Problems People have with
the "Trinity" Doctrine
(Part 4)

Copyright©2020, 2023 by Daniel B. Sedory

     The three previous parts were actually background information to help in understanding the meaning of John 1:1. But before jumping into the passage itself, let’s briefly look at some of the words which comprise this verse; in the language it was originally written in.

Continuing Our Simple Introduction to
Important Differences Between Greek and English:

     Recall from Part 3, that like many languages of continental Europe; especially German, Greek nouns often have various suffixes (letters added to the end of words) which indicate a grammatical difference. In contrast, the English language relies more on the position of a word in a sentence to determine such things as who or what its subject and possibly an object may be. We then listed all the different forms of the Greek article (for both the singular and plural of its three genders in various grammatical “cases”) in order to show how much it differs from English, so you can understand why you will see it spelled so many different ways in the Greek Text.

Similar to English, Greek Verbs also have Various Forms:

     Greek verbs often have different forms depending upon whether the subject is 1^st person (“I”), 2^nd person (“you”) or 3^rd person (“he / she / it”), singular or plural and also the tense in use. For now, it’s more than enough for one to simply be aware that such differences exist; when necessary, the details will be pointed out which can easily be verified in numerous sources. Although many verbs in English are essentially the same word no matter which grammatical person is in use (e.g., I, you or he / she / it; or even: we, you or they could all hit something in the past or present tense), some do have differences in person, number and tense that must be memorized. For example, the verb to be has the following forms in Greek with English descriptions:

     I’ve taken the time to point out that there can be different forms of the same word in Greek, since some people mistakenly believe that simply because a particular noun is spelled different (has a different form) that must mean those forms are completely different nouns (with different meanings); which anyone who’s read Part 3 now knows is not necessarily true!  Examples: The Greek words “κόσμου” (kosmou) and “κόσμον” (kosmon) both mean world (κόσμος; kosmos). They are only spelled differently because “κόσμου” is in the genitive case (the phrase “ἐκ τοῦ κόσμου” ek tou kosmou with τοῦ also being in the genitive case, means: out of the world) and “κόσμον” is in the accusative case (the phrase “εἰς τὸν κόσμον” eis ton kosmon with τὸν also being in the accusative case, meaning: into the world). The reason for these differences in spelling is because objects of the Greek preposition ἐκ (ek; out of or from) are always in the genitive case and those of εἰς (eis; into) are always in the accusative case. Again, we’ve gone into such detail, not in an attempt to teach anyone Greek grammar, but simply so you can know that such differences exist; and why.

Knowing such facts are, of course, very helpful for anyone who wishes to translate the Greek correctly: For example, even if “The world came out of this rock!” was the literal word order of a Greek sentence, you would know the author really meant: it was “this rock” that came out of “the world” if the Greek words for “the world” were in the genitive case and not the words “this rock”.

And like the example above, it’s a well-known fact that Greek authors often do use what seems to us (English speakers) to be a very strange word order, because the first word in a Greek sentence is often placed there to emphasize it; knowing full well that its case (or some other aspect of its grammar) would inform a Greek reader that the first word was the object of a verb or something else and not the subject. Remember that English is one of the few languages where word order may be the only way to tell who or what the subject or object of a sentence is!

“ In the Beginning was the Word ” (John 1:1a)

     Virtually every English translation of John 1:1 starts with the words, “In the beginning was the Word.” But what or who is “the Word” (“ὁ λόγος”; ho logos) in this phrase? In the NT, ho logos (the Word) can simply refer to a certain saying or statement someone made, or to the written or spoken words of God (e.g., John 12:38; 15:25; 17:17). But in the context of John 1; especially after reading all that John’s Gospel message says about salvation and examining verses 1:10-14, we see that “the Word” refers to the person who became Jesus Christ when he “became [took on] flesh”^[3]. He had already existed in a personal and communicative conscious state before taking on a human nature with all the aspects of humanity (including growing from a baby to a man) with the exception that he was sinless (1 John 3:5; 2 Cor. 5:21; Heb. 4:15, etc.).

