These translations use such words as a god, divine or godlike because the Greek word θεός (the‧os′
is a singular predicate noun occurring before the verb and is not preceded by the definite article. This is an anarthrous the‧os′. The God with whom the Word, or Logos, was originally is designated here by the Greek expression ὁ θεός, that is, the‧os′ preceded by the definite article ho. This is an articular the‧os′. Careful translators recognize that the articular construction of the noun points to an identity, a personality, whereas a singular anarthrous predicate noun preceding the verb points to a quality about someone. Therefore, Johns statement that the Word or Logos was a god or divine or godlike does not mean that he was the God with whom he was. It merely expresses a certain quality about the Word, or Logos, but it does not identify him as one and the same as God himself.
In the Greek text there are many cases of a singular anarthrous predicate noun preceding the verb, such as in Mr 6:49; 11:32; Joh 4:19; 6:70; 8:44; 9:17; 10:1, 13, 33; 12:6. In these places translators insert the indefinite article a before the predicate noun in order to bring out the quality or characteristic of the subject. Since the indefinite article is inserted before the predicate noun in such texts, with equal justification the indefinite article a is inserted before the anarthrous θεός in the predicate of John 1:1 to make it read a god. The Sacred Scriptures confirm the correctness of this rendering.
In his article Qualitative Anarthrous Predicate Nouns: Mark 15:39 and John 1:1, published in Journal of Biblical Literature, Vol. 92, Philadelphia, 1973, p.[wash my mouth]85, Philip B. Harner said that such clauses as the one in Joh 1:1, with an anarthrous predicate preceding the verb, are primarily qualitative in meaning. They indicate that the logos has the nature of theos. There is no basis for regarding the predicate theos as definite. On p.[wash my mouth]87 of his article, Harner concluded: In John 1:1 I think that the qualitative force of the predicate is so prominent that the noun cannot be regarded as definite.