Berean Fact Sheet Number 016

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Jehovah’s Witnesses, the New World Translation & John 1:1
Copyright © 2003, 2006 by Larry G. Overton

A friend named Jim recently asked me about what the Jehovah’s Witnesses (hereafter, JWs) believe about Jesus. He had received a letter from David, who had been studying with JWs, and David shared with Jim what he was being taught. In his letter, David said to Jim, “Let me bounce some JW doctrine off of you.” He then proceeded to discuss the Watchtower or official JW doctrine concerning Jesus, and asked for Jim’s help in responding to the JWs. Jim, in turn, asked for my input in responding to David.

Three passages of New Testament Scripture came up in the discussion: Colossians 1:15-17, Philippians 2:5-11, and John 1:1. In this Fact Sheet, the last shall be first. In other words, I am going to deal with John 1:1 now. I will write about the passages in Philippians and Colossians at a later time in an essay I am planning (tentatively entitled “Jesus in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures ”).

David also observed that the JWs make much of the translation of John 1:1 from Greek, and that the “key” to the JW understanding of this verse “...is the meaning of the original language.” In this Fact Sheet, however, I want to deal with what it says in plain English. Again, my forthcoming essay, the aforementioned “Jesus in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures, ” will deal with the issues of Greek grammar pertaining to this passage.

David went on to quote the version of the Bible produced and published by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York: the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (hereafter, NWT). I have in my library the 1961 and the 1984 editions of this Watchtower version of the Bible. Here is John 1:1 in the NWT (both editions).

In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.

Note: the NWT placed brackets around the word “the” in the first phrase of this verse. This use of brackets is the way the NWT depicts “words inserted to complete or clarify the sense in the English text.” However, it is the third or last phrase in the NWT version of John 1:1 that is controversial. The rendering “...and the Word was a god” in an English translation is pretty much unique to this JW version of the Bible. Here is the way this verse is usually translated.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

And when I say, “...the way this verse is usually translated”, I am referring to the consensus of many Biblical language scholars over the course of more than six centuries of translation into English. When a passage is rendered the same way in a large number of versions, then it is a good indication that the translation of that passage is accurate. That is the case with John 1:1.

I have in my library 53 versions of the New Testament in English, from John Wycliffe’s translation in 1380 to the Holman Christian Standard Bible, New Testament, of 2001 . And I accessed four other versions of John 1:1 from the Internet. Of the 57 versions I consulted, 35 translate the last phrase as “...the Word was God.” Seventeen other versions have something similar: “…the Word was God Himself” (Williams, Amplified); “…the Word was as to His essence absolute deity” (Wuest); “…and what God was, the Word was” (New English Bible, Revised English Bible). Two versions (by Moffatt and Goodspeed) have renderings that are somewhat ambiguous: “...the Logos was divine” and “...the Word was divine.” However, even these renderings can be understood as indicating the deity of the Logos or Word.

Out of these 57 versions, then, the New World Translation ofthe Holy Scriptures of the JWs is virtually alone in its claim that this verse from the Greek New Testament should be translated “...the Word was a god.” And of course, it is no accident that this rendering found in the NWT conforms to the JW theology about Jesus. And so an examination of the evidence of English Bible versions supports the translation of the last phrase in John 1:1 as, “...the Word was God.”

However, another way to determine whether the NWT is an accurate translation is by comparing the meaning of the proposed translation with the teaching of the rest of the Bible. The psalmist said, “The sum of Your word is truth.” (Psalm 119:160) And so, if the NWT translation of John 1:1c (“...the Word was a god”) is accurate, then what it teaches will be corroborated elsewhere in Scripture. So, then, we must ask, “Does the concept of Jesus being the first creation of God the Father, through whom God made all other things, find support anywhere else in Scripture?”

In a word, “No.” Any number of passages from either the New or the Old Testaments may be cited to refute this JW idea of Jesus. And perhaps the most interesting of these passages is Isaiah 43:10. Here is my translation of that verse.

“You are My witness,” declares Yahweh, “and My servant whom I have chosen, in order that you may know and believe in Me and understand that I am He. Before Me no god was formed, and none will be after Me.”

This is an interesting verse to consider in this discussion because the Jehovah’s Witnesses base their name on the American Standard Version’s rendering of this passage:

Ye are my witnesses, saith Jehovah, and my servant whom I have chosen; that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.

Isaiah 43:10 clearly states that no “god,” that is, no lesser deity, no created being with godlike powers was formed before or after the true and living God, Yahweh. Therefore, the concept of the Word (Jesus) being “a god” that came into being after Yahweh is a false doctrine. The JW translation of John 1:1c is not accurate. Their rendering of this verse is based upon their theology, and not on the Greek text. (Once again, I refer you to my essay, “Jesus in the New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures ” for an in-depth discussion of this subject, including an analysis of the Greek text of John 1:1.)