[B-Greek] Jn 1:1 - Alternate Reading?

winsco at hotmail.co.uk winsco at hotmail.co.uk
Thu Oct 5 02:53:11 EDT 2006


On 5th October 2006 Iver Larsen wrote

<This interpretation is
complicated by the previous sentence
which says "the Word was in company with/at/near/besides TON QEON". In this
sentence TON QEON probably refers to God1,
and the reader might then expect the following QEOS also to refer to God1.
However, the grammar of the Greek sentences
indicates that TON QEON is used in a definite referential sense to refer to 
God
the Father, while QEOS in the last
sentence is used in a descriptive sense, talking about the Word as being 
either
"Godly" or "like God1" or being part of
God2.)>

In the light of John's use of TON QEON as above, would not a correct and 
understandable translation be

"In beginning was the Word, and the Word was with (at/near/besides) THE God 
and the Word was God." (?)

By the use of TON QEON, John was obviously trying to convey soemthing. In 
the latter translation, the Word is still portrayed as fully God yet a 
separate person from God the Father. Could not that be what John was trying 
to convey? Is this translation allowable in the Greek (and perhaps just that 
little bit more accutare than only saying "was with God")? Just a thought.

Walter Schofield, (student)

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