Prof. Felix Just, S.J. on John 1:1 (Loyola Marymount University)

From http://catholic-resources.org/John/Outlines-Prologue.htm

The Prologue to the Fourth Gospel (John 1:1-18) 
Prof. Felix Just, S.J. - Loyola Marymount University
Text of the Greek New Testament +  My Own Hyper-Literal Translation

Years ago Prof. Felix Just, S.J. had for John 1:1 the following translation:

In origin was the Word, 
and the Word was toward God, 
and god[-ly] was the Word 

Now at the above link he has:

 In origin was the Logos,
and the Logos was toward [the] God,
and god/deity/God was the Logos.

He also has the following interesting comments:

If the evangelist meant, "and the Word was God" (as it is often translated, capital 'God', in the full Trinitarian sense of later Christianity), he probably would have written "KAI hO LOGOS HN hO ThEOS" (or "KAI hO ThEOS HN hO LOGOS" - essentially saying A=B or B=A). Instead, he wrote "KAI ThEOS HN hO LOGOS," omitting the expected article "hO" in front of "ThEOS."

and

The first difference/difficulty: Ancient Greek has "definite articles" (in masculine, feminine, and neuter forms - but all equivalent to "the" in English), but it does NOT have any "INdefinite articles" (English "a, an"). In translation, we usually write "the" if the Greek noun is preceded by a definite article, while we often (but not always) have to ADD the word "a" or "an" in standard English when the definite article is missing in Greek (for example, "hO STAUROS" is "the cross," while "STAUROS" alone is "a cross"). So translating "KAI ThEOS HN hO LOGOS" as "and the Word was a god" (as Jehovah's Witnesses do) adds an indefinite article in English that is not explicit in the original Greek text, and may or may not be appropriate in English translation.

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