Greek Word Studies - Advanced Level
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's 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.