     John 1:1a begins with Ἐν ἀρχῇ (En archē; literally “in beginning“). Sometimes this is used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament (being the main part of a collection of books called the Septuagint; often listed only as the LXX) to refer to the edge or outskirts of a camp or city (Jdg. 7:17, 19; Ezk. 21:24), the beginning of a period of time (such as a guard’s watch in Jdg. 7:19; “at the beginning,” “start” or “first” of some lengthy event: Ruth 1:22; 2 Sam 17:9; 21:9, 10; 2 Kings 17:25; or the start of a king’s reign: Ezr. 4:6; Jer. 33:1), the beginning of a prayer (Dan. 9:23) and a few idiomatic expressions, such as: “ἐν ἀρχῇ τῆς εὐφροσύνης μου” (en archē tēs euphrosunēs mou; literally: in beginning/chief/first of the joy/gladness of me) for the Hebrew phrase: עַל (`al) רֹאשׁ (rō‘sh) שִׂמְחָתוֹ (simchāthî ); which is translated as: “whatever gives me the most joy” (NET), “my chief joy” (NAU, KJV) or “my highest joy” (NIV, ESV) in Psalm 137:6 of those English Bibles.  In the NT, apart from John 1:1-2, en archē is used of the beginning of the preaching of the gospel in Acts 11:15 and Philippians 4:15.
     Many, however, would see it’s most important occurrence in the LXX being in Genesis 1:1, where it was used to translate the Hebrew preposition, בְּ (bə; meaning: in or at) and רֵאשִׁית (re'shîth; beginning or chief). And it’s clear from the context of the whole chapter of Genesis 1, that "God created the heavens and the earth" is a summary or introductory statement concerning God’s creation of the Universe. Does John 1:1a also refer to the beginning of those creative acts?

   Unitarians (meaning many different international denominations with other varying beliefs) would answer "No" to that question. They would all say this “beginning” in John must refer to the beginning of Jesus’ ministry, and most of them like some of the heretics the Apostle Paul had to deal with, believe he was only an exalted man who had been specially appointed to speak for God^[4].

But they immediately run into problems with the context: First, verses 2 and 3 state, “He [referring to The Word] was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being” (John 1:2-3). For any Christian (whether Jew or Gentile) living at the time of Jesus and for some time beyond the life of the Apostle John who read Scripture in Greek, this introduction to John’s Gospel would have immediately brought to mind the first two words of Genesis: En archē (“In the beginning ”) followed by: ἐποίησεν ὁ θεὸς (epoiēsen ho theos “made/created [the] God” — God being the subject of this sentence) τὸν οὐρανὸν καὶ τὴν γῆν (ton ouranon kai tēn gēn “the heaven and the earth”). And from another verse in John’s Gospel which essentially parallels this one, we know for sure that the “beginning” John mentions in John 1:1a is the same as that in Genesis 1:1, because he finishes John 17:5 (NET) with: “...before the world was created (“πρὸ τὸν κόσμον εἶνα” pro ton kosmon einai )^[5]. Literally, “pro” = “before”, “ton kosmon” = “the world” (or the Universe), “einai ” = “existed” (ESV) or “began” (NIV) or “was” (NAU). The word “created” in the NET Bible is “not in the Greek text, but is implied” (according to their translation notes).

In summary, it's impossible, in light of various Scripture passages mentioned above and what you saw in footnote #3 (read the last paragraph there again if necessary), to maintain a view that "the Word" in John 1:1a refers only the words of God. Jesus the Messiah declared (as quoted by John) that He existed before the world was (John 17:5) and was therefore, its Creator!

The "Trinity" - Part 5

¹[Return to Text] To be absolutely accurate, please note the following about the Greek verb, εἰμί (eimi; to be):

1) “ἦσθα” (instead of ἦς) is used for the Imperfect (past) Active Indicative, 2nd person, singular, in these two verses:
     Mt 26:69 and Mk 14:67; and 16 times in the LXX OT (The Greek Old Testament; the Septuagint ).
2) “ἦμεθα” (instead of ἦμεν) is used for the Imperfect (past) Active Indicative, 1st person, plural, in these verses:
     Mt 23:30 (twice); Acts 27:37; Gal 4:3 and Eph 2:3; only once in the LXX’s OT (1 Sam 25:16) and once in
     the Apocryphal book Baruch (1:19).
3) The Present Active Indicative, 3rd person, plural form, εἰσίν, is always found in the NT with its “ν” (nu)
     ending, and by far in the majority of cases in the LXX’s OT; only 5 times does it appear there as “εἰσί”
     (Ec 8:14; Zch 3:8; Is 40:17; Da 3:12; 7:17; of a total of 214 times) and 3 times in the Apocrypha
     (1 Ma 8:1; Epj 1:50; Sus 1:52).

