Please help me to understand what is meant here. If Jesus was "a god" then He could be THE God or a false god. What else could this mean? How can Jesus be "a god"?
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As for the use of "a god" by John,
This is a fact acknowledged by even most trinitarian experts:
Some of these trinitarian sources which admit that the Bible actually describes
men who represent God (judges, faithful Israelite kings, etc.) and God’s
angels as gods (or
a god) include:
1.
Young’s Analytical Concordance of the Bible, “Hints and Helps...,” Eerdmans, 1978 reprint;
2.
Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible, #430, Hebrew & Chaldee Dict., Abingdon, 1974;
3.
New Bible Dictionary, p. 1133, Tyndale House Publ., 1984;
4.
Today’s Dictionary of the Bible, p. 208, Bethany House Publ., 1982;
5. Hastings’
A Dictionary of the Bible, p. 217, Vol. 2;
6.
The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew-English Lexicon, p. 43, Hendrickson publ.,1979;
7.
Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament, #2316 (4.), Thayer, Baker Book House, 1984 printing;
8.
The International Standard Bible Encyclopaedia, p. 132, Vol. 1; & p. 1265, Vol. 2, Eerdmans, 1984;
9.
The NIV Study Bible, footnotes for Ps. 45:6; Ps. 82:1, 6; & Jn 10:34; Zondervan, 1985;
10.
New American Bible, St. Joseph ed., footnote for Ps. 45:7; 82:1; Jn 10:34; 1970 ed.;
11. A. T. Robertson,
Word Pictures, Vol. 5, pp. 188-189;
12. William G. T. Shedd,
Dogmatic Theology, Vol. 1, pp. 317, 324, Nelson Publ., 1980 printing;
13. Murray J. Harris,
Jesus As God, p. 202, Baker Book House, 1992;
14. William Barclay,
The Gospel of John, V. 2, Daily Study Bible Series, pp. 77, 78, Westminster Press, 1975;
15.
The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible (
John 10:34 and Ps. 82:6);
16.
The Fourfold Gospel (Note for
John 10:35);
17.
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible - Jamieson, Fausset, Brown
(
John 10:34-36);
18.
Matthew Henry Complete Commentary on the Whole Bible (Ps. 82:6-8 and
John 10:35);
19.
John Wesley's Explanatory Notes on the Whole Bible (Ps. 82:1).
20.
Theological Dictionary of the New Testament ('Little Kittel'), - p. 328, Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1985.
21.
The Expositor’s Greek Testament, pp. 794-795, Vol. 1, Eerdmans Publishing Co.
22.
The Amplified Bible, Ps. 82:1, 6 and
John 10:34, 35, Zondervan Publ., 1965.
23.
Barnes' Notes on the New Testament,
John 10:34, 35.
24. B. W. Johnson's
People's New Testament,
John 10:34-36.
25.
The New International Dictionary of New Testament Theology, Zondervan, 1986, Vol. 3, p. 187.
26.
Fairbairn’s Imperial Standard Bible Encyclopedia, p. 24, vol. III, Zondervan, 1957 reprint.
27.
Theological Dictionary, Rahner and Vorgrimler, p. 20, Herder and Herder, 1965.
(also
John 10:34, 35 -
NEB;
CEV; TEV; GodsWord; The Message; NLT; NIRV)
And the earliest Christians like the highly respected NT scholar Origen and others - - including Tertullian; Justin Martyr; Hippolytus; Clement of Alexandria; Theophilus; the writer of “The Epistle to Diognetus”; and even super-trinitarians St. Athanasius and St. Augustine - - also had this understanding for “
a god.”
They saw nothing wrong with calling certain men “gods” if they were trying to follow God and be his representatives or ambassadors. Just because it sounds strange to our ears today in modern English is no reason to ignore the facts!
Not only does the literal grammar of
John 1:1c translate into English as "a god", but
all proper examples of parallel constructions by John are translated as indefinite nouns ("
a prophet," "
a king," etc.)