God or a god: A Look at NT Greek Syntax

At Exegetica Digita, one of Mike Heiser’s blogs, he looks at John 10:30-33 and what light our syntax databases shed on the proper translation of the clause at the end of verse 33, "because you, being a man, make yourself God" (in Greek: ὅτι σὺ ἄνθρωπος ὢν ποιεῖς σεαυτὸν θεόν).

Mike explains,

The end of verse 33 is typically taken by both Mormons and Jehovah’s witnesses (for different reasons) as better translated, ". . . you, being a man, make yourself a god," thereby muting this passage as a testimony to the deity of Jesus. They argue that the absence of the definite article before θεόν in verse 33 justifies the translation, "a god."

Mike goes on to show you how to set up a search that will find all the places in the NT with similar syntax to see if the claim holds up that the Greek word for God when it doesn’t have the article (θεός vs. ὁ θεός) should be translated "a god."

The references that his search turns up are Acts 5:29; Gal 4:8, 9; 1 Thes 1:9; 4:1; 2 Thes 1:8; Titus 3:8; and Heb 9:14.

Head over to Mike’s blog to see his conclusion. He even provides you with the syntax search file so you can download it and run it for yourself.