Before the world was created, the Word already existed represents the Greek “in (the) beginning was the Word.” As the commentaries point out, John obviously intends that his readers see a parallel between the opening words of his Gospel and the opening words of Genesis. “In (the) beginning” refers to the period before creation (creation is not mentioned until verse 3), and so Good News Translation renders this phrase before the world was created [see New English Bible (New English Bible) “when all things began,” New English Bible alternative rendering “The Word was at the creation,” and Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch “In the beginning, before the world was created”]. John wants his readers to understand that at whatever point the creation began, the Word already existed.
In a number of languages it is difficult to translate literally “in the beginning,” since a word such as “beginning” requires some indication of what began. Some translators attempt to use the phrase “in the beginning of the world,” but this phrase may not make sense, since in some languages only events begin, and not objects, such as the world. The problem is sometimes avoided by using another type of expression, for example, “before there was anything” or “when things first came into existence.” Other translators prefer to transform the passive expression “the world was created” into an active one, for example, “before God created the world.” However, to do so introduces a minor complication, for later in the same passage the creation is spoken of as being performed through the Word. Note, however, that in Good News Translation the revelation of the Word to creation is clearly indicated as secondary agency. God is the one who makes all things, but he does so through the Word (verse 3). Some of these problems are overcome in certain languages by an idiomatic expression which identifies creation as “in the beginning of life” or “when there was as yet nothing.” Such expressions, however, depend entirely upon the idiomatic usage in the language into which the translation is being made. Otherwise such a rendering can be misleading.
The term the Word has a rich heritage, by way of both its Greek and Jewish backgrounds. For the Greeks who held to a theistic view of the universe, it could be understood as the means by which God reveals himself to the world, while among those who were pantheistic in outlook, the Word was the principle that held the world together and at the same time endowed men with the wisdom for living. In the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Word could be used both of the means by which God had created the world (Psa 33.6) and through which he had revealed himself to the world (Jer 1.4; Ezek 1.3; Amos 3.1). Among certain of the Greek-speaking Jews of New Testament times, there was much speculation about the “wisdom” of God, which God “made in the very beginning, at the first, before the world began” (Prov 8.22-23). In the “Wisdom of Solomon” (written during the first century B.C.), “wisdom” is close to becoming a personal being, standing beside God when he made the world (9.9) and making holy souls to be God’s friends (7.27). In philosophical Judaism of New Testament times, the Word largely assumes the functions assigned to “wisdom” in these writings. Thus, by the time that John writes his Gospel, the Word is close to being recognized as a personal being, and it has roles relating to the manner in which God created the world and to the way in which God reveals himself to the world that he brought into being. Moffatt, realizing the difficulty in finding a term equivalent in meaning to the one used by John, transliterates the Greek term: “the Logos existed in the very beginning”; while Phillips at least makes an effort to give his translation meaning: “at the beginning God expressed himself. That personal expression, that word, was with God, and was God.” [Phillips (1955, p. 39) explains: “Now all those who are students of the New Testament will know that Logos, translated ‘Word,’ was a philosophical term in common use among the Jews at Alexandria (and probably among the educated elsewhere). But the ordinary man of today knows nothing of this. Yet he certainly knows that a ‘word’ is an outward expression of an inward thought.”] Some translations include Word as a glossary item (Die Bibel im heutigen Deutsch), or give a footnote to help the reader (Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible).
Though the Greek term logos may be rendered “word,” it would be wrong to think it indicates primarily a grammatical or lexical unit in a sentence. Greek has two other terms which primarily identify individual words, whether they occur in a list (as in a dictionary) or in a sentence. The term logos, though applicable to an individual word, is more accurately understood as an expression with meaning; that is, it is “a message,” “a communication,” and, as indicated, a type of “revelation.” A literal translation, therefore, more or less equivalent to English “word,” is frequently misleading.
In some languages there are additional complications. For example, in some languages the term “word” is feminine in gender, and therefore any reference to it must also be feminine. As a result, the possible use of pronouns in reference to Jesus Christ can be confusing. Furthermore, in many languages a term such as “word” must be possessed. One cannot speak about “the word” without indicating who spoke the word, since words do not exist apart from the persons who utter them.
