Companion to Jesus Christ is YHWH Apología by Ez
The spiritist ex-priest whose New Testament the Watchtower cited for John 1:1, from his own books, the Watchtower's own pages and the German records.
The bottom line on Johannes Greber, how each claim on this form is rated, and how to work through the rest.
Every claim on this form carries one of four labels, so you know what you can say with confidence.
Johannes Greber (1874–1944): a priest, a politician and a relief organizer in the Rhineland, then a spiritist leader in New York.
Most of the German details come from the Hunsrück Historical Society's biography by Ewald Dietrich, who drew on his 1990 article and on interviews with people who knew Greber. Greber's own book supplies the 1923 events.
The wife the Greber Foundation later called "a medium of God's Spiritworld" is, from these records, Elisabeth Greber (born Boos), whom he married in 1931. See His spiritism.
What Greber and his publisher said about the spirits and his translation. Quote these exactly; they're your strongest material.
Greber. "I saw my position as an ordained minister, my entire material existence, my future here on earth destroyed, if I persisted." checked
Use it. He wasn't tricked into spiritism. He chose it knowing his church forbade it.
Greber's foreword, as the Watchtower quoted it in 1955. "The most significant spiritualistic book is the Bible; for its principal contents hinge upon the messages of the beyond to those existing in the present." checked
Use it. He read the whole Bible through the lens of spirit communication. The Watchtower called this a "typical misstatement."
The spirit speaking through the boy medium, in Greber's account. "You are familiar with the exclamation of the Apostle Thomas, as rendered by your modern Bible: 'My Lord and my God!' The word 'Master' was later altered into 'God'." checked
Use it. The Greek manuscripts of John 20:28 read "my God" (ho theos mou). Greber's source didn't argue from manuscripts. It denied Jesus's deity and claimed the text had been changed.
Chapter titles in the book's table of contents. "Christ is not God but God's emissary." "There is no triune God." checked
Use it. His translation of John 1:1 comes from a man whose spirit sources taught that Christ is not God. It confirms his theology; it can't independently confirm the Watchtower's.
Greber's introduction, as the Watchtower quoted it in 1956. "I myself was a Catholic priest, and until I was forty-eight years old had never as much as believed in the possibility of communicating with the world of God's spirits. The day came, however, when I involuntarily took my first step toward such communication, and experienced things that shook me to the depths of my soul." checked
Greber's introduction. "In the rare instances in which a text pronounced correct by the divine spirits can be found in none of the manuscripts available to-day, I have used the text as it was given to me by those spirits." checked
Use it. This is the most important sentence about Greber. He didn't only claim help interpreting. He says he printed wording that no manuscript contains, because spirits supplied it.
His base text. Greber says Codex D (Codex Bezae) "most nearly approaches the truth" and used it as his basis. Codex Bezae is a Greek-Latin manuscript from about AD 400, known among textual critics for its many unusual readings. checked
The publisher's note in later editions. "At times he was given the correct answers in large illuminated letters and words passing before his eyes." "His wife, a medium of God's Spiritworld was often instrumental in conveying the correct answers from God's Messengers to Pastor Greber." checked
Use it. The Watchtower quoted the second sentence, from the 1980 edition, as its reason for dropping Greber in 1983.
What Greber's New Testament does with the verses that matter here, set beside the standard text.
Greber (1937), as the Watchtower quoted it. "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god." checked
The New World Translation (current edition). "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a god." checked The NWT has read "a god" here since 1950.
What it shows. Greber reached the same rendering as the NWT. It doesn't show the Greek requires it. See John 1:1.
Greber (1937), as the Watchtower quoted it. "Tombs were laid open, and many bodies of those buried there were tossed upright. In this posture they projected from the graves and were seen by many who passed by the place on their way back to the city." checked
The King James Version. "And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many."
What changed. Greber has no "saints," no "arose," no "after his resurrection" and no "holy city." Raised saints become corpses thrown upright by the earthquake. The Watchtower used this rendering in 1971, 1975 and 1976.
Greber (1937), as the Watchtower quoted it. "My dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to learn whether they come from God. For many false spirits have emerged from the abyss and gone out into the world, and are speaking through human mediums." checked
The King James Version. "Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world."
What changed. "False prophets" became "false spirits" from "the abyss," "speaking through human mediums." None of those words is in the Greek. This is the passage where the Watchtower wrote in 1956: "Very plainly the spirits in which ex-priest Greber believes helped him in his translation."
What Greber's spirit claimed. "The word 'Master' was later altered into 'God'." checked
The text. "Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!'" (John 20:28, LSB). The NWT also has "My Lord and my God!"
What it shows. On the one verse where Jesus is called God most plainly, Greber's spirit source said the Bible was corrupted. The Watchtower doesn't accept that claim, which shows Greber isn't a reliable guide even by Witness standards.
Every Watchtower reference to Greber found for this form, in order. The Watchtower Online Library has 12 entries for "Greber"; no article after 1983 mentions him.
The approving citations ran for about 14 years (1962–1976), not 60. Get the number right; Witnesses will check it.
The index entry under Greber lists only the 1962 John 1:1 use and the 1983 rejection; the 1971, 1975 and 1976 uses for Matthew 27 aren't listed there. When a Witness says "it was only used once or twice," show all of them.
What the Watchtower said when it dropped Greber, and the question its own earlier articles raise.
