20 Reasons Why the Trinity Is Unbiblical (3)
August 5th, 2010 by Guest Author
by Chuck LaMattina of Grace Ministry International.
3. John 1:1-3
Many trinitarians will argue that the first three verses of the gospel of John provide strong proof that Jesus is God. A footnote on John 1:1, in The MacArthur Study Bible (New King James Version) states,
“Before the universe began, the Second Person of the Trinity always existed . . . Because of John’s theme that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the Second Person of the Trinity, he did not include a genealogy as Matthew and Luke did.”
Yet nowhere in the gospel of John does he ever state that his theme is to show that Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God. All John says is that his gospel was written “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name (John 20:31).” So what does John 1:1-3, say and what does it mean? Here are the verses in question.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.”
The manner in which these three verses are translated from the Greek lead many Christians to hear in their minds something like this:
“In the beginning was the Son of God, and the Son of God was with God, and the Son of God was God. The Son was in the beginning with God.”
In fact, here is how The Good News Bible translates John 1:1-3.
“Before anything else existed, there was Christ, with God. He has always been alive and is himself God. He created everything there is. Nothing exists that he did not make.”
But is this really what the Greek text of John 1:1-3, is telling us? First of all, let’s understand what the word “Word” means. “Word” is a translation of the Greek word logos, and it means a plan, purpose, saying, expression of thought, a message, or an intention. Here are some examples of how logos is used in the New Testament.
Matthew 7:8, “saying”; 8:8, “word”; Mark 1:45, “matter”; Luke 1:4, “things”; 16:2, “account”; Acts 8:21, “matter” or “ministry”; 1 Corinthians 1:18, “preaching”; Colossians 4:6, “speech”
The Greek word logos was used to correspond to the Old Testament Hebrew word davar. Here are some examples of how davar is translated.
“I have hoped in Your word [i.e. wisdom, plan, promises].” (Psalm 119:74)
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (vs. 105)
“So shall My word be that goes from My mouth; it shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish
what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.” (Isaiah 55:11)
In this last example from Isaiah, we are to understand God’s “word” as His plan or purpose. So there is no good reason for the word logos to refer to a preexisting Son of God. In fact, nowhere in the entire Bible can you find any Hebrew or Greek word for “word” that implies another preexisting person in the Godhead.
Also in John 1:2, 3, the words “He” and “Him” are impersonal pronouns in the Greek and therefore should be translated as “it” when referring to logos. Every English Bible before the King James Version of 1611 translated the pronouns this way. The following is an example.
“In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God: and the word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by it, and without it nothing was made that was made.” [my emphasis]
Now, what does it mean that the “word” was “with God” and the “word was God”? The Greek preposition pros translated “with” means to be intimately associated with or together with and yet distinct and separate. My wife can be with me but she is not me. In the same way, God’s word was with Him but it was not Him personally. In the Old Testament we learn that “wisdom” was also with God.
“Then I [wisdom] was beside [with] Him as a master craftsman.” (Proverbs 8:30)
No trinitarian will ever say that because wisdom was with God that wisdom is now another person within the Godhead (making four persons who are God!). Everyone understands that when we read “I [wisdom] was beside God” what we have is a figure of speech called personification. In the same way in John 1:1, God’s word was with Him but it was not another person. Concerning the meaning of the phrase “the word was God” I can do no better than to quote the comments of scholar William Barclay,
“In the AV [King James Version] John 1:1 reads: ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.’ For long the newer translations continued this rendering with the exception of Moffet and Goodspeed, who both render: “the Word was divine.’ . . . In a case like this we cannot do other than go to the Greek, which is theos en ho logos. Ho is the definite article, the, and it can be seen that there is a definite article with logos, but not with theos. When in Greek two nouns are joined by the verb to be and when both have the definite article, then the one is fully identified with the other; but when one of them is without the article, it becomes more an adjective than a noun, and describes rather the class or sphere to which the other belongs.
