Why did Jehovah's Witnesses change John?

Answer 1

"the Word [logos] was a god". -- Origen's Commentary on John, Book I, ch. 42 - Bk II, ch.3.

"The Logos was divine, not the divine Being himself." -- Joseph Henry Thayer, a theologian & scholar (the American Standard Version)

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

GREEK GRAMMAR

In the second part of John 1: 1 (speaking about The Word) we have a singular anarthrous predicate noun preceding the verb, this points to a quality about someone. expressing a certain quality about the Word, or Logos.

In the Greek text there are many cases of a singular anarthrous predicate noun preceding the verb, such as in Mr 6:49; 11:32; Joh 4:19; 6:70; 8:44; 9:17; 10:1, 13, 33; 12:6. In these places translators insert the indefinite article "a" before the predicate noun in order to bring out the quality or characteristic of the subject. Since the indefinite article is inserted before the predicate noun in such texts, with equal justification the indefinite article "a" is inserted before the anarthrous θεός in the predicate of John 1:1 to make it read "a god."

The Coptic Evidence

The Coptic text it is the earliest known translation of this verse of the Canonical Gospel of St. John in a language that has both an indefinite article ("a") and a definite article ("the"); when rendered into modern English, the translation of the final part of John 1:1 reads: 'And the Word was a god.'(Isaiah 9:6).

OTHER TRANSLATIONS

**Interlineary 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."

**Edward Harwood, H KAINH DIAQHKH. London, 1776, 2 vols; 2nd ed. 1784, 2 vols. 1768,"and was himself a divine person"

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

**Crellius,as quoted in The New Testament in an Improved Version "the Word was God's"

**La Bible du Centenaire, L'Evangile selon Jean, by Maurice Goguel,1928: "and the Word was a divine being."

**John Samuel Thompson, The Montessoran; or The Gospel History According to the Four Evangelists, Baltimore; published by the translator, 1829, "the Logos was a god"

**Goodspeed's An American Translation, 1939, "the Word was divine"

**Revised Version-Improved and Corrected, "the word was a god."

Prof. Felix Just, S.J. - Loyola Marymount University, "and god[-ly/-like] was the Word."

**Moffatt's The Bible, 1972, "the Logos was divine"

**International English Bible-Extreme New Testament, 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]

**Reijnier Rooleeuw, M.D. -The New Testament of Our Lord Jesus Christ, translated from the Greek, 1694, "and the Word was a god"

**Hermann Heinfetter, A Literal Translation of the New Testament,1863, [A]s a god the Command was"

Abner Kneeland-The New Testament in Greek and English, 1822, "The Word was a God"

Robert Young, LL.D. (Concise Commentary on the Holy Bible [Grand Rapids: Baker, n.d.], 54). 1885,

"[A]nd a God (i.e. a Divine Being) was the Word"

Belsham N.T. 1809 "the Word was a god"

Leicester Ambrose, The Final Theology, Volume 1, New York, New York; M.B. Sawyer and Company, 1879, "And the logos was a god"

Charles A.L. Totten, The Gospel of History, 1900, "the Word was Deistic [=The Word was Godly]

**J.N. Jannaris, Zeitschrift fur die Newtestameutlich Wissencraft, (German periodical) 1901, [A]nd was a god"

International Bible Translators N.T. 1981

Samuel Clarke, M.A., D.D., rector of St. James, Westminster, A Paraphrase on the Gospel of John, London

"[A] Divine Person."

Joseph Priestley, LL.D., F.R.S. [Philadelphia: Thomas Dobson, 1794], 37). "a God"

Lant Carpenter, LL.D (in Unitarianism in the Gospels [London: C. Stower, 1809], 156). "a God"

Andrews Norton, D.D. [Cambridge: Brown, Shattuck, and Company, 1833], 74). "a god"

Paul Wernle,(in The Beginnings of Christianity, vol. 1, The Rise of Religion [1903], 16). "a God"

"and the [Marshal] [Word] was a god." 21st Century Literal

**George William Horner, The Coptic Version of the New Testament, 1911, [A]nd (a) God was the word"

Ernest Findlay Scott, The Literature of the New Testament, New York, Columbia University Press, 1932, "[A]nd the Word was of divine nature"

James L. Tomanec, The New Testament of our Lord and Savior Jesus Anointed, 1958, [T]he Word was a God"

Philip Harner, JBL, Vol. 92, 1974, "The Word had the same nature as God"

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

Johannes Schneider, Das Evangelium nach Johannes, 1978, "and godlike sort was the Logos"

**Scholar's Version-The Five Gospels, 1993, "The Divine word and wisdom was there with God, and it was what God was"

**J. Madsen, New Testament A Rendering , 1994, "the Word was a divine Being"

**Jurgen Becker, Das Evangelium nach Johannes, 1979, "a God/god was the Logos/logos"

**Curt Stage, The New Testament, 1907, "The Word/word was itself a divine Being/being."

Lyder Brun (Norw. professor of NT theology), 1945, "the Word was of divine kind"

**Fredrich Pfaefflin, The New Testament, 1949, "was of divine Kind/kind"

Albrecht, 1957, "godlike Being/being had the Word/word"

Smit, 1960, "the word of the world was a divine being"

Menge, 1961, "God(=godlike Being/being) was the Word/word"

Haenchen (tr. By R. Funk), 1984, "divine (of the category divinity)was the Logos"

William Temple, Archbishop of York, Readings in St. John's Gospel, London, Macmillan & Co.,1933,

"And the Word was divine."

John Crellius, Latin form of German, The 2 Books of John Crellius Fancus, Touching One God the Father, 1631, "The Word of Speech was a God"

Greek Orthodox /Arabic Calendar, incorporating portions of the 4 Gospels, Greek Orthodox Patriarchy or Beirut, May, 1983, "the word was with Allah[God] and the word was a god"

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

Robert Harvey, D.D., Professor of New Testament Language and Literature, Westminster College, Cambridge, in The Historic Jesus in the New Testament, London, Student Movement Christian Press1931

"and the Logos was divine (a divine being)"

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