This verse is one of the most famous verses quoted by Christians when they want to show that Jesus is God. First we will look at the English translation of the verse as seen in some different versions of the Bible.
Different Translations of John 1:1
King James Version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
New International Version
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Douay-Rheims Bible
In the beginning was the Word: and the Word was with God: and the Word was God.
The above are the different translations of the concerned verse as seen in the different versions of the Bible. When moving from one translation or the other, this verse is generally translated in the same manner in all the versions. However there is a certain level of deception in these translations.
Greek Text of John 1:1
The Greek Text
εν αρχη ην ο λογοϚ, και ο λογοϚ ην προϚ τον θεον, και θεοϚ ην ο λογοϚ.
Pay close attention to the words in the bold text. I will translate these texts below:
Transliteration, Pronunciation and Translation
Greek word: ο
Transliteration: ho
Pronunciation: ho
Translation: the
Greek word:λογοϚ
Transliteration: logos
Pronunciation: log'-os
Translation: word
The Mistranslated Word‘θεοϚ’
In the above example, ‘ho’ is basically an article. In the English language there are 2 articles, ‘the’ which is a definite article and ‘a’ which is an indefinite article. In Greek however there is only 1 article which is definite.
When ‘logos’ is put after ‘ho’ it becomes ‘the word’ and with the absence of ‘ho’, it remains as ‘word’. However this is not where the great deception really is. The part with the great deception will come below.
Greek word:θεοϚ
Transliterated: theos
Pronounced: theh’-os
This word ‘theos’ does not only mean ‘God’ with a capital ‘G’. According to the “Thayer’s Greek Definitions”, the first meaning of this word ‘theos’ is written to be:
“A god or goddess, a general name of deities or divinities.”
One of the meanings of this word as explained by Strong’s Greek Dictionary is:
“A deity.”
As seen above, ‘theos’ also means ‘god’ i.e. any god. Greek has no such law like English where we can differentiate between ‘god’ and ‘God’ by the use of the capital letter or small letter. Hence to indicate whether ‘theos’ is referring to any ‘god’ or ‘God’, the language uses ‘articles’.
Depending on whether a word is the ‘subject’ or the ‘direct object (accusative)’ in a sentence, ‘ο’ (ho) or ‘τον’ (ton) is used respectively.
Verifying the English Translation
Do note that when ‘theos’ is the subject, then it is written as ‘θεοϚ’ (theos) and when it is the direct object (accusative) then it is written as ‘θεον’ (theon). In the Greek text of the verse John 1:1, it can be seen that there is an article before ‘θεον’ and the text is thus written as ‘τον θεον’ which is transliterated to be