An illustration from English will make this clear. If I say, ‘The preacher is the man,’ I use the definite article before both preacher and man, and I thereby identify the preacher with some quite definite individual man whom I have in mind. But if I say, ‘The preacher is man,’ I have omitted the definite article before man, and what I mean is that the preacher must be classified as a man,
he is in the sphere of manhood, he is a human being.John has no definite article before theos, God. The logos therefore, is not identified as God or with God; the word theos has become adjectival and describes the sphere to which the logos belongs. We would therefore, have to say that this means that the logos belongs to the same sphere as God; without being identified as God. Here the NEB [New English Bible] finds the perfect translation “What God was, the Word was.
This passage then does not identify the logos and God; it does not say that Jesus was God, nor does it call him God . . . “
In other words, when we read the phrase “the word was God” the original intent of the Greek text was to convey the idea that the “word” was fully representative of God. The “word” was and is a revelation of God’s heart and character. If we understand God’s word we know what God is like. The logos fully expresses God’s purpose and mind. Therefore you could very accurately paraphrase John 1:1-3, like this,
“In the beginning God had a creative and redemptive plan. And this plan or purpose revealed His heart and was fully representative of all that God is. All things were made through this plan and without this divine plan nothing was made.”
With all of this in mind John 1:14, reveals a wonderful truth.
“And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.”
The word, the logos, God’s plan, His purpose, became flesh and dwelt among us. With the coming into existence of Jesus Christ at his conception and birth, the full plan and heart of God was expressed as a human being. Jesus Christ was full of divine grace and truth. What became flesh in John 1:14, was not a preexistent or eternally begotten Son of God. What became flesh was God’s full plan of salvation revealed in the Man, Jesus Christ.
A plan can take “flesh” when it is carried out or acted upon. When an architect’s plan actually becomes a building it becomes “flesh.” In the same manner God’s plan became literal flesh in Jesus Christ who fully revealed God’s will. Hebrews 1:1, declares,
“God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the father’s by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us [revealing His word, (logos)] by His Son”
The Son of God, Jesus Christ, is not a preexistent being. He is not the second person in the Godhead. He is simply and uniquely the Son of God who fully reveals God to us.
Hi Chuck,
you mention above
someone might claim that this statement is incorrect … and come along and claim something like
It seems to me that the situation is rather this: In Greek, the word “logos” is of masculine gender and thus the associated pronouns are of masculine gender. Now, in translation, the corresponding word in another language may be of a different gender and associated pronouns must therefore also be adjusted in gender. The corresponding English word “word” is of neuter gender, and therefore the associated pronoun will be neuter alsi (“it”).
Another example: In German, “sun” is feminine, and thus “she shines”. In French, the word for sun is masculine, and thus in French “he shines”. In English, “sun” is neuter, and thus “it shines”. When translating a text from French to German, one would translate the noun “sun” and then would have to adjust the associated pronoun “he” to “she” in order to have a correct translation. If one were to translate the pronoun “he” referring to “sun” in French to a “he” in German, it would be an incorrect translation.
As for Joh 1, it seems to me that in many English translations, the translators have understood “Word” as “a male person” and thus have translated the pronouns as “he, him”, instead of understanding “Word” as “word” and translating the pronoun as “it”.
By the way, the German Luther Bible has “it”, as do some other German translations as well.
Cheers,
Wolfgang
I had this in my top 10 but replaced it, so I guess this would be #11 for me.
I like Anthony Buzzards play on words here – ‘In the beginning was the Son, and the Son was with the Father, and the Son was the Father’. Does that work? Its cute but trinitarians cry foul.
Another point is that the Greek has a different order in 1.1c than does the translation. The Greek says:
1.1b: ho logos en pros ton theos (the Word was with God)
1.1c: theos en ho logos (the Word was ‘God’)
If John had meant the Word was God he would have said:
1.1c: ho logos en ton theos
But he doesn’t. Clearly some liberties were taken with the translation and I agree completely that assuming the Word = Son is quite a leap as well.
In the beginning was Jesus along with God. They both became known to John as the Word. The Word (Jesus) was known by God.
Jesus also knew The Word (for he knew God). Jesus was as the Word.
The phraze “The Word was God.” can have several interpretations.
It can say so many things. It says so much. It can overflow.
