[B-Greek] Question on John 1:1 TAKE NOTE

Carl W. Conrad cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
Wed Nov 24 21:09:02 EST 2004


Please be careful to observe the guidelines of the BG-FAQ if you respond to
this message, which raises questions discussed abundantly in past list
correspondence in the archives, some of which have had to be stopped by a
moderator. Remember that this is not a forum for apologetics--for defence
of any particular orthodoxy or attack upon any other particular orthodoxy
or for discussion of the merits of published translations. Discussion must
focus on the Greek text and its range of legitimate interpretation.

At 1:33 AM +0000 11/25/04, chuckles77 at juno.com wrote:
>Dear list members,
>
>I'm beginning to engage in a conversation with a friend of mine who is a
>Jehovah's Witness about our differing beliefs.  One of those things is our
>differing understanding about the Deity of Christ.
>
>My friend uses a New World Translation, which renders John 1:1 as:
>
>"In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word
>was a god."
>
>If you as a list member could please help me to understand the following:
>
>1.) Is the translation "the Word was a god" grammatically possible?
>
>2.) Moffatt, Goodspeed, and others have translated this section as "the
>Word was divine".  Again, is this translation possible?
>
>3.) Is there anything in the text that has led most modern translations to
>prefer "the Word was God" over the translations "the Word was a god" or
>"the Word was divine"?
>
>4.) I have heard of a grammatical rule called "Colwell's Rule" and that it
>is a pertinent part of discussing this passage.  Would someone be able to
>help me understand what Colwell's Rule is, and its application to John 1:1?
>
>I am just beginning to study Greek, so this will be of benefit both to the
>conversation with my friend as well as myself.
>
>Cordially yours,
>Chuck Wynn
>Campus Staff, Riverview Church
>
>P.S.  I'm sure I'll have further questions as we progress in our
>conversation.  Thank you so much for your help!
>---
>B-Greek home page: http://metalab.unc.edu/bgreek
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>B-Greek at lists.ibiblio.org
>http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/b-greek

-- 

Carl W. Conrad
Co-Chair, B-Greek List
Department of Classics, Washington University (Emeritus)
cwconrad at artsci.wustl.edu
WWW: http://www.ioa.com/~cwconrad/



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