R&S, why did "A Liberal Translation of the New Testament" by Edward Harwood (1768) render John 1:1 as the following?

Favorite Answer

Because he was of similar mind with other noted Greek scholars such as Professor William Barclay.

“Now normally, except for special reasons, Greek nouns always have the definite article in front of them, . . . When a Greek noun has not got the article in front of it, it becomes rather a description than an identification, and has the character of an adjective rather than of a noun. We can see exactly the same in English. If I say: ‘James is the man’, then I identify James with some definite man whom I have in mind; but, if I say: ‘James is man’, then I am simply describing James as human, and the word man has become a description and not an identification. If John had said ho theos ēn ho logos, using a definite article in front of both nouns, then he would definitely have identified the logos [the Word] with God, but because he has no definite article in front of theos it becomes a description, and more of an adjective than a noun. The translation then becomes, to put it rather clumsily, ‘The Word was in the same class as God, belonged to the same order of being as God ‘. . . . John is not here identifying the Word with God. To put it very simply, he does not say that Jesus was God.”—Many Witnesses, One Lord (1963), pages 23, 24....Show more

Liberal translations of the New Testament - whoever produces them - are to be avoided like the plague. Another liberal who translated John 1:1 as "...and the Word was a god" was defrocked Catholic priest Johannes Greber.

In 1937 Greber produced his New Testament, long before the Jehovah's Witnesses produced theirs, with its identical rendering of Jn. 1:1. What was the basis for Greber denying the full deity of the Word, who became flesh as the man, Jesus Christ? Why, spirits that communicated with him and his spiritist wife, to say he must render Jn. 1:1 as "...and the Word was a god".

'Nuff said. Well, for the JW asker of this question, that is....Show more

Because he was ignorant and or biased.

Εν αρχή ήν ο λόγος -- in the beginning was the Word [the Son]

καί ο λόγος ήν πρός τον θεόν -- and the Word was with God

καί θεός ήν ο λόγος -- and the Word was God. John 1:1

Transposing the subject and predicate nouns in the last entry of a series was a common literary device....Show more

Its the best translation at the time - and it's still a great translation showing a clear understanding of the origin and context....Show more

Like Westcott and Hort, a century later, Harwood was seen as a visionary, but in truth, all three are heretics. God gave us a litmus test for heretics in Acts 17:1-12. Test the scriptures against the scriptures themselves. God does not change, and neither does His Word (Psalm 89:34)....Show more