onewithhim
New Member
No. There are quite a few reasons why this rendering of John 1:1 is incorrect, such as: the Word can't BE God and at the same time be WITH God, and, in addition to that, John never intended to present the Word as being God Almighty. He was trying to distinguish between "the" God and the Word. God Almighty in that verse is written with the Greek definite article "ho," or, "the." That is how the Greeks distinguished between something or someone that is the only one and one that is one of many. "The Word was with THE God, and the Word was [no article] god." Now, when there is no article with a word like that, to translate into English the rule is to make it readable to English speakers by providing an article that we understand, to complete the meaning. For example, we wouldn't say "Snoopy is dog." We would say "Snoopy is A dog," even though in the Greek text there was no article. They understand that a thing without the definite article is merely one of many.In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word WAS God. The Word was later sent to earth to be born as Jesus. The Word was God, the Word became Jesus, therefore Jesus is God.
Further, "god" to the Greeks did not always mean the Almighty God. Others were commonly referred to as "gods," such as kings, governors, judges, and just about anyone in authority. Jesus brought that to the Jews' attention at John 10:34-36. He referred to human judges as being called "gods" at Psalm 82:1. Therefore we can conclude that John calling the Word "a god" was not at all confusing to his Greek-speaking audience. They understood that he was not calling the Word "the" God, and they had no trouble in thinking of the Word as what John was trying to say: a mighty, important individual, though not God Almighty.