Because of these and other difficulties, many translators treat the term “Word” or Logos as a title, and that is precisely what it is. The very fact that it is normally capitalized in English translations marks it as a title; but in many languages the fact of its being a title must be more clearly indicated by some explicit expression, for example, “the one who was called the Word” or “the one known as the Word.” In this way the reader can understand from the beginning that “Word” is to be understood as a designation for a person. Therefore, this first sentence in John 1.1 may be rendered “Before the world was created, the one who was known as the Word existed” or “… the person called the Word existed.”
In languages which employ honorific forms it is particularly appropriate to use such an indication with the title “Word.” Such a form immediately marks the designation as the title of deity or of a very important personage, depending, of course, upon the usage in the language in question.
In translating John it is particularly important to avoid suggesting that “word” indicates merely “a voice” or “one who speaks” or that in the creation there was merely a great deal of talk. Such translations gained acceptance simply because in the account in Genesis 1 the text says “God spoke … and it was so,” but this is obviously not what John 1.1 means.
He was with God is literally “and the Word was with God.” Good News Translation renders the Greek word “and” by a semicolon, and “the Word” (logos) by he. In Greek “the Word” is masculine, and so to use a pronoun, as Good News Translation does, makes the clause read more naturally in English.
It may be convenient in some languages to break this first verse into two completely separate sentences, even though the relation between the sentences is very close. The first sentence would be “Before the world was created, the Word already existed,” and the second, “He was with God, and he was the same as God.” It is important, however, that the reference to “he” be clear in the second sentence, especially if God as creator is introduced in the first sentence.
The meaning of the preposition with (Greek pros) has occasioned some difficulty, but most commentators and translators apparently favor the meaning “to be with” or “to be in the company of.” This preposition often conveys the sense of reciprocity, that is, the Word was not merely in the presence of God, but there existed a mutual and reciprocal relationship between the Word and God. This relationship must be expressed in some languages as “God and the Word were together.” In other languages, however, an indication of purely spatial relation seems to be sufficient, and therefore one may say “the Word was there where God was” or “… in company with God.”
He was the same as God appears in most translations as “the Word was God” [Revised Standard Version (Revised Standard Version), Jerusalem Bible, New American Bible]. New English Bible renders by “what God was, the Word was” and Moffatt “the Logos was divine” [Goodspeed “the Word was divine”]. Zürcher Bibel has “the Word was God,” with a footnote indicating that this means the Word possessed a divine nature.
These many differences in translation are due to the Greek sentence structure. In this type of equational sentence in Greek (A = B) the subject can be distinguished from the predicate by the fact that the subject has the article before it and the predicate does not. Since “God” does not have the article preceding it, “God” is clearly the predicate and “the Word” is the subject. This means that “God” is here the equivalent of an adjective, and this fact justifies the rendering he (the Word) was the same as God. John is not saying that “the Word” was God the Father, but he is affirming that the same divine predication can be made of “the Word” as can be made of God the Father, and so “the Word” can be spoken of as God in the same sense.
Many languages have two quite different types of equational sentences. One type indicates complete identity in such a sentence as “My husband is John Smith” or “John Smith is my husband,” that is, the two parts of the sentence are completely equivalent. In the second type, however, one may say “John Smith is a teacher” but cannot say “A teacher is John Smith.” “A teacher” merely qualifies “John Smith” and indicates the class of persons to which he belongs. The latter is precisely the type of equational sentence which occurs in this verse. “God” completely characterizes “the Word,” and all that is true of God is true of the Word. This does not mean, however, that the two elements can be inverted, and that one can translate “God was the Word” any more than one can make “Love is God” an inversion of the biblical statement “God is love.” It is difficult for some people to recognize that this equational sentence in Greek belongs to the second class because in the predicate the term “God” refers to a unique object. Since this type of equational sentence may be misleading with “God” in the predicate, it is better to translate it “The Word was the same as God” or “Just what God was that is what the Word also was.”
In some languages there is an additional problem in this verse and some of the following verses, namely, the problem of tense. In some languages a past tense indicates something which existed in past time but no longer exists. Thus, if one translated “he was with God and he was the same as God,” the statement would presumably apply to a past situation no longer true. This possible misunderstanding is avoided in some languages by the use of the so-called perfect tense, which carries the meaning “He has been with God, and he has been the same as God” or “He was and still is with God, and he is the same as God.” In still other languages a so-called “timeless tense” must be used in order to avoid wrong implications with regard to the temporal relations.
Quoted with permission from Newman, Barclay M. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on the Gospel of John. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .