John 1:1 and the Jehovah’s Witnesses – Episode 6, The Eternal Fellowship

“…and the Word was with God…” (John 1:1b)
[kai ho logos ēn pros ton theon]

 John has startled us in John 1:1a by describing the Word, Jesus, as the beginner, in the
beginning, of all things. That is a declaration that Jesus, the Word, is the Creator God. As if
that were not enough of a curveball, John now introduces the Someone whom we have always associated with the beginning, the Creator God, and told us that the Word was with Him. What is going on here? Isn’t the Word the very Creator God who made the beginning happen? Yes, John has told us so. But now we learn he was in fellowship with the Creator God. Fellowship?

The Mighty Preposition

We talked earlier of prepositions, how they relate verbs, nouns and pronouns together. And here in John 1:1b is a genuine preposition, pros, which relates the Word and God. We have translated it “with.” The Word was “with” God.  Venerable lexicographer (that’s a dictionary person) Joseph Henry Thayer says of this preposition’s use in John 1:1, “equivalent to…with…after verbs of remaining, dwelling, tarrying, etc. (which require one to be conceived of as always turned toward one).”  Bauer, Arndt and Gingrich, also great lexicographers, describe the use of pros here as to “be (in company) with
someone.” 

Why is it important to John for us to know that the Word was in fellowship with, in company with, God? His description has already told us that the Word is the Creator God, which he expands upon in verse 3:

All things came into being through him, and nothing that came into being came into
being without him. (John 1:3, author’s translation)

But now John wants us to know that there are two persons who might be legitimately called God, and boy oh boy, is that ever a mindblower. It has been the genius of Judaism that there is only one God. John is a good Jewish boy who grew up affirming the truth of the Scriptures that God is one. But now his perspective has taken a definite shift. Is he denying that God is one?  By no means.  Rather, he is telling us something that was clearly hinted at in the Old Testament, that the one God is a rich fellowship of multiple persons.  We might say God is one in essence, with three persons sharing that one essence, who can enjoy communing with one another and have been from all eternity.