THE WATCHTOWER NOVEMBER 2008
Is Jesus Almighty God?
Jesus’ opposers accused
him of making himself equal to God. (John 5:18; 10:30-33) However, Jesus
never claimed to be on the same level as Almighty God. He said: “
The Father is greater than I am.”—John 14:28.
Jesus’ early followers
did not view him as being equal to Almighty God. For example, the apostle Paul
wrote that after Jesus was resurrected, God “exalted him [Jesus]
to a superior position.
” Obviously, Paul did not believe that Jesus was
Almighty God.
Was the Word “God” or “a god”?
THAT question has to be considered when Bible
translators handle the first verse of the Gospel of John. In the New World
Translation, the verse is rendered: “In the beginning the Word was, and
the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.” (John 1:1)
Some other translations render the last part of the verse to convey the
thought that the Word was “divine,” or something similar. (A New
Translation of the Bible, by James Moffatt; The New English Bible)
Many translations, however, render the last part of John 1:1:
“And the Word was God.”—The Holy Bible—New International Version; The
Jerusalem Bible.
Greek grammar and the
context strongly indicate that the New World Translation rendering is
correct and that “the Word” should not be identified as the “God” referred to
earlier in the verse. Nevertheless, the fact that the Greek language of the
first century did not have an indefinite article (“a” or “an”) leaves the
matter open to question in some minds. It is for this reason that a Bible
translation in a language that was spoken in the earliest centuries of our
Common Era is very interesting.
The
language is the Sahidic dialect of Coptic. The Coptic language was spoken in
Egypt in the centuries immediately following Jesus’ earthly ministry, and the
Sahidic dialect was an early literary form of the language. Regarding the
earliest Coptic translations of the Bible, The Anchor Bible Dictionary says:
“Since the [Septuagint] and the [Christian Greek Scriptures] were being
translated into Coptic during the 3d century C.E., the Coptic version is based
on [Greek manuscripts] which are significantly older than the vast majority of
extant witnesses.”
The Sahidic Coptic text
is especially interesting for two reasons. First, as indicated above, it
reflects an understanding of Scripture dating from before the fourth century,
which was when the Trinity became official doctrine. Second, Coptic grammar is
relatively close to English grammar in one important aspect. The earliest
translations of the Christian Greek Scriptures were into Syriac, Latin, and
Coptic. Syriac and Latin, like the Greek of those days, do not have an
indefinite article. Coptic, however, does. Moreover, scholar Thomas O. Lambdin,
in his work Introduction to Sahidic Coptic, says: “The use of the
Coptic articles, both definite and indefinite, corresponds closely to the use
of the articles in English.”
Hence, the Coptic
translation supplies interesting evidence as to how John 1:1
would have been understood back then. What do we find? The Sahidic Coptic
translation uses an indefinite article with the word “god” in the final part
of John 1:1.
Thus, when rendered into modern English, the translation reads: “And the Word
was a god.” Evidently, those ancient translators realized that John’s words
recorded at John 1:1
did not mean that Jesus was to be identified as Almighty God. The Word was a
god, not Almighty God.
LEARN MORE at www.jw.org
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