"Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus."

Titus 2:13
New American Standard Bible translation

This scripture is often listed as proof that Jesus is Yahweh God Most High. Does this scripture actually give proof of such?

We will first note that the Sinaitic MS. reads "Lord" here instead of God. Ivan's Panin's New Testament (based on his Biblical numerics) supports that this should be rendered "Lord" instead of God, thus "our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." Additionally, Peter uses this expression several times of Jesus: 2 Peter 1:11; 2:20; 3:2,18. Thus these give some proof for the rendering "our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." Accepting this to be true, then there is nothing in the verse that speaks of Jesus as God.

Nevertheless, our trinitarian neighbors and some will not accept the above, and will argue that this scripture is proof that Jesus is Yahweh. However, it is an appeal to a scripture that can be translated different ways, depending upon the translator's understanding of what is being said, or bias. Of course, Jesus is the One of Power sent by the only true God, Yahweh, who gives Jesus his power, and Jesus is the savior sent by the only true God, Yahweh. Jesus is theos -- a powerful one -- thus true theos in a secondary sense, but not in the sense of being the only true Supreme Being. Even as the saints are called *theoi*, so it would be proper to call Jesus *theos*, as the one given power and authority by Yahweh. -- John 10:34,35; 17:1,3 -- See also Psalm 82; Isaiah 9:6,7.
See also our studies on:
"Who Are The Gods of Psalm 82:6?"
"Hebraic Usage of the Titles for 'God'
Hebrews 1:8
John 20:28

We present below several translations of Titus 2:13 that render this verse in various ways:

"while we wait for the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ".

New Revised Standard Version

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Savior Jesus Christ;"

The Webster Bible

"Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;"

King James Version

looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory (Footnote: 1) of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
Footnote: (1) Or of our great God and Saviour )

American Standard Version

Looking for the blessed hope and coming of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ,

Douay-Rheims

expecting the blessed hope; namely, the appearing of the glory of the great God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ;

Living Oracles

looking for the blessed hope, and the manifestation of the glory of the great God, and our Life-giver, Jesus the Messiah;

Murdock

Prepared to welcome the happy hope and forthshining of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Christ Jesus,

Rotherham

Regarding Titus 2:13 Paul S. L. Johnson states
"Tit. 2:13 is also alleged as a proof of the trinity by some, who to find in their thought, render the words in question as follows: 'the appearing of the glory of our Great God and Savior Jesus Christ.' This rendering is not preferred by a majority of learned trinitarians, though it is a possible rendering. Rendered as in the A.V., A.R.V. text, and a majority of modern translations, not our Lord Jesus but the Father is here called God. The fact that, properly translated, Paul never calls Jesus God, but always contrasts Him as Lord with the Father as God, is decisive on which is the right translation. Again, the connection (v. 11) naturally suggests that the bright shining is of the Father and of the Son. St. Paul's use of language, calling the Father God over 500 times and never once calling Jesus God, must rule in this case as to which is the right translation. Force, too, is added to our view by the words [A.R.V.] *the glory of the Great* God." -- Ephiphany Studies in the Scriptures, Volume 1, God, pages 525,526. -- (One should note that this was written back in the 1930s, before many of the modern trinitarians had sought to translate this to read in favor of the trinitarian view.)

We should also note that Titus 3:6 definitely shows that it is the Father who shed the holy spirit "*through* Jesus Christ our Savior." And we also can look at Titus 1:4: "to Titus, my true child according to a common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace from God, the Father, and the Lord, Jesus Christ, our Savior." (World English Bible translation) Here Paul clearly distinguishes between God the Father and the Lord Jesus. This gives further evidence that this is also what he meant in Titus 2:13.

The revealing (epiphaneia) spoken of in Titus 2:13 probably refers to the time when the glory of Yahweh is revealed to all flesh, not to Jesus' appearance (Phaneroo) at his first advent, as spoken of in 1 Timothy 3:16. -- Isaiah 40:5; 11:9; Psalm 72:19.

