JESUS CHRIST: GOD-MAN - Vital Christianity

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● "and the Word was God" (Jn 1:1).
Jehovah Witnesses and other cults claim that John writes of two gods: one who is
definite, with the article ("the God"), and one indefinite, without the article ("god" or "a god").
Thus their New World Translation of John 1:1 reads:
"In [the beginning] the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was
a god."
Such a translation is grammatically impossible. It does not take the syntax of the Greek
seriously and thus is intellectually dishonest. According to Greek grammar (called "the Colvell's
rule" which has been accepted for over half a century now as a genuine contribution to the field
of biblical Greek scholarship):
". . . the definite predicate nominative does not have the article when it precedes
the verb; it only has the article when it follows the verb. It is indefinite only when
the context demands it."16
In the phrase, "God was the Word," the predicate nominative (God) comes before the
verb (was) allowing for (God) to be definite. "Was" is an intransitive verb. Intransitives take no
objects but instead predicate nominatives which refer back to the subject (in this case logos or
"Word"). There are numerous examples (282 times) where definite predicate nouns precede the
verb without an article (Mt 5:9; Lk 1:35, 78; 2:40; Jn 1:6, 12-13, 18; 3:2, 21; 8:54; 9:33; Ro 1:7,
17,18; 1 Co 15:10; 2 Co 5:19; Php 2:11; Titus 1:1; etc.).
The shift from ton theon (the accusative form of ho theos) to the anarthrous theos in John
1:1 only indicates a shift in nuance, not a shift of substance. This means that logos (the Word) is
called "God" in the fullest sense even though logos should not be identified with the person of
God the Father. Such a shift from ho theos (the God) to theos (God) in a short space in Scripture
normally does not indicate a major change of meaning. This is evident by the following
examples:
● ". . . You as a teacher have come from God [apo theou] because no one can perform
these signs that You perform unless God [ho theos] is with Him" (Jn 3:2).
● "[Jesus] knowing . . . that He came from God [apo theou] and was returning to God
[pros ton theon]. . ." (13:3).
● ". . . although they knew God [ton theon], they did not glorify Him as God [theon] . . ."
(Ro 1:21).
● ". . . how you turned to God [pros ton theon] from idols to serve the living and true
God [theon]" (1 Th 1:9).