John 1:1
Bible verses · Also called: John 1:1, In the beginning was the Word, The Word was God, Logos
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
The text is the New Korean Revised Version (1998), shown under a licence from the Korean Bible Society. Wording may differ slightly from the Korean Revised Version and the Revised New Korean Standard Version. Read in the Korean Revised Version
The opening verse of the Gospel of John declares that the Word, who existed in the beginning, was with God and was God. Because it is a key verse affirming the deity of Jesus, it has long been at the center of a dispute between proponents of the doctrine of the Trinity and groups that reject that doctrine and translate the verse differently.
Context
Rather than opening with a genealogy or a birth narrative of Jesus, the Gospel of John begins with a prologue (1:1-18). The phrase "In the beginning" echoes the opening words of Genesis 1:1, carrying the reader back to a time before creation. The prologue states that this Word made all things (v. 3) and was made flesh and dwelt among us (v. 14), and in verse 18 it identifies him as the only begotten Son who has declared the Father. Verse 1 stands at the head of the entire prologue.
Interpretation
The Greek word logos, translated "Word," means speech, reason, or principle. Many interpreters hold that it recalls God's creation of the world by his word in the Old Testament (Psalm 33:6) and the figure of Wisdom in Jewish wisdom literature, while also connecting with the term used in Greek philosophy for the rational principle of the universe.
The verse consists of three clauses: the Word already existed in the beginning (eternity), was "with" God (a person distinct from the Father), and was God (deity). The orthodox doctrine of the Trinity, as it developed through the Nicene Creed and the Athanasian Creed, has drawn on this verse as an important foundation. On this reading, the second and third clauses together express the confession that there are distinct persons within the one God.
Controversy and Issues
The Greek of the third clause is theos ēn ho logos, in which the predicate noun theos ("God") lacks the article. On this basis, the New World Translation of the Jehovah's Witnesses renders the clause in English as "the Word was a god" and regards Jesus as a divine being lower than Jehovah. This view is considered similar to Arianism, which in the fourth century regarded the Son as a created being.
Major denominations and most biblical scholars criticize this translation. They argue that in Greek, when a predicate noun precedes the verb, it can convey a definite meaning or a quality even without the article, and that the verse therefore means the Word shares the same nature as God. Critics also point out that the New World Translation is inconsistent, since elsewhere in the same chapter it renders anarthrous theos as "God" when the word refers to the Father (1:6, 1:18, and elsewhere). Others explain that had the article been included, the clause could have been read in the manner of modalism, which treats the Father and the Word as the same person.
In the Korean Church
The verse is frequently used as a sermon text at Christmas, and it is the first passage cited to explain the deity of Jesus in counseling people involved with heretical groups and in doctrinal instruction.
Related Passages
- Genesis 1:1-3
- John 1:14
- John 20:28
- Colossians 1:15-17
- Hebrews 1:1-3
See also 6
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