"The Word Was God": John 1:1 in the Greek

"And the Word was God," or "and the Word was a god"? This documentary walks through John 1:1 in the Greek: the words, the grammar, the manuscripts, and what the scholars on each side actually wrote, with every quotation shown with its source. It covers Colwell, Harner, Dixon and Wallace, the New World Translation and its study note, Jason BeDuhn, Origen, the Coptic versions, and the papyri. CHAPTERS 0:00 A Page from Egypt 0:58 The Verse, Word by Word 2:22 A Language Without "a" 3:21 Nineteen Fifty 5:06 A Rule from Chicago 6:58 What Kind of Noun? 8:59 What God Was, the Word Was 10:47 The Same Word, Seven Verses Later 12:21 The Best Case for "a god" 15:16 What the Manuscripts Say 17:12 With God, and God 18:47 Nicaea and After 19:48 What the Record Shows SOURCES Greek text: SBL Greek New Testament (SBLGNT), John 1:1, 1:6, 1:12, 1:13, 1:18, 20:28. Bruce M. Metzger, "The Jehovah's Witnesses and Jesus Christ: A Biblical and Theological Appraisal," Theology Today 10.1 (1953). Source for the 1950 NWT rendering, its footnote, the release date, and Metzger's quotations. New World Translation (Study Edition), John 1:1 and its study notes, jw.org. Short excerpts quoted for commentary. E. C. Colwell, "A Definite Rule for the Use of the Article in the Greek New Testament," Journal of Biblical Literature 52 (1933): 12–21. Paul S. Dixon, "The Significance of the Anarthrous Predicate Nominative in John," ThM thesis, Dallas Theological Seminary (1975). Philip B. Harner, "Qualitative Anarthrous Predicate Nouns: Mark 15:39 and John 1:1," Journal of Biblical Literature 92 (1973): 75–87. Quoted through forananswer.org and B. J. Wright (bible.org). Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar Beyond the Basics (Zondervan, 1996), pp. 266–269. Wallace's essay is reprinted on Bill Mounce's blog (Zondervan Academic). Bill Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek. Brian J. Wright, "Jesus as Θεός: A Textual Examination," bible.org. Covers the textual apparatus, the L/Ws variant, and the Coptic versions. Jason D. BeDuhn, Truth in Translation (2003), as quoted in the NWT study note on jw.org. Origen, Commentary on John, Book II, Ante-Nicene Fathers vol. 10 (tr. A. Menzies), newadvent.org. Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History 1.5, NPNF² vol. 2, newadvent.org. Arius, Letter to Eusebius of Nicomedia, in W. G. Rusch, The Trinitarian Controversy (1980), via B. J. Wright. Creed of Nicaea (325), in P. Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, via B. J. Wright. New English Bible (1961), John 1:1. IMAGE CREDITS Papyrus 75 (P.Bodmer XIV–XV), end of Luke and start of John · Vatican Library · Public domain (Wikimedia Commons) Papyrus 66 (P.Bodmer II) · Fondation Martin Bodmer · Public domain (Wikimedia Commons) Codex Vaticanus, end of Luke and start of John · Vatican Library · Public domain (Wikimedia Commons) Codex Sinaiticus, Matthew 1 · British Library · Public domain (Wikimedia Commons) Codex Alexandrinus · British Library · Photo: Daderot · CC0 (Wikimedia Commons) Codex Regius (L) · Bibliothèque nationale de France · Public domain (Wikimedia Commons) Sahidic Coptic manuscript, c. 600 · Chester Beatty Library Cpt 813 · Public domain (Wikimedia Commons) Arius, 16th-century engraving (imagined likeness) · Public domain (Wikimedia Commons) First Council of Nicaea, fresco, Salone Sistino, Vatican · Public domain (Wikimedia Commons) Diagrams and text cards are original to The Faithful Record. Illustrations are labeled ILLUSTRATION. The Faithful Record is independent and isn't affiliated with any church, publisher, or the Watch Tower Society. Narration is a synthetic voice (xAI Grok TTS). Scripture quotations taken from the (LSB®) Legacy Standard Bible®, Copyright © 2021 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Managed in partnership with Three Sixteen Publishing Inc. LSBible.org and 316publishing.com.