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

Edward Andrews edandrews at adelphia.net
Thu Oct 5 16:51:38 EDT 2006


Oun:


It is nice to hear from you as well. polytheism: belief in several deities: worshiping of or believing in more than one deity, especially several deities Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.



The problem is we create a definition for a word and it begins to contain an absolute rendering, when really there are nuances. To take the above definition, no I would not say I support polytheism in that explicit definition, because I do not worship Jesus Christ or any other god than the creator Himself. I believe THEOS of John 1:1c to represent "a mighty one" or "a powerful one." However, I do believe in many gods. Does the idea that Jesus Christ is "a god" conflict with the Scriptural teaching that there is only one God? (1 Cor. 8:5, 6) Not at all. At times the Hebrew Scriptures employ the term for God, 'elo·him´, with reference to mighty creatures. At Psalm 8:5, for example, we read: "You also proceeded to make him [man] a little less than godlike ones." (Hebrew, 'elohim´; "a god," New English Bible, Jerusalem Bible) The Greek Septuagint Version renders 'elo·him´ here as "angels." The Jewish translators of this version saw no conflict with monotheism in applying the term for God to created spirit persons. (Compare Hebrews 2:7, 9.) Similarly, Jews of the first century C.E. found no conflict with their belief in one God at Psalm 82, though verses 1 and 6 of this psalm utilize the word 'elo·him´ (the·oi´, plural of the·os´, Septuagint) with reference to human judges.---Compare John 10:34-36.


Edward Andrews

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Oun Kwon" <kwonbbl at gmail.com>
To: "Edward Andrews" <edandrews at adelphia.net>
Sent: Thursday, October 05, 2006 3:55 PM
Subject: Re: [B-Greek] Jn 1:1 - Alternate Reading?


> On 10/5/06, Edward Andrews <edandrews at adelphia.net> wrote:
> <clipped>
>>
>>
>> In short, (1) its emphatic position of being fronted stresses its
>> qualitativeness, not to identify. (2) Its lack of an article keeps us from
>> identifying the person of "the Word" (Jesus Christ) with the person of God
>> (Jehovah) mentioned in the previous clause. In other words, the word order
>> tells us that Jesus "was existing in God's form" (Philip. 2:6), he "is the
>> image of the invisible God" (Col 1:15), in fact, he (Jesus) "is the
>> reflection of [Jehovah's] glory and the exact representation of His very
>> being" (Heb 1:3). However, the lack of the article for the second "god"
>> tells us, that Jesus Christ, while being "godlike" or "a god" is a
>> reflection to the highest degree of his Father, but not to be identified as
>> one and the same---Jehovah God himself.
>>
>> Edward Andrews
>>
>>
> 
> Hi, Ed.
> 
> Godlike, godly, divine -- these are not appropriate to describe Logos;
> disservice to His being fullness of God.
> 
> As to 'a god', pardon if this is going off topic: Throughout the
> entirely history, (orthodox) Christianity as such has been
> monotheistic. Putting aside the issue concerning the meaning of
> English word 'God' 'god', when you label 'a god' for the Son of God as
> in this NWT translation of 1Jn 1:1c, you are actually putting yourself
> into polytheism. Can you clarify on this for me, either on or off
> list?
> 
> Oun Kwon.


More information about the B-Greek mailing list