Jesus As God And The Greek New Testament
By Bro. Nathan
Ang New Testament greek helped us for centuries in proving that Jesus Christ is God. Koine Greek grammar at ang Christology ng Bible shows us that Jesus Christ is eternal and possesses Godhood and is called in Divine titles and not a creature with no divinity. passages sa New Testament with examinations of the Greek text will show us where “God” is in reference to Christ himself. one example for this is 2 Peter 1:1 which reads together with the Greek text :
“ Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:” (2 Pt. 1:1) KJV
Συμεὼν Πέτρος δοῦλος καὶ ἀπόστολος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ τοῖς ἰσότιμον ἡμῖν λαχοῦσιν πίστιν ἐν δικαιοσύνῃ τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ· (Sumeon Petros duolos kai apostolos Iesou Christou tois ishotimon emin laschousin pistin en dikaiosune tou Theou emon kai soteros Iesou Christou)
The following is translated with a rule sa Koine Greek grammar that we call where the construction is the definite article + noun + the coordinating conjunction και (kai) + anarthrous noun and this appears sa text ng 2 Peter 1:1. commenting on the construction of the text (τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ - tou Theou emon kai soteros Iesou Christou) the New English Translation’s (NET) translator notes tells us about the Granville Sharp’s rule and θεοῦ (Theou - God) and σωτῆρος (soteros) both in reference to a single person and responses to things dealing with it’s grammatical rule and translation like kung ang “God” ba is a common noun or a proper name. the note on this verse reads :
“ The terms “God and Savior” both refer to the same person, Jesus Christ. This is one of the clearest statements in the NT concerning the deity of Christ. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. In fact, the construction occurs elsewhere in 2 Peter, strongly suggesting that the author’s idiom was the same as the rest of the NT authors’ (cf., e.g., 1:11 [“the Lord and Savior”], 2:20 [“the Lord and Savior”]). The only issue is whether terms such as “God” and “Savior” could be considered common nouns as opposed to proper names. Sharp and others who followed (such as T. F. Middleton in his masterful The Doctrine of the Greek Article) demonstrated that a proper name in Greek was one that could not be pluralized. Since both “God” (θεός, theos) and “savior” (σωτήρ, sōtēr) were occasionally found in the plural, they did not constitute proper names, and hence, do fit Sharp’s rule. Although there have been 200 years of attempts to dislodge Sharp’s rule, all attempts have been futile. Sharp’s rule stands vindicated after all the dust has settled. For more information on the application of Sharp’s rule to 2 Pet 1:1, see ExSyn 272, 276-77, 290. See also Titus 2:13 and Jude 4.”
Similarly as stated above sa note, the same construction appears sa verse 11 where “Lord” (κυρίου - kuriou) and “Savior” (σωτῆρος-soteros) which means it also refers to one person and is agreed upon by some groups that reject the deity of Christ and the translation of 2 Peter 1:1. verse 11, even though it has the identical with verse 1, versions like the New World Translation (NWT) of the Jehovah’s Wittnesses left verse 11 translated as “of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” without making a distinction on “Lord” and “Savior” unlike what they did on verse 1. it’s the same grammatical construction but differs on one word, κυρίου (kuriou). furthermore, the Greek word for God sa text ay used as a common noun dahil it also occurs in places in the New Testament in a plural form, and thus, it’s not a proper name. Titus 2:13 also does the same in grammatical construction but is mistranslated in the KJV. D. Wallace, a New Testament scholar tells us that “There is no good reason to reject Titus 2:13 as an explicit affirmation of the deity of Christ.” (Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. 1996. 276.) where both “our great God” and “Savior” both does modifies one person. furthermore, one scholar wrote commenting on the grammar of Titus 2:13 :
“ (1) The expression “θεος και σωτηρ” [Theos kai soter] was a stereotyped formula common in first-century religious terminology and was used by both Diaspora and Palestinian Jews in reference to Yahweh, thus denoting one deity. (2) The most satisfactory explanation of the anathrous σωτηρος [soteros] is that two coordinate nouns referring to the same person are customarily linked by a single article; σωτηρ ημων [soter emon] is generally articular in the PE (7x), anathrous only in 1T1.1 (where one person is clearly in view) and here in Tit. 2.13. The complex grammatical point suggests that “if Paul wished to speak unambiguously of two persons, he could have written either του μεγαλου θεου και Ιησου Χριστου σωτηρος ημων [tou megalou Theou kai Iesou Christou soteros emon], or του μεγαλου θεου ημων και του σωτηρος Ιησου Χριστου [tou megaloy Theou emon kai tou soteros Iesou Christou]. . . it must remain improbable that Paul would have acquiesced in a form of words that would naturally be depicting Jesus as ο μεγας θεος και σωτηρ ημων [ho megas Theos kai soteremon] if in fact he believed that Jesus was in no sense θεος.” [Theos] (3) The exceptional use of μεγας with θεος [Theos] is better explained if θεος [Theos] refers to Christ than if it signifies the Father. (4) The significant parallelism of 2.13 underlines that “the great God” is “the Saviour,” for the “blessed hope” is the “appearance of the glory”:
τὴν μακαρίαν ἐλπίδα καὶ ἐπιφάνειαν τῆς δόξης [ten makarian elpida kai epifaneian tes doxes]
τοῦ μεγάλου θεοῦ καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ [tou megalou Theou kai soteros emon Iesou Christou]
“ (Manifest in the Flesh: The Epiphany Christology of the Pastoral Epistles [Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1996], 244)
Thus, Jesus Christ is God based on what the originals of the New Testament says.
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