I've found that truth is much more simplistic than many seem to think.
Many times. Occam’s Razor applies well here.
Who was
Jesus’ God? Who did
he worship? Yes, it is simple.
When you say "divine being" what do you mean?
First off,
I didn’t say it. A
trinitarian Catholic priest said it.
You know, in your relatively short reply, you asked 7 questions. Many times I find that, in a debate, when the opposing side asks so many questions, the intent is to cloud the issue.
But really, I think Mr. McKenzie was quite clear: the text isn’t saying Jesus was God, but rather, as other translations have worded it, Jesus was a god, a god-like being, or a divine being.
Examples:
▪ 1808: "and the Word was a god" – Thomas Belsham The New Testament, in an Improved Version, Upon the Basis of Archbishop Newcome’s New Translation: With a Corrected Text, London.
▪ 1822: "and the Word was a god" – The New Testament in Greek and English (A. Kneeland, 1822.)
▪ 1829: "and the Word was a god" – The Monotessaron; or, The Gospel History According to the Four Evangelists (J. S. Thompson, 1829)
▪ 1863: "and the Word was a god" – A Literal Translation of the New Testament (Herman Heinfetter [Pseudonym of Frederick Parker], 1863)
▪ 1864: "and a god was the Word" – The Emphatic Diaglott by Benjamin Wilson, New York and London (left hand column interlinear reading)
▪ 1867: "In the beginning was the gospel preached through the Son. And the gospel was the word, and the word was with the Son, and the Son was with God, and the Son was of God" – The Joseph Smith Translation of the Bible
▪ 1879: "and the Word was a god" – Das Evangelium nach Johannes (J. Becker, 1979)
▪ 1885: "and the Word was a god" – Concise Commentary on The Holy Bible (R. Young, 1885)
▪ 1911: "and the Word was a god" – The Coptic Version of the N.T. (G. W. Horner, 1911)
▪ 1935: "and the Word was divine" – The Bible: An American Translation, by John M. P. Smith and Edgar J. Goodspeed, Chicago
▪ 1955: "so the Word was divine" – The Authentic New Testament, by Hugh J. Schonfield, Aberdeen.
▪ 1958: "and the Word was a god" – The New Testament of Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Anointed (J. L. Tomanec, 1958)
▪ 1966, 2001: "...and he was the same as God" – The Good News Bible
▪ 1970, 1989: "...and what God was, the Word was" – The Revised English Bible
▪ 1975 "and a god (or, of a divine kind) was the Word" – Das Evangelium nach Johnnes, by Siegfried Schulz, Göttingen, Germany
▪ 1975: "and the Word was a god" – Das Evangelium nach Johannes (S. Schulz, 1975);
▪ 1978: "and godlike sort was the Logos" – Das Evangelium nach Johannes, by Johannes Schneider, Berlin
Some use the term "
divine." (1)
Trinitarian Moffatt's popular New Translation of the Bible and (2)
trinitarian Smith-Goodspeed's An American Translation both say that the Word "was divine." The translations by (3) Boehmer, (4) Stage, and (5) Menge all say the Word was "of divine being."
Late 2nd or early 3rd century CE “and a god was the Word” - The Sahidic Coptic Version (an early Egyptian text based on the Greek alphabet)
1768 “and was himself a divine person” - Edward Harwood, A Liberal Translation of the New Testament
There are more that agree with the above.
The Gospel of John was written in Koine, or common Greek, which has specific rules regarding the use of the definite article. Biblical scholar A. T. Robertson avers that if both subject and predicate have articles, “both are definite, treated as identical, one and the same, and interchangeable.” Robertson considers as an example
Matthew 13:38, which reads: “The field [Greek, ho a·grosʹ] is the world [Greek, ho koʹsmos].” The grammar enables us to understand that the world is also the field.
What, though, if the subject has a definite article but the predicate does not, as in
John 1:1? Citing that verse as an example, scholar James Allen Hewett emphasizes: “In such a construction the subject and predicate
are not the same, equal, identical, or anything of the sort.”
To illustrate, Hewett uses
1 John 1:5, which says: “God is light.” In Greek, “God” is ho the·osʹ and therefore has a definite article. But phos for “light” is not preceded by any article. Hewett points out: “One can always . . . say of God He is characterized by light; one cannot always say of light that it is God.” Similar examples are found at
John 4:24, “God is a Spirit,” and at
1 John 4:16, “God is love.” In both of these verses, the subjects have definite articles but the predicates, “Spirit” and “love,” do not. So the subjects and predicates are not interchangeable. These verses cannot mean that “Spirit is God” or “love is God.”
So, it would be inaccurate to say “this is a construction by JW’s”
Regarding your comment on “Gods many and Lords many”…. please read the Apostle Paul’s words at 1 Corinthians 8:5,6.
So there are other gods & lords, which people accept for themselves. But to clarify: who did Paul mention was the “one God” for him and other Christians?