John 1:1 Versus the Watchtower Society

In this imaginary conversation, Q is the questioner, JWA is the Jehovah's Witness Answer, and CA is the Christian answer.

John 1:1. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God."

Q. What is wrong with the passage I have quoted here?

JWA. In English it is missing one word, the word "a", which the NWT has properly inserted between "was" and "God."

Q. You say "properly", yet no other English translation seems to have seen this propriety. Except one that I read of. Have you ever heard of Johannes Greber?

JWA. No I haven't.

Q. Greber came out with a translation of the New Testament in 1937, many years before the NWT. In it he placed that same "a" where you have, suggesting that Jesus was not equal to Jehovah God.

JWA. Well there you have it. It is a viable translation.

Q. Not so fast, sir. Hear me out. Johannes Greber was a "spiritist." He claimed that "spirits" showed him what words to use in his translation. The Witnesses knew this as early as 1956, but had "owned" his translation as proof of their own validity for nearly 20 years. Finally they disowned him but they have not as yet disowned their strange placement of words in John 1:1.

Why do you think they stuck with that extra "a"?

JWA. Obviously John 1:1 as found in most other Bibles, makes no sense. The Bible must above all agree with the laws of reason. It is not reasonable that God could be with the Word, and be the Word, at the same time. So, based on this and other Scriptures, the NWT clarified this difficult passage for God's people.

Q. And in the process, muddied the waters even more. How many gods do you now have?

JWA. There is one Almighty God, Jehovah. That Jesus is a "god" does not take away from the fact that basically we are, like the Jews before us, monotheists.

Q. So there is no hope of changing John 1:1, to be in concert with every scholar on the scene now and who has translated the Bible before?

JWA. Your statement may be a bit extreme, but, no, we must be consistent with truth.

Q. Glad you brought up "consistent." How many times is the word "God" used in John 1:1-18 (in the English)?

JWA. I do not know.

Q. 8 is the answer. How many times is the Greek article (the) used in the original?

JWA. I have not analyzed this text.

Q. True. I have. The article in the Greek is used only twice, in verses 1 and 2. Yet the NWT translates the article + God as just "God," 6 times, "a god" one time, the one in question, and "the God" one time (and in that instance, there is NO Greek article!) Why not "the God" all 8 times? You don't know.

CA: Many other examples could be given. The astute student of these matters will want to start here and follow up with those errors and inconsistencies. Truth be told, and please, God, let it be told, the NWT follows context and preconceived ideas, not grammatical rules.

John 1:1 remains intact as Christians have read it for centuries. We must never tamper with the Word of God!

Look for Bob Faulkner's creations on http://sermonaudio.com including a through-the-Bible course, works about the Christ, the antichrist, the rapture, the church, prophecy and the persecution in North Korea. Look also for series on Muhammad and Islam, written for Christian believers. All of these works are now in book form available at Amazon. Go to http://www.amazon.com/author/bfaulkner to look at all these books.

As for me, I'm a man found of God over 55 years ago, called to the ministry, now retired from school teaching, and serving the Lord as a nursing home minister, and podcaster.


 By Bob Faulkner


Article Source: John 1:1 Versus the Watchtower Society