on first john 5:20 it says that Jesus Christ is the true God and eternal life. I decided to see what it said in the nwt and it was very similar just that it read life everlasting instead of eternal life. I realized that they didn't lower case the 'g', unless I overlooked it, when saying Jesus was God or even a god. I would be interested in anyones views or opinions on this please.
opinions on this verse please
by bite me 7 Replies latest watchtower bible
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Jringe01
It should be a lower case g. According to the WTS the only one who gets an upper case G is Jehovah.
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MissingLink
New International Version
We know also that the Son of God has come and has given us understanding, so that we may know him who is true. And we are in him who is true—even in his Son Jesus Christ. He is the true God and eternal life.
The first two sentences mention god and the son of god. The last sentence appears to be referring to the father, not the son.
Aplified Bible doesn't seem to agree.
And we [have seen and] know [positively] that the Son of God has [actually] come to this world and has given us understanding and insight [progressively] to perceive (recognize) and come to know better and more clearly Him Who is true; and we are in Him Who is true--in His Son Jesus Christ (the Messiah). This [Man] is the true God and Life eternal.
Could go either way?
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bite me
that is what I thought. I looked at it again and it does show a capital God. this caught my attention because to me it seems like they are talking about Jesus.
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Narkissos
There are a few questionable renderings in the NWT for this verse:
- that we may gain the knowledgeof the true one.Actually, that we may know (ginôskômen). Compare the similar (but formally inconsistent) NWT of the closest parallel, John 17:3, "their taking in knowledge of you". In both cases the overtranslation of the (subjunctive) present tense ignores the particularity of cognitive verbs: a state of knowing is not the same as a process of learning.
- And we are in union with the true one, by means of his Son Jesus Christ.Actually, we are in the true one in his Son Jesus Christ. Here the same construction (en + dative) is rendered differently, creating an artificial dilemma for the referent of the next sentence.
- This is the true God and life everlasting."This" suggests a neuter (touto)while the Greek demonstrative is masculine (houtos, this one). Cf. v. 6, where the NWT renders the same construction (houtos estin) as "this is he that came..."
Stepping back, the question whether "this one" refers to God or Christ is pointless, because the thrust of the passage (and of many Johannine texts) is precisely that being "in" one is being "in" the other, in a sort of functional (if not ontological) equation. Insisting that the referent of "this one" must be exclusively "the true one" reduces the last sentence to a tautology ("the true one is the true one/God"). In fact the NWT doesn't do that, instead it resorts to the trick of shifting to the neuter -- "this (what?) is the true God"... Not only is it exegetically unsound, it is also theologically shortsighted from the WT perspective, making the text sound even more "Gnostic" than it actually is: knowing / being in God is God? Interesting idea, probably close to the intent (although not letter) of the text, but not quite the WT kind...
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Alwayshere
It's clear to me it is talking about 2 different persons. "Even in HIS SON Jesus Christ."
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Hortensia
well, I'm happy to say I am so far out of the whole religion thing that I thought this thread would be about poetry. I thought bite me wanted some criticism of a poem! Sorry folks, nothing really to do with the topic.
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Rapunzel
Hortensia - Your statement is an interesting one. The term verse is normally associated with metrical composition in either poetry or song; it also refers to a subdivision of the Bible. This is curious though because, whereas some of the Bible is written in poetic metre, a lot of it is in prose. And yet, the term verse refers to any subdivision of the Bible, whether it is poetry or prose.