As for the reference to the Word’s ‘being a god,’ it does not disagree with the statement at Deuteronomy 32:39. Why not? Because the “Word” does not stand in opposition to Jehovah nor is he a rival, as was the case with the false gods. Then, too, in the phrase rendered “the Word was a god,” the term “god” is a predicate noun that describes “the Word.” Says the noted scholar Westcott, coproducer of the famous Westcott and Hort Greek text of the Christian Scriptures: “It describes the nature of the Word and does not identify His Person.” In view of the descriptive nature of the predicate noun for “god” in the original Greek, An American Translation renders John 1:1: “The Word was divine.”a The New World Translation, however, retains the predicate noun and indicates the significance of the omission of the definite article by using the indefinite article.

Being God’s firstborn Son, “the Word” could rightly be described as a “god” or powerful one, even as are God’s other angelic sons at Psalm 8:5. (Compare Hebrews 2:6-8.) But neither the firstborn Son nor the other faithful angelic sons of God stand in opposition to their Creator, or try to equal him or substitute for him, as do false gods. They all recognize that worship is properly directed to Jehovah God alone.​—Phil. 2:5, 6; Rev. 19:10.