In the Beginning was the Word
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God,
and the Word was God. --- *John 1:1*
The verse consists of three clauses:
1. "In (the) beginning was the Word," (John 1:1a);
2. "and the Word was with (the) God," (1b); and
3. "and God(ly) was the Word." (1c)
In clause 1a, 'the Word' refers to Yeshua the Anointed (see verse 14).
In 1b, John asserts that Messiah was with God (the Father) from the
beginning, so Messiah is not only eternal (1a), but also with the
Father from eternity.
We now have three possible interpretations among which to choose:
1. Yeshua is the Father;
2. Yeshua is another co-eternal god with the Father; or
3. Yeshua is of the same godly, divine essence as the Father, but is
not identified with the person of the Father.
Clause 1c removes the options and affirms the third interpretation.
Let's have a closer look to see why.
The word 'God' in clause 1c ('', which is in the "nominative" case) is
not in the most usual position, but is brought forward before the verb
('', 'was'), and furthermore the definite article ('', 'the') is
omitted.
The technical term for that construction is, "anarthrous pre-verbal
predicate nominative."
anarthrous
without article
pre-verbal
before the verb
predicate
verb phrase
nominative
the grammatical form taken by the noun which is the subject of a
verb
That's a mouthful but doesn't really explain much, so here are the
important points about what the effects of this are.
- Bringing the word '' ('theos', 'God') forward creates an emphasis on
that word. It becomes the focus, if you like, of the clause.
- Omitting the article '' ('ho', 'the') in front of '' avoids saying
that the Word (Messiah) is the Father. They are not the same person.
The Word is not /the/ God.
- The word '' ('en', 'was') goes with '' ('ho logos', 'the Word'), as
in, "the Word was", and not with '' ('theos', 'God'), as in, "God
was." So, it says, "the Word was God," or, "the Word was being God,"
and not the other way around.
- Omitting the article from the front of '' also has the effect of
making the noun 'God' take on a qualitative sense, as in 'divine' or
'godly'; i.e., the text really means something like, "and Godly was
the Word," or, "and Divine was the Word," or even, "and Almighty was
the Word." The latter is particularly apt, because it is both a noun
and an adjective, just as the '' is in the Greek.
