The Bible vs. The Watchtower

JOHN 1:1 TELLS US, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Verse 14 further explains the events after the beginning, “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

My articles are primarily directed toward Jehovah’s Witnesses because AS A FORMER MEMBER, I know what they have been taught therefore know what they haven’t. John 1:1 is a perfect example. All Jehovah’s Witnesses fail to understand the subject matter of this Scripture. Let me explain.

WHAT EXISTED BEFORE the beginning?

“The first important word to consider is the verb ‘was.’ This is in the imperfect tense. It is unfortunate that we do not have a true imperfect tense in English, and therefore it is difficult to translate the Greek imperfect. The Greek verb een, ‘was,’ holds the key to the understanding of John’s statement. This is what we call the durative imperfect of the verb eimi, ‘to be.’ And what does that tense convey to us here? It speaks of a time before the beginning of things. In other words, John tells us that this Logos, this Word, was in existence before the created world. Therefore we would be fully justified in translating this first clause, ‘Before there was a beginning, the Word had been.’

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The Apostle John, then, is not interested primarily here in who created the world or who existed before the beginning, but since when has this Logos or Word existed? His subject is the eternity of the Word. The emphasis is not on the Word but on the time element, ‘in the beginning,’ and that is why it is placed at the beginning of the verse and of the whole Gospel. If this Logos, Jesus Christ, of whom he is about to speak, did not exist before there was a finite beginning, then the whole foundation falls. Whatever he says will be sheer nonsense. The verb een, in the durative imperfect, takes the Word far back of the created world, farther than can be imagined by our finite minds. In it there is the concept of eternity. Eternity is timelessness. But we as limited human beings can only think within the limited concepts of time and space. It is hard for us to imagine anything or anybody not bound by them. Yet God, who is free of these boundaries, has to use human language to make us understand His thoughts, as far as that is possible. But the very humanity of the language blurs the divinity of the thought behind it. With God there is neither past, nor present, nor future. God is timeless, yet whatever He says to us has to be put within the periphery of time. He has to give us a starting point, and that starting point He calls, ‘the beginning.’ But we must remember that God Himself is not limited by the beginning of which He makes mention. What John actually implies here is that, when there was no time, the Word was; when no human mind existed, the Word was.

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‘Mother, who made God?’ ‘That’s a hard question, Jimmy. Why don’t you go out and play for awhile?’ answered the puzzled mother. But when Jimmy insisted on an answer, the mother was inspired to take off her ring and hand it to her little boy, saying to him, ‘Here, Jimmy, show me the beginning of it and the end of it.’ After careful examination Jimmy turned to his mother and said, ‘But mother, this has no beginning and no end.’ That actually is the meaning of the durative imperfect verb een, ‘was,’ in this first clause of John 1:1.

When John later speaks of John the Baptist and of the coming of the Word to the world in human form (verse 6), he uses an entirely different verb, egeneto, meaning ‘became’ or ‘came,’ which definitely refers to a particular time in an historic setting, for it is the second aorist of the verb ginomai. In other words, there was a time when neither John the Baptist nor Jesus the man were in existence. But there was never a time when Christ, as the Word, the Logos, was not. The verb een, then, found in verses 1, 2, 4, 8, 9, and 10, indicates continuous existence; while the verb egeneto, found in verses 3, 6, 10, and 14, refers to a limited existence. There is a wealth of knowledge in just understanding the distinction between these two verbs in this important passage of John 1:1-18.’” (WAS CHRIST GOD, by Spiro Zodhiates, Chapter 9, pgs. 39-42

FINAL THOUGHTS:

THE SUBJECT under discussion at John Chapter One was not about who created the world but rather when did the Logos/Word come into existence. The Logos/Word was already here before the beginning said John, but that was not what he was underscoring. The emphasis was placed on the time element (in the beginning). “In the Beginning was the Word.”

To help us understand the meaning behind this Greek word used by John (was) Greek Scholar, Spiros Zodhiates, enlightens us: “The verb een, in the durative imperfect, takes the Word far back of the created world, farther than can be imagined by our finite minds. In it there is the concept of eternity. Eternity is timelessness.” When did the Logos begin to exist? Verses 3, 4, 8, 9, and 10, indicates continuous existence. In other words the Logos/Word had no beginning. The Logos/Word is Eternal.

The Watchtower dances around Scripture. They are generally not interested in the true meaning of Scripture especially when it contradicts their kind of ideology. John 1:1 is a prime example. To reiterate, the Logos/Word had no beginning regardless of what the Watchtower teaches. When the Watchtower attempts to prove their ideology through textual manipulation (using another Scripture), never ever forget and always remember, God will never contract Himself. Jesus Christ the man had a beginning but the Logos/Word had none!

After examining the meaning of the Greek word “was” in the context of John Chapter One we find that the Logos/Word had no beginning. In other words, not created (unlike Watchtower teachings). The Logos/Word is Eternal. This is something Jehovah’s Witnesses have not been taught.