Findings that rarely appear in the usual articles: German local-history records, Greber's own books, and details inside the Watchtower texts themselves.
Greber's 1937 introduction: where the text "pronounced correct by the divine spirits can be found in none of the manuscripts available to-day, I have used the text as it was given to me by those spirits." checked
Why it matters. Most critics stop at "spirits helped him." His own words go further: some of his New Testament has no manuscript behind it at all.
Greber's 1 John 4:1 adds false spirits "from the abyss" who "are speaking through human mediums." The Greek has "false prophets." checked
Why it matters. The Watchtower quoted this rendering in 1956 as proof that spirits shaped his translation, then cited the same translation in 1962.
In Greber's book a spirit says Thomas's "My Lord and my God" was altered from "Master." His contents page includes "Christ is not God but God's emissary." checked
Why it matters. Greber's John 1:1 comes from a source that rejects a verse the NWT itself translates "My God." That makes him a partisan witness, not a neutral one.
The body text calls him only "a former Roman Catholic priest"; his name appears in footnote g with the note about the golden cross on the cover. checked
Fair use of it. A reader in 1962 would not learn from the text that this was the spiritist named in 1955 and 1956. Present this as an observation, not proof of motive. ○ Interpretation
Aid (1971), The Watchtower (1975) and The Watchtower (1976) all used Greber's "tossed upright" corpses. checked
Why it matters. It supported a doctrine (no resurrection before Jesus, "the firstborn from the dead"), not just a word choice.
Removed in 1918 for disobedience to his bishop, reinstated in 1920, and removed again on 1 January 1926 for holding spiritist sessions against the Holy Office's 1917 decree.
Why it matters. Greber wasn't a mainstream Catholic scholar who happened to agree with the Watchtower. He was disciplined by his church for the very practice behind his translation.
Elected in a 1918 by-election for Koblenz–St. Goar against the Catholic Centre Party, after an unsuccessful run in 1910.
Why it matters. It shows a forceful, independent personality who was already at odds with his church's political party before his spiritism.
Greber married Elisabeth Boos, a Red Cross nurse from Münstermaifeld, in a civil ceremony in August 1931, two years after emigrating.
Why it matters. The medium named in the 1980 foreword, and quoted by the Watchtower in 1983, was a real person; the records name her.
The current NWT study note on John 1:1 says the absence of the article "makes the·osʹ qualitative in meaning." checked
Why it matters. That is the same category Daniel Wallace uses. The dispute is what "qualitative" means: Wallace says the Word "had all the attributes and qualities that 'the God' (of 1:1b) had." See John 1:1.
A search of the Watchtower Online Library for "Greber" returns 12 entries. The last article is from 1983; the only later entries are indexes. checked
Why it matters. Current Witnesses may never have heard of him. Show them their own 1983 article first.
Argue the Greek and the context first. Greber comes after, as the weakness in their supporting witnesses.
The Watchtower says its John 1:1 doesn't depend on Greber, and its current study note argues from the missing article, the qualitative sense and the Coptic versions. So "the NWT is wrong because Greber was a spiritist" doesn't answer their grammar. Answer the grammar first, then show why Greber can't count as support.
The text. kai theos ēn ho logos, καὶ θεὸς ἦν ὁ λόγος: "and the Word was God." Theos comes first and has no article.
The point. A missing article doesn't automatically mean "a god." The NWT's own study note says the construction "makes the·osʹ qualitative in meaning." checked Daniel Wallace agrees it is qualitative and explains what that means: the Word "had all the attributes and qualities that 'the God' (of 1:1b) had," and "their essence is identical." checked
Why the article is missing. With the article, the clause would make the Word identical to the Father, whom John has just said the Word was "with." Bill Mounce: "lack of the article tells us that Jesus Christ is not the Father," and the word order "tells us that Jesus Christ has all the divine attributes that the Father has." checked
John 1:3 (LSB). "All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being." checked
Ask. "Did the Word come into being?" If yes: "Then how did He make everything that came into being, since nothing came into being apart from Him?" If no: "Then the Word stands outside the whole category of created things."
John 1:14 (LSB). "And the Word became flesh." John 20:28 (LSB). "Thomas answered and said to Him, 'My Lord and my God!'" John 5:23 (LSB). "so that all will honor the Son even as they honor the Father." checked
The point. John opens and closes his Gospel calling Jesus God, and requires the same honor for the Son as for the Father. Build the case on all of it, not on one clause.
The Sahidic Coptic is an ancient translation and a real witness to how an early translator read the Greek. Greber is a modern translator who claimed spirit help. If a Witness bundles them ("the Coptic and Greber both say 'a god'"), separate them: "Those are two different kinds of evidence. The Coptic can be studied on its own terms. Greber claimed spirits helped him. Neither one changes the Greek text."
The questions to ask, in order; the answers you'll hear; and the claims to avoid.
Don't lead with accusations. Each question has a documented answer in their own literature.
The Watchtower's own publications, Greber's own books, and the historical records. No encyclopedia summaries are used.
The King James Version is quoted for Matthew 27:52-53 and 1 John 4:1 to show what Greber changed.
Prepared as a debate aid. Claims are labeled Documented, Reported, Interpretation or Overclaim; quotes marked checked were read in the sources listed under Sources. Watchtower quotations are from the Watchtower Online Library. Scripture is quoted from the Legacy Standard Bible unless marked as the King James Version or the New World Translation.