Dear Mr. Doyle,

With regard to your quote of Zerwick, it may interest you to know that, within "Appendix 6A Jesus-A Godlike One; Divine," of Jehovah’s Witnesses’ New World Translation, 1984 Edition, they explain much the same as Zerwick above:

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John 1:1 – "and the Word was a god (godlike; divine)"

Gr[eek], kai the ·os’ en ho lo’gos

 "…the Greek word the ·os’ is a singular predicate noun occurring before the verb and is not preceded by the definite article. This is an anarthrous the ·os’. The God with whom the Word, or Logos, was originally is designated here by the Greek expression ho the ·os’, that is, the ·os’ preceded by the definite article ho. This is an articular the ·os’. Careful translators recognize that the articular construction of the noun points to an identity, a personality, whereas a singular anarthrous predicate noun preceding the verb points to a quality about someone. Therefore, John’s statement that the Word or Logos was "a god" or "divine" or "godlike" does not mean that he was the God with whom he was. It merely expresses a certain quality about the Word, or Logos, but it does not identify him as one and the same as God himself."

Taken from: The New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures. Revised Edition, 1984. (Brooklyn, New York: Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society, Brooklyn, 1984), p. 1519. BS195 .N4 1984 / 84-191013. 1984.

The same point is made within their "Reasoning" book:

"The definitive article (the) appears before the first occurrence of theos (God) but not before the second. The articular (when the article appears) construction of the noun points to an identity, a personaltiy, whereas a singular anarthrous (without the article) predicate noun before the verb (as the sentence is constructed in the Greek [of John 1:1]) points to a quality about someone. So the text is not saying that the Word (Jesus) was the same as the God with whom he was but, rather, that the Word was godlike, divine, a god."

Taken from: Reasoning from the Scriptures. 1st Edition. (Brooklyn, New York: Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, International Bible Students Association, c1985, 1989), pp. 212, 213. BS612 .R43 1985 / 85198803.

Agape, Alan.

john1one@earthlink.net

http://www.goodcompanionbooks.com