We will see that it does not.
So "The Word was God" is not a qualitative statement. That would be a personal statement about who the Word, not what the Word is. You have conceded on record that "The Word was God" is qualitative, might I add. So the force of what John wrote in John 1:1 is essentially that the Word is Like God, but cannot be the same God. This is a problem for Trinitarianism because you need all members to be the same God. That premise grammatically not supported in John 1:1.
No. You're not understanding. There is absolutely zero room for the understanding that "the Word is Like God." You're adding in a "like" that is nowhere in the text. If that was meant to be there, John would have written it. A being either is God or it is not God; there is no "like God."
That "God was the Word" is qualitative means that the Word has the attributes of God, but only God has the attributes of God. What John is saying is that the Word is God in nature, which is another way of saying that he is God, since only God has the nature of God.
However, he also makes a distinction between God and the Word who is in nature God. So, we arrive at the Trinity as the best explanation: one God as three distinct, eternal, coequal persons.
There is no evidence that your interpretation is true in the sense you are saying.
Except for the Greek grammar, which you appeal to in 1:1c but ignore in the first two clauses. Why is that?
We can actually flip back to Genesis where right off the bat God is describing Himself as a singular person who created alone using spoken words.
Let's look at what God says about himself:
Gen 1:26 Then God said, “Let
us make man in
our image, after
our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Gen 1:27 So God created man in
his own image, in the image of God
he created him; male and female
he created them.
In speaking of
himself, God uses plural personal pronouns. Then when Moses writes out the act of creation of male and female, he uses singular personal pronouns. Why? Because there is only one God. Yet, God hints at a multiplicity within himself.
Skip forward back to John 1:1 and it says in verse 3, that "All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him." Notice it says "Through." Through refers to instrumentality, kinda like a tool.
Of course. The Word is a "person" and the agent of creation. The Word is clearly the preincarnate Son of God. This is confirmed in 1 Cor. 8:6, where Paul expands on the Shema:
1Co 8:4 Therefore, as to the eating of food offered to idols, we know that “an idol has no real existence,” and that “there is no God but one.”
1Co 8:5 For although there may be so-called gods in heaven or on earth—as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”—
1Co 8:6 yet for us there is one God, the Father,
from whom are all things and for whom we exist, and one Lord, Jesus Christ,
through whom are all things and through whom we exist.
Basic logic shows that
if "from whom are all things" shows the absolute existence of the Father,
then it necessarily follows that "through whom are all things" speaks of the absolute existence of the Son. Notice how nicely it lines up with what John states in John 1:1-14.
We also have:
Col 1:15 He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
Col 1:16
For by him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things were created through him and for him.
Col 1:17
And he is before all things, and in him all things hold together.
Once again, this perfectly lines up with John 1:1-3 and 1 Cor. 8:6. We also have:
Heb 1:2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things,
through whom also he created the world.
...
Heb 1:8
But of the Son he says, “Your throne, O God, is forever and ever, the scepter of uprightness is the scepter of your kingdom.
Heb 1:9 You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions.”
Heb 1:10
And, “You, Lord, laid the foundation of the earth in the beginning, and the heavens are the work of your hands;
Heb 1:11
they will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment,
Heb 1:12
like a robe you will roll them up, like a garment they will be changed. But you are the same, and your years will have no end.”
Again, perfect agreement with John 1:1-3, 1 Cor. 8:6, and Col. 1:15-17. Yet here we have the Father saying that Psalm 102:25-27 are speaking of the Son, despite it clearly referring to Yahweh:
Psa 102:25 Of old you laid the foundation of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands.
Psa 102:26 They will perish, but you will remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will change them like a robe, and they will pass away,
Psa 102:27 but you are the same, and your years have no end.
In addition to all these that clearly show that the Son is true deity, just as the Father is, and yet there is only one God, here is the incarnation of God who took on humanity:
Joh 1:14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
Php 2:5 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,
Php 2:6 who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped,
Php 2:7 but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men.
Php 2:8 And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Notice that Jesus (as the Son) "was in the form of God," then "emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men."
He emptied
himself, "by taking the form of a servant, by being born in the likeness of men." That necessarily entails that he pre-existed and had such power that he could empty himself.
Just as it would be absolutely false to say that the Son was the agent of creation for all things that came into existence but was himself created (that at one point he didn't exist), it would be false to claim that he emptied himself to become human, but didn't exist prior to being born.
Once again, perfect agreement with all the above passages. If the Son didn't exist for all eternity past, just as the Father has, then all the above passages are false and we should all just throw out our Bible as they are completely untrustworthy in what they say.
