Titus 2:13
From Textus Receptus
- ΠΡΟΣ ΤΙΤΟΝ 2:13 προσδεχόμενοι τὴν μακαρίαν ἐλπίδα καὶ ἐπιφάνειαν τῆς δόξης τοῦ μεγάλου θεοῦ καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ
(Textus Receptus, Novum Testamentum, Theodore Beza, 5th major edition. Geneva. 1598)
- Titus 2:13 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;
(King James Version, Pure Cambridge Edition 1900)
- Titus 2:13 looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ,
(King James Version 2016 Edition, 2016) - buy the revised and updated printed 2023 Edition New Testament here
Interlinear
Commentary
The original 1611 KJV inclided a comma after God which is not in post 1769 editions:
- Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Sauiour Iesus Christ,
Pro KJV reading
Gail Riplinger
Gail Riplinger stated:
- 1.) All Greek texts have the wording of the KJV. None render it as the new versions do.
- 2.) The Granville Sharp theory he cites is just that, a theory. It does not require that the Greek word order be changed, or commas added, but simply states that one person, not two, are presented here.
- 3.) The same grammatical construction is used to express the deity of the Father "God and our Father") in Gal. 1:4, 1 Thes. 1:3, and Phil. 4:20. The O.T. uses such construction frequently (i.e. Is. 45:21, a just God and a Saviour, and Gen. 49:25).
- 4.) New versions omit the definite article "the" great God, seen in all Greek texts. He is the great God, but is only our Saviour since we believe in him.
- 5.) The spelling of 'Saviour' as "Savior" denies his deity. See Webster's distinction between a "savior" ("one who saves") (it could be anyone) and the 'Saviour' "Jesus Christ the Redeemer". (The move from a seven letter word, the Bible's number for perfection, to a six letter word, the Bible's number for man, is a downhill move.)
Anti KJV Reading
Modern Versions
Most Modern translations read “our great God and Savior Jesus Christ”.
Ankerberg and Weldon
Ankerberg and Weldon stated:
- “even the context of Titus 2:13 shows that one Person, not two, was in Paul’s mind, for Paul wrote of the ‘glorious appearing’ of that Person” (Facts on Jehovah’s Witnesses, p. 24).
James White
On page 81 in the book The King James Version Controversy, by James White, he falsely claims that the KJV distorts the meaning of this verse and obscures the Deity of Christ:
- "the KJV is shown to be wanting in Titus 2:13."
On page 201 he says:
- “The simple fact is that the KJV provides an inferior translation, one that unintentionally detracts from the presentation of the full deity of Jesus Christ. The unwillingness of KJV defenders to overlook this fact is most disturbing.”
Granville Sharp
Granville Sharp stated:
- “This testimony, therefore, of the sacred text, in favour of our Lord’s divine nature, ought not to be withheld from the mere English reader” (Remarks, p. 51).
I. M. Haldeman
I. M. Haldeman stated:
- “Under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit the Apostle Paul speaks of Him as ’our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ’ (correct reading) (Titus 2:13)” (Bible Expositions, I, p. 456).
A. T. Robertson
A. T. Robertson stated:
- “is the necessary meaning of the one article with theou and soteros just as in 2 Peter 1:1” (Word Pictures, IV, p. 604).
William Hendriksen
William Hendriksen stated:
- “No valid reason has ever been found which would show that the (Granville Sharp) rule does not apply in the present case [Titus 2:13]” (Timothy and Titus, p. 375).
Prince Hoare
Prince Hoare stated:
- “the only sense in which the Greek Fathers understand that important passage, for instance, Titus 2:13, is that which is ascribed to it by Mr. Sharp” (Memoirs, I, p. 501).
Augustus Strong
Augustus Strong stated that Titus 2:13 is: “a direct, definite, and even studied declaration of Christ’s divinity” (Systematic Theology, p. 307).
James Buswell
James Buswell stated:
- “It is clear from the entire New Testament that it is Christ whose glorious appearing is expected: Christ Jesus is our great God and Saviour” (Systematic Theology, p. 104). Gordon Clark noted: “The subject matter is the glorious return of our Lord. One person returns; not the Father, but the Son. Hence the great God and Jesus is the same person” (The Trinity, p. 17).
J. L. Dagg
J. L. Dagg advocated stated:
- “our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ” (Manual of Theology, pp. 183-184).
Ralph Wardlaw
Ralph Wardlaw stated:
- “To avoid all ambiguity, and to express the precise sense of the original, they ought to be rendered, ‘the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (Discourses, p. 76).