God’s “word” became a lot of things in the Book of Genesis. Infact the word became EVERYTHING we can fathom in this reality. It even became perfect man by the end of day six.
The word becoming manifest as Jesus as recorded by John, is his testimony that the early Christians were privy to see this work that God is doing (creation of man) come to fruition before their very eyes.
When a group of creations are made concurrently, there will always be one creation which is completed first. If I created 10 paintings, or wrote 10 songs, one of them will be finished before all of the rest. As Adam was the first man, and Jesus is the second Adam, Jesus is the first of our kind as we are MEANT TO BE. He is man as we are meant to be created. He is the first, and as followers of him we are growing to be JUST-LIKE-HIM. If we really look at it, Jesus is the first and only TRUE human being of his time to walk the earth, according to the Bible. The rest of us are fumbling around somewhere in between being animals and being humans, as harsh as that may sound. Realistically, when someone says “Oh you sly dog, you!” they’re probably quite right. The book of Revelations says outside the gates of the kingdom, among other things, are “dogs”. This is not referring to canines, it’s referring to the lost.
Traditional trinitarianism is in SERIOUS error. Not only because it dethrones God and replaces Him. Not only because it replaces God with an “image”. But because it denies us our birthright, and teaches that we are always to be dogs. It ignores that (in Jesus’ own words) WE are to become “One with God” EXACTLY as Jesus is one with God”
Unfortunately this teaching has been discarded, and Jesus’s claims to be “one with the Father” are perverted into a doctrine that he IS the Father, or part of some three-headed G-d. There’s only one God. The Holy Spirit is the manifestation of God within a man. God’s own spirit is our animating force. It is the engine that runs the universe. It IS God. When it reaches full bloom then we become what we are meant to be. Just like Jesus… One with the Father.
If the Holy Spirit is a person, they are forgetting that this “person” exists inside all of us, effectively making every single one of us a “trinity”. How does THAT fit their theology? The Holy Spirit, is the part of God that animates us, dwells within us and is constantly in communion with God. We are like little plants, and it is our life line to our source of life. It is hardly a “person”, most certainly it is not part of a trinity.
This isn’t about denying Jesus’ “divinity”. It is about affirming our place with him. It is about putting the one true God of israel, the supreme being, back on top of the order of things where He belongs. When this happens… we will all be brothers and sisters again, and He will be our one and only father.
God’s plan is to have the entire world to come inhabited with “mature” humans, within whom the holy spirit indwells in “full” bloom. It is Jesus’ wish that we have exactly what he has. An earth full of kings and queens, resurrected to immortality. All of which who are humble servants to one another, in equality and respect… it is in that way we will serve God, as the FULLNESS of the indwelling will be manifest in all of creation and in all of mankind who have inherited that world.
This divine and Biblical plan is impossible if we place Jesus is on some untouchable, unattainable level equal with God. The trouble is that every trinitarian apologist I’ve read or heard from say that this doctrine makes Jesus into “merely a man” or “just another prophet”. That is absolutely RIDICULOUS. Just another prophet you say? He’s the Messiah, the virginally begotten Son of God, chosen before time to save those who will hear, chosen before time to be the chosen one who will rule the entire world. He was pre-ordained to be exhaled higher than any other person in the entire history of humankind ever has or ever would be. So exhaled, he is given the HIGHEST position a man can get short of being God almighty. How could that sort of honor, given by God himself, make Jesus “just a mere man” or “just another prophet” simply because we say he is “fully man”? It is absurd.
But here is the BEAUTY of it:
Unlike ANY other ruler of history with any amount of absolute power or authority, THIS ruler wants to bestow upon you all exactly what he has as HIS birthright. To be sons and daughters of God with all of the same power, authority, glory, honor, exceeding abundance that HE has been given by the Father. That just blows me away.
And in his utmost glory and honor, he still remains humble enough to still want to wash your dirty feet.
How cool is that?
