The NT Koine Greek of John 1

Dr. Anthony F. Buzzard ABC

[sirwilliams]

Well done. Mr. Buzzard.

God bless you.

[tiffanys.]

Reading 1John 1 has helped tie this all together. Thank you for your work. We are bringing up these contradictions in our church and we likely will not be able to go there anymore. We just want to know the truth. I can't imagine the truth having so many contradictions. There should be no blind faith, which is what we are told we have to have because of the mystery of God. This, of course would mean that Jesus knowingly lied in his prayer that we would know the one true God.

God bless

[dynamicloveministries]

I came to the same conclusion by just reading the text in english linking it to 1 john and titus 1. We dont even need greek to see this.

[gherrocrucible]

Well considering that in Greek there is no actual word to refer to God specifically, we can say that John unable to differentiate between "The God" and "a god" through context, he figured he would use pros ton "Theon" as a Being of existence, versus "Theos" which can be defined as God, god, or divine.

Due to a lack of context John did the best with what he was given.

[jonathanjensen]

Sir Anthony Buzzard,
When you quoted Dunn about all things being made in view of Jesus (which is obvious also) I was wondering how you might respond to something that I usually say about it, however, myself:

God first created light, and on each day, everything God created was created.  God only created during the day, and "then there was evening and then morning" for each day of creation.  I came to this thought also because of how Jesus calls Himself the light of the world, of course shining forth God's Word, saying that He is the light of the world "while He is in the world".  This would make it "day" while He's in the world, and God working in Him. (John 5:17)
Jesus later also says that "night is coming, when no man can work", obviously in context talking about when He leaves the world.  We know that while He is in the world, He is life to the world, and so His Spirit comes to us to give our mortal bodies life.

As such, would you contest that this could also mean that all things are made by way of the light, rather than for the purpose of the light, or perhaps even both by and for?  I am relating light to the word in light of (heh) John 1:3 vs John 1:9.  I mean to say, could this also either mean by light it was created, or perhaps could it be analogous to Colossians 1:16 (through it and for it)?

[droptozro]

Have you looked into the Aramaic "Memra"? The anthropomorphism and metonym for YHWH?

It would have been something all the apostles would have been well aware of---as it was the Aramaic Targums which used this exact Memra(Word) to speak of YHWH instead of saying His name.  

[purebible]

> Anthony Buzzard
> "the light has become personalized as a masculine." Time - 4:30

Anthony, This does not match what has been written about the chapter, and I believe any good Greek grammarian would correct this assertion. The "He of "He was in the world" is a new subject. And in verses 10-16 the "he" and "his" are simply grammatically connected to the postcedent Jesus Christ in v. 17, thus the masculine grammar. John is using a superb and revelatory writing style, and thus the cataphoric grammatical structure.

You can also see this in English by simply removing the adjectival and descriptive phrases (the interludes.)

There are no rules of grammar broken, so to speak. :)
And there is not any constructio ad sensum involved in the chapter.
Light retains its normal neuter grammar, no exceptional natural gender changing mid-chapter.

Now, I really do not know if this correction is very important for your perspective on John 1, however it is important for properly representing the chapter.

Please consider studying this out, and to be ready to make a needed correction

.

Oh, an excellent short help was posted a few years ago on a discussion forum where you were discussing this question, :

Dale Tuggy interviewed by J. Dan Gill

and really helps to explain why the Light is not grammatically connected.

===

villanovanus - December 30, 2012 @ 11:42 pm
The group of 6 verses John 1:4-9 is an “interlude“, that presents the “word” (logos, masculine) as “life” (zôê, feminine) and, in turn, as “light” (phôs, neuter), with a sub-interlude (John 1:6-8) on John the Baptist being the “witness to the light”.

===

You can remove the interlude (for study, don't mangle the word of God! :) ) and you can then more easily see the grammatical core.

The only possible grammatical connections for the masculine John 1:10 "He" is Jesus Christ in verse 1:17 and the Logos in John 1:1, both masculine. So there is no unusual grammar. There is simply a little distance to the postcedent or antecedent, which is common. The stronger case seems to be the cataphoric intent of pointing to the revelation of Jesus Christ in v. 17, since Jesus is being described in the verses starting at 1:10. The two antecedents/postcedents are complementary to one another, and the reader could begin with the Logos in view and have his sense move towards Jesus Christ. They are conceptually connected, simply by the reading of the text, whether one is Biblical Unitarian, Trinitarian, Oneness or Anythingness.

