Chapter Seven : “In The Beginning”

“Where does Jesus say: ‘I am God,’ or ‘I am equal to God,’ or’Worshipme’?” I asked the Rev. Morris again.

He took a deep breath and took another try. He quoted the mostoft-repeatedverse of the Christian Bible – John 1:1.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, andthe Word was God.”

Please note, these are not the words of Jesus. They are the words ofJohn (or whoever wrote them). Acknowledged by every erudite Christianscholarof the Bible as being the words of another Jew, Philo of Alexandria,whohad written them even before John and Jesus were born. And Philoclaimedno divine inspiration for them. No matter what mystical meaning thatPhilohad woven around these words (which our John has plagiarized), we willaccept them for what they are worth.

Greek not Hebrew

Since the manuscripts of the 27 Books of the New Testament are inGreek,a Christian sect has produced its own version and has even changed thename of this selection of 27 Books to Christian Greek Scriptures! I asked the Reverend whether he knew Greek? “Yes,” he said,He had studied Greek for 5 years before qualification. I asked him whatwas the Greek word for “God” the first time it occurs in thequotation “and the Word was With God”? He kept staring, but didn’tanswer. So I said, the word was Hotheos, which literally means “TheGod”.

Since the European (including the North American) has evolved asystemof using capital letters to start a proper noun and small letters forcommonnouns, we would accept his giving a capital “G” for God; in otherwords Hotheos is rendered “the god” which in turn is rendered”God”.

“Now tell me, what is the Greek word for “God” in thesecond occurrence in your quotation – “and the Word was God”?The Reverend still kept silent. Not that he did not know Greek, or thathe had lied, but he knew more than that; the game was up. Isaid: “the word was Tontheos, which means “a god”.

According to your own system of translating you aught to have speltthis word ‘God’ a second time with a small ‘g’ i.e. ‘god’, and not’God’with a capital ‘G’; in other words Tontheos is rendered “agod”. Both of these, “god” or “a god” are correct.

I told the Reverend: “But in 2 Corinthians 4:4 you have dishonestlyreversed your system by using a small ‘g’ when spelling ‘God’ “(andthe devil is) the god of this world.” The Greek word for “thegod” is Hotheos the same as in John 1:1. “Why have younot been consistent in your translations ?” “If Paul was inspiredto write hotheos the God for the Devil, why don’t youusethat capital ‘G’?”

And in the Old Testament, the Lord said unto Moses: “See, I havemade thee a god to Pharoah” (Exodus 7:1). “Why do youuse a small ‘g’ for ‘God’ when referring to Moses instead of a capital’G’ as you do for a mere word ‘Word’ – “and the Word was God.”?

“Why do you do this? Why do you play fast and loose with the Wordof God?” I asked the reverend. He said, “I didn’t do it.”I said, “I know, but I am talking about the vested interests ofChristianity,who are hell-bent to deify Christ, by using capital letters hereandsmall letters there, to deceive the unwary masses who think that everyletter, every comma and full stop and the capital and small lettersweredictated by God (Capital ‘G’ here!).”