If anything… if anything at all… a fully human, non co-equal with God, Jesus who has done what he done, and will do all of these I have mentioned and that is mentioned in the Bible, is MUCH more astonishing, much more inspiring, and far more great than a super-meta-human xeno-morph god-man that could do it without hardly wincing, let alone without a possibility of failure that comes with being fully-human. It makes his victories much more inspiring, much more powerful… and because he was human, we can have hope. We now have a human role model who it makes sense to emulate. Someone just like us who showed us that we were all more than what we thought. After all, if another human triumphed in all facets of his life, why can’t we?
Another good passage that gets twisted in the book of John is when Thomas says “My Lord (Kurios) and my God! (Theos)”…(John 20:28)
Looking at the Greek, one will find that Kurios can also denote any type of person in authority. We can also find that Theos can also represent God’s appointed or Emissaries/Agents etc.. or anything that represents or resembles God.
Thus, the proper non-trinitarian translation should read: “My Lord and my King*”.
*Annointed King Messiah, Agent (Sheliach) of the one True God
Try it out by looking for oneself in any Greek lexicon, you’ll have fun with it.
If we think about it, it makes absolutely no sense that Thomas would be calling Jesus “God”, especially given what we know from a hebraic understanding of scripture. We also know that it wasn’t an “exclamation”. This is because a Jew would not make an exclamation using either the name YHVH or the term “God” in vain as such, not to mention in the presence of Jesus without reprimand.
Just thought I would add that in there… I know many people get caught up on that one.
David
What if Thomas “saw” [code word for "to understand" in Johannine language] God the Father in the person of His "one-of-a-kind" Son? As per Jesus' exhortation to both Phillip and Thomas in John 14.
Another take on John 20:28…think of the song ‘Candle in the Wind’ or any popular song for that matter. Elton John kept the melody but changed the words when eulogizing Princess Di – all he needed to say was she was a ‘candle in the wind’. That phrase attributes everything that song was to her life – a very compact way of saying so much.
When Thomas says ‘My Lord and my God’ it is very much like Psalms 42/43 that repeat the phrase ‘my savior and my God’. Those psalms are all about spiritual depression and a longing for God to come to the rescue and lo and behold He does.
I think Thomas was doing the same thing as saying ‘candle in the wind’ by saying ‘my Lord and my God’. He was referring back to these Psalms that describe exactly what the apostles were going through – severe spiritual depression that the hoped for messiah had died and left them seemingly adrift. Then Jesus appears to them and just like those Psalms, there faith is restored and more wonderously than before. ‘My Lord and my God!’
The repeat of the article here in John 20:28 suggests two persons, and it is a very nice sequel to ch 14 where Thomas did not see that seeing Jesus was seeing God. Here in 20:28 he gets it and addresses the lord Messiah and the God in him. He sees the Lord God in Jesus, and he could not before. This is pure messianism of course, 20:31 All goes to prove that Jesus IS the Messiah, certainly not a second God. My best shots at the non-Trinity are all under my video at YouTube, Jesus is still a Jew.
About 25 hits a day, now.
Anthony – just a thank you for your work. I became a Christian (trinitarian church) at the end of 2009 without really thinking through the doctrine (which makes you wonder how important doctrines really are).
Was tickled about unitarianism, explored it and have come across your various works. I will be handing my pastor your ‘Who is Jesus?’ document shortly.
Some Christians perceive God as 1 “what” and 3 “who”s, while some perceive God as many “what”s and one “who”. I believe there needs to be tolerance.
When I think of what God is I think of things such as:
A Father
The Creator
Love
Holy
Good
Kind
Pure
Forbearing
Forgiving
Perfect
Just
Merciful
Righteous
All the good things that are of himself which are in Jesus, which is everything that is in Christ.
Ray
You said, “I believe there needs to be tolerance.”
I agree completely. Jesus said in Mathew 7:1-3 “Judge not, that you not be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. Why do you see the speck that is in your brother’s eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye?”
And in Luke 6:36-38 Jesus says, “Judge not, and your will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven; give, and it shall be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.”
I’m sure Sean and Mark C. and the other administrators of this site don’t necessarily agree with all the different points of view expressed here, but they don’t seem to judge and are extremely tolerant in allowing a free flow of ideas to be expressed.
I appreciate the tolerance the administrators show and thank God for this site…