Evidence · Case 12 · Jehovah’s Witnesses
The Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 3
One exhibit from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Two verses later John says of the Word that “without him was not any thing made that was made.” So the Word made every created thing.
Sources
Objections & responses
- Witnesses read John 1:3 as Jehovah creating everything else through the already-created Word, so “not one thing” means nothing other than the Word himself. Doesn’t the argument only work if “all things” includes the Word?
The text says without him was not any thing made that was made, which is a universal statement about everything in the category of made things. The Witness reading requires an unstated exception for the Word himself, exactly as it requires the inserted other in Colossians 1:16. The natural reading includes no exception, and the Witness reading has to supply one in both places. Whether you find that supplied exception plausible is the question, and it is worth noticing that it has to be supplied twice.