John 1:1 does not say “the Word was God”

[Aldrnari]

Would a better modern understanding be expressed as “the word was divine”?

[GrundyMcCall-D]

I'm struggling to understand how "...was deity" makes any sense. It's not a construction that would ever be used in English. Can you give an approximation of how this verse would be rendered as comprehensible in modern English?

[stephenbailey]

The following phrase "and through him was created all that was created" helps the definition of the Word as God.
Genesis one: God creates the realms through Word and Breath (Spirit).
John one: ...and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us.

[osr]

There is also no definite article in verse 6, where it says 'there was a man sent from God'.
There is no way this means there was a man sent from 'a' God or from divinity.
I would like to understand why there is no definite article used here either?

[clothedinsun]

I think it's also worth discussing the meaning of the word "Word" in this passage. Because it's "Logos, " right? Which means much more than our English word "Word" as I understand it.

[Ishaboiiwags]

Could you address “The Granville Sharpe Rule”? Apologists use it like a get out of jail free card but I’ve never understood what they’re trying to do with it.

[Jarige]

I've always heard that the best translation is "and God is what the Word was", because the way of writing puts an emphasis on the word for God.
Also, the idea that Jesus was God is earlier than John itself as it also appears in Philippians 2:5-11 where Christians are called upon to be like Jesus, "Who, being in very nature[a] God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;"

It's not an idea that came later than John at all.

[zen-slam]

I like Goodspeed's translation of John 1:1. "...and the Word was divine..." It seems to retain the frustrating ambiguity implied in the Greek (since 'divine' has all sorts of possible meanings in English).

[skorza]

I think I’m missing something, why would that apply to the “was [a] god” but not to “in [a]/[the] beginning…”. Both lack the definite article but “in a beginning” just wouldn’t make sense.

Is it something fundamental about the nature of the predicate nominative clause?

My Koine Greek grammar (and English grammar for that matter) isn’t great, but it seems strange that the lack of a definite article is irrelevant in the first clause but vital to our understanding of the second.

Comparing John 1:1 to similarly constructed clauses elsewhere in the New Testament (ideally within John itself) would be really useful to demonstrate the point either way.

Edit: Thinking about it more, maybe “in a beginning…” isn’t as unlikely as I assumed given the classic genesis 1:1 translation argument between “In the beginning god created the heavens and the earth…..” and “When god began to create the heavens and the earth…”

[JonathanMartin]

Dan, would you say that a good translation could also be rendered, "the Word was divine, " or maybe "the Word was godly"? I use this a lot in my classes and I just like to be as accurate as possible. :)

[francescocarlini]

The quality of being a god, hence "the word was a god"

[sarahpfeuffer]

May I ask, what are your credentials in common Greek?

[kalylawliet]

I want to know Dan's opinion on the Holy Spirit. Is a person or not acording to early Christianity.

[GreatBigBore]

Could you discuss what "the word was deity" might mean? I've been binge-watching and I'm trying to think of other things you've said about the mindset of the writers, but I'm kind of at a loss to understand what this writer might have meant. Why would he say it? I don't understand the relevance of it

(Is he saying that Jesus/The Word was "A" deity?)

[ApPersonaNonGrata]

Would this passage be better understood by readers, if it said something like "In The Beginning was the message (or wisdom), and the message (functioned cooperatively "with", or maybe existed in harmony "with"?) The Divine Being (our chosen patriarchal deity?), and the message was divine (meaning: possessed divine qualities. or maybe functioned as an expression of The Divine Being)?

[Carblesnarky]

Last I checked "the Word was divine" was not the scholarly consensus of the translation, but a minority position for John 1:1. Has that changed? Also what are your views on the translation "the Word was a god"? It another popular alterative to the traditional phrasing.

[magepunk]

If it's qualitative/adjectival, wouldn't a better translation be something like, "and the word was divine"? "Deity" isn't really used adjectivally in English as far as I'm aware.

[brockk]

In a recent video, you said the NRSVUE was the best translation, and it says "...and the Word was God." So I know you know infinitely more than I do about this, but wouldn't the committee putting out the world's best translation be the best authority?

[bradford]

@Dan, I'm curious why the New Oxford Annotated Bible doesn't make note of this. Why do you think that might be? It simply says the word was God, and doesn't make note of ambiguity.

[ProdigalTruth]

It’s very simple… “and the word was a god”

All the sons of God are also gods, just not in a polytheistic sense.

Psalm 82, quoted by Jesus as a way in which the sons of God are called gods and scripture isn’t broken, meaning that it doesn’t negate verses that talk about there being only one God… there is only one God, but there are many gods as Paul wrote