The millennial kingdom of Christ will not only be the time of revealing of the glory of God and Christ, but also of the seed of Abraham, the chosen sons of God of this age. -- Romans 8:19; Galatians 3:26,29; 1 John 3:2.

Additionally, Titus 2:14 adds "who gave himself for us to redeem us from all iniquity and to purify for himself a people of his own who are zealous for good deeds." This scripture shows that Jesus "gave" himself. Who did he 'give himself' to? To God himself! (1 Timothy 2:5,6; Hebrews 9:24; 10:10) Thus a little reasoning indicates that Jesus is not the same as the God to whom he gave himself.

See also:
Barry Hardy's comments at:
http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=19980706.191409.3222.0.barryhardy%40juno.com

But someone argues: The rule of Greek grammar that applies here is that if there are two nouns separated by the word "kai" (and), then if each noun has an article with it, they refer to different things. But if only one of them has an article, they refer to the same thing. In these cases, we have two nouns ("God" and "Saviour"), separated by the word "kai", with only one of them having an article. According to this rule of Greek grammar, these two words refer to the same person.

Rules of grammar are not inherently rules of a language, but are made so by general usage. Such "rules" usally always have exceptions, which is also true of this "rule", as seen in the Septuagint of Proverbs 24:21. Granville Sharp is attributed to formulating the above rule which he presented in a book in 1798, long after Paul and Peter had written their letters. See Barry Hardy's comments:

According to Sharp's rule: "When the copulative kai connects two nouns of the same case, [viz. nouns (either substantive or adjective, or participles) of personal description, respecting office, dignity, affinity, or connexion, and attributes, properties, or qualities, good or ill], if the article o, or any of its cases, precedes the first of the said nouns or participles, and is not repeated before the second noun or participle, the latter always relates to the same person that is expressed or described by the first noun or participle: i.e. it denotes a farther description of the first-named person." (Sharp, Remarks on the Uses of the Definitive Article, 3.) Sharp's sole purpose in his study was to promote the idea that Jesus is Yahweh, so he did not include "things" in his rule, thus he narrows his study to substantives (that is., nouns, substantival adjectives, substantival participles) of personal description, not those which referred to things, and only in the singular, not the plural. He states that "there is no exception or instance of the like mode of expression, that I know of, which necessarily requires a construction different from what is here laid down, EXCEPT the nouns be proper names, or in the plural number; in which case there are many exceptions ." In other words, he found a way to exclude or provide exceptions to his rule so as to make it appear that the rule would support the idea that several passages are saying that Jesus is Yahweh God Almighty.

Conversely, Sharp claimed that if two nouns of the same case are connected by a "kai" (and) and the article (the) is used with both nouns, they refer to different persons or things. If only the first noun has the article, the second noun refers to the same person or thing referred to in the first. -- Curtis Vaughn, and Virtus Gideon, A Greek Grammar of the New Testament" (Nashville: Broadman Press, 1979), p. 83.}" But Sharp came up with exceptions to this rule so that it would not apply to John 20:28.

See: John 20:28

Let us look at an interlinear of Titus 2:13:

prosdechomenoi teen makarian elpida kai epiphaneian
AWAITING THE HAPPY HOPE AND MANIFESTATION
4327 3588 3107 1680 2532 2015
tees doxees tou megalou theou kai swteeros heemwn
OF THE GLORY OF THE GREAT GOD AND OF SAVIOR OF US
3588 1391 3588 3173 2316 2532 4990 1473_8
christou ieesou
OF CHRIST JESUS,
5547 2424
Westcott & Hort Greek / English Interlinear
NEW TESTAMENT coded with Strong's numbers
(as obtained from the Bible Student's Library CD-ROM)

The Greek structure here is highly complex. First we have an article before two nouns -- two things -- connected by kai for which the Christian is awaiting -- teen makarian elpida kai epiphaneian -- the happy hope and manifestation. It is apparent that that in this verse that there are two things being waited for -- *hope* and *manifestation*, although one article is present, both of which are related to "glory" that is to be manifested at that time -- the glory of the great God and our Savior, Jesus Christ. (Compare Romans 8:19,24,25) The manifestation is followed by a phrase describing what the manifestation is: "of the glory of the great God and of Savior of us, Jesus Christ." We again have an article used of the possessive; the article before glory is of the great God and Savior of us. Thus the "glory" is applied to two nouns, "God" and "Savior". As one reads this, we don't think anyone would see in this that the great God and the savior are speaking of one person, except that their minds had been preconditioned to think of the expression in such terms. We certainly don't think Paul was trying to structure his sentence in such a way to leave the impression that Jesus is God Almighty.

