[B-Greek] Jn 1:1 - Alternate Reading?
Brian Abasciano
bvabasciano at gmail.com
Thu Oct 5 12:25:57 EDT 2006
Dear Mike,
Your suggestion is simply impossible from a grammatical point of view for reasons given by others on this list. The text really identifies the Word as God in the text. However, it is then the task of interpretation to articulate what it means to say that the Word is God. That is where your view could then be argued, but I would think, not in the parameters of this list.
God bless,
Brian Abasciano
Responding to:
<But each of the pre-Nikaian local statements of Christian
belief included an expression of being baptized EIS TO ONOMA TOU
PATROS KAI TOU hUIOU KAI TOU hAGIOU PNEUMATOS -- a reflection not
only of the Gospel but also of the most ancient rites of
Christian baptism, preserved to this day.
The New Testament itself makes clear that this baptismal formula
was never recited at the time of baptism. Acts 2:38-41, 8:12-16,
10:47-48. Instead converts were baptized into name 'Iesous
Khristos.
Nobody can deny that God the Father, his Son Jesus Christ, and
the Holy Spirit are essential components of the Christian
religion. I am alluding to ONLY a possibility, that in Jesus
Christ dwells all of God, while they are two in person, Jesus was
the pre-existant Son prior to leaving heaven, the Word, the Light
created first in Genesis 1 and described in Revelation 3:14.
Since he is the image of God and now is his right hand, (Psalm
110:1 the most quoted prophecy concerning him), all people who
violate the Law (even in spirit) must confess their sins to him,
repent, and be baptized in water and Spirit.
In short, Jesus isn't God, but he God's image or idol -- not a
dumb idol which can't see or hear or taste, but a living man, the
second Adam, raised from the dead into God's presence.
Therefore, since the Son is charge of creation now 1 Co 15:27, it
is right to worship him (Jn 9:37-39, Hb 1:6, Lk 24:51-53, Mk
5:5-7, Mt 15:22-28, 20:19-21, 28:8-10,16-18) and even to pray to
him (Jn 14:12-14, 1 Jn 5:13-15, Ac 7:59).
In other words, the Son isn't WHO God is, it is WHERE God is.
Christ means anointed and implies Spirit in a Body. That body is
permanent and exalted.
That doesn't mean John thought of Jesus as being God, he was the
figure who was WITH God in the beginning (Jn 17:3) and came into
the world to save it. Therefore the reading of Jn 1:1 "..and the
Word was godly, the same was in the beginning was with God" is
not heretical but possibly orthodox.
The good news is that it is still correct to worship and pray to
the Son in any case.>
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