{"id":37857,"date":"2013-03-17T20:26:00","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T01:26:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=37857"},"modified":"2021-09-11T20:33:31","modified_gmt":"2021-09-12T01:33:31","slug":"should-john-118-have-son-or-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-john-118-have-son-or-god\/","title":{"rendered":"Should John 1:18 have &#8220;Son&#8221; or &#8220;God&#8221;?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>Hello!<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;ve been studying with Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses hoping to be a light and share the truth.&nbsp; As I am sure you know, the biggest obstacle is the deity of Christ.&nbsp; One thing in my research is John 1:18 &#8211; the Greek that I have references to the word translated as son is&nbsp;<em>theos,&nbsp;<\/em>not&nbsp;<em>huios<\/em>&nbsp;as you had mentioned in &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-new-world-translation-accurate\/\">The New World Translation<\/a>.&#8221;&nbsp; Can you tell me which Greek reference would be the best one for me to choose from?&nbsp; I&#8217;ve been using biblos.com as I can easily switch between Greek, Hebrew, and English as needed and where applicable. (Especially an online source if possible.)<\/p>\n<p>Thanks so much!&nbsp; Keep up the great work!<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<p>The problem with many parallel texts, whether printed or online, is that they don&#8217;t note the textual variations.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Byzantine family of texts plus manuscripts noted as 02A, 04C-corrected, 017K, 032W, 036, 037, 038, 1, and 13, plus Greek texts done by Lachmann (1842-1850), Tischendorf (1865-1895), and Von Soden (1902-1910) all have&nbsp;<em>huios&nbsp;<\/em>(son) in John 1:18. So they basically read &#8220;the only begotten son.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Texts p66, p75, 01\u05d0, 03B, 04C-original, and 019L, plus the Bohairic Tregelles (1857-1872), and the Greek texts Westcott and Hort (1881-1886), Weiss (1894-1900), and the United Bible Society all have&nbsp;<em>theos<\/em>&nbsp;(God) in John 1:18. So they basically read &#8220;the only begotten God.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Rather than argue which variation is correct, let us note that the phrase clearly refers to Jesus. The New King James Version, which tends to follow the Byzantine family texts, renders the verse: &#8220;<em>No one has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He has declared Him<\/em>&#8221; (John 1:18). The passage still says that no man has seen God, but Jesus, who is the only begotten Son, has seen God and declares Him to mankind. This rendering still puts Jesus in a unique class separate from all of mankind. The emphasis is that he is the Son of God, which makes him deity.<\/p>\n<p>The New American Standard tends to follow the United Bible Society text. It renders the verse: &#8220;<em>No one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the Father, He has explained Him<\/em>&#8221; (John 1:18). Notice that it is consistent in rendering both references to God with a capital letter, unlike the New World Translation. But notice that this doesn&#8217;t buy the Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses anything. Jesus is declared to be the only begotten God. He is declared more directly to be deity as in &#8220;<em>Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and bear a Son, and they shall call His name Immanuel,&#8221; which is translated, &#8220;God with us&#8221; <\/em>&#8221; (Matthew 1:23).<\/p>\n<p>It is the use of a lowercase &#8220;god&#8221; that I find objectionable. The only reason it is written in this form is that the Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses believe that Jesus was the first created being. They wish to say that Jesus was a god created by God. Yet, it should be noted that Jesus is called God, unique and different from all mankind. It cannot be a case of men being called &#8220;gods&#8221; because they represent God because this verse saying Jesus is not like any man &#8212; he knew God before his birth on earth. And as God said, &#8220;<em>I am the LORD, and there is no other; there is no God besides Me<\/em>&#8221; (Isaiah 45:5).<\/p>\n<p>But to me, this is a minor point. The number of verses that demonstrate that Jesus is one of the Godhead and is God is huge. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/jesus-is-god\/\">Jesus Is God<\/a>&nbsp;for more details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: Hello! I&#8217;ve been studying with Jehovah&#8217;s Witnesses hoping to be a light and share the truth.&nbsp; As I am sure you know, the biggest obstacle is the deity of Christ.&nbsp; One thing in my research is John 1:18 &#8211; the Greek that I have references to the word translated as son is&nbsp;theos,&nbsp;not&nbsp;huios&nbsp;as you had&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20],"tags":[355,959,325,122,311],"class_list":["post-37857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-jehovahs-witnesses","tag-john","tag-new-world-translation","tag-textual-criticism","tag-translations"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2482,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-new-world-translation-an-accurate-translation\/","url_meta":{"origin":37857,"position":0},"title":"Is the New World Translation an accurate translation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 8, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What do you think about The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures? Is it an accurate translation? Answer: The New World Translation is the product of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the publishing arm of the Jehovah's Witnesses denomination. Though it claims to be a literal translation\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22075,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/doesnt-more-than-one-translation-says-the-word-was-a-god\/","url_meta":{"origin":37857,"position":1},"title":"Doesn&#8217;t more than one translation says &#8220;&#8216;the Word was a god?&#8221;","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 22, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Regarding your statement on in \"Jesus is God\": \"To get what Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses wish to claim, that Jesus was just a god in the sense that some men are \u201cgods\u201d in that they are God\u2019s representatives you would need \u201cand the Word was God\u201d (\u03ba\u03b1\u1f76 \u03b8\u03b5\u03cc\u03c2 ?\u03bd \u1f41 \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03c2)\u00a0in\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13203,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-the-new-world-translation-accurate\/","url_meta":{"origin":37857,"position":2},"title":"Is the New World Translation Accurate?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Isaiah 8:19-22 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Members of the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses have become excited in recent times. An author with a Ph.D. after his name has written a book saying the New World Translation and the New American Bible (a Catholic translation) are the most accurate translations. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0He\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Sermon&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Sermon","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/sermon\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60503,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/on-what-was-jesus-crucified\/","url_meta":{"origin":37857,"position":3},"title":"On What Was Jesus Crucified?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 27, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant According to the Jehovah's Witnesses doctrine, Christ was put to death on a pole, rather than a cross. Notice a quote from their literature. \"Jesus did not die on a cross. He died on a pole, or a stake. The Greek word translated 'cross' in many\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":36946,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/john-jesus-and-jehovahs-witnesses\/","url_meta":{"origin":37857,"position":4},"title":"John, Jesus, and Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant Those who are familiar with the Jehovah's Witnesses' teaching about Jesus Christ are aware that they believe that Christ is not the Son of God, but that he is Michael the Archangel, a created being. Note the following quote from their writings: \"the evidence indicates that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13201,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/why-do-you-say-the-new-world-translation-is-not-a-reliable-translation\/","url_meta":{"origin":37857,"position":5},"title":"Why do you say the New World Translation is not a reliable translation?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 3, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: On your web site, it reads that The New World Translation (NWT) \"...is not a reliable translation\". Prof. Jason BeDuhn in his book\u00a0Truth in Translation Accuracy and Bias in English Translations of the New Testament (this is not the only book) would strongly disagree with your conclusion that the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}