As you can
see, the Tyndale Bible of 1525 see the word not as a person, but as God's
speaking the world into existence. The word "word" (or worde) is not
capitalized and it is referred to as an "it" and not a "he". Within a
hundred years, however, the standard interpretation had changed.
We read the
same passage in the King James Version (originally translated in 1611)
"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word
was God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing
made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of
men."
This version
of the Christian Bible "clarified" John 1:1. "Word" is now capitalized and
referred to as a "he" instead of an "it". As future versions were written,
more "clarifications" were made.
The 1971
Living Bible reads as follows:
"Before anything else existed, there was Christ with God. He has always
been alive and is himself God. He created everything there is --
nothing exists that he didn't make. Eternal life is in him, and this
life gives light to all mankind." (40 million sold by 1997)
Corruption of Scripture
The
altering of texts did not begin, however, in the 1500's.
St. Faustus,
a 5th century Bishop writes:
"Many things have been inserted by
our ancestors into the speeches of our Lord which, though put forth under
his name, agree not with his faith; especially since, as already it has been
often proved - these things were written not by Christ, nor [by] his
apostles, but a long while after their deaths"