To cofty
A predicate nominative or predicate noun completes a linking
verb and renames the subject. According to Greek scholar E. C. Colwell: "A
definite predicate nominative has the article when it follows the verb; it does
not have the article when it precedes the verb...A predicate nominative which
precedes the verb cannot be translated as an indefinite or a 'qualitative' noun
solely because of the absence of the article; if the context suggests that the
predicate is definite, it should be translated as a definite noun despite the
absence of the article." This is known as Colwell’s rule, this principle
applies to certain uses of the Greek article. Now, I agree with WTS, that
Colwell’s rule does not prove a definite article for “theos”, but it most
definitely supports it.
The Watchtower Society states that in the Greek, when a
singular predicate noun has no definite article “the” and it occurs before the
verb, [as in the original Greek], then this points to a quality about the
subject. Therefore, since the second occurrence of theos “God” has no definite
article, it then refer to lower or lesser deity who possess godlike qualities
therefore; “a god”.
It should be noted that in the NWT “God” is capitalized,
therefore translated as articular [with the definite article] even though being
anarthrous [not having the definite article] in John 1:6,12,13,18, 3:2,21,
9:33. If the WTS rule is etched in stone, and supersedes the
translator’s interpretation of the verse why were these verses translated as
God instead of a God.
Note that within the New Testament “God” appears 282 times
anarthrous, of which it translates the anarthrous as articular 266 times as
"God" and the remaining 16 times as anarthrous translating theos as
either god, a god, gods, and godly. There is no question that from the context
fifteen of the sixteen anarthrous “theos” were correctly translated, only John
1:1c is questionable.
Deity of Christ. explicit in John 1:1, 20:28, 12:41, Phil 2:6, Titus 2:13, and 2 Pe 1:1
As to the Deity of Jesus evolving over generations note what the early church fathers wrote on the subject.
Ignatius (105 AD): "Continue
in intimate union with Jesus Christ, our God."
ibid: "I pray for your
happiness forever in our God, Jesus Christ."
Aristides (125 AD): "The
Christians trace the beginning of their religion to Jesus the Messiah. He is called
the Son of the Most High God. It is said that God came down from heaven. He
assumed flesh and clothed Himself with it from a Hebrew virgin."
Diognetus (c.125-200 AD): "God
did not, as one might have imagined, send to men any servant, angel, or ruler....
Rather He sent the very Creator and Fashioner of all things - by whom He made
the heavens.... As a king sends his son, who is also a king, so God sent Him.
He sent Him as God."
Second Clement (c.150 AD):
Brethren, it is fitting that you should think of Jesus Christ as of God - as
the Judge of the living and the dead."
Justin Martyr (c.160 AD): "The
Word...He is Divine."
ibid: "The Father of the
universe has a Son. And He, being the First-Begotten Word of God, is even
God."
ibid: "For Christ is King,
Priest, God, Lord, Angel, and Man."
ibid: "He deserves to be
worshipped as God and as Christ."
ibid: "David predicted that He
would be born from the womb before the sun and moon, according to the Father's
will. He made Him known, being Christ, as God, strong and to be
worshipped."
ibid: "The Son ministered to
the will of the Father. Yet, nevertheless, He is God, in that He is the
First-Begotten of all creatures."
ibid: "If you had understood
what has been written by the prophets, you would not have denied that He was
God, Son of the Only, Unbegottten, Unuttterable God."
Melito (c.170 AD): "God was
put to death, the Kiing of Israel slain."
Athenagoras (c.175 AD): "There
is the one God and the Logos proceeding from Him, the Son. We understand that
the Son is inseparable from Him."
Irenaeus (c.180 AD): "For He
fulfills the bountiful and comprehensive will of His Father, inasmuch as He is
Himself the Savior of those who are saved, and the Lord of those who are under
authority, and the God of all those things that have been formed, the
Only-Begotten of the Father."
ibid: "I have shown from the
Scriptures that none of the sons of Adam are, absolutely and as to everything,
called God, or named Lord. But Jesus is Himself in His own right, beyond all
men who ever lived, God, Lord, King Eternal, and the Incarnate Word.... He is
the Holy Lord, the Wonderful, the Counselor, the Beautiful in appearance, and
the Mighty God."
ibid: "Thus He indicates in
clear terms that He is God, and that His advent was in Bethlehem.... God, then, was made man, and
the Lord did Himself save us.
ibid: "He is God, for the name
Emmanuel indcates this."
ibid: "Christ Himself,
therfore, together with the Father, is the God of the living, who spoke to
Moses, and who was also manifested to the fathers."
ibid: "Or how shall man pass
into God, unless God has first passed into man?"
ibid: "It is plain that He was
Himself the Word of God, who was made the son of man. He received from the
Father the power of remission of sins. He was man, and He was God. This was so
that since as man He suffered for us, so as God He might have compassion on
us."