god.” Again the Witnesses try to argue that Christ was only “a god” in the
same sense mentioned above. However, as the original Greek has the
definite article (ho-the) preceding the word Word (Logos) and no article
preceding God (Theos), one would naturally translate the verse as “and the
Word was God.” The Gospel of John is devoted to the uniqueness of Jesus
Christ. If the Apostle meant to say in the prologue that Christ is only “a
god”—one god among many—he would destroy the purpose of the entire
Gospel that follows.
“Very truly, I tell you, before Abraham was, I am” (St. John 8:58).
Scholars have always understood Christ’s use of “I am” as a claim to
divinity, identifying Himself with the God of Moses: “I am who am.” The
implication is obvious––Christ pre-exists all the Prophets and the
Patriarchs, even all humanity itself. He belongs to a different order of
being, the eternal self-existence of God. For the Witnesses, as Christ simply
said in St. John 8:58 “I am” and not “I am who am”, He was only
intending to say, “I existed before Abraham was born.” They accept
Christ’s pre-existence but as the “first-born of all creatures” only, not as
God. However, “I am” by itself is often used in the Old Testament to refer
to God, for example, in Is. 43:25; 45:18; 48:12. This is how the Jews
understood Him, that is why they “took up stones to throw at him” (8:59).
“The Father and I are one” (St. John 10:30).
Christianity has always understood these words of Christ to refer to the
unity of being that exists between the Father and the Son. For the
Witnesses, these words simply indicate the “moral unity of will, purpose
and activity” existing between Jehovah God and His first-born creature.
Such an assertion, however, does not hold weight in light of the Greek
word used for “one,” namely hen, which is neuter and means “one thing” or
“one being”––“I and the Father are one being.” Again, this is how the Jews
understood Him, taking up stones once more to stone Him … “because
you, being a man, make yourself God” (10:31, 33).
In this same chapter we read the following passage:
“Jesus answered them, ‘Is it not written in your law, I said, you are gods?’
If he called them gods to whom the word of God came (and scripture
cannot be broken), do you say of him whom the Father consecrated and
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