The Watchtower believes that Jesus is not God but is a created being, Michael the Archangel. To support this, they have altered the first verse of John chapter 1. Here is how this passage reads in their own translation, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT):
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. (NWT, 2013)
No other modern translations insert the “a” into John 1:1, only the NWT. This is just another example of the many issues present in the NWT. (Other issuses found here).
The Watchtower has tried to support this mistranslation for over a half century, since their 1950 edition of the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures (NWTCGS)came out.
The Watchtower has stooped to using a spiritualist translation to support their view. They have resorted to buying the Emphatic Diaglot, an interlinear New Testament done by a Geneva, New York, newspaperman, hardly a scholar. They published that for decades to support their desire to see an “a” in John 1:1. Now, of course, they publish their own Bible.
The justification for the mistranslation of John 1:1, the insertion of the article “a” into the verse, is given in the appendix of the 1950 edition of the Watchtower’s (WTBTS) NWTCGS.
First, the appendix cites The Complete Bible — An American Translation by Goodspeed (University of Chicago Press, 1943) and James Moffatt’s A New Translation of the Bible (1935). In these two translations, the term “divine” is used to describe the Word. From this, the Watchtower claims “divine” means Jesus does not share the same nature with God the Father. They also imply “divine” is a word depicting nature but say this nature of the Word is not the same as that of God:
Every honest person will have to admit that John’s saying that the Word or Logos “was divine” is not saying that he was the God with whom he was. It merely tells of a certain quality about the Word or Logos, but it does not identify him as the one and same God. (NWTCGS, p.773-774)
Next, the same appendix tells us the reason Jesus (The Word in John 1:1,14) is not God is that there is no definite article in the Greek to make Him “the God”:
The Watchtower believes that Jesus is not God but is a created being, Michael the Archangel. To support this, they have altered the first verse of John chapter 1. Here is how this passage reads in their own translation, the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (NWT):
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god. (NWT, 2013)
No other modern translations insert the “a” into John 1:1, only the NWT. This is just another example of the many issues present in the NWT. (Please see other pages on this site concerning the subject.)
The Watchtower has tried to support this mistranslation for over a half century, since their 1950 edition of the New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures (NWTCGS)came out.
The Watchtower has stooped to using a spiritualist translation to support their view: https://answersaz.com/nwt-and-spiritualism/ . They have resorted to buying the Emphatic Diaglot, an interlinear New Testament done by a Geneva, New York, newspaperman, hardly a scholar. They published that for decades to support their desire to see an “a” in John 1:1. Now, of course, they publish their own Bible.
The justification for the mistranslation of John 1:1, the insertion of the article “a” into the verse, is given in the appendix of the 1950 edition of the Watchtower’s (WTBTS) NWTCGS.
First, the appendix cites The Complete Bible — An American Translation by Goodspeed (University of Chicago Press, 1943) and James Moffatt’s A New Translation of the Bible (1935). In these two translations, the term “divine” is used to describe the Word. From this, the Watchtower claims “divine” means Jesus does not share the same nature with God the Father. They also imply “divine” is a word depicting nature but say this nature of the Word is not the same as that of God:
Every honest person will have to admit that John’s saying that the Word or Logos “was divine” is not saying that he was the God with whom he was. It merely tells of a certain quality about the Word or Logos, but it does not identify him as the one and same God. (NWTCGS, p.773-774)
Next, the same appendix tells us the reason Jesus (The Word in John 1:1,14) is not God is that there is no definite article in the Greek to make Him “the God”:
The reason for their rendering the Greek word “divine” and not “God”, is that it is the Greek noun Theos’ without the definite article,… (NWTCGS, p. 774)
So, the Watchtower claims that Jesus cannot be God, the one true God, because the definite article (Gr. ho‘). By their own statements, we can infer that anytime the definite article appears prior to the Greek word theos’, the passage is speaking of the one true God. In fact, a footnote supporting this view appeared in the Watchtower Magazine:
“The title ho theos [the God, or God], which now designates the Father as a personal reality, is not applied in the N[ew] T[estament] to Jesus Himself; Jesus is the Son of God (of ho theos). . . . Jn 1:1 should rigorously be translated ‘the word was with the God [=the Father], and the word was a divine being.’”—Dictionary of the Bible (1965), by John L. McKenzie, S.J. (WT 7/1/86, p. 31, footnote)
Interesting that the Watchtower teaches that only Jehovah God is spoken of as “ho theos.” Yet, Jesus is identified as “ho theos” in the New Testament:
Matthew 1:23 (ESV)
23 “Behold, the virgin shall
conceive and bear a son, and they shall call his name Immanuel” (which means,
God with us).
John
20:28 (ESV)
28 Thomas answered him, “My
Lord and my God!”
Acts 20:28 (ESV)
28 Pay careful attention to
yourselves and to all the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has made you
overseers, to care for the church of God, which he obtained with his own blood.
Hebrews 1:8 (ESV)
8 But of the Son he says,
“Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the
scepter of your kingdom.
The “ho theos” argument from the Watchtower just doesn’t wash. The mistranslation, “and the Word was a god” doesn’t either. Don’t let the Watchtower or their members try to convince you otherwise. Like most of their claims both doctrinal and other, they simply have no leg to stand on. They rely on unquestioning followers who will accept whatever the Watchtower tells them.
AnswersAZ 