Origen's Commentary on John 1:1c (From the RDB Files)
The best and most-respected scholar (and expert in the NT Greek which he not only spoke as his first language but taught professionally) of the first four centuries was Origen. He was so respected for his scholarship that both sides (trinitarian and anti-trinitarian) referred to his writings in the Council of Nicea in 325 A.D. (This is the Church council which established [by the pagan emperor's will] the beginning of the trinity doctrine: Christ is equally God with the Father.)
Excerpts from Origen's "Commentary on John" (The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Eerdmans, 1990 printing)
Actual quotes from the Commentary are interspersed with blue-bracketed information added by me. This is either a transliteration of the Greek or explanatory information. The green-colored print is my paraphrase of what has just been quoted.
[John begins Book 2 of his Commentary on John with John 1:1 b and c: "And the Word [ho logos] was with God and the word was [theos]." The first three chapters are devoted to this. Chapter 4 continues with John 1:2]:
Book 2, Ch. 2:
"We next notice John's use of the article ["the" ho or o in the NT Greek when used with theos or logos] in these sentences. He does not write without care in this respect, nor is he unfamiliar with the niceties of the Greek tongue. In some cases he uses the article, and in some he omits it.
As the [theos] who is over all is [theos] with the article [ho theos] not without it [theos], so "the Logos" is the source of that reason (Logos) which dwells in every reasonable creature; the reason [logos] which is in each creature is not, like the former called par excellence The Logos.
[In John 1:1b and c we find that John uses the definite article ("the" in English, ho in Greek) with Logos (Word or Reason) who is above all others ("par excellence") in that category! But we also see in this passage that John uses the article with theos (ho theos) when he means "God" who is over all but does not use theos without the article for the God who is over all, and does use theos without the article when he calls The Logos theos in John 1:1c.]
".... God [ho theos] on the one hand is Very God (Autotheos, God of Himself); and so the Saviour says in His prayer to the Father, (7) "That they may know Thee the only true God;" but that all beyond the Very God [Autotheos] is made God [theos ?] by participation in His divinity, and is not to be called simply [ho theos] (with the article), but rather [theos] (without article). And thus the first-born of all creation, who is the first to be with God, and to attract to Himself divinity, is a being of more exalted rank than the other gods beside Him, of whom God [ho theos] is the God, as it is written, (8) "The God of gods, the Lord, hath spoken and called the earth." It was by the offices of the first-born that they became gods, for He drew from God [ho theos] in generous measure that they should be made gods, and He communicated it to them according to His own bounty. The true God, then, is "The God," and those who are formed after Him are gods, images, as it were, of Him the prototype." - p. 323, Vol. 10, The Ante-Nicene Fathers, (Bk2, Ch.2, Commentary on John.)
[Ho theos is the Most High God and is the Father alone. And everyone else may become theos (without the article) by means of His divinity. And, therefore, the firstborn of all creation, who is the first to be with the uncreated God, became theos (without the article). He is the one who drew from the divinity of the Father (God - ho theos - alone) and caused others to become theos (without the article) also. The true God, then, is the Father alone, the one who is consistently called ho theos. And those who came into existence after him (everyone else) who are called gods are mere lesser images of Him each of whom is called only theos (without the article).]
"Now it is possible that some may dislike what we have said representing the Father as the one true God, but admitting other beings besides the true God, who have become gods by having a share of God. They may fear that the glory of Him who surpasses all creation [ho theos] may be lowered to the level of those other beings called gods. We drew this distinction between Him [ho theos] and them that we showed [theos] the Word to be to all the other gods the minister of their divinity." - p. 323, (Bk 2, Ch. 3).
[Some persons may not like hearing that the Father alone is the one true God (and all others who are properly called theos have become gods - not God - through God sharing some of his divinity with them). They fear that the Father may be lowered in the minds of some because of others being called theos (without the article)
{which is exactly what has happened with the introduction of the trinity idea in the 4th century}. So we have pointed out the great difference between the only God (ho theos) and those merely called theos who are below him by comparing it to the superiority of the Logos (theos also) over all the other gods.]"First, we spoke about God [ho theos] and the Word of God, and of Gods [theoi - 'gods'], either, that is, beings who partake in deity [as does the Word and all the other gods] or beings who are called [theoi- gods] and are not. .... There was God with the article [ho theos] and God [or 'a god'] without the article [theos], then there were gods in two orders, at the summit of the higher order of whom is God [theos] the Word, transcended Himself by the God of the universe [ho theos]. And, again, there was the Logos with the article [ho logos - "the Word" or "the Reason"] and the Logos without the article [logos], corresponding to God absolutely [ho theos] and a god [theos]."- p. 324 (Bk 2, Ch. 3).
[First, we spoke of God, the only, the unbegotten, the Most High, the Father as ho theos. Then we spoke of the Logos (Word or Reason) of God as only theos. Then we spoke of those who are truly gods because God has caused them to be such and of those who are called theos but are not. Of these two kinds of gods (real and false) the Logos is the highest of the real gods.
But the Logos (the Word, theos in John 1:1c) is transcended (greatly surpassed or exceeded) by the God of the universe (ho theos), the Father alone! Again, we have the example of the Logos (ho logos) being transcendent over all others called logos and this usage corresponds with God (the Father alone) being called ho theos and being transcendent over all those merely called theos!]
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Parts bracketed in blue are added by me. Parts in green are my paraphrase of what Origen has written above it. Emphasis is also mine.
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Since ho theos (o qeoV) is universally accepted as "God" and theos (without the article ho) is also used for "a god" (2 Thess. 2:4 - NAB, NEB, Lamsa, Byington, Young's Concise Critical Commentary, The Emphatic Diaglott, The Interlinear Greek-English New Testament by The Rev. Alfred Marshall D.Litt, etc.; Judges 6:31 - Greek Septuagint OT; 1 Kings 18:27 - Greek Septuagint; Ezekiel 28:2 - Greek Septuagint), and, as Origen points out, the angels of God are called gods (as well as certain men appointed by God to do His will - John 10:34, 35), then why is the logical, literal translation of John 1:1c ("and the Word was a god") disputed?
