Merry Christmas!

καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος ("literally, word-for-word": "And G[g]od was the word"; what you read: "And the Word was God")

Today, we celebrate the birth of our lord and savor. We do not celebrate merely a human savior (though he was and is 100% human), but a divine one. John's prologue is arguably the strongest and clearest pericope that identifies Jesus as divine.

The above Greek is typically translated, "And the Word was God." However, there are some, particularly Jehovah's witnesses, that translate this, "And the Word was a god." In this translation, "god" is not a proper name or even a characteristic/quality, but instead it is used similarly to how angels are called "gods" in the Old Testament (Ps. 82:2); there, they are not considered divine, but they are called "gods" in the sense that they are some sort of esteemed authority figures. In fact, Jehovah's witnesses argue that Jesus is an angel. 

One of the reasons for this sort of translation (other than some predispositions) is the lack of the article before θεὸς (God). Since in Greek there is only a definite article (the), often in Greek, Greek grammar signifies an indefinite article ("a") by withholding the article. However, this is not a rule; it depends on the context of each particular verse. For example, it is also common for names in Greek to be without the Greek article[1], yet one does not translate this with an "a" (e.g. "A Christian; A Jesus; A Paul." It is also common for names to have an article, but this does not mean that we should add "the" in the translation (e.g. "the Paul").[2] And another reason the article is often withheld, especially in predicate nominative constructions, is for "emphasizing the quality of the substantive" (e.g. 1 Jn. 4:8: "God is love").[3]

Thus, in this instance, θεὸς is a proper name, since "God" is a name in Scripture. Jesus was with God and is God. These two propositions differentiate the Father from the Son, yet they combine to tell us that Jesus is a person of the godhead.

Some may argue that the Greek word for God can be used to refer to "a god." So if it is argued that this is not a name here, what else can be said to be sure our theology is not based on a lie of a translation. Daniel Wallace offers some insight here. saying, "In brief, its [θεὸς] emphatic position stresses its essence or quality: 'What God was, the Word was' is how one translation brings out this force." [4] In other words, in a predicate nominative construction, which this is, when the predicate noun (as opposed to the substantive noun) comes first in word order, the construction is emphasizing the predicate noun; and in Greek grammar, this emphasis is done in these constructions to stress the "quality" or "essence" of the substantive noun. Thus, if the first option is wrong, we can at least say that this verse is saying that Jesus, the Word, is divine and was with the Father, God.

So, whatever position you take, remember that Jesus is divine, but he became a human for our salvation. Glory be to God and merry Christmas. Amen.

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[1] William D. Mounce, Basics of Biblical Greek Grammar, 3rd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 334.

[2] Ibid., 37.

[3] Ibid., 335.

[4]Daniel B. Wallace, "Exegetical Insight," Basic of Biblical Greek Grammar, 3rd ed., William D. Mounce (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009), 27.