Mistranslation of John 1:1

		Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect. 1Peter 3.15

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Explanation of John 1:1

Corruption, perversion, distortion, ignorance, or mistranslation? Which description fits the rendering of this English translation of the Holy Bible? We’ll let you, the reader, decide. The Bible Collector quoted Dr. William Barclay of the University of Glasgow, Scotland regarding this translation,

The deliberate DISTORTION of truth by this sect is seen in their New Testament translations.... It is abundantly clear that a sect which can translate the New Testament like that is intellectually dishonest.[i] (Emphasis added.)

In the Revelation of Jesus, there is a warning regarding the distortion of God’s Word, the Holy Bible,

For I testify unto everyman that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, if any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues written in this book: And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.[ii]

Not only that God will forfeit the false witness’ inheritance in the holy city, God would also punish him,

And if anyone’s name was not found recorded in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the Lake of Fire.[iii]

Forfeiture then everlasting torment in the lake of fire--this is the consequence of the forgery of the Word of God! This is the just punishment God will inflict upon any false prophets. This is too serious to be ignored. That is why we prepared this article to inform you--the one’s whom Jehovah-God will redeem. Only the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society knows exactly how many of these Bible translations were distributed; and apparently, there are no intentions of correcting this “frightful mistranslation.” If you have the NWT[iv] of the Holy Bible, turn to the Gospel According to John:

“In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.” (John 1:1, emphasis added.)

And in its footnote, it says, “‘A god,’ in contrast with ‘the God.’” How many Gods do the Watchtower have? Is Jehovah the true God (the God)? Certainly! Is Jesus the true God (the God), Yes or no? If yes, how many Gods do you have? If not, is Jesus a false God (a god)? A survey of the entire Bible (Old Testament through the New Testament) will explicitly reveal Gods (or gods) under two categories namely, the true God and the false Gods (or “the true god and the false gods,” whichever case). The title God or god [theos in Greek] refers to only one being, namely, Jehovah-God. See Isaiah:

“I am the first and I am the last; apart from me there is no God.”[v]

and in Exodus,

“You shall have no other gods before me.”[vi]

(See also 1 Chronicles 16:26; 1 Corinthians 8:5,6.) Look it up in the other trustworthy English Bibles; John 1:1 is rendered (emphasis added):

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”(NASB[vii], 1960, 32 scholars.)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.” (NIV, 1973, 100+ scholars.)

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” (KJV, 44 scholars.)

“In the beginning was the Word; the Word was in God’s presence and the Word was God.” (NAB[viii], 50 scholars, Catholic translation.)

Noted Greek scholars, as quoted by the Bible Collector, p.12, attest to this rendering: Dr. Julius R. Mantey, Dr. B.F. Wescott, Bruce M. Metzger (Professor of NT Language and literature at Princeton Theological Seminary), Dr. J.J. Griesback, Dr. Eugene A. Nida (Head of the Translation Department of the American Bible Society Translators of the Good News Bible), Dr. William Barclay (University of Glasgow, Scotland), Dr. Ernest C. Colwell (University of Chicago), Dr. F.F. Bruce (University of Manchester, England), Dr. Paul L. Kaufman (Portland OR.), Dr. Charles L. Feinberg (La Miranda CA.), Dr. Harry A. Sturz (Chairman of the Language Department and Professor of Greek at Biola College). All of them even criticized the translation “the Word was a god.” In this long list were Dr. B.F. Westcott, who authored the New Testament in the original Greek the NWT used, who said:

The predicate (God) stands emphatically first, as in 4:24. 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.[ix]

How many credible scholars are there, supporting the Watchtower rendering? Are they REALLY recognized as degree holders of Biblical Greek? What’s their church background? Do they have biased belief that could have affected their translation? Do they have any Bible in circulation today that they have translated and that have been recognized as reliable by other denominations? From what we’ve learned some of them were practicing divination and that “spirits [actually demons] taught them the meaning of the Greek words into English.[x]” These questions, plus the criticisms of a huge number of recognized scholars cast doubt and raise questions in the integrity and reliability of The New World Translation.

If we were to ask the Jehovah’s Witnesses: Who conducted the translation of the Holy Bible into the NWT, can they give us even just one of them who is a recognized Greek scholar? Did you know who are Governing bodies that produced (or PERVERTED?) the Holy Bible in the New World Translation? They were: Fred Franz, Nathan Knorr, Albert Schroeder, Milton Henschel, George Gangas; and they had no degree whatsoever in Biblical Greek! [xi]

The original Greek of John 1:1 (with the number system by James Strong[xii] in the first row, the original Greek in the second row, the equivalent word in English in the third, and the literal English translation [all capitalized]) may be read as:

1722	746	2258	3588	3056	2532	3588	3056
en	arch	hn	o	logoV	kai	o	logoV
en	archee	een	ho	logos	kai	ho	logos
IN	(THE) BEGINNING	WAS	THE	WORD	AND	THE	WORD

2258	4314	5120	2316	2532	2316	2258	3588	3056
hn	proV	tou	qeoV	kai	qeoV	hn	o	logoV
een	pros	too	theos	kai	theos	een	ho	logos
WAS	TOWARD	THE	GOD	AND	GOD	WAS	THE	WORD

