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Re: John 1:1c



With a JW background (so to speak) the issue of John 1:1c was a big one 
for me as a new Christian.
  
So what I ended up doing is going to a local seminary bookstore.  As it 
turned out there are quite a few layman "teach yourself Koine Greek" 
books.  So I started learning Greek.

What surprised me is that these books teach John 1:1c right from the 
start.  

Briefly, this is what I learned:

kai theos en ho logos

The "ho" in front of logos is called the "indicating subject".  (and BTW, 
while I am no Greek scholar I am simply trying to put this into 
understandable vocabulary).  Bascially, the "ho" indicates that Logos IS 
the subject of the sentence.

Since translators KNOW that "logos" is the subject of the sentence, then 
they know how to approach translating the rest of the sentence.

By no means is what I have said comprehensive, but it is just a mere 
scratch on the surface on this subject.  Suffice it to say that John 1:1c 
really leaves no room for doubt...the Word *was* God.  Greek is a precise 
language.  English is not.  John had available to him all the grammatical 
and vocabulary skills to convey "The Word was a god".  And if that is 
what he had intended to write, he would have written it as Pam Mackenzie 
wrote earlier "Clause d":
 
kai ho logos en theos


Hoping this helps,

Nat
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