Let us begin here. These arguments and comments do not originate with me. I have them from a professor of New Testament Greek. I have taken the liberty to rework some of the arguments and added some of my own comments and observations from the grammar.
εν αρχη ην ο λογος και ο λογος ην προς τον θεον και θεος ην ο λογος
"In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God."
There are a couple things you need to know about Greek syntax in order to understand what John is really saying in this verse. First, Koine Greek normally drops the article in a prepositional phrase. The absence of the article in a prepositional phrase is normal in the Greek, and doesn't mean anything. It is the INCLUSION of the article in a prepositional phrase that is unusual, so when John includes the use of the article in these prepositional phrases it means something.
The prepositional phrase "εν αρχη" (in beginning) doesn't contain an article, but is still properly translated "in the beginning." The prepositional phrase "προς τον θεον," (was with the God) however, does include the article (τον). Since it was proper not to include it, the INCLSION then of the article here means something. In general, the inclusion of an article when it is not expected means he is being very specific about a particular individual who is God. In order to fully understand how that effects this verse, we need to go to the last clause. To understand the implications of the last clause, you need to understand Greek syntax. First, Greek distinguishes the role a noun plays in a sentence by changing the case. In general, if the noun is the subject, it is in the nominative case. If it is the direct object, it is in the accusative case. However, there is a strange class of verbs that do not take a direct object, they take a predicate. There are three verbs that do this in Koine Greek. This means that you have two nouns that are the same case (nominative), where one is the subject, and one is the predicate. So if both are in the same case, how do you know which is the subject, and which is the predicate?
Here are the rules (Notice, I said these are rules. You can't ignore them, you can't change them, you can't remove them, and you can't add to them!)
1. If both nouns have the article attached, then the first is the subject, the second is the predicate.
2. If NEITHER noun has the article attached, then the first is the subject, the second is the predicate.
3. If one has an article, but the other does not, then the one WITH the article is the subject, and the one without the article is the predicate.
So in the phrase "και θεος ην ο λογος", we see that λογος has an article (o) and θεος does not. Thus, o λογος is the subject, while θεος is the predicate.
Are you with me so far?