Timothy Dwigh
Timothy Dwight stated:
- “In the Greek it is the Great God even our Saviour Jesus Christ, or our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” (Theology Explained, I, p. 526).
Theodore Haak
Theodore Haak stated:
- “That is, of Jesus Christ, our great God and Saviour; for both these titles are here ascribed to Jesus Christ.” (English translation of the 1637 Dutch Annotations)
H. Harvey
H. Harvey stated:
- “The following context, in the relative clause (verse 14), ’who gave himself for us,’ plainly relates only to Christ, but naturally requires us to take the whole preceding expression, ’our Great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ,’ as its antecedent” (Commentary on the Pastoral Epistles, pp. 139-140).
Robert Horton
Robert Horton stated:
- “The qualifying description of verse 14, which refer to Jesus Christ, completely overbalances the sentence if Christ is to be separated from ’the great God’” (Commentary p. 186).
Francis Turretin
Francis Turretin stated:
- “Epiphaneia is never attributed to the Father, but always to Christ. He, whose advent we look for, is said to have given himself for us (Tit. 2:14), which applies to Christ alone” (Institutes, I, p. 284).
John Dick
John Dick who lived from 1764 to 1833 stated:
- “in which the name of God is given to our Saviour, but the evidence does not appear to common readers, in consequence of the manner in which they have been translated” (Lectures on Theology, I, p. 316).
also:
- “our Great God and Saviour Jesus Christ” as “a translation more conformable to the original” (p. 317).
Joseph Benson
Joseph Benson observed that Theodore Beza maintained “that one person only is spoken of, namely, Jesus Christ” (New Testament, II, p. 472).
Francis Turretin
Francis Turretin, who live from 1623 to 1687) stated:
- “He is called ‘the great God’ (Tit. 2:13)–certainly not the Father, but the Son because only one article is prefixed to the words God and Saviour (which would not be the case if they were two persons)” (Institutes, translated by George Giger, I, p. 284).
E. W. Bullinger
E. W. Bullinger stated:
- “of our great God and Saviour” (Figures, p. 505).
also:
- “hendiadys: One person being meant, not two” (p. 669).
J. H. Murray
J. H. Murray stated:
- “makes it as if two persons were spoken of, the Father and the Son; where the Son only, in the original Greek, is mentioned” (Help, p. 64).
Edward Burton
Edward Burton stated:
- “In our authorized version, the words certainly do not necessarily imply that our Saviour Jesus Christ is the great God; but if we were to translate them, as we are equally authorized in doing, ’the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ,’ it would be obvious to every reader, that the expression great God referred to Jesus Christ” (Testimonies, p. 113, 1829).
New World Translation
The New World Translation of the Jehovah's Witnesses states:
- while we wait for the happy hope and glorious manifestation of the great God and of our Savior, Jesus Christ;
English Standard Version
- waiting for our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
Greek
Textus Receptus
Desiderius Erasmus
- 1516 (Erasmus 1st Novum Instrumentum omne)
- 1519 (Erasmus 2nd)
- 1522 (Erasmus 3rd Novum Testamentum omne)
- 1527 (Erasmus 4th)
- 1535 (Erasmus 5th)
Colinæus
- 1534 (Colinæus)
Stephanus (Robert Estienne)
- 1546 (Robert Estienne (Stephanus) 1st)
- 1549 (Robert Estienne (Stephanus) 2nd)
- 1550 (Robert Estienne (Stephanus) 3rd - Editio Regia)
- 1551 (Robert Estienne (Stephanus) 4th)
Theodore Beza
- 1565 (Beza 1st)
- 1565 (Beza Octavo 1st)
- 1567 (Beza Octavo 2nd)
- 1580 (Beza Octavo 3rd)
- 1582 (Beza 2nd)
- 1589 (Beza 3rd)
- 1590 (Beza Octavo 4th)
- 1598 (Beza 4th)
See Also Titus 2:13 Beza 1598 (Beza)
- 1604 (Beza Octavo 5th)
Elzevir
Scholz
Scrivener
- 1894 (? ????? ???T???)
Other Greek
- 1857 (Tregelles' Greek New Testament)
- (Tischendorf 8th Ed.)
