What Does John 1:1 TRULY MEAN?
Chapter 1.
What does John 1:1 TRULY mean in the LIGHT of the WHOLE word of Almighty God. Let us go ahead and read John 1:1 from the King James Version of the Bible.
John 1:1.
“In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”
Now, church TRADITION focuses ONLY on the last phrase,
“…And the Word was God”
In other words, church tradition INTERPRETS John 1:1 c to mean that Jesus is Almighty God Himself in the flesh. And how they arrive at that “interpretation” is that they argue that since we know that Jesus is the word made flesh in John 1:14 and the word was God in John 1:1, then that proves that Jesus is Almighty God Himself in the flesh.
But is that the God INTENDED meaning when John 1:1 is correctly interpreted in the LIGHT of the WHOLE word of Almighty God?
To me, the answer is an emphatic NO! And in this book on John 1:1 called, “What Does John 1:1 TRULY MEAN?”. you will learn WHY I believe that the Bible ITSELF clearly teaches us in SIMPLICITY that Jesus is NOT Almighty God Himself in the flesh!
In chapter 1 of this book on John 1:1, we will focus primarily on John 1:1 a, the first phrase,
“In the BEGINNING was the Word…”
Let us begin by reading the LITERAL translation of John 1:1 a from a website called Scripture4all.org. You can click on the link to view this verse of Scripture from that literal word for word translation. Which, by the way, is translated from the SAME Textus Receptus that the King James Version is translated from.
Here is John 1:1 a from the literal translation.
“In BEGINNING was the SAYING…”
Please notice two things. First notice that there is NO definite article “the” in front of the word “beginning”. And that means that the beginning could very well be ANOTHER beginning and NOT the very beginning in the eternity past.
The second thing that I want you to notice is that the Greek word “logos” is translated as the SAYING of God. In other words, the KJV wrongly capitalizes the “logos” as the Word to make the word appear to be a PERSON as opposed to being the SPOKEN word of God.
But in truth, the English translations before the KJV did NOT capitalize the word. And those translators referred to the word with the pronoun “IT”. We will get to the correct meaning of the word “logos” shortly.
But first, let us go to Genesis 1:1 to learn the TRUE God INTENDED meaning of the phrase,“In the BEGINNING”.
Here is Genesis 1:1 from the King James Version.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”
Now, the Greek word “bara” that is translated as created ALSO means to CUT DOWN! In other words, in ANOTHER beginning God CUT DOWN the heavens and the earth. And thus, they BECAME void and empty.
But WHY would God do such a thing?
Why would God destroy the surface of the earth and then RESTORE the earth to become inhabitable once again? The answer to those questions are found in Psalm 8:1-6.
All Christians agree that God created the angels BEFORE He created Adam and Eve. And most Christians know and understand that ONE THIRD of the angels rebelled against God. But not all Christians understand that fallen angels waged a WAR against the throne or the authority of God to try to be like God. And thus, the fallen angels became the ENEMIES of God. So then, God poured out His WRATH upon the earth in a PREVIOUS age of the earth to STILL His ENEMIES. In other words, it was due to the WAR and the WRATH of God to try to bring an END to that war between one side of heaven against the other side of heaven that caused the surface of the earth to become a wasteland, void and empty of inhabitants.
Let us go ahead and read Psalm 8:1-6, taking one verse at a time.
Psalm 8:1.
“O LORD our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth! Who has set Your glory above the heavens.”
Notice that Yahweh’s NAME is another person who has set or brought glory throughout the heavens to Yahweh. This is a PROPHECY of Jesus GLORIFYING the Father’s name or character that is being blasphemed by God’s enemy, according to Psalm 74:10. You can also read John 13:31,32, where the Son of MAN, Jesus, glorified Almighty God the Father by his obedience to suffer and die on the cross for the sins of the world. Let us continue reading Psalm 8, taking one verse at a time.
Psalm 8:2.
“Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings You have ordained strength, BECAUSE of Your ENEMIES, THAT (Or in order THAT) You might STILL the enemy and the avenger.”
Here in verse 2, we can clearly see that Yahweh ordained strength BECAUSE of His ENEMIES. In other words, God devised a PLAN concerning how He would bring an END to this war and ALSO clear His name of character that is being blasphemed by His ENEMY, Satan, the Devil.
And in the following verses in Psalm 8:3-6, we can see that the STRENGTH in which God ordained to STILL His enemies is the Son of MAN, Jesus. But let us go ahead and still read one verse at a time so that I can explain each verse in the light that God has shown to me.
Psalm 8:3.
