The First 5 Words of John

My favorite gospel is John. Not only is it written (in my view) by the apostle who was closest to Jesus (and thus, in my opinion, more thoughtful than the synoptics) it also has the best name 🙂

So here are the first five words of John’s Gospel:

ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος

To translate this “word for word” and preserve the same word order it would be:

in beginning was the word…

Here’s a survey of how a few translations handle these first five words:

KJV: In the beginning was the Word

NKJV: In the beginning was the Word

ESV: In the beginning was the Word

NIV (2010): In the beginning was the Word

HCSB: In the beginning was the Word

NASB: In the beginning was the Word

CEV: In the beginning was the one who is called the Word

NCV: In the beginning there was the Word

Amplified Bible: IN THE beginning [before all time] was the Word (Christ)

La Bible du Semeur: Au commencement était celui

So most of the versions follow the Greek word order, but is this really a good translation? Here’s the thing, in Greek the word order, basically, indicates emphasis and not the function in the clause. Where as, in English our word order indicates when something is a “subject” or and “object” etc. For Greek, subject/object distinction (among other things) is determined by the spelling of the words.

So here’s the deal,  ὁ λόγος is in the “nominative” case, that means that it’s the subject of the sentence. In English (usually) the subject comes first, even though that’s not the case in Greek.

So, that’s why I translate it “The word (already) was in the beginning.” So why do most of the other translations (mis)translate this verse the way they do?

Well, here are my thoughts.

#1 The KJV translates it that way. No other translation has had more influence over modern translations than the KJV. Even Bibles who claim to be completely independent of other translations and “straight from he Greek” are still translated by men & women who have the KJV wrapped around their brainstems. KJV casts a HUGE shaddow.

#2 Many people believe (in my opinion, incorrectly) that by continuing the Greek word order into English they preserve the text. This is the more “word-for-word” philosophy. I believe it’s fairly obvious that keeping the Greek word order at the expense of the natural English word order ipso facto you have made a less correct English translation.

#3 The first two words in the LXX (Septuagint, the Greek translation of the OT that the NT mostly quotes from) are ἐν ἀρχῇ. I believe it’s obvious that John is trying to draw a parallel between the beginning of the gospel and the beginning of all things in Genesis. In other words, Jesus already was in THE beginning. So, it preserves that continuity in English to keep “In the beginning” at the front of the phrase. However, this makes for a lesser translation.

The word order in Greek stresses that it is THE beginning, the very beginning of everything. This “word” already existed, he WAS already present at the start of all things, even before the beginning of Genesis 1:1. But the subject, the main actor of this clause is THE WORD. He is the main figure and I think it’s better to keep the natural English word order. “The word was in the beginning.”

From that standpoint, I think The Message does best “The Word was first”