Vine’s[xiii] gave the meaning of archee, logos, and theos:

archee [beginning, corner, estate, first, magistrate, power, principality, principles, rule, ruler]

logos [account, cause, communication, do, doctrine, fame, intent, matter, mouth, preaching, question, utterances, word, work]

theos [God, godly]

Vine’s, also commented that:

A notable instances of this is John 1:1, ‘and the Word was God’; here a double stress is on Theos, by the absence of the article and by the emphatic position. To translate it literally, ‘a god was the Word,’ is extremely MISLEADING. Moreover, that ‘the Word’ is the subject of the sentence, exemplifies the rule that the subject is to be determined by its having the article when the predicate is anarthrous (without the article).[xiv] (Emphasis added.)

Dr. Zodhiates, a Greek by lineage and a recognized authority on the Greek New Testament, also noted:

But the Holy Spirit chose the Greek language in which to give us the New Testament revelation, and the Greek language is so specific and definite that only those who are IGNORANT of the language, or those who misconstrue it, can arrive at pernicious anti-Scriptural and unsound doctrines. [xv]

See for yourself if the NWT is not CORRUPTED. In John 1:1 it said the Word, Jesus, was “a god” but in John 20:28-29, it quoted Thomas saying to Jesus, “My Lord and my God.”

In answer Thomas said to him [Jesus]: “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him [Thomas]: Because you have seen me have you believed? Happy are those who do not see and yet believe. [xvi]

From this MISTRANSLATION you may also read:

Because it is in him [Jesus] that all the fullness of the divine quality dwells bodily [xvii].

He (Jesus) is the reflection of [his] (Jehovah’s) glory and the exact representation of his very being... [xviii]

See for yourself. Read your New American Standard Bible, New International Version, or King James Version Bibles, without any Watchtower textbooks or commentaries; study them carefully, pray that Jehovah-God will let you understand; this is Jehovah’s Word, it stands alone and will be understood without anybody interpreting it for you, except by God Himself.

Using any reliable English translation of the Holy Bible (i.e., NASB, NIV, and KJV) compare John 1; John 20:28; Acts 20:28; Philippians 2:5-11; Colossians 2; Titus 2:13,14; Hebrews 1; 2 Peter 1:1; John 5:1-20 with your NWT (or KIT). See for yourself and decide whether corruption, perversion, distortion, ignorant, or frightful mistranslation is the word that fits the rendering of NWT translation of the Holy Bible? You will see that all of them will not suffice!

As Jesus said, “therefore I said to you, you will die in your sins. For if you do not believe that I am [he], you will die in your sins.” [xix]

Who is Jesus to you, the true God (the God) or a false God (a god)?

EXPLANATION OF JOHN 1:1

“IN [THE] BEGINNING...”en archee. “In the beginning was the Word,” opened by John in this gospel. But which beginning? I ask this because he also said, “the Word was with God.” We all know that Jehovah-God has neither past nor future, because he cannot be contained in time or in space. So it must be legitimate to conclude that the word “beginning” referred to by John is the time “before the world even began.” Thus we can paraphrase John 1:1a into: “In the beginning [before the beginning of time] the Word was with God.

“...WAS THE WORD...” een ho logos. The apostle who also wrote, “that which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched--this we proclaim concerning the Word of life,” (1 John 1:1, NIV) has written this gospel to proclaim the person and the works of Jesus Christ, the Word, the Logos. It should not surprise us that in his opening statement he will use the “Word” as his subject. But, why did he refer to Jesus as the Logos? What particular quality about the subject did the author wished to convey here? According to a recognized authority on Greek New Testament, logos means, “speech, speech that has intelligence behind it,” [xx] and that it is distinct from the Greek lalia which means, “speech or utterance.” Logos as we know is also the root from which the words logic and logical was derived. Therefore John used Logos to describe Jesus as “the Intelligence.” [xxi] And, Jesus is the “final authoritative word God has ever spoken or ever will speak to man.” [xxii]

“...AND THE WORD WAS TOWARD THE GOD...” kai ho logos een pros too theos. According to the same scholar, “Pros could be translated as ‘toward’ to express the idea of motion. It is as if the Logos and the Father were facing each other. There is no suggestion of the Son following the Father, for then the Son would not be co-equal with the Father.” [xxiii]

“...AND GOD WAS THE WORD.” kai theos een ho logos. He continued, “If we were to translate the third clause of John 1:1 as ‘And the Word was “a” God,’ then we should do the same in every other instance where the Greek word Theos; ‘God,’ is used without the definite article, John 1:18 would then have to be translated, ‘No man hath seen “a” God at any time.’ How ridiculous that would be. How many gods do we have anyway?” [xxiv]

Here we shall end with the paraphrased rendering of the Living Bible:

Before anything else existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. (John 1:1)

He (Jesus) Is The True God And Eternal Life! (1 John 5:20b)

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Bible Translation Exposé

MISTRANSLATION OF JOHN 1:1

Who is Jesus to you, the true God (the God) or a false God (a god)?

EXPLANATION OF JOHN 1:1