Thanks!
Steven Avery

[examineyourself]

Abner Kneeland, 1822, "The Word was a God"

Becker, 1979, [a God/god was the Logos/logos]

Belsham N.T. 1809 “the Word was a god”

Crellius, John Latin form of German, 1631, "The Word of Speech was a God"

Greek Orthodox /Arabic translation, 1983, "the word was with Allah[God] and the word was a god"

Hermann Heinfetter, 1863, [A]s a god the Command was"

Holzmann, 1926, "ein Gott war der Gedanke" [a God/god was the Thought/thought]

Horner, George William - 1911, [A]nd (a) God was the word"


International English Bible, 2001, "the Word was God*[ftn. or Deity, Divine, which is a better translation, because the Greek definite article is not present before this Greek word]

J.N. Jannaris, 1901, [A]nd was a god"

Leicester Ambrose, 1879, "And the logos was a god"

Newcome, 1808, "and the word was a god"

Reijnier Rooleeuw, 1694, "and the Word was a god"

Robert Young, 1885, (Concise Commentary) "[A]nd a God (i.e. a Divine Being) was the Word"

Thompson, 1829, "the Logos was a god

Tomanec, James L. 1958, [T]he Word was a God"

21st Century NT Literal "In a beginning was the [Marshal] [Word] and the [Marshal] [Word] was with the God and the [Marshal] [Word] was a god." John 1:1

Schulz, Siegfried 1975, "And a god (or, of a divine kind) was the Word"

Thompson, 1829, "the Logos was a god”

Torrey, 1947, "the Word was god”

Joseph Priestley, LL.D., F.R.S. "a God"

Lant, Carpenter LL.D "a God"

Norton, Andrews D.D. "a god"

Willson, B (Interlinear Word for Word English Translation-Emphatic Diaglott ) In a beginning was the Word, and the Word was with the God, and a god was the Word.

And besides thaise there are other Bibles that recognise that John 1:1 SHOULD NOT be translated as "and the Word was God". Here are some other renditions

Barclay, 1976, "the nature of the Word was the same as the nature of God"

Ernest Findlay Scott, 1932, "[A]nd the Word was of divine nature"

Philip Harner, 1974, "The Word had the same nature as God"

Translator's NT, 1973, "The Word was with God and shared his nature



New English, 1961, "what God was, the Word was"

Revised English, 1989, "what God was, the Word was”

Scholar's Version, 1993, "The Divine word and wisdom was there with God, and it was what God was”

Schneider, 1978, "and godlike sort was the Logos”

Bohmer, 1910, [It was strongly linked to God, yes itself divine Being/being

Goodspeed, 1939, "the Word was divine”

Harvey, Robert D.D., 1931 "and the Logos was divine (a divine being)"

Harwood, 1768, "and was himself a divine person"

International Bible Translators N.T. 1981 “In the beginning there was the Message.
The Message was with God. The Message was deity.”

Madsen, 1994, "the Word was a divine Being"

Moffatt, 1972, "the Logos was divine”

McKenzie John L., Jesuit - 1965, wrote in his Dictionary of the Bible: "Jn 1:1 should
rigorously be translated . . . 'the word was a divine being.'

Maximilian Zerwich S.J./Mary Grosvenor, 1974, "The Word was divine”

Schonfield, 1985, "the Word was divine

Smit, 1960, "verdensordet var et guddommelig vesen" [the word of the world was a divine being]

Stage, 1907, [The Word/word was itself a divine Being/being].

Stringfellow, Ervin Edward (Prof. of NT Language and Literature/Drake University, 1943, ) "And the Word was Divine"

Simple English Bible, "and the Message was Deity"

Temple, William Archbishop of York, 1933, "And the Word was divine."

[aldonjarrett]

Jesus is not the word of God.

Psalms 33:6-9 By the word of the LORD were the heavens made; and all the host of them by the breath of his mouth. He gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses. Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.

John 12:47-50  And if any man hear my words, and believe not, I judge him not: for I came not to judge the world, but to save the world. He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day. For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. And I know that his commandment is life everlasting: whatsoever I speak therefore, even as the Father said unto me, so I speak.

John 17:8 or I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me; and they have received them, and have known surely that I came out from thee, and they have believed that thou didst send me.