Greek Word Studies
Advanced Level
Lesson 2 (Logos)
Title: The Definite Article
Text: John 1:1 ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God.’
Introduction:
The
Greek language has no indefinite article – a.
The
indefinite article is taken when there is no definite article – the.
The
doctrine that Jesus is God has been challenged on the basis that the article
has been left out in the Greek ‘the Word was God’.
The Greek states
God (theos) has no definite article
Jehovah
Witnesses use this to deny the deity of Christ.
They
say - there is
no definite article before God so it must be translated as the indefinite
article ‘a god’.
From
this they assume that the Word is a god, not God Himself.
However,
notice the order of the words.
It
does not say ‘the Word was a god’ it says ‘and God was the Word’.
The
sentence has been turned around to put greater emphasis upon the word God. This is called the predicate use.
By
dropping the definite article and putting God at the beginning of the statement it
is putting greater emphasis on the deity of the Word.
‘And
God was the Word’
Rather
than denying the deity of Christ this passage strongly affirms the deity of the
Logos, the Word of God, Jesus Christ.