Objection · Case 12 · Jehovah’s Witnesses
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?
One objection from the free evidence repository at apologetics.pro.
Response
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.
About this exhibit
This objection is to The Gospel of John, chapter 1, verse 3.
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.
Under Claim 05: The New World Translation’s rendering “the Word was a god” is contested on grammatical grounds and reads oddly against John’s own next verse.