the Jehovah Witnesses have
constantly updated their NWT to make Bible verses conform with
their own doctrines. One of the main scriptures that has been changed is
the passage in John 1:1 that clearly refers to Jesus being God (the Word was
God). Obviously the Watchtower couldn't have this verse rendered as such
in their own Bibles, hence the reason they have added the letter "a" to make
John 1:1 say: "the Word was a god."
One thing heard over and over about the
JW's New World Translation is the fact their translators were not
trained in the original languages of the Biblical manuscripts...Hebrew, Greek,
and Aramaic. So is their insertion of the letter "a" in John 1:1 the
correct translation of the original Greek? Let's allow true Greek scholars
answer that one.
Dr. Charles L. Feinberg of La
Mirada, California: "I can assure you that the
rendering which the Jehovah's
Witnesses give John 1:1 is not held by any
reputable Greek
scholar."
Dr. J. R. Mantey (who is quoted on
pages 1158-1159 of the Watchtowers own
Kingdom interlinear Translation): "A
shocking mistranslation." "Obsolete
and incorrect." "It is
neither scholarly nor reasonable to translate John
1:1 'The Word was a
god.'"
Dr. B. F. Wescott (whose Greek
text - not the English part - is used in the
Kingdom Interlinear
Translation): "The predicate (God) stands emphatically
first, as in
IV.24. It is necessarily without the article...No idea of
inferiority
of nature is suggested by the form of expression, which simply
affirms the
true deity of the Word...in the third clause 'the Word' is
declared to be
'God' and so included in the unity of the Godhead."
Dr. Bruce M. Metzger of Princeton (Professor of New
Testament Language and
Literature): "A frightful mistranslation."
"Erroneous" and "pernicious"
"reprehensible" "If the Jehovah's
Witnesses take this translation seriously,
they are
polytheists."
Dr. Paul L. Kaufman of Portland, Oregon: "The
Jehovah's Witnesses people
evidence an abysmal ignorance of the basic tenets
of Greek grammar in their
mistranslation of John 1:1."
Dr. Eugene A. Nida, head of Translations
Department, American Bible Society:
"With regard to John 1:1, there is of
course a complication simply because
the New World Translation was apparently
done by persons who did not take
seriously the syntax of the Greek."
Dr. J. J. Griesbach "So numerous
and clear are the arguments and testimonies
of Scriptures in favour of the
true Deity of Christ, that I can hardly
imagine how, upon the admission of
the Divine authority of Scripture, and
with regard to fair rules of
interpretation, this doctrine can by any man be
called in doubt.
Especially the passage, John 1:1-3, is so clear and so
superior to all
exception, that by no daring efforts of either commentators
or critics can it
be snatched out of the hands of the defenders of the
truth."
Dr. Ernest C. Colwell of the University of
Chicago: "A definite predicate
nominative has the article when it
follows the verb; it does not have the
article when it precedes the
verb...this statement cannot be regarded as
strange in the prologue of the
gospel which reaches its climax in the
confession of Thomas. 'My Lord and my
God.' - John 20:28"
Dr. William Barclay of the University of
Glasgow, Scotland: "The deliberate
distortion of truth by this sect is seen
in their New testament translations.
John 1:1 is translated: '...the Word was
a god,' a translation which is
grammatically impossible...It is abundantly
clear that a sect which can
translate the New Testament like that is
intellectually dishonest."
Dr. F. F. Bruce of the University of
Manchester, England: "Much is made by
Arian amateur grammarians of the
omission of the definite article with 'God'
in the phrase 'And the Word was
God.' Such an omission is common with nouns
in a predicative
construction...'a god' would be totally indefensible."
Dr. J. Johnson of California State
University, Long Beach: "No justification
whatsoever for translating THEOS EN
HO LOGOS as 'the Word was a god.' There
is no syntactical parallel to
Acts 28:6 where there is a statement in
indirect discourse; John 1:1 is
direct....I am neither a Christian nor a
trinitarian."
Dr. Samuel J. Mikolaski of Zurich,
Switzerland: "This anarthrous (used
without the article) construction
does not mean what the indefinite article
'a' means in English. It is
monstrous to translate the phrase 'the Word was
a god.'"
Dr. James L. Boyer of Winona Lake, Indiana:
"I have never heard of, or read
of any Greek Scholar who would have agreed to
the interpretation of this
verse insisted upon by the Jehovah's Witnesses...I
have never encountered one
of them who had any knowledge of the Greek
language."
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