Aug 13, 2006

Logos up!

As a follow up to Fran and my discussion with Paul and Patrick the Jehovah Witnesses, and their demotion of Jesus the Word in Jn1:1, from “God” to “a god”, I checked out some more Greek for the Scriptures, at Strong’s Concordance,

http://www.sacrednamebible.com/kjvstrongs/index.htm

Basically I was looking to see if there was any Gospel verse that clearly referenced God, yet had that definite article o, pronounced ‘ho’ that the Concordance says can mean the, this, that, one, he, she, it, etc…, yet is sometimes omitted in English idiom. In other words, if I found a verse that used o qeoV, which might be translated as “a god”, but is in a verse that clearly indicate “God”, then the Jehovah Witness translation of Jn1:1 becomes a big question. How about Mt 3:9?

kai mh doxhte legein en eautoiV patera ecomen ton abraam legw gar umin oti dunatai o qeoV ek twn liqwn toutwn egeirai tekna tw abraam
Mt 3:9 And think not to say within yourselves, We have Abraham to [our] father: for I say unto you, that God is able of these stones to raise up children unto Abraham.

So we have the Greek phrase 'o Theos' in Mt3:9 and clearly the meaning is God. So where did the Jehovah Witnesses get 'a god' when the 'o' is not even there and must be assumed to be there from the Logos?

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