There is even more to this, for let us read the verses before:

11 For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men, 12 Teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world; -- King James Version

Now we know that "grace" or "favor" did not make some physical appearing, but rather the knowledge through Christ concerning the grace of God appeared to all the men being spoken of, that is, Christians, both Gentile and Jew, teaching them how to live in this evil world while they awaited the happy hope and manifestation of the glory. Thus Paul is summing up the work of the first advent and the second advent, as to what is revealed at both events. The parallel between the advents is "grace" and "glory". The grace is of God through Christ. (Titus 1:3) The *glory* is of the great God *and* our Savior, who is then identified as Jesus Christ. Thus the whole idea is the glory of our great God and the glory of our Savior, which glory we are awaiting the manifestation of.

The problem here is the possessive *heemwn*, which appears after *swteeros*, which, according to the usual construction, would also demand an article before that which is possessed, that is, *swteeros*. There is no definite article before swteeros, so we go looking for a definite article earlier, which we find before *megalou theou*, "great God". Then this article is applied to both "great God" and "Savior." Since there is no separate article applied to Savior, some wish to conclude that one person is referred to as both God and Savior. Still, there is nothing definite in this conclusion. Sharp himself had to make exceptions to his rules in order to seemingly narrow them down for his purposes.

In view of the context, we do not believe that Paul here was constructing this sentence this way to show that Jesus is God Almighty, regardless of how one applies or makes exceptions for Sharp's rule in this verse. It does appear more likely that he just wrote what seemed to him to be a way of saying that we are awaiting the appearance of both the great God and of our Lord Jesus. Nevertheless, even if Jesus is being called 'Great God", we should connect the phrase "Great God" here with the phrase usually translated "Mighty God" in Isaiah 9:6, as applied to Messiah. This application would still not make Jesus into God Almighty, but as a Mighty God, one appointed so by the Almighty Yahweh.

See: Isaiah 9:6
discussion.

Then there is one more thing to consider concerning Titus 2:13 and Sharp's rules. As noted above, he provided exceptions to his rules if the nouns were proper nouns. Some argue that "God" and "Savior" in Titus 2:13 are semantic equivalents to such proper names, as titular names, and therefore Sharp's exception to his rule should apply to this verse.

Overall, there is no actual proof in Titus 2:13 that Jesus is Yahweh. The arguments presented for such are questionable, to say the least. One has to first assume that Jesus is God Almighty, then read this into the scripture, and then say that this is proof, which is, in effect, circular reasoning.

Updated slightly, May 26, 2004

We provide links to the following sites for further study; we do not necessarily agree with all statements made on the pages linked to, nor do the authors necessarily agree with our views:

Greg Stafford's Responses to Rob Bowman
http://jehovah.to/exegesis/logs/index.htm

A Case Study Involving Rob Bowman and Granville Sharp
http://jehovah.to/exegesis/logs/trinitarian_apol_1.htm

A RESPONSE TO ED KOMOSZEWSKI'S ARTICLE ENTITLED: The New World Translation and Christologically Significant Article-Substantive-Kaiv-Substantive Constructions in the New Testament
http://hector3000.future.easyspace.com/nwt1.htm

The Construction of Titus II
http://hector3000.future.easyspace.com/abbott_sharp.htm

Related Books
The following books are recommended for reference; our recommendation does not mean that we endorse everything presented in the books.

GOD By Paul S.L. Johnson.

CHRIST-SPIRIT-COVENANTS By Paul S.L. Johnson.