against “God” or that the Word merely possesses some attributes of the “divine nature.” As Beasley-Murray has pointed out, there is another Greek word (theios) for that type of divine reference, for instance in 2 Pet 1:4, where believers are said to participate in the “divine nature.”17 The meaning of John 1:1 is not merely that the Word has divine characteristics but that the Word participates in the reality called God. That Word was true deity, and John wanted there to be no doubt about it. This