Greek to me

Fran W. and I recently engaged two Jehovah Witnesses; Paul and Patrick, in conversation – or was it attempted conversion? JWs don’t believe in the Trinity, and therefore don’t believe that Jesus is God at all. JWs affirm Holy Scripture though, so Fran and I figured all we had to do was present John 1:1. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

Imagine our chagrin when Paul presented us with his Bible, where John 1:1 read almost, but not quite, the same as ours, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.” Notice the demotion of Jesus the Word!

Discounting the fact the Paul thought we should not refer to other sources outside of Scripture, such as the Catechism, or the Church Fathers, and that Paul was actually doing so by asking us to accept his Bible Translation, there are two questions here:

1. Who do you Trust to translate Scripture once you’ve come to the conclusion it is the inerrant word of God?

2. If in debate you both accept Scripture as the inerrant word of God, is there some way to approach the original Greek or Hebrew though one is not a Greek or Hebrew Scholar?

Here is the original Greek of John 1:1, you can somewhat match the English and Greek. Unfortunately the Blogger word processor does not accurately present Greek Letters, but here goes:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was [a] God.

en arch hn o logoV kai o logoV hn proV ton qeon kai qeoV hn o logoV

If you remember some of your Chemistry, the l, lambda, you’ll recognize the three occurrences of the word, logoV for Logos or the Word. You Earth Day devotees should recognize the q, theta, which is the letter that starts qeoV or Theos, that is God.

But the big question here is, the definitive article, ‘the’ or ‘a’ as in “a god”. The Greek word for this is o, pronounced ‘ho’. It comes before Logos, as in ‘the Logos’ or even ‘a Logos’, but it does not come before Theos. Definitions are below, but I get the following literal word for word translations:
kai qeoV hn o logoV

a copulative force also Theos/God was the or a or one Word

or

kai qeoV hn o logoV

and God was the Word

I just don’t get the Jehovah Witness translation, nor do I think should any of you.

hn en ane=imperfect of eimi - eimi 1510; I (thou, etc.) was (wast or were):--+ agree, be, X have (+ charge of), hold, use, was(-t), were.

tou tou too=properly, the genitive case of o - ho 3588; sometimes used for toutou - toutou 5127; of this person:--his.

o ho ho, including the feminine=he hay, and the neuter to to in all their inflections; the definite article; the (sometimes to be supplied, at others omitted, in English idiom):--the, this, that, one, he, she, it, etc.

kai kai kahee=apparently, a primary particle, having a copulative and sometimes also a cumulative force; and, also, even, so then, too, etc.; often used in connection (or composition) with other particles or small words:--and, also, both, but, even, for, if, or, so, that, then, therefore, when, yet.