[B-Greek] John 1:1c

Harold Holmyard hholmyard at ont.com
Tue Jul 4 09:14:59 EDT 2006


Dear Rolf,

>I have read your posts for many years, and my impression is that you have a 
>very good grasp of the Greek language and Greek grammar. Moreover, you also 
>have the ability to ask fine and important questions. To your question 
>regarding theology I will answer that John 1:1 is one of those places where 
>theology must play a role in the translation process, since the renderings 
>"and the word was divine" and "and the word was a god" both are 
>linguistically possible (But the rendering "and the Word was God" is 
>linguistically impossible, but theologically possible.)
>

HH: Why do you say that it is linguistically impossible? All you have to 
do is to be able to identify the Word with the known entity "God." There 
was such a known being, who is sometimes identified without a definite 
article. Matthew 6:24 is an example, it seems: OU DUNASQE QEWi DOULEUEIN 
KAI MAMWNAi. The absence of the article in John 1:1c seems to show which 
of the two nouns is the predicate nominative. So John 1:1c may identify 
the Word with this known being, God. But John has just said that the 
Word was with God, so how can he be identified as God? This is the 
mystery that John and the NT seem to present.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard






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