In this video at the 5:13 mark Dr Sam Reed singles out 43 words out of an over 1500 word Appendix, 43 words ripped right out context and they use these 43 words to make it sound like the NWT translators are saying that all anarthrous constructions (where there is no definite article) MUST be translated with an "a." (1) However, the KIT and 1950 NWT appendix never says that at all. Had these people in this video read the other 1500 words they would have known that. The fact that the NWT doesn't translate all anarthrous nouns with an "a" is proof of that they don't believe that. This entire video is based on a straw man argument, and it repeats the lie ad nauseum. How embarrassing for them. The Appendix gives less than 2 dozen examples in Scripture where "predicate nouns does not have the definite article" and most of these precede the verb or participle, just as in John 1:1:
Joh 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. ASV
Joh 6:70 Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" RSV
Joh 9:5 when I am in the world, I am a light of the world. YLT
Joh 9:24 "We know that this man is a sinner.” ESV
Joh 9:25 He said therefore to them: If he be a sinner, I know not. Darby
Joh 9:28 You are a disciple of that [man]. NWT
Joh 10:12 (should be 13) he runs away because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. NJB
Joh 10:33 "claim to be a god" NEB
Also John 10:36; 11:49, 51; 12:6; 17:17; 18:37, 38; 19:12, 21
The Appendix also correctly uses Xenophon's Anabasis "and the place was a market [EMPORION HN]" as a parallel to John 1:1, just as stated in Dana & Mantey's Greek Grammar.*
Additionally, none of the examples given in this video have a context where QEOS/theos is used of two individuals who are said to be "with" one another, and where the first theos has the article and the second is an anarthrous nominative that precedes the verb.
In subsequent additions of the NWT Reference Bible and the KIT the committee had the advantage of reading Phillip Harner's article Qualitative Anarthrous Predicate Nouns: Mark 15: 39 and John 1:1 as published in 1973 and were able to better flesh out the argument for "many cases of anarthrous predicate noun(s) preceding the verb." NWT Appendix 6a
[*Dana Mantey: "The article sometimes distinguishes the subject from the predicate in a copulative sentence. In Xenophon's Anabasis, 1:4:6, EMPORION D HN TO CWRION, and the place was a market, we have a parallel case to that we have in John 1:1, KAI QEOS HN O LOGOS, and the word was deity. The article points out the subject in these examples. Neither was the place the only market, nor was the word all of God, as it would mean if the article was also used with QEOS. As it stands, the other persons of the Trinity may be implied in QEOS." pp. 148, 149
Dana & Mantey have a disadvantage here as they have to work within the narrow confines of a Trinity doctrine. Notice where he says: "Neither was the place the only market, nor was the word all of God." This is not an even parallel at all. A truthful and equivalent statement SHOULD be, "Neither was the place the only market, nor was the word the only God."]
[(1) Sam Reed may have borrowed from Robert Countess: "The first section of John—1:1-18—furnishes a lucid example of NWT arbitrary dogmatism. QEOS occurs eight times—verses 1, 2, 6, 12, 13, 18—and has the article only twice—verses 1,2. Yet NWT six times translated 'God,' once 'a god,' and once 'the god.'" (The Jehovah's Witnesses' New Testament, 55.)]
Joh 4:19 The woman saith unto him, Sir, I perceive that thou art a prophet. ASV
Joh 6:70 Jesus answered them, "Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" RSV
Joh 9:5 when I am in the world, I am a light of the world. YLT
Joh 9:24 "We know that this man is a sinner.” ESV
Joh 9:25 He said therefore to them: If he be a sinner, I know not. Darby
Joh 9:28 You are a disciple of that [man]. NWT
Joh 10:12 (should be 13) he runs away because he is only a hired man and has no concern for the sheep. NJB
Joh 10:33 "claim to be a god" NEB
Also John 10:36; 11:49, 51; 12:6; 17:17; 18:37, 38; 19:12, 21
The Appendix also correctly uses Xenophon's Anabasis "and the place was a market [EMPORION HN]" as a parallel to John 1:1, just as stated in Dana & Mantey's Greek Grammar.*
Additionally, none of the examples given in this video have a context where QEOS/theos is used of two individuals who are said to be "with" one another, and where the first theos has the article and the second is an anarthrous nominative that precedes the verb.
In subsequent additions of the NWT Reference Bible and the KIT the committee had the advantage of reading Phillip Harner's article Qualitative Anarthrous Predicate Nouns: Mark 15: 39 and John 1:1 as published in 1973 and were able to better flesh out the argument for "many cases of anarthrous predicate noun(s) preceding the verb." NWT Appendix 6a
[*Dana Mantey: "The article sometimes distinguishes the subject from the predicate in a copulative sentence. In Xenophon's Anabasis, 1:4:6, EMPORION D HN TO CWRION, and the place was a market, we have a parallel case to that we have in John 1:1, KAI QEOS HN O LOGOS, and the word was deity. The article points out the subject in these examples. Neither was the place the only market, nor was the word all of God, as it would mean if the article was also used with QEOS. As it stands, the other persons of the Trinity may be implied in QEOS." pp. 148, 149
Dana & Mantey have a disadvantage here as they have to work within the narrow confines of a Trinity doctrine. Notice where he says: "Neither was the place the only market, nor was the word all of God." This is not an even parallel at all. A truthful and equivalent statement SHOULD be, "Neither was the place the only market, nor was the word the only God."]
[(1) Sam Reed may have borrowed from Robert Countess: "The first section of John—1:1-18—furnishes a lucid example of NWT arbitrary dogmatism. QEOS occurs eight times—verses 1, 2, 6, 12, 13, 18—and has the article only twice—verses 1,2. Yet NWT six times translated 'God,' once 'a god,' and once 'the god.'" (The Jehovah's Witnesses' New Testament, 55.)]
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