- 1881 (Westcott & Hort)
- (Greek orthodox Church)
Anglo Saxon Translations
- 1000 (Anglo-Saxon Gospels Manuscript 140, Corpus Christi College by Aelfric)
- 1200 (Anglo-Saxon Gospels Hatton Manuscript 38, Bodleian Library by unknown author)
English Translations
- 1395 abidinge the blessid hope and the comyng of the glorie of the greet God, and of oure sauyour Jhesu Crist; (Wyclif's Bible by John Wycliffe)
- 1534 lokinge for that blessed hope and glorious apperenge of ye myghty god and of oure savioure Iesu Christ (Tyndale Bible by William Tyndale)
- 1535 lokynge for that blessed hope and appearynge of the glory of ye greate God and of oure Sauioure Iesu Christ: (Coverdale Bible)
- 1539 (Great Bible First Edition - Miles Coverdale)
- 1540 lokynge for þe blessed hope & appearinge of the glory of the greate God, & of oure sauioure Iesu Christ, (Great Bible Second Edition - Miles Coverdale)
- 1549 lokynge for that blessed hope and gloryous apperyng of the myghtye God, and of oure sauyoure Iesu Christe, (Matthew's Bible - John Rogers)
- 1560 (Geneva Bible) First Edition
- 1568 Lokyng for that blessed hope and appearyng of the glorie of the great God, and our sauiour Iesus Christe, (Bishop's Bible First Edition
- 1587 Looking for that blessed hope, and appearing of that glorie of that mightie God, and of our Sauiour Iesus Christ, (Geneva Bible) by William Whittingham
- 1611 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Sauiour Iesus Christ, (King James Version)
- 1729 in expectation of that desirable happiness, the glorious appearance of the supreme God, and of our saviour Jesus Christ, (Mace New Testament)
- 1745 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Saviour Jesus Christ: (Mr. Whiston's Primitive New Testament)
- 1769 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; (King James Version - Benjamin Blayney)
- 1770 looking for the blessed hope, and glorious appearance of the great God, and our Saviour, Jesus Christ: (Worsley Version by John Worsley)
- 1790 Looking for the blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the great God, even our Savior Jesus Christ; (Wesley Version by John Wesley)
- 1795 expecting the blessed hope, and glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; (A Translation of the New Testament from the Original Greek by Thomas Haweis)
- 1833 Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Savior Jesus Christ; (Webster Version - by Noah Webster)
- 1835 expecting the blessed hope; namely, the appearing of the glory of the great God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ; (Living Oracles by Alexander Campbell)
- 1849 while expecting the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jeshu Meshiha; (Etheridge Translation by John Etheridge)
- 1850 (King James Version by Committee)
- 1851 (Murdock Translation)
- 1858 looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ, (The New Testament Translated from the Original Greek by Leicester Sawyer)
- 1865 waiting for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and savior of us Jesus Anointed; (The Emphatic Diaglott by Benjamin Wilson)
- 1865 looking for the blissful hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; (The New Testament of Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ 1865 by American Bible Union)
- 1869 looking for the blessed hope, and appearing of the glory of the great God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ; (Noyes Translation by George Noyes)
- 1873 looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; (King James Version) by Frederick Scrivener)
- 1885 looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; (Revised Version also called English Revised Version - Charles Ellicott editor)
- 1890 awaiting the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; (Darby Version 1890 by John Darby)
- 1898 waiting for the blessed hope and manifestation of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, (Young's Literal Translation by Robert Young)
- 1901 looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ; (American Standard Version - Philip Schaff)
- 1902 Prepared to welcome the happy hope and forthshining of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Christ Jesus, (The Emphasised Bible Rotherham Version)
- 1902 looking for the blessed hope even the appearing of the glory of our great God and our Saviour Christ Jesus; (Translation of the New Testament from the Original Greek by William Godbey)
