Perhaps the most recognized doctrinally-biased rendering to be found in the Jehovah's Witness bible is John 1:1. A well-known proof text for the Deity of Christ, the Witnesses' New World Translation renders the verse as follows:

In [the] beginning the Word was, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god.

At variance is the insertion of "a" and the lowercase "g" in the third clause. In a scholarly Bible translation, John 1:1 will read as follows:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. (NIV)

The Watchtower claim is that since the third clause of John 1:1 lacks the definite article in the Greek (i.e. "the"), it is to be correctly translated "a god" - not "God".¹

Is the Watchtower position a fair and honest one? We need not look very far to find the answer. Verse 6, 12, 13, and 18 of John 1 all include "God" without the definite article in the Greek. Yet in each of these verses, the Watchtower Society's New World Translation renders the text into English as "God" rather than "a god". Why the inconsistency? If the absence of the definite article means the correct translation is "a god" (which is the Watchtower position on John 1:1), then why are each of these verses translated as "God" and not "a god"? Very simply, an honest rendering of these verses does not destroy pre-existing Watchtower doctrine, as does an honest rendering of John 1:1.

The Watchtower Society's New World Translation rendering presents yet another problem for the Witnesses: it introduces another god with God. Why is this a problem? Consider Deuteronomy 32:39 from the Witnesses own NWT:

See now that I - I am he and there are no gods together with me.

The Watchtower Society's own bible testifies against their translation of John 1:1 - there are no other gods with the LORD.

If we read on in the first chapter of John, we will come to verse three. This is also a significant verse as we shall see. In the Witnesses' NWT John 1:3 reads (speaking of Jesus):

All things came into existence through him, and apart from him not even one thing came into existence.

Jesus is the creator: "all things came into existence through him" and "apart from him not even one thing came into existence". The Witnesses own Bible once again testifies against their doctrine, for Jehovah's Witnesses believe that Jesus Himself is a created being - a "thing [that] came into existence". Yet "all things came into existence" through Jesus; without Him, "not even one thing came into existence". As the NIV puts it, "without him nothing was made that has been made."

John 1:3 completely precludes the possibility of Jesus Christ being a created being, a thing that 'came into existence'. Watchtower dogma on this concept is that Jesus created all other things - the Society even altered Colossians 1:16,17 in the New World Translation, inserting the word "other" into the text four times.² But even in the NWT, John 1:3 stands fast: Jesus created "all things" - not all other things; and "without him nothing was made that has been made".

The insertion of words into the Biblical text notwithstanding, there is another problem for the Watchtower Society. The Society teaches that Jesus, whom they title "a god", created all other things, doing so with creative powers conferred upon Him by the LORD God; but this view does not accord with the Biblical account. Consider Isaiah 44:24:

"This is what the LORD says- your Redeemer, who formed you in the womb: I am the LORD, who has made all things, who alone stretched out the heavens, who spread out the earth by myself,

And in the NWT:

This is what Jehovah has said, your Repurchaser and the former of you from the belly: "I, Jehovah, am doing everything, stretching out the heavens by myself, laying out the earth. Who was with me?

Indeed, who was with the LORD? Yet Jehovah's Witnesses will unabashedly tell you there was another "god" with the LORD. They will tell you the LORD Jehovah did not 'stretch out the heavens alone', did not 'spread out the earth by Himself', as his very word tells us.

Knowing full well what the LORD God Himself said, that He alone stretched out the heavens, and by Himself created the earth, consider what the writer of Hebrews said about his Lord, Jesus:

"In the beginning, O Lord, you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. You will roll them up like a robe; like a garment they will be changed. But you remain the same, and your years will never end." –Hebrews 1:10-12

Despite the fact that the LORD God (Jehovah) is alone the creator of heaven and earth (Is 44:24), the writer of Hebrews attributes creation of both heaven and earth to Jesus Christ: it was Jesus Christ who in the beginning laid the foundations of the earth; the heavens are the work of His hands. How is this to be reconciled unless Jesus is the LORD God, being one in nature with God the Father? Is this what the writer of Hebrews believed when he applied these words to Jesus? I believe the question is answered for us when we consider that the writer of Hebrews was quoting Psalms 102:25-27, which was written of the LORD God (Jehovah), and yet applied these words to Jesus:

In the beginning you laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of your hands. They will perish, but you remain; they will all wear out like a garment. Like clothing you will change them and they will be discarded. But you remain the same, and your years will never end. –Psalms 102:25-27

Isaiah 44:24 does not allow for anyone other than the LORD (Jehovah) to be involved in creation - it was the LORD alone who created heaven and earth. Yet Jesus created all things (John 1:3). It was the LORD who laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of His hands (Ps 102:25). Yet we know it was Jesus who laid the foundations of the earth, and the heavens are the work of His hands (Heb 1:10). What other way is there to understand this than to accept the full force of Jesus' words at John 10:30, "I and the Father are one."

Undoubtedly, it was in precisely this way that those to whom Jesus spoke interpreted his words (John 10:31).