Why do translations have at John 1:1 “In the beginning”?
᾿Εν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ Λόγος, καὶ ὁ Λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν Θεόν, καὶ Θεὸς ἦν ὁ Λόγος”
“᾿Εν ἀρχῇ”
So, the question is “Why do translations have at John 1:1 “In the beginning”?
The term “ἀρχῇ” (arche) basically means “beginning”, however, that noun is an abstract noun and lacks the article “the” and normally in Greek if a noun lacks the article it is considered Indefinite in sense and when translated into English, grammatically it should be translated “a beginning”, but that is not good modern English and English does not work that way, so in order to make good English translators insert the English Definite article “the”, so we end up with “In the beginning”, but that can be misleading, because one could rightly say “the beginning” is a specific “beginning”, that such “beginning” is being Identified because it has an attached Definite article in English, so which “beginning” is John talking about? A reasonable question to ask one might say!
Since “ἀρχῇ” (arche) is Indefinite, John does not actually specify a particular or specific “beginning”, such as we see in Rev 3:14, where we see a specific use by John of “ἀρχῇ” (arche) in relation to the “Amen”, a reference to Jesus:
“…ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς κτίσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ”
Here we see “ἀρχὴ” (arche) is preceded by the definite article “ἡ” (he), thus we see in Greek “ἡ ἀρχὴ” (the beginning), so John is using “beginning” to refer to a specific beginning and that is with reference to the “Amen” (Jesus):
“ἡ ἀρχὴ τῆς κτίσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ” (the beginning of the creation of the God).#
We the expressions “ἡ” and “ἀρχὴ” (“the” and “beginning”)and they are in the Nominative form and Greek normally demands the use of the definite article be associated with “beginning” in this instance; the rest of v 14 is:
“τῆς κτίσεως τοῦ Θεοῦ” (of the creation of the God) this “of the” is because this last bit “of the” in Greek is in the Genitive form, but would not be good English to write “the beginning of the creation of the God”, so we see in English translations with reference to the “Amen” (Jesus): “the beginning of the creation of God” KJV
There are those other Trinitarian translations that try to hide, that is cloak the truth of what John was conveying to his readers and that is, some translations have instead of “beginning” with its plain meaning, by removing “beginning” and substituting it with expressions like:
“the ruler of God’s creation.” NIV
“the Originator of God’s creation.” BSB
“the Origin of the creation of God” NASB
“the Beginning and Origin of God’s creation” AB
“the source of God's creation.” CEV
I have written a whole paper debunking these theological translations with many examples exposing what these Trinitarian translators were up to, not to mention the fact that they openly contradict other Trinitarian translators!
I can re-post the paper if any readers is interested!
# In Rev 3:14 the expression “the beginning of the creation of God” is in the Subjective Genitive not the Objective Genitive.
If the above expression was in the Objective Genitive, then “the beginning of the creation of God” could be understood, that “the beginning” was the “beginning of the creation of God” or that, an Act or Action by another brought about “the creation of God”, however, in the Subjective Genitive the expression “the beginning of the creation of God” would mean that an Act or Action by God would result in the “beginning of the creation” of another being/person and since Rev 3:14 is a reference to the “Amen” (Jesus) he is the one who comes under the expression “the beginning of the creation of God” and to reflect this Subjective Genitive, which scholars acknowledge, the NWT has ar Rev 3:14:
“And to the angel of the congregation in La·o·di·ceʹa write: These are the things that the Amen says, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation by God”
“the beginning of the creation by God”
The preposition “by” identifies the one performing the Act or Action, the NWT is the only translation to accurately render the Subjective Genitive by employing the preposition “by”!
The Genitive expression “τοῦ Θεοῦ” (of the God) is a literal translation from the Greek, not a literal meaning, so to reflect the Subjective Genitive the NWT translators employed the English preposition “by” to reflect what John was conveying about the “Amen” (Jesus) to his readers and that was the “Amen” was the first of the creations by God! See Prov 8:22 where the same language is used.
Compare various translations of Math 24:7, 8; Mark 1:1; 13:8 and again, like Prov 8:22 the same language is used!
