General Understanding John 1:3

[Lori Jane]

Understanding John 1:3​

Video Explanation by Dustin Smith



Notes on John 1:3

http://www.biblicalunitarian.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/John-1_3.pdf

Compiled by Dustin Smith, PhD
“All things came into being through him,
and apart from him nothing came into being that has come into being.”

1:3​

John 1:3 indicates that creation actively involved the logos as the principle agent (“All things came into being through him”). Again, this logos is the personified creative speech of Yahweh, and as a personification, it is given personality as if it were a male figure. In other words, our use of the masculine pronoun is in an attempt to convey the intended personification, but not to suggest that the logos is an actual person (which would be a misreading of literary personification). Some translations, failing to give weight to how personifications function in Jewish poetic literature and by the Prologue itself, have de-personified the logos here with neuter pronouns (eg., “All things came into being through it”). This is unnecessary and unlikely what was originally intended. The Greek noun logos is masculine, so the pronoun autou, while admittedly is grammatically ambiguous (since the masculine pronoun and neuter pronoun share the same spelling in this particular form), the masculine noun requires the corresponding pronoun to also be masculine. Therefore, arguments for a neuter translation “it” on the basis of Greek grammar are fallacious and cannot stand.

A responsible balance must be maintained with interpretation. It would be a knee-jerk reaction to remove the intended personification here by supplying neuter pronouns. However, the other extreme is also grossly exaggerated, namely those who see the masculine pronouns as some sort of evidence that the logos is actually a distinct person alongside Yahweh. We have labored to demonstrate with the available literary evidence that the logos was a personification, not a person.

In saying that all things were created through the agency of the logos, there is really nothing different than what was already stated back in Genesis 1 where God brought about the created order through the vehicle of his powerful and personal speech (“And God said...”). In fact, there are a variety of parallels indicating exactly how Jews often spoke of creation being brought about through God’s “word,” “wisdom,” “understanding,” and even his “prudence”:
• By the word of the Yahweh the heavens were made; yes, by the breath of His mouth all their host. (Ps 33:6)
• O Yahweh, how many are your works! In wisdom you created all of them (Ps 104:24)
• To Him who made the heavens with understanding. (Ps 136:5)
• Yahweh in wisdom founded the earth, by understanding He established the heavens. By
His knowledge the deeps were broken up. (Prov. 3:19-20; cf. 24:3-4)
• By his knowledge everything shall come into existence, and all that does not exist he establishes with his calculations and nothing is done outside of him. (1QS 11:11)
• By the knowledge of the Lord they were distinguished, and he appointed the different seasons and festivals. (Sirach 33:8)
• O God of my ancestors and Lord of mercy, who have made all things by your word, and by your wisdom have formed humankind (Wisdom 9:1-2)
• Worship the God of heaven, who causes the rain and the dew to descend on the earth and does everything upon the earth, and has created everything by his word. (Jubilees 12:4)
• Wisdom, being his mother, through whom the universe arrived at creation. (Philo, Fug. 109)
• Wisdom, through whom the universe was brought to completion. (Philo, Det. Pot. 54)
• The ages were calculated in the mysteries of His prudence (1QpHab 7:13-14)
Thus far in the Prologue, the word (logos) has been expressed as the personified agent of God’s creation, but not in any way that is unique to John’s Prologue when compared to similar expressions within contemporary Jewish literature, both biblical and extrabiblical. In each of the examples cited, God brings about the created order through one of his personified attributes. In none of these instances do the various authors express the manner in which God produces his creation as occurring through another person alongside him in heaven. Rather, these metaphors serve to indicate, poetically, that God brings about creation with his powerful word, that he established creation according to his wise ordering, or even that God brought about his creation according to his planned knowledge or crafty prudence. In other words, these sayings are functionally synonymous. It should also be noted that “word” (davar/logos) and “wisdom” (chohmah/sophia) are closely related themes, so we should not be surprised when the Fourth Gospel continues to depict Jesus as the embodiment of the personified word and the personified wisdom. In fact, the Gospel of John draws upon more personified wisdom sayings when describing Jesus than it draws upon personified word sayings.

 

[Lori Jane]

And from Joel Hemphill’s “God & Jesus - Exploring the Biblical Distinction” on page 231:

Now lets look at John 1:3, which says in the King James Version of the Bible, first published in 1611 A.D.:

