John 1:1 and the Jehovah’s Witnesses – Episode 7, Plurality in the Godhead

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

The Word, the Creator God, was in eternal fellowship with God!  John is describing a plurality in God.  Is he teaching us something new here?  No, there are definite hints in the Old Testament that the one God is not a singular individual. We see it, of course, in Genesis 1:26, when God plans man’s creation:

Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.

Or Genesis 3:22, when He disciplines man’s rebellion:

Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of us in knowing good
and evil.

A history of Jewish interpretation of this apparent plurality includes that God was consulting with angels, that He consulted figuratively with the tangible (animals, trees, etc.) and intangible (angels) creatures already created, that He consulted the pre-existing souls of humans, that He consulted His own heart, that He consulted wisdom or His own Word, personalized in a metaphorical way, that He consulted with the Torah or Law, and there were suggestions made that the plural “us” was not the correct way of understanding the Hebrew (a minority view, for sure).  A very common view is that God is using a plural of majesty, speaking of Himself in plural terms to convey how majestic a person He is.

But there are plenty of other clues in the Old Testament that God is not a singularity but a
composite unity. Perhaps the clearest evidence is in the visitations of the Angel or Messenger of Yahweh.

The Angel of Yahweh

The word “angel” literally means messenger, and “messenger” would be a better translation of the Hebrew word melek in this context. We first meet the Messenger of Yahweh in Genesis 16, when Sarah harshly mistreats Hagar, her servant, who has become pregnant with a child on her behalf as a concubine of Abraham. The pregnant Hagar flees into the wilderness in despair.  The Messenger of Yahweh finds Hagar seeking shelter at a spring and initially asks her questions about what is going on. We may assume from what Hagar says later, that the Messenger of Yahweh appears to her in human form, because it is not until He begins prophesying to her about her child and commanding her to return that she realizes it is Yahweh who is speaking to her. In fact, though throughout it keeps describing this man who is speaking to her as the Messenger of Yahweh, in verse 13 a shift occurs:

So she called the name of Yahweh who spoke to her, “You are a God of seeing,” for she
said, “Truly here I have seen him who looks after me.”

Now, instead of identifying the person speaking to her as the Messenger of Yahweh, Scripture says it is “the name of Yahweh who spoke to her.” And Hagar believes she has seen God.  What do we make of this odd phrase, “the name of Yahweh who spoke to her”? The name of Yahweh is described as a personal being who can speak. This person yet seems to be separate from Yahweh, being described, of course, initially as the Messenger or Angel of Yahweh, but also identified as God.

So already in the Old Testament we see the plurality that John is making explicit in John 1:1.