JOHN 1:18
WHO was Only-Begotten
... the SON+ or
"THEOS " ?
No man hath seen GOD
at any time,
the only-begotten SON+,
which is in the bosom
of the FATHER,
HE+ hath declared HIM.
John 1:18 KJV*
*( See a Few Notes on the Greek at the end of this article. )
Can a one-word CHANGE affect the entire IDENTITY of The SON+ of
GOD, our LORD JESUS CHRIST ?
Yes. The Alexandrian manuscripts ( mss ) have made it so.
There are a few manuscripts ---seven , to
be exact** --- which
changed one word in John
1:18 :
They changed
SON+ into "GOD"
**
based on NA26th apparatus.
By changing that one word, those seven manuscripts
manage to confuse and refute the IDENTITY of our LORD JESUS CHRIST as
part of The ELOHIM, the GODHEAD.
Somehow, those seven Alexandrian manuscripts missed the point.
In context, John the Baptist was bearing witness of The LORD JESUS
in verses 15 through 18. In these
verses, which is the record of John the Baptist, he is explaining The ELOHIM.
John 1:15-18
John bare witness of
HIM+,
and cried, saying,
This was HE+ of whom I
spake,
HE+ that cometh after
me is preferred before me: for HE+ was before me.
16 And of His+ fulness have all we
received, and grace for grace.
17 For the law was given by Moses, but
grace and truth came by JESUS CHRIST.
18 No man hath seen GOD at any time, the
Only-Begotten SON+,
Who+ is in the bosom of
the FATHER,
HE+ hath declared HIM.
+ + +
More precisely, John was clarifying the identity of The LORD JESUS
CHRIST as The Only-Begotten SON+
Who+ abides in The GODHEAD.
John was showing how the SON+ is with The
FATHER and always had been ... and always , ever will
be.
The Alexandrian manuscripts which have somehow written GOD instead
of SON+ in this verse (totally out of context with the record and message of
John the Baptist ) are:
·
Papyrus 75
·
Papyrus 66
·
Codex Aleph (01) (
Sinaiticus )
·
Codex B (03) ( Vaticanus) --- in the picture above
·
Codex C (04) --- Ephraemi
Syriac
·
Codex L (019) Codex Regius
pc ( i.e., pauci, a little )
·
minuscule 33 pc
What is crucial to understand, though, is that modern English
versions which follow the Alexandrian school of thought , reject the
well-attested "Only-Begotten SON+ " .
They present the readers the phrase, "only begotten GOD
" based on these few manuscripts
which Westcott and Hort followed when they published their 1881 Alexandrian-based Greek text.
In contrast, those manuscripts attesting to the "Only-Begotten
SON+ " are vast and include
manuscripts written in the 5th Century with texts based even earlier,
perhaps. They include a wide range of
locality in Christendom as well.
·
Alexandrinus -- 5th
century
·
C-3rd corrector of the
Ephraemi Syriac Codex 04, 5th century
·
THETA (038) Koridethianus
-- 9th century, from the Georgia/Russian area
·
PSI (043) --8th/ 9th
century mixed text types
·
063 -- 9th century
·
F-1 group of 5 minuscules , Cesarian text, South Italy
·
F-13 group of 13
minuscules, Cesarian text, South Italy
·
Majority Text / Byzantine
manuscripts... which includes
UNCIALS: According to NA26th, only 4 out of 49 uncials which
contain the book of John have GOD instead of SON+. This is not counting the many minuscules
which derived from many parts of Christendom.
·
Latin ( partial
agreement of Old Latin mss with the
Vulgate )
·
Syriac - Curetonian,
Harklean
·
W-s (032) Codex Washingtonensis, mixed text, 10th
century, Egypt
·
Italia -- Old Latin
manuscripts, very old, pre- 200 AD perhaps
Here is a list , courtesy of Biblegateway.com , of the modern versions which replace SON+
with GOD. [ If the abbreviations baffle you, please contact me via a comment
and I will give you a comprehensive list of these Bible abbreviations. / SJH +
+ + ]
AMP
No
one has seen God [His essence, His divine nature] at any time; the [One and] only
begotten God [that is, the unique Son] who is in the intimate presence of the
Father, He has explained Him [and interpreted and revealed the awesome wonder
of the Father].
AMPC
No
man has ever seen God at any time; the only unique Son, or
the only begotten God, Who is in the bosom [in the intimate presence] of the
Father, He has declared Him [He has revealed Him and brought Him out where He
can be seen; He has interpreted Him and He has made Him known].
DLNT
No
one has ever seen God; the only-born God, the One being in the
bosom of the Father— that One expounded Him.