“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, the moon and the stars, which You have ordained;”
In verse 3, we can clearly see that Yahweh is the CREATOR. The stars are figurative language referring to the angels. And the moon is also used as a figurative language referring to Satan, the god of this present world. For you see, the Sun is a figure of Jesus, the GREATER light of the world. In other words, the Sun of RIGHTEOUSNESS gives light to the DAY, or to the children of the day. And the moon is the LESSOR light of the NIGHT, as in, the children of the night or the children of darkness. Let us continue with the next verse.
Psalm 8:4.
“What is MAN, that You are
mindful of him? And the Son of MAN, that You VISIT him?”
Verse 4 is a PROPHECY of Jesus that was FULFILLED or quoted as being fulfilled in Hebrews 2:5-13. But why did Yahweh create His Messiah a little LOWER than the angels? When we read Ezekiel 28:15, we can see that on the day that God created Lucifer, he was perfect. But then, Lucifer sinned by rebelling against Almighty God. As I said a moment ago, Psalm 74: teaches us that God’s enemy has blasphemed God’s name, which means God’s CHARACTER. In other words, Lucifer blamed the war on God, because God created him.
Psalm 8:5.
“For You have MADE him a little LOWER than the angels,
(Or more correctly, lower than the Elohim)
And You have CROWNED him with glory and honor.”
Comments: Made Lord after the cross and resurrection, according to Acts 2:36. The Apostle’s DOCTRINE says in Hebrews 2:9, and WE see Jesus MADE a little LOWER than the angels and CROWNED with glory, that he by the grace of God would taste death for every man. So then, obviously, the very Apostles of Jesus did NOT see him as being Almighty God Himself in the flesh as church TRADITION dogmatically demands. Clearly, the angels are NOT equal with Almighty God. And Jesus himself says in John 5:19,30 that the Son can do NOTHING of himself.
Psalm 8:6.
“You MADE him to have DOMINION over the works of Your hands; (Or You created him for the purpose of giving him DOMINION over the work of Your hands) You have put all things under his feet:”
Now, let us look at the verb “WAS” in all three phrases in John 1:1 so that you can see that the word in John 1:1 is the word of PROPHECY.
John 1:1.
“In (ANOTHER) beginning WAS the word or WAS the SAYING, And the word or the SAYING WAS with the God, And the word or the SAYING WAS God”
The verb “was” in all three phrases is translated from the Greek word “en” which is the “IMPERFECT tense” of the Greek word “eimi” which means to exist. The IMPERFECT tense is a tense used to describe a past action that is ONGOING. And action that is NOT yet COMPLETE. In other words, the action is PROGRESSIVE moving TOWARD an end goal. And that end goal is for the HIGHLY EXALTED Son of MAN, Jesus, to rule as God in the NAME of Yahweh for 1000 years during the world to come.
Remember when Pontious Pilate asked Jesus if he was a King? Jesus answered and said, to this END I was BORN. But WHY? Why does God need the Son of MAN to rule over the whole earth for 1000 years in the world to come?
According to Acts 17:29-31, God has chosen to judge the world BY the MAN whom He has ordained and RAISED from the dead. But again, why did God CHOOSE to use a MAN created a little LOWER that the angels to judge the fallen angels? To me, it was because Lucifer wrongly accused God of creating him with a rebellious nature. And, according to Lucifer, it was God’s fault that the angels rebelled against God, because God CREATED them.
And thus, God needed to CREATE another species of beings that would be made a little LOWER or inferior to the angelic beings. And if even one human being could live without sin, then that would prove that God is NOT to be blamed for the WAR waged against Him.
And thus, God PROPHESIED His Messiah to come into being. So then, the “beginning” in John 1:1 should be understood as a DIFFERENT beginning that the beginning in the eternity past.
Here is a more correct translation of John 1:1 a.
“In THAT beginning was the word…”
Speaking of the SPOKEN word of PROPHECY! The Greek word “logos” is translated as “word” 218 times, as SAYING 50 times, as SPEECH 8 times, as a THING or things 5 times, and other miscellaneous words like utterance 32 times. And in ALL of those times, the Greek word “logos” ALWAYS means SPEECH of language, something that is SAID or SPOKEN.
But in the King James Version, that SAME Greek word “logo” is CAPITALIZED in seven verses of Scripture as the “Word with a capital “W” in order to make it APPEAR that the word is a PERSON, a separate divine being who was supposedly WITH God at God’s right hand side for all eternity past.
And that brings us to chapter 2 of this three part video series on the TRUE SOUND Biblical God INTENDED meaning of John 1:1, when it is correctly interpreted in the LIGHT of the WHOLE word of Almighty God. In part 2 we will cover John 1:1 b, the second phrase,
“…And the Word was WITH God…”
As always, thanks for reading, and may God bless you richly as you continue to see the TRUTH of the WHOLE word of Almighty God. To read chapter 2 covering John 1:1 b, please click on the link.
John 1:1 Chapter 2.