NOTE: If anyone wants a copy of every form of to be (including all the tenses), or any of a number of other notes we have on the Greek language, just write and ask for them.  Copies of a Greek interlinear translation for the whole NT (with a grammatical parsing of every word) are also available as free downloads (ask for link, or we can email the PDF file for any NT Book to you).     [Return to Text]

²[Return to Text] “ν” (nu) is added at the end here only if the next word begins with a vowel, to avoid hiatus (a vowel sound in one syllable; τί in this case, followed by another vowel sound in the next syllable with no intervening consonant); this “ν” (nu) is referred to as a movable nu.

³[Return to Text] John 1:10-14: “He was in the world, and the world was created by him, but the world did not recognize him. ¹¹He came to what was his own, but his own people did not receive him. ¹²But to all who have received him — those who believe in his name — he has given the right to become God's children ¹³— children not born by human parents or by human desire or a husband's decision, but by God. ¹⁴Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory — the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father.” (NET Bible)

Note: There may be some who believe “the Word” refers only to the words of God and that all the words in John 1:1 ff. refer to an “it” (those words) rather than a “he” (which in some verses might be a grammatical possibility, since “ὁ λόγος” is a masculine noun, so its “he” pronouns do not necessarily mean the logos must refer to a person). But verses 12 and following make it very clear that this “Word” became Jesus Christ! So for anyone believing “the Word” in Jn. 1:1 is merely God’s words, that would mean they must also believe the Gospel of John teaches that God’s words (by themselves? Or, by God speaking His words) became the divine nature and spirit and/or soul and whatever else that made up the male portion of the DNA and all that constituted the person whom our author John knew on earth as Jesus Christ; assuming they believe the egg (female DNA) was provided by Mary. Here we have already delved deep into the topic of asking exactly who (and what) was (and is) the person of Jesus Christ. This shows it is not possible to discuss the Christian “Trinity” without also bringing up questions about the nature (or natures) of Jesus Christ: Was he only human, only divine/deity or both?

Of course, the death blow to such an idea (that “the Word” in John 1:1 is not a person) was dealt by John when he quoted Jesus himself as saying, “the glory that I had with you before the world existed” (John 17:5b). This is the person of Jesus Christ stating that he existed before the world was created (“that I had...”); meaning he, as a person, could not have been created from (or by) “The Word” in John 1:1, since he was already existing with God the Father (to whom Jesus was speaking here). Jesus is “The Word”. In effect, John shows us here that he expected his readers to identify “The Word” in John 1:1 as being the pre-incarnate person of Jesus the Messiah.     [Return to Text]

⁴[Return to Text] The Ebionites were a sect of Jews who had a Certinthian view of the Messiah: They held that Jesus the man was separate from Christ — a higher spirit which came down on Jesus during his baptism when his ministry began and left him at some time before his crucifixion. They also rejected His virgin birth. Unitarians and now some groups calling themselves "Messianic Jews" also agree with this assessment; in spite of the fact that both the Apostle Paul (it is highly likely that his letter to the Colossians and First Timothy both refer to this heresy) and various passages by the Apostle John (John 1:14; 20:31; 1 John 2:2; 4:2,15; 5:1-6 and 2 John 7) were placed into Scripture by the Holy Spirit to prevent such false teachings from becoming acceptable within the Church. Note: A greater number of Jews exist who would also call themselves Messianic but who believe in both the virgin birth and the divine nature of Jesus the Messiah (the God-Man); though at the same time possibly desiring to continue in various Jewish traditions.

⁵[Return to Text] Technically, there are two other Greek words at the end of this verse (παρὰ σοί; para soi) and another one (τοῦ; tou) in between “pro” and “ton” (basically, the word order in a Greek sentence can sometimes be rather complex; the whole sentence will be examined later in another part).

First published on: July 18, 2019 (2019.07.18);
  Revised on: June 26, 2020 (2020.06.26), August 18, 2023 (2023.08.18); slight revision.

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