ESV
No
one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made
him known.
ESVUK
No
one has ever seen God; the only God, who is at the Father's side, he has made
him known.
EXB
No
one has ever seen God [C God the Father, who
is pure spirit; 4:24]. But ·God the only Son [God the one and only; the only
Son who is himself God; T God the only
begotten] is ·very close to [by the side of; close to the heart of; T in the bosom of] the
Father, and he has ·shown us what God is like [made him known].
ISV
No
one has ever seen God. The uniquely existing God, who is close to the Father’s
side, has revealed him.
LEB
No
one has seen God at any time; the one and only, God, the one who is in the
bosom of the Father—that one has made him known.
MSG
No one has ever seen God, not so much as a
glimpse. This one-of-a-kind God-Expression, who exists at the very heart of the
Father, has made him plain as day.
NASB
No
one has seen God at any time; the only begotten God who is in the bosom of the
Father, He has explained Him.
NET
No
one has ever seen God. The only one, himself God, who is in closest fellowship
with the Father, has made God known.
NIRV
No
one has ever seen God. But the One and Only is God and is at the Father’s side.
The one at the Father’s side has shown us what God is like.
NLT
No
one has ever seen God. But the unique One, who is himself God, is near to the
Father’s heart. He has revealed God to us.
NRSV
No
one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s
heart, who has made him known.
NRSVA
No
one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s
heart, who has made him known.
NRSVACE
No
one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s
heart, who has made him known.
NRSVCE
No
one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s
heart, who has made him known.
NTE
Nobody
has ever seen God. The only-begotten God, who is intimately close to the
father – he has brought him to light.
TLV
No
one has ever seen God; but the one and only God, in the Father’s embrace, has
made Him known.
VOICE
God,
unseen until now, is revealed in the Voice, God’s only Son, straight from
the Father’s heart.
+
+ +
At a glance, anyone can see that
many of these versions are VERY FAR from a literal translation. Some of them
are commentaries , telling the reader what they suppose the Word
of GOD means, instead of a translation from the Greek into
English of what the Word of GOD says.
~ ~ ~
Literal Greek*
*A Few Notes on the literal Greek for those interested.
Not one
has perceived GOD at any time the only-Begotten SON+
the ONE+
being in the bosom of The FATHER
That
ONE+
HE+
declared HIMSELF.
+ + +
All the words in BLUE are in the Nominative Case. In other words,
they are subjects ! But, they are NOT the SUBJECT of the clause: not one
has perceived at any time. In this clause, "not
one" or No-one ( KJV ) is the subject.
This is a strange construction. All these words are in the
nominative (i.e., subject ) case:
·
the only-Begotten SON+
·
the One+ being
·
That One+
They are actually what we would term "words in
apposition". In other words, they
are simply re-naming or re-identifying HE+ Who+ has
declared or made clear or expounded The FATHER.
~ ~ ~
egs-AgAsato = The prefix egs, which basically means OUT,
is added to the root word, Ageomai. That root word means to lead or bring. With the prefix OUT, it means to bring FORTH,
to bring OUT.
This verb form is a deponent and middle voice verb.
In this sentence, this specific verb form is indicative, aorist,
MIDDLE DEPONENT... which indicates a REFLEXIVE movement.
Thus, The Only-Begotten SON+ "declares" or makes CLEAR
... what ? What does the
Only-Begotten SON+ makes clear, what
does HE+ reveal or show forth?
There is no other word, no direct object following this verb in
the Greek. So, what is HE+ declaring,
expounding, or "making clear" ?
Because the verb is Middle Reflexive, The LORD JESUS is making
clear HIMSELF, The ELOHIM !
The KJV tries to show this by putting HIM in italicized
print, because the word HIM is not
in the literal Greek.
John the Baptist is revealing in this passage that The LORD JESUS
CHRIST is part of the ELOHIM: the
unified, plural ONE , i.e, The FATHER--The SON+ -- and The HOLY SPIRIT. In
Ecclesiastical terms, the Trinity.
~ ~ ~
oudeis = not even one . The
separate word EIS is the cardinal number one, when it has a diacritical mark ,
the circumflex, above the iota ( like a bird's eye).
~ ~ ~
the ONE+
being unto the bosom of The FATHER . . .
The word ONE+ at the
beginning of this phrase is really # 3588 ho = "the". It is frequently translated in
the KJV as "which or who was.... "
It is grammatical to translate "the" as "the
one" or "the
one who... ".
being = a
verb, participle of EIMI ( to be ), present , active, Nominative,
masculine, singular
+ + +
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