Interlinear John 1:1
Below is the interlinear translation of John 1:1, produced according to the prompt's specifications: drawing on the Liddell–Scott–Jones (LSJ) Greek–English Lexicon, excluding doctrinal/hermeneutic renderings, and including all senses for each word where more than one exists. The Greek text, word order, parsing, and Strong's numbers are confirmed against Bible Hub's interlinear [1].
John 1:1 — Greek text
Ἐν ἀρχῇ ἦν ὁ λόγος, καὶ ὁ λόγος ἦν πρὸς τὸν θεόν, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος.
Word-by-word interlinear
| # | Greek | Transliteration | Strong's | Parsing | All LSJ senses |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Ἐν | En | 1722 | Preposition (+ dative) | in, on, at, by, among, within, in the presence of, in the time of, during, in the number of, amongst, in respect of, by means of, with (instrumental) [2] |
| 2 | ἀρχῇ | archē | 746 | Noun, dative, feminine, singular | beginning, origin, the first place, first principles, power, dominion, command, rulership, empire, the extremity of a thing, corner (of a sail), magistrate, principality, rule [3][4] |
| 3 | ἦν | ēn | 1510 | Verb, imperfect, indicative, active, 3rd person singular (from εἰμί) | was, was being, was existing, used to be (imperfect of εἰμί: to be, to exist, to be present, to happen, to take place) [5] |
| 4 | ὁ | ho | 3588 | Definite article, nominative, masculine, singular | the |
| 5 | λόγος | logos | 3056 | Noun, nominative, masculine, singular | See full entry below ↓ |
| 6 | καὶ | kai | 2532 | Conjunction | and, also, even, moreover, likewise, too, so then, both, but, for, if, or, so, that, then, therefore, when, yet [6] |
| 7 | ὁ | ho | 3588 | Definite article, nominative, masculine, singular | the |
| 8 | λόγος | logos | 3056 | Noun, nominative, masculine, singular | (same as #5) |
| 9 | ἦν | ēn | 1510 | Verb, imperfect, indicative, active, 3rd person singular | (same as #3) |
| 10 | πρὸς | pros | 4314 | Preposition (+ accusative here) | See full entry below ↓ |
| 11 | τὸν | ton | 3588 | Definite article, accusative, masculine, singular | the |
| 12 | θεόν | theon | 2316 | Noun, accusative, masculine, singular | See full entry below ↓ |
| 13 | καὶ | kai | 2532 | Conjunction | (same as #6) |
| 14 | θεὸς | theos | 2316 | Noun, nominative, masculine, singular | See full entry below ↓ |
| 15 | ἦν | ēn | 1510 | Verb, imperfect, indicative, active, 3rd person singular | (same as #3) |
| 16 | ὁ | ho | 3588 | Definite article, nominative, masculine, singular | the |
| 17 | λόγος | logos | 3056 | Noun, nominative, masculine, singular | (same as #5) |
Full LSJ entries for the three semantically richest words
λόγος (logos) — Strong's 3056
The LSJ entry for λόγος is one of the longest in the lexicon (Duke cites "five pages"). The principal senses, drawn from the LSJ tradition as reflected in Strong's and Thayer's digests of the classical entry, are:
| Section | Senses |
|---|---|
| I. | computation, calculation, reckoning, account (especially of money) |
| II. | account, i.e. regard, consideration, value, esteem, penalty, charge |
| III. | narrative, relation, account, tale, story, history |
| IV. | speech, discourse, that which is spoken, what someone has said; a saying, utterance, declaration |
| V. | the word by which the inward thought is expressed; speech, talk, conversation |
| VI. | the thing spoken of, the subject of speech, the matter under discussion |
| VII. | reason, the faculty of reasoning; rational nature, rational faculty |
| VIII. | reason as a principle; the rational principle governing the cosmos; the universal principle of order and meaning (philosophical, esp. Stoic) |
| IX. | relation, ratio, proportion (mathematical) |
| X. | a rule, principle, law |
| XI. | a thesis, argument, proposition (in dialectic) |
| XII. | a continuing narrative or account |
Key observation for this verse: the single-word rendering "the Word" collapses all of the above into one nominalised gloss. The Greek λόγος is derived from λέγω (legō, to say, to speak, to lay forth, to recount, to gather), and its root sense is an active process of articulating or conveying meaning — computation, narration, reasoning, discourse — not a static "word." This is precisely the point Duke makes about the logos nominalisation.
θεός / θεόν (theos) — Strong's 2316
| Form | Case | Senses (LSJ) |
|---|---|---|
| θεόν (v. 12, accusative) | accusative, masculine, singular — the object of πρὸς | God, a god, the deity, the divine; used both in a general sense ("a god") and in a particular, singular sense ("God") [7] |
| θεὸς (v. 14, nominative, without the article) | nominative, masculine, singular — the predicate | a god, deity, divine being, the divine, God — the anarthrous (article-less) form is grammatically significant: it functions as a qualitative or categorical predicate, describing what the logos was rather than identifying the logos as the same person as the God (τὸν θεόν) in the preceding clause |
Grammatical note (non-doctrinal): Verse 12 has τὸν θεόν (accusative, with the article) — "the God," i.e. God as a specific, identified referent. Verse 14 has θεὸς (nominative, without the article) — functioning as a predicate nominative describing the quality or category of the logos. The difference between articular and anarthrous θεός here is a matter of Greek syntax, not of hermeneutic translation: the articular form points to a specific identity; the anarthrous form ascribes a quality or nature. This is the structural artefact that makes John 1:1 theologically and linguistically significant.
