From: Paul Dixon - Ladd Hill Bible Church (pauld@iclnet93.iclnet.org)
Date: Wed Aug 09 1995 - 01:54:16 EDT
Ken:
My Th.M. thesis (Dallas Seminary, '75), entitled "The
Significance of the Anarthrous Predicate Nominative in John," prompted by
an abuse of Colwell's Rule (where the inverse or negative of his rule was
invalidly inferred both by Colwell and many others, including those who
would attempt to use his rule to argue against the JW interpretation in
Jn 1:1), totally supports your assertions. I found that the anarthrous
predicative nominative in John's Gospel was qualitative 65 out of 74
occurrences, or 88% probability.
If you would like the conclusion of my thesis, I would be happy
to forward it on to you via the net.
Paul Dixon
On Tue, 8 Aug 1995, DR. KEN PULLIAM wrote:
>
>
> John Albu wrote advocating the JW (Arian) interpretation of John 1:1.
> He quoted a number of obscure translations which seem to support his
> interpretation. The fact is all of the standard translations in all
> languages and the overwhelming majority of all translations (better
> than 90%) would render the verse: "and the Word was God."
>
> John is right to say that the anarthrous predicate nominative is
> used to qualify or describe the subject. Theos does give the
> qualitative nature of logos, as to his nature he was theos, i.e.
> deity. The article by Harner in JBL is accurate but it does not
> support the JW translation, and I don't think that he would like
> being quoted in support of the NWT.
>
> B. F. Westcott has a good comment on why there is no article before
> Theos in John 1:1.
>
> The predicate (God) stands emphatically first, as in iv.24. It
> is necessarily without the article inasmuch as it describes the]
> nature of the Word and does not identify His Person. It would be
> pure Sabellianism to say "the Word as ho theos." No idea of
> inferiority of nature is suggested by the form of expression,
> simply affirms the true deity of the Word. (Comm. on John, p. 3)
>
> By the way, it is interesting to note that in John 1:6, 12, 18 Theos
> occurs without the article and clearly refers to God in the absolute
> sense.
>
>
> --
> Ken R. Pulliam, Ph.D.
> Chandler, Arizona
> thedoc@aztec.asu.edu
>
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