John 1:1 and the Jehovah’s Witnesses – Episode 31, James’ Testimony

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? 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 the Almighty God.

The “Apostle” James

The James who authors the epistle in our New Testament is not the Apostle James, brother of the Apostle John. That James was killed by Herod early in the days after Jesus’ resurrection and ascension (Acts 12:1,2). This James is the half-brother of Jesus, son of Mary and Joseph, we may presume, who became a leader in the Jerusalem church (Acts 15; Galatians 1:19; 2:12).

James says, “My brothers, do not associate partiality with the faith of our glorious Lord Jesus Christ” (James 2:1). To call Jesus glorious is to speak of his deity. God and His name are “glorious” (Deuteronomy 28:58; 33:29; 1 Chronicles 29:13; Nehemiah 9:5; Psalm 66:2; Isaiah 3:8; 4:2; 11:10; etc.) It is true that other passages, however, speak of things glorious besides God: Psalm 45:13 (the king’s bride); Isaiah 28:1,4 (Ephraim); 64:11 (the temple); Jeremiah 14:21; 17:12; Matthew 19:28; 25:31 (the throne of Yahweh); Jeremiah 48:17 (the Davidic king); Luke 9:30 (the splendor of Moses’ and Elijah’s appearance); Acts 2:20 (the Day of the Lord); 2 Corinthians 3:8,9 (the ministry of the Spirit in the gospel); 3:9,10 (the ministry of the Law); Ephesians 1:18 (the inheritance of God’s people); Ephesians 3:16 (God’s riches); Philippians 3:21 (Christ’s resurrection body); 1 Peter 1:8 (the believer’s joy in faith). There is a relative glory to humans and things associated with God.

Could James conceivably view Jesus as relatively glorious but not divine? Possibly, but James would need to explain this since his bare statement sounds like he is giving Jesus the glory that properly belongs to the Father. Yahweh tells us in Isaiah 42:8, “I am Yahweh. That is my name. I will not give my glory to another or my praise to idols.“

James also attributes actions and roles to Jesus as Lord that are attributed to Yahweh in the Old Testament:

Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the coming of the Lord. Look how the farmer waits patiently for the precious fruit of the earth, until it receives the early and late rain. You also be patient, strengthen your hearts, because the Lord’s coming has drawn near. Do not grumble among yourselves, brothers and sisters, lest you be judged. Look, the judge stands at the door. Take as an example, brothers and sisters, the suffering and patience of the prophets who spoke in the Lord’s name. We consider blessed those who endured. You have heard of the endurance of Job and you know the end accomplished, because the Lord is very compassionate and merciful. (James 5:5-11)

It is the Lord (Jesus) who is coming soon. It is the Lord (Jesus) as Judge who is standing at the door. It is the Lord (Yahweh) who was compassionate to Job. For James, it is the Lord across the board. Jesus is Yahweh.

So if John is in unity with the rest of the apostles as he claims in 1 John 1, then he could not mean by “and the Word was theos” the sense of “and the Word was a god.” That is not what the rest of our New Testament writers believed. Besides, Yahweh clearly declares in Isaiah 43:10, the founding verse of Jehovah’s Witnesses, “‘You are my witnesses,’ declares Yahweh, ‘and my servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be after me.’” Jesus cannot be ‘a’ god whom Yahweh formed. He hasn’t and won’t do that. There is only one God and this one God is a plurality within the one.