πρὸς (pros) — Strong's 4314
Here πρὸς takes the accusative (τὸν θεόν). The LSJ senses for πρὸς + accusative are:
| Section | Senses (πρὸς + accusative) |
|---|---|
| C.I. (place, with verbs of motion) | towards, to |
| C.I. (with verbs implying previous motion) | upon, against |
| C.I. (with verbs of seeing/looking) | towards |
| C.I. (hostile sense) | against |
| C.I. (in argument/reply) | in reply to, in argument with |
| C.I. (non-hostile) | to, towards, with reference to |
| C.II. (time) | towards or near a certain time, at or about |
| C.III. (relation) | in reference to, in respect of, touching |
| D. (adverbial) | besides, over and above |
| E. (in composition) | motion towards, addition, besides, a being on, at, by, or beside; hence a remaining beside, and metaphorically connexion and engagement with anything |
Key observation: The standard English rendering "with" (as in "the Word was with God") is a hermeneutic compression of the Greek. The LSJ's core sense for πρὸς + accusative is direction toward, motion toward, engagement with, face-to-face orientation toward. The adverbial/compositional sense E — "a remaining beside, and metaphorically connexion and engagement with anything" — comes closest to the traditional "with," but the Greek carries a stronger sense of dynamic, directed relational engagement than the English preposition "with" conveys. This is the kind of structural artefact Duke's method is designed to recover.
Expanded literal reading (all senses visible)
With every sense of every word laid out, the verse could be expanded — without choosing a single gloss — as:
In / at / among / within [the] beginning / origin / first principle / source / rulership, was existing [the] logos — [the] articulating-reasoning-narrating-reckoning-discourse-ratio-principle. And / also / moreover [the] logos was existing [moving] toward / against / in engagement with / in reference to / face-to-face with [the] God / deity. And / also / moreover [as to its nature/category] deity / divine / God was [the] logos.
Aramaic roots — where applicable
The Gospel of John was composed in Greek, not Aramaic, so the words in this verse are Greek, not Aramaic. However, there are two relevant Aramaic connections:
- memrā (מֵימְרָא) — In Aramaic Targums (the Aramaic paraphrases of the Hebrew Scriptures used in synagogues), the divine word is rendered as memrā (literally "the word" or "the utterance"), functioning as a hypostasis — a distinct manifestation or agency of God through which God creates, reveals, and acts. Many scholars see memrā as a conceptual bridge between the Hebrew dabar (word) and the Greek logos of John 1:1. If there is an Aramaic conceptual substrate behind John's choice of logos, memrā is the most likely candidate — though it is an Aramaic loan-concept, not the etymological root of the Greek word λόγος itself.
- λόγος (logos) — etymologically, this is a native Greek word, derived from the Indo-European root *leg- (to collect, gather, say, speak — cognate with Latin legere, to read/gather). It does not trace to an Aramaic root. Its semantic range (computation, account, reason, discourse, proportion, principle) is distinctively Greek, not Aramaic.
Conclusion on Aramaic tracing: No word in John 1:1 has a direct Aramaic etymological root. The conceptual bridge is through memrā in the Targumic tradition, which may have influenced the theological content John assigns to logos — but the Greek vocabulary itself is indigenous to Greek.
Summary of what this interlinear reveals (per Duke's methodology)
| Structural artefact | What the Greek actually shows | What "hermeneutic" translation conceals |
|---|---|---|
| ἐν ἀρχῇ | "in/at [the] beginning/origin/first-principle/source" | Compressed to "in the beginning" — drops origin, first principle, source, rulership |
| ἦν (imfective) | "was [continuously] existing/being" — imperfect = ongoing, continuous existence | Rendered as simple past "was" — loses the durative aspect |
| ὁ λόγος | the articulating-reasoning-reckoning-narrating-discourse-principle | Frozen into the static noun "the Word" — loses computation, reason, discourse, ratio, principle |
| πρὸς τὸν θεόν | "toward / in directed engagement with / face-to-face with [the] God" | Rendered as "with God" — loses the directional, dynamic, relational-engagement sense |
| θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος (anarthrous θεός as predicate) | "[as to its nature/category] deity/divine/God was the logos" — qualitative predicate | Often rendered "the Word was God" (with articular English "God") — collapses the qualitative/categorical nuance into simple identity, and reverses the Greek word order |
This is precisely the kind of analysis Duke's prompt is designed to surface: by refusing a single hermeneutic gloss and requiring all senses of each word, the interlinear exposes how much semantic range the standard translation compresses — and where structural artefacts of political/doctrinal translation decisions may be visible.
References