it also said God became flesh and dwelt among us....Do you discard that.
John 1:1 is from where much of the problem stems, because so many Trinitarian translators render part c as "and the Word was God". This is a bad translation that makes no sense because the BEING of God could not possibly have been WITH the BEING of God.
This is from the 25 TRINITARIAN scholars that produced NETBible (NETBible: John 1:1):
Colwell’s Rule is often invoked to support the translation of θεός (qeos) as definite (“God” rather than indefinite (“a god” here. However, Colwell’s Rule merely permits, but does not demand, that a predicate nominative ahead of an equative verb be translated as definite rather than indefinite. Furthermore, Colwell’s Rule did not deal with a third possibility, that the anarthrous predicate noun may have more of a qualitative nuance when placed ahead of the verb.
What this tells us is that Colwell's Rule, (the rule used as support of a "THE theos", or "God with a capital G" rendering of 1:1c) is only ONE of the THREE possible translations of 1:1.
The other two possibilities are:
1. "a god"
2. "god" in a qualitative nuance
Moffatt's Translation uses #2, rendering it as "and the Word was divine". And the JWs New World Translation uses #1, rendering it as "and the Word was a god".
Both of these are as grammatically acceptable as mainstream Christianity's "God with a capped G" translation. But here's the clincher:
The construction in John 1:1c does not equate the Word with the person of God (this is ruled out by 1:1b, “the Word was with God”
This is 25 TRINITARIAN scholars acknowledging what those of us without a "Jesus is God" bias already accept as simple common sense: God cannot possibly be said to be WITH God. So of the THREE possibilities, "THE God" is the only one these scholars eliminate.
Jehovah is the God OF gods. Jesus and Satan are only two of the many gods in heaven and on earth that Jehovah is the God OF. So try understanding John 1:1 to be saying that Jesus, who is the Word, was WITH his own God in the beginning, and was himself a god (mighty one). Because that IS what John was telling us.
peace,
mike
Last edited: