John 1:1 and the Jehovah’s Witnesses – Episode 27, Peter’s Testimony to Jesus’ Deity

As we’re seeking to understand how to translate John 1:1c, we’ve seen that three possibilities exist, “and the Word was a god,” “and the Word was divine,” and “and the Word was God.” We’ve been trying to show why it could not or would not make sense for John to be saying that Jesus was ‘a’ god. Would the apostle John be out of step with the other apostles and view Jesus as a created being? John spoke of the unity of the apostles in 1 John 1,

What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have beheld and our hands have handled concerning the Word of life – and the life was manifested, and we have seen and bear witness and announce to you that eternal life which was with the Father and manifested to us – what we have seen and heard, we announce also to you, that you also might have fellowship with us. And this fellowship of ours is with the Father and with His Son, Jesus Christ. (verses 1-3)

We can see that the rest of the apostles whose writings we have in our New Testament, did not view Jesus as a created being but as the One who was worthy of worship, the living and Almighty God, Yahweh Himself, the Yahweh who called down fire and brimstone from Yahweh out of heaven (Genesis 19).

The Apostle Peter

We hear Peter’s voice through the Gospel of Mark (tradition tells us that Mark recorded Peter’s expression of the gospel) and through Peter’s letters, 1&2 Peter. And in both places we see clear recognition that Jesus is God.

The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ, Son of God. As it is written in Isaiah the prophet, “Behold, I send my messenger before your face, who will prepare your way, a voice of one crying out in the wilderness, ‘prepare the way of the Lord, make straight his paths.'” John the baptizer came in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for forgiveness of sins. (Mark 1:1-4)

Mark’s quotation is actually a combination of Malachi 3:1, which we saw earlier, and Isaiah 40:3. Yahweh is sending His messenger before the face of the Messenger of the Covenant, Malachi tells us, and Isaiah says this voice crying in the wilderness is preparing the way for Yahweh (translated “Lord” in our text). Mark identifies the voice crying in the wilderness as John the Baptist’s voice, and of course, John the Baptist is preparing the way for Jesus. Jesus is that Messenger of the Covenant of Malachi 3 and Yahweh of Isaiah 40.

They came carrying with them a paralytic, borne up by four of them. And because they were unable to bring him before Jesus on account of the crowd, they took the roof apart where he was, and digging out the roof they lowered the mat on which the paralytic was lying. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, “Child, your sins are forgiven.” The Scribes sitting there reasoned in their hearts, “Why is he saying this? Blasphemy! Who is able to forgive sins except God alone?” (Mark 2:3-7)

The reasoning of the Scribes is valid. Only God can forgive our sins. Jesus offers proof that “the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth” (verse 10) by healing the paralytic.
Jesus uses this title that we have seen comes from Daniel 7, the one like a son of man to whom all the kingdoms of earth are given and to whom all the people of earth give service or worship. Jesus is exercising his authority now.  He expresses that authority again in another instance.

When Jesus’ disciples are picking heads of grain on the Sabbath, because they are so hungry, the Pharisees take exception. But Jesus gives them biblical evidence that their understanding of the law of the Sabbath is incorrect, and then seals that by declaring, “The Son of Man is Lord indeed of the Sabbath” (Mark 2:28). There is only one Lord of the Sabbath, only one person who can declare the meaning of the Law, and that is Yahweh.

Then there is Peter’s address to the recipients of his second letter.

Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have been chosen for the equally privileged faith as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of our God and Jesus our Lord. (2 Peter 1:1,2)

It is acknowledged that this could be translated, “the righteousness of our God and of our Savior Jesus Christ,” making this a righteous act of both the Father and the Son, in line, perhaps, with verse 2, “the knowledge of our God and Jesus our Lord.” And even if it were, this would be an acknowledgement that Jesus and the Father are equal, both choosing us in righteousness, both multiplying grace and peace to us through knowing them.

But there is every reason to translate Peter’s greeting in the way I have above, making an even clearer statement by Peter that Jesus is both God and Savior. In his letter it has been noted that (1) Peter uses the term “savior” only without the definite article (soter) and only referring to Jesus, (2) “savior” never stands by itself but is always connected to a preceding noun with the definite article, and (3) the two nouns so linked always refer to the same person, Jesus (Murray J. Harris, Jesus as God, pp. 234-235). Here are the four usages:

1:1 tou theou hemon kai soteros Iesou Christou
      The God of us and savior Jesus Christ
1:11 tou kuriou hemon kai soteros Iesou Christou
        The Lord of us and savior Jesus Christ
2:20 tou kuriou hemon kai soteros Iesou Christou
        The Lord of us and savior Jesus Christ
3:2 tou kuriou kai soteros
      The Lord and savior
3:18 tou kuriou hemon kain soteros Iesou Christou
        The Lord of us and savior Jesus Christ

Peter’s clear pattern is to conceive of the two titles as describing one person. Peter does not consider Jesus ‘a’ god, but the God. And that is equally clear from the doxology Peter gives to Jesus in 3:18:

Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, to whom be glory both now and for eternal days.

Doxologies belong to God only. New Testament doxologies are regularly addressed to God the Father (Romans 16:27; Jude 25; and 1 Peter 4:11, for example), but there are four doxologies made to Jesus (2 Timothy 4:18; 2 Peter 3:18; Revelation 1:5-6; and 5:13). The latter two doxologies are found in the apostle John’s writings, showing that he is in absolute agreement with the rest of the apostles as to Jesus’ deity