John’s Gospel begins with one of the most discussed sentences in the Bible:
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος
Open Word Bible’s Balanced level reads:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Every phrase in it was a decision. Here are the main ones, as the reasoning record gives them.
“In the beginning”
The first two words, Ἐν ἀρχῇ, are the same two words that open Genesis 1:1 in the Greek Old Testament. John is retelling creation. So every level keeps the echo, rather than saying “at the start” or “before time”.
“The Word”
“The Word” is a key term. In Genesis 1, God creates by speaking, and the translation keeps that link. “Reason” was rejected because it imports Greek philosophy that John does not develop, and “the Logos” because it is not a translation at all. In Spanish the choice was harder: la Palabra shows the link to speech more plainly but is feminine, so the Word would be “she” until verse 14. The Spanish uses the traditional el Verbo, and the record flags it for a native speaker’s review.
“With God”
The Greek preposition normally means “toward”. Here it describes presence and relationship, so the translation says “with God”, and the note carries the fuller sense of being turned toward God, face to face.
“The Word was God”
The last clause is θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος. Word for word it is “God was the Word”, but Greek word order does not mark the subject the way English does. The article (the word for “the”) does. “The Word” has the article, so it is the subject. “God” comes first, without the article, and says what the Word is.
Leaving out the article does something precise: it says the Word is God without making the Word the same person as “the God” just mentioned in the previous clause. That is why the translation does not say “a god”, which would contradict John’s insistence that there is one God, nor “divine”, which is weaker than the noun John chose.
Readable
The Readable level reads: “In the beginning the Word was already there. The Word was with God, and the Word was God.” The word “already” is not in the Greek. It is there because the verb “was” is continuous, and John contrasts it with “came into being” in verses 3, 6 and 14. The Word did not come into being. When the beginning began, the Word was already there.
Open John 1 and tap verse 1 to see the full record.