Jehovahs Witnesses what do you make of this?

Question

According to the Jehovah's Witnesses Bible the NEW WORLD TRANSLATION
John 1: 1 Says this-
1 In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.

According to the Jehovah's Witnesses Bible the NEW WORLD TRANSLATION
John 17: 3 says-
3 This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God, and of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ.

So My questions are
1. Do you agree that Jesus is a God?
2. Is Jesus a true God or a false God?
3. Why don't these scriptures in your Bible make sense?

Please Witnesses what do you make of this?
EX-Witness

Answer 1

Jesus is a god. (John 1:1; Isaiah 9:6; John 1:18)
Jesus is true. (John 8:31,32; Isaiah 53:9; John 1:14)

The bible makes perfect sense when it is being read honestly. Anyone who tries to pretend that John 1:1 and John 17:3 are not perfectly harmonious might be similarly confused by related semantic conundrums:

Must every "Lord" but Jehovah be considered a false Lord?
(Exodus 23:17) Every male of yours will appear before the face of the true Lord, Jehovah.

Must every "father" but Jehovah be considered a false father?
(Ephesians 4:4-6) One body there is, and one spirit...; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all persons, who is over all and through all and in all.


The Scriptures plainly teach that Jesus the Son is a distinct person from God the Father. The line of reasoning attempted in this so-called question is one of the weakest trinitarianism has to present. The Scriptures teach that the Almighty created Jesus as His firstborn son.

(Colossians 1:15) the firstborn of all creation

(Mark 10:18) Jesus said to him: 'Why do you call me good? Nobody is good, except one, God.

(Revelation 3:14) the Amen says, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation by God

(Philippians 2:5-6) Christ Jesus, who, although he was existing in God's form, gave no consideration to a seizure, namely, that he should be equal to God

(John 8:42) Neither have I come of my own initiative at all, but that One sent me forth

(John 12:49) I have not spoken out of my own impulse, but the Father himself who sent me has given me a commandment as to what to tell and what to speak

(John 14:28) I am going my way to the Father, because the Father is greater than I am

(1 Corinthians 15:28) But when all things will have been subjected to him, then the Son himself will also subject himself to the One who subjected all things to him

(Matthew 20:23) this sitting down at my right hand and at my left is not mine to give, but it belongs to those for whom it has been prepared by my Father

(1 Corinthians 11:3) I want you to know that the head of every man is the Christ; ...in turn the head of the Christ is God

(John 20:17) I am ascending to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God.

(Deuteronomy 6:4) Jehovah our God is one Jehovah

(1 Corinthians 8:4-6) There is no God but one. For even though there are those who are called "gods," whether in heaven or on earth, just as there are many "gods" and many "lords," there is actually to us one God the Father, out of whom all things are, and we for him

Thanks again for an opportunity to share what the bible actually says about the distinct persons of Jesus Christ the Son and Jehovah God the Father!

Answer 2

Hi Ex-witness. To answers your Q1: Yes, we believe that Jesus Christ is the Mighty God, Son of the Almighty God. Please see the difference. John 1:1- Jesus Christ is the Word that was with the (Almighty God)...and yes Jesus himself is (again) a god. You have to understand that "god" is just a title. Satan himself is a god. Please read John 17:3 out loud. "This means everlasting life, their taking in knowledge of you, the only true God (Jehovah) AND of the one whom you sent forth, Jesus Christ." Note that everlasting life depends on our knowledge of Jehovah AND Jesus Christ. If the point of your question is that JW's don't believe in Jesus Christ, well, sorry to burst your bubble but WE DO. You're an ex-witness? So, are you an apostate?

Answer 3

What sense are you looking for? The Bible refers to different individuals as gods, including Satan. The Apostle John never uses the same Greek spelling for the word god in reference to The Word as he does in reference to his Father, but he does use the same spelling for the word "a god" in reference to The Word and to Satan, so is Satan also God? Go to any Bible Book Store and buy an Interlinear Greek Translations of the New Testament, if the still sell them.

You can do better than this. Try the scripture in the old testament that refers to The Word as a Mighty God. Oh, oh, problem with that is mighty god gets its power and existence from an Almighty God.

Answer 4

If a passage can grammatically be translated in more than one way, what is the correct rendering? One that is in agreement with the rest of the Bible. If a person ignores other portions of the Bible and builds his belief around a favorite rendering of a particular verse, then what he believes really reflects, not the Word of God, but his own ideas and perhaps those of another imperfect human.

John 1:18 says: “No one has ever seen God.” Verse 14 clearly says that “the Word became flesh and dwelt among us . . . we have beheld his glory.” Also, verses 1, 2 say that in the beginning he was “with God.” Can one be with someone and at the same time be that person? At John 17:3, Jesus addresses the Father as “the only true God”; so, Jesus as “a god” merely reflects his Father’s divine qualities.—Heb. 1:3.

Is the rendering “a god” consistent with the rules of Greek grammar? Some reference books argue strongly that the Greek text must be translated, “The Word was God.” But not all agree. In his article “Qualitative Anarthrous Predicate Nouns: Mark 15:39 and John 1:1,” Philip B. Harner said that such clauses as the one in John 1:1, “with an anarthrous predicate preceding the verb, are primarily qualitative in meaning. They indicate that the logos has the nature of theos.” He suggests: “Perhaps the clause could be translated, ‘the Word had the same nature as God.’” (Journal of Biblical Literature, 1973, pp. 85, 87) Thus, in this text, the fact that the word the·os′ in its second occurrence is without the definite article (ho) and is placed before the verb in the sentence in Greek is significant. Interestingly, translators that insist on rendering John 1:1, “The Word was God,” do not hesitate to use the indefinite article (a, an) in their rendering of other passages where a singular anarthrous predicate noun occurs before the verb. Thus at John 6:70, Jerusalem B and King James Version both refer to Judas Iscariot as “a devil,” and at John 9:17 they describe Jesus as “a prophet.”

John J. McKenzie, S.J., in his Dictionary of the Bible, says: “Jn 1:1 should rigorously be translated ‘the word was with the God [= the Father], and the word was a divine being.’”—(Brackets are his. Published with nihil obstat and imprimatur.) (New York, 1965), p. 317.

In harmony with the above, American Translation reads: “the Word was divine”; Moffat's, “the Logos was divine”; NTIV, “the word was a god.” In his German translation Ludwig Thimme expresses it in this way: “God of a sort the Word was.” Referring to the Word (who became Jesus Christ) as “a god” is consistent with the use of that term in the rest of the Scriptures. For example, at Psalm 82:1-6 human judges in Israel were referred to as “gods” (Hebrew, ’elo·him′; Greek, the·oi′, at John 10:34) because they were representatives of Jehovah and were to speak his law.

These translations use such words as “a god,” “divine” or “godlike” because the Greek word θεός (the·os′) is a singular predicate noun occurring before the verb and is not preceded by the definite article. This is an anarthrous the·os′. The God with whom the Word, or Logos, was originally is designated here by the Greek expression ο θεός, that is, the·os′ preceded by the definite article ho. This is an articular the·os′. Careful translators recognize that the articular construction of the noun points to an identity, a personality, whereas a singular anarthrous predicate noun preceding the verb points to a quality about someone. Therefore, John’s statement that the Word or Logos was “a god” or “divine” or “godlike” does not mean that he was the God with whom he was. It merely expresses a certain quality about the Word, or Logos, but it does not identify him as one and the same as God himself.

In the Greek text there are many cases of a singular anarthrous predicate noun preceding the verb, such as in Mr 6:49; 11:32; John 4:19; 6:70; 8:44; 9:17; 10:1, 13, 33; 12:6. In these places translators insert the indefinite article “a” before the predicate noun in order to bring out the quality or characteristic of the subject. Since the indefinite article is inserted before the predicate noun in such texts, with equal justification the indefinite article “a” is inserted before the anarthrous θεός in the predicate of John 1:1 to make it read “a god.” The Sacred Scriptures confirm the correctness of this rendering.

In his article “Qualitative Anarthrous Predicate Nouns: Mark 15:39 and John 1:1,” published in Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 92, Philadelphia, 1973, p. 85, Philip B. Harner said that such clauses as the one in Joh 1:1, “with an anarthrous predicate preceding the verb, are primarily qualitative in meaning. They indicate that the logos has the nature of theos. There is no basis for regarding the predicate theos as definite.” On p. 87 of his article, Harner concluded: “In John 1:1 I think that the qualitative force of the predicate is so prominent that the noun cannot be regarded as definite.”

If you would like further information, please contact Jehovah's Witnesses at the local Kingdom Hall. Or visit http://www.watchtower.org

Answer 5

Dear Laylallu,

I am not a jw but your questions are very good!

If Jesus is not God but a god then jws are guilty of being polytheists.

Look at an amazing chart called
One Truth Exposes a Thousand Lies, Traits Shared Between Jehovah and Jesus at http://www.soulright.com

There is a suspiciously high number of qualities that Jehovah and Jesus share. And since Jehovah God will not share His glory with anyone (Isaiah 42:8) it seems odd that the two have the same characteristics through and through.

Answer 6

This would be a great question if you put it forth better. I do not understand the connection from the first paragraph to the second.

I think you should re-phrase it so we can get what you are saying.

Answer 7

I really don't care how they manage their beliefs. I just wish that would stop knocking on the door when I am in the bathroom making a dump!

Answer 8

what