I am so happy to see so many Latin threads popping up on the forum! I’ll just chime in on this one
“Verbum” at the end of the verse from the prologue to John’s gospel that you quote is actually in the nominative. This is because sum (from which erat comes) is intransitive (doesn’t take a direct object) and verbum is neuter and so can be nominative.
However, there’s no reason why one shouldn’t translate the Latin sentence “God was the Word” - the word order even suggests it.
The reason why one sees the translation “and the Word was God” is because of the original Greek text. The Greek is much more specific than Latin can be. The Greek for “Word” - ho logos - includes the article “the” (“ho”) while God -theos- is not thus making it clear that God is being predicated - is being “said of” or is describing- the Word and not vice versa.
Hope that makes sense - bet that’s about as clear as mud to most people!!
- from peregrinator, a certified Classical language
