Featured Joseph Henry Thayer

Thanks for sharing very useful

 

My purpose for this thread is to show that Dr Thayer, whose Greek lexicon is much used by Christians, which I have used for almost 40 years, is very good, though he was a Unitarian in his theology. There are places in this lexicon, which is originally the work of Dr Grimm, where the Deity of Jesus Christ is indeed confirmed. This is because of the actual word meanings, and not to do with their personal beliefs. Some example are, when Jesus says that He is the "first and the last", in Rev. 1:17; 2:8; 22:13, under the Greek, "πρῶτος", this lexicon says, "with the article: ὁ πρῶτος καί ὁ ἔσχατος, i. e. the eternal One, Rev 1:17; Rev 2:8; Rev 22:13". This says that Jesus Christ IS the Eternal, Uncreated, Almighty God. In Rev. 3:14, Jesus says of Himself, that He is, "η αρχη της κτισεως του θεου". Where, for "αρχη", this lexicon says, "that by which anything begins to be, the origin, active cause", which says that Jesus Christ IS The Actual Creator, and not just an "agent", through Whom the Father Created!. Then, we have Acts 3:15, where Jesus is called "the Prince of life". Under the Greek, "ἀρχηγός", this lexicon says, "the author: τῆς ζωῆς, Act 3:15", which shows Jesus Christ as THE Source of all life, which is what this lexicon says under "ζωή" for Jesus, "ὁ λόγος τῆς ζωῆς, the Logos having life in itself and communicating it to others, 1Jn 1:1".

The Jehovah's Witnesse, in their Emphatic Diaglot Greek New Testament, read for John 1:1, in the English on the right hand of the Greek text, "and the LOGOS was God". In their NWT, in Isaiah 9:6, they call Jesus, "Mighty God".

Likewise, in the New Testament by the Unitarian, Dr George Noyes, we read in John 1:1, "and the Word was God". And, in Colossians 2:9, "for in him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily". In Hebrews 1:8, for Jesus Christ, "Thy throne O God is for ever and ever". Though Noyes did not himself believe in this!

Dr George Winer, another Unitarian, in his Greek grammar, says on Titus 2:13:

"In the above remarks it was not my intention to deny that, in point of grammar, Σωτηρoς μωv (our Saviour) may be regarded as a second predicate, jointly dependent on the article τoυ (the); but the dogmatic conviction derived from Paul's writings that this apostle cannot have called Christ the great God induced me to show that thereis no grammatical obstacle to our taking the clause και Σωτ...Χριστoυ (from,'and to Christ') by itself as referring to a second subject"

(A Treatise on the Grammar of New Testament Greek, p.162. 1877 edition. - words in brackets are mine)

Grammar and meanings are one thing, but this does not mean that any of these believed in what they themselves admit!