I'm a Christian and studying the Bible - New Testament in ancient greek, I believe Jesus' clear and explicit confession in Getsemane that Jesus' Father is "the only true God" (John 17:3).
But I use the come to disagreement with trinitarians refuting John 17:3 using John 20:28 claiming that Thomas believed Jesus was God - which, according to my knowledge of ancient Greek is a false argument and I want to ask wider community how they understand the grammar aspect of the verse John 20:28.
My understanding of the verse is this:
Thomas didn't call Jesus God - and this can only be seen in the original Greek.
In Greek "my Lord" and "my God" are grammatically distinguished as two persons that Thomas addressed, but we won't see this in any translation because other languages don't have the same grammar rule (known also as Sharp's rule).
The Greek language uses the definite article for multiple purposes with precise grammar rules and one of the purposes is CONJUNCTION or DISTINCTION of substantives.
The pattern for CONJUNCTION (when the same substantive is meant):
𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲 (𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦 + conjunction + 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦)
The pattern for DISTINCTION (when different substantives are meant):
(𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲 + 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦) + conjunction + (𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲 + 𝘴𝘶𝘣𝘴𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦)
John 20:28 has the pattern for 𝗱𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗰𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻, each noun has 𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗰𝗹𝗲 used for distinction between "my Lord" and "my God" which indicates that Tomas after addressing Jesus "my Lord" addressed another person in astonishment "my God" who resurrected Jesus.
Our languages don't have this wonderful specific usage of articles and this grammar distinction of two different substantives can't be seen in our translations.
John clarified it by grammar which was clear to everyone reading it in Greek.
If fact, Thomas said only two words in Hebrew:
"ADONI", "WELOHAI" and John's translation in Greek with the DISTINCTION of TWO persons made it clear whom Thomas addressed.
(Note: The patterns, Sharp's rule, don't apply in attributive and predicative word connections/syntaxes where the article is used for different functions, namely for marking up attributive and predicative connections - obviously with genitives - which has higher grammar priority than denoting conjunction or distinction.)
In the case of John 20:28 it means that Thomas addressed Jesus and then God.
And this is how I understand what the situation might look like:
Thomas overwhelmed by emotions and astonishment of a shock of seeing something so unbelievable (for him) like Jesus alive again whom he had seen dead must have made him fell down before Jesus exclaiming:
“My Lord!” ("ADONI")...
and right after that he might raise his eyes with his hands up to heaven with his exclamation “...and my God" (WELOHAI")!
Yeah, I know that John didn't describe how this situation exactly looked like, but John grammatically clearly indicated that two different persons had been addressed in Thomas’s exclamation.
I kindly ask the community to look at the distinctive usage of the article and for the feedback.
Asked by Janko
(27 rep)
Jan 28, 2025, 10:56 AM
Last activity: Jan 28, 2025, 11:57 AM
Last activity: Jan 28, 2025, 11:57 AM