I agree that the context lays the groundwork for accurate understanding. Even the
King James Version says, “The Word was
with God.” Someone who is “with” another person cannot be the same as that other person. In agreement with this, the
Journal of Biblical Literature, edited by Jesuit Joseph A. Fitzmyer, notes that if the latter part of
John 1:1 were interpreted to mean “the” God, this “would then contradict the preceding clause,” which says that the Word was
with God.
Notice, too, how other translations render this part of the verse:
1808: “and the word was a god.”
The New Testament in an Improved Version, Upon the Basis of Archbishop Newcome’s New Translation: With a Corrected Text.
1864: “and a god was the word.”
The Emphatic Diaglott, interlinear reading, by Benjamin Wilson.
1928: “and the Word was a divine being.”
La Bible du Centenaire, L’Evangile selon Jean, by Maurice Goguel.
1935: “and the Word was divine.”
The Bible—An American Translation, by J. M. P. Smith and E. J. Goodspeed.
1946: “and of a divine kind was the Word.”
Das Neue Testament, by Ludwig Thimme.
1950: “and the Word was a god.”
New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures.
1958: “and the Word was a God.”
The New Testament, by James L. Tomanek.
1975: “and a god (or, of a divine kind) was the Word.”
Das Evangelium nach Johannes, by Siegfried Schulz.
1978: “and godlike kind was the Logos.”
Das Evangelium nach Johannes, by Johannes Schneider.
They render there translations this way because at
John 1:1 there are two occurrences of the Greek noun
theos (god). The first occurrence refers to Almighty God, with whom the Word was with (God). This first
theos is preceded by the word
ton (the), a form of the Greek definite article that points to a distinct identity, in this case the Word was with the Almighty God (“and the Word was with [the] God”).
On the other hand, there is no article before the second occurrence of
theos (god) at
John 1:1. So a literal translation would read, “and god was the Word.” Yet as I have seen that many translations render this second
theos (a predicate noun) as “divine,” “godlike,” or “a god.” So on what authority do they do this?
The Koine Greek language had a definite article (“the”), but it did not have an indefinite article (“a” or “an”). So when a predicate noun is not preceded by the definite article, it may be indefinite, depending on the context.
The
Journal of Biblical Literature says that expressions “with an anarthrous [no article] predicate preceding the verb, are primarily qualitative in meaning.” As the
Journal notes, this indicates that the
logos can be likened to a god. It also says of
John 1:1: “The qualitative force of the predicate is so prominent that the noun [
theosʹ] cannot be regarded as definite.”
So
John 1:1 highlights the quality of the Word, that he was “divine,” “godlike,” “a god,” but not Almighty God. This harmonizes with the rest of the Bible, which shows that Jesus, here called “the Word” in his role as God’s Spokesman, was an obedient subordinate sent to earth by his Superior, Almighty God.
So you can say regarding the NWT when it renders the last part of John 1:1 as, "the word was a "god" that it isn't to do with context or grammar but there are other translators of other Bibles that disagree with you. These translations existed before the NWT and these translations render the last part of John 1:1 as "the word was a god, a god was the word, the word was a divine being, etc. but not as, the word was God.