I'm not a fluent reader of Greek although I have had to study it on occasions where someone claims the Greek means something different than the English does. I'm not disputing the meaning of John 1, I'm only disputing an interpretation of it. Feel free to present your argument of the Greek and I'll look into it. I would appreciate it if you answered my questions from earlier though, I've answered all of yours.
Your previous questions will be answered in turn. We are going to deal with ONLY one text at a time. Let us begin with the grammatical structure of the Greek in John 1.
The first thing that must be acknowledged is that Greek, like any other language, has rules of grammar that MUST be followed or language is rendered ineffective as a tool of communication. Words have meanings and every word of scripture is deliberately chosen for effect. Contrary to popular opinion, one cannot make scripture say just anything one wishes it to say. It will only say what God intends for it to say, nothing more, nothing less. Anything else is a prostitution of the grammar and a perversion of truth.
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.
John 1:1 εν αρχη ην ο λογος και ο λογος ην προς τον θεον και θεος ην ο λογος
"In beginning was the Word and the word was with the God and God was the Word." There three prepositional phrases present an ontology of God.
There are a couple of 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, and doesn't mean anything. It is the INCLUSION of the article in any prepositional phrase that is unusual, and thus has significant meaning.
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," (
"The Word was God") however, does include the article (τον). Since it was proper not to include the article here, the INCLUSION of the article means something. In general, the inclusion of an article when it is not expected means you are 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 or manipulate them in any way!
1. If both nouns of the same case 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.
Are you with me so far?