- 1904 looking for the blissful hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; (The New Testament: Revised and Translated by Adolphus Worrell)
- 1904 while we are awaiting our Blessed Hope—the Appearing in glory of our great God and Saviour, Christ Jesus. (Twentieth Century New Testament by Ernest Malan and Mary Higgs)
- 1911 (Syrus Scofield)
- 1912 in expectation of the fulfilment of our blessed hope—the Appearing in glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ; (Weymouth New Testament)
- 1918 waiting for the blessed hope, and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, (The New Testament Translated from the Sinaitic Manuscript by Henry Anderson)
- 1923 (Edgar Goodspeed)
- 1995 (New American Standard Bible) (©1995)
- (BBE)
- (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
- (21st Century King James Version)
- (Common English Bible)
- (GOD’S WORD Translation)
- (Contemporary English Version)
- (New Living Translation)
- (Amplified Bible)
- (The Message)
- (New International Reader's Version)
- (Wycliffe New Testament)
Foreign Language Versions
Arabic
- منتظرين الرجاء المبارك وظهور مجد الله العظيم ومخلّصنا يسوع المسيح (Arabic Smith & Van Dyke)
Aramaic
- ܟܕ ܡܤܟܝܢܢ ܠܤܒܪܐ ܒܪܝܟܐ ܘܠܓܠܝܢܐ ܕܬܫܒܘܚܬܗ ܕܐܠܗܐ ܪܒܐ ܘܡܚܝܢܢ ܝܫܘܥ ܡܫܝܚܐ (Aramaic Peshitta)
Basque
- Dohain onetaco sperançaren eta gure Iainco handi eta Saluadore Iesus Christen gloriataco aduenimendu excellentaren beguira gaudelaric:
Bulgarian
- 1940 ожидайки блажената надежда, славното явление на нашия велик Бог и Спасител Исус Христос, (Bulgarian Bible)
Chinese
- 1 等 候 所 盼 望 的 福 , 并 等 候 至 大 的 神 和 我 们 ( 或 作 : 神 ─ 我 们 ) 救 主 耶 稣 基 督 的 荣 耀 显 现 。 (Chinese Union Version (Simplified))
- 1 等 候 所 盼 望 的 福 , 並 等 候 至 大 的 神 和 我 們 ( 或 作 : 神 ─ 我 們 ) 救 主 耶 穌 基 督 的 榮 耀 顯 現 。 (Chinese Union Version (Traditional))
French
- attendant la bienheureuse espérance et l'apparition de la gloire de notre grand Dieu et Sauveur Jésus Christ, (French Darby)
- 1744 En attendant la bienheureuse espérance, et l'apparition de la gloire du grand Dieu, et notre Sauveur, Jésus-Christ, (Martin 1744)
- 1744 En attendant la bienheureuse espérance, et la manifestation de la gloire de notre grand Dieu et Sauveur Jésus-Christ, (Ostervald 1744)
German
- 1545 und warten auf die selige Hoffnung und Erscheinung der HERRLIchkeit des großen Gottes und unsers Heilandes Jesu Christi, (Luther 1545)
- 1871 indem wir erwarten die glückselige Hoffnung und Erscheinung der Herrlichkeit unseres großen Gottes und Heilandes Jesus Christus, (Elberfelder 1871)
- 1912 und warten auf die selige Hoffnung und Erscheinung der Herrlichkeit des großen Gottes und unsers Heilandes, Jesu Christi, (Luther 1912)
Italian
- 1649 aspettando la beata speranza, e l’apparizione della gloria del grande Iddio, e Salvator nostro, Gesù Cristo.(Giovanni Diodati Bible 1649)
- 1927 aspettando la beata speranza e l’apparizione della gloria del nostro grande Iddio e Salvatore, Cristo Gesù; (Riveduta Bible 1927)
Japanese
Latin
- expectantes beatam spem et adventum gloriae magni Dei et salvatoris nostri Iesu Christi Latin Vulgate
- 1527 (Erasmus 1527)
- 1527 (Erasmus Vulgate 1527)
Pidgin
- 1996 (Pidgin King Jems)
Romainian
- 2010 aşteptînd fericita noastră nădejde şi arătarea slavei marelui nostru Dumnezeu şi Mîntuitor Isus Hristos. (Biblia Traducerea Fidela în limba româna)
Russian
- 1876 ожидая блаженного упования и явления славы великого Бога и Спасителя нашего Иисуса Христа, Russian Synodal Version
Phonetically:
Spanish
- Esperando aquella esperanza bienaventurada, y la manifestación gloriosa del gran Dios y Salvador nuestro Jesucristo. (RVG Spanish)
Swedish
- 1917 medan vi vänta på vårt saliga hopps fullbordan och på den store Gudens och vår Frälsares, Kristi Jesu, härlighets uppenbarelse -- (Swedish - Svenska 1917)
Tagalog
- 1905 Na hintayin yaong mapalad na pagasa at ang pagpapakita ng kaluwalhatian ng ating dakilang Dios at Tagapagligtas na si Jesucristo; (Ang Dating Biblia 1905)
Tok Pisin
- 1996 (Tok Pisin King Jems)
Vietnamese
- 1934 đương chờ đợi sự trông cậy hạnh phước của chúng ta, và sự hiện ra của sự vinh hiển Ðức Chúa Trời lớn và Cứu Chúa chúng ta, là Ðức Chúa Jêsus Christ, (VIET)
See Also
- “God and our Saviour” or “Our… God and Saviour” in Titus 2:13, 2 Peter 1:1 by KJV Today
- The Granville Sharp Rule