“All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

Is the word “him” in this verse translated properly? First of all it does not fit with a true understanding of the two preceding verses. (“Something said” is not a “him”). Second, it is important to note that of nine prominent English translations that preceded the King James Version, not one used the word “him.” Eight of the nine rendered John 1:3, “By it all things were made. Without it nothing was made” (Tyndale Bible, 1535; Matthew, 1535; Tavener, 1539; The Great (Cramer’s) Bible, 1539; Whittingham, 1557; Genera, 1560; Bishop’s Bible, 1568; Thomson NT, 1607). One, the famous Coverdale Bible of 1550 has “the same” rather than “it.” None of these nine say “him.” Why did the King James translators render “it” as “him” as if it were a person? (They also gave “word” a capital “W” as if it were a person, which many other translators did not do). They were trinitarians and their mistaken doctrine overpowered their sense of scholarship. They had been influenced by Plato, Philo, the Nicean Council, and 1300 years of false Roman Catholic tradition. Their error has helped to lead millions of sincere Christians astray in their understanding of who the one true God is! Please consider:

In 1582 Gregory Martin did a Latin to English translation, the Roman Catholic Douay-Rheims version, in which he became the first to render John 1:3, "All things were made by him." When the King James translators, themselves trinitarians, approached John 1:3, although the Greek does not say this, they followed Martin and rendered it, "All things were made by him." This mistaken translation caused people to believe that the "Son of God" created the universe and was also "God," causing the confusion that we have been dealing with throughout the pages of this book. From Tyndale's translation in 1526 until today, there have been fifty notable translations that did not follow Douay and the KJV in their serious error. The following twenty-nine versions specifically say "it."

1. "All things were made by it" (Tyndale, 1526)
2. "All things were made by it and without it nothing was made" (Matthew's Bibleo, 1537)
3. "All things were made by it and without it was made nothing that was made" (The Great Bible, 1539)
4. "All things were made by it" (Tavener NT, 1540)
5. "All things were made by it" (Whittingham, 1557)
6. "All things were made by it" (The Geneva Bible, 1560)
7. "All things were made by it" (Bishops' Bible, 1568)
8. "All things were made by it" (Tomson NT, 1607)
9. "Nor can anything be produced that has not been made without it [Reason]" (John LeClerec, 1701)
10. "In the beginning was Wisdom...All things were made by it" (Wakefield NT, 1791)
11. "The Word... All things were made by it' (Alexander Campbell, founder of the Church of Christ, 1826)
12. "The Word...All things were formed by it" (Dickenson, A New and Corrected Version of the NT)
13. "All things were made by it' (Barnard, 1847)
14. "Through it [the logos] everything was done" (Wilson, Emphatic Diaglott, 1864)
15. "All things through it arose into being" (Folsom, 1869)
16. "All things were made through it" (Sharpe, Revision of the Authorized English Version, 1898)
17. "All things came into being in this God-conception and apart from it came not anything into being that came into being" (Overbury, 1925)
18. "All came into being through it" (Knoch, 1926)
19. "Without it nothing created sprang into existence" (Johannes Greber, 1937)
20. "It was in the beginning with God, by its activity all things came into being" (Martin Dibelius, The Message of Jesus Christ, translated by F.C. Grant, 1939)
21. "Through its agency all things came into being and apart from it has not one thing come to be" (William Temple, Archbishop of Canterbury, Readings from St. John's Gospel 1939)
22. "All was done through it" (Tomanek, 1958)
23. "It was his last were. Only it come first" (Gospels in Scouse, 1977)
24. "By it everything had being, and without it nothing had being" (Schonfield, The Original NT, 1985)
25. "In the beginning was the Plan of Yahweh. All things were done according to it" (Hawkins, Book of Yahweh, 1987)
26. "All things happened through it" (Gaus, Unvarnished NT, 1991)
27. "In the beginning was the divine word and wisdom...everything came to be by means of it" (Robert Miller, The Complete Gospels, Annotated Scholars' Version, 1992)
28. "In the beginning was the divine word and wisdom...everything came into being by means of it" (Robert Funk, The Five Gospels, 1993)
29. "In the beginning was the message, through it all things were done" (Daniels, The Four Gospels: A Non-Ecclesiastical NT, 1996)

The foregoing are twenty-nine credible witnesses that the apostle John did not believe the "word" to be a person, the "incarnate" Son of God.

 

[Lori Jane]

From this post:

Most Trinitarians rely heavily on one only of the four Gospels - John. They neglect not only the 77% of the Bible which is the Old Testament, but also most of the NT. Why did all translations in English before the King James render John 1:3: "All things were made by IT (not HIM)." How do you know that Jesus was the eternal Son of God, when no verse of Scripture calls him that? What if the Word or Wisdom was with God (John 1:1) and was fully expressive of God and this Wisdom became embodied in the real human being, Jesus (John 1:14)? Jesus would then be a human being who is the perfect embodiment and expression of the wisdom and creative activity of God ("the Word became flesh," not "the Son became flesh").

 

[Lori Jane]

From this post:

We read in John 1:3, then, that all things were made by the logos or spoken word, this theos or elohim, this putter forth of power. In English we would say, “All things were made by it,” not “by him.” This is confirmed by Psalm 33:6-9 which says, “By the word [Hebrew dabar] of the LORD were the heavens made. . . . For he spake, and it was done; he commanded, and it stood fast.”