FacePalm of the Day #43: Islam and Christianity A Common Word: Coptic Christians: Concealing Testimony of John 1:1

Image via WikipediaThegrandverbalizer is at it again. He tries to make the point that Coptic translations of the John 1:1 says the "Word was a god" not the "Word was God". He wants to make it seem like our modern translations are wrong because he says the Coptic translations are based on older Greek manuscripts that we no longer have access to. Of course he has to describe it that way because we have no Greek manuscripts that experts agree should be translated that way. The things that amazes me is that he tries to disprove the Trinity by attacking the deity of Jesus Christ using John 1:1 directly but quotes a Dan Wallace, an acknowledged expert, who says that John 1:1 does tells us that Jesus is God.

"Few today would take issue with Rudolf Bultmann’s oft-quoted line that “In describing Christ as ‘God’ the New Testament still exercises great restraint.” The list of passages which seem explicitly to identify Christ with God varies from scholar to scholar, but the number is almost never more than a half dozen or so. As is well known, almost all of the texts are disputed as to their affirmation—due to textual or grammatical glitches—John 1:1 and 20:28 being the only two which are usually conceded without discussion." - Dan Wallace

The emphasis is given by Thegrandverbalizer. I'm amazed. Dr Wallace is saying that John 1:1 is conceded as calling Jesus God even by scholars who deny that Jesus is God. However, thegrandverbalizer spends his post attacking John 1:1 due to "textual and grammatical glitches" that the majority of scholars agree is not there in John 1:1.

"Interestingly, he basically says that scholars can't agree on which verses say Jesus is God. This is because of "textual or grammatical glitches" - verses that have different readings in ancient manuscripts (Such as Acts 20:28) or verses which can be validly translated in a non-Trinitarian manner (Such as Hebrews 1:8). Except, he says, John 1:1."

If  John 1:1 has no such glitches and many scholars would disagree that  Acts 20:28 and Hebrews 1:8 has such glitches. To go to a translation to get around something that a text plainly says is really a sign of desperation. Serious FacePalm.

Islam and Christianity A Common Word: Coptic Christians: Concealing Testimony of John 1:1