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Old 10-28-2009, 09:08 AM
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Default Jesus is God

God and Savior, Jesus Christ

  • Titus 2:13 looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus...
[bolded portion] - του μεγαλου θεου και σωτηρος ημων Ιησου Χριστου
  • 2 Peter 1:1 Simon Peter, a bond-servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, To those who have received a faith of the same kind as ours, by the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ
[bolded portion] - του θεου ημων και σωτηρος Ιησου Χριστου

These clauses follow the pattern:

[article] [noun] "and" [noun] [Person]

The rule that applies to this construction is called "Granville Sharp's Rule" [named after the first person in modern times to identify this rule of Greek syntax - which he first published in a pamphlet in 1798].

The rule is when you have two singular nouns, which are not proper names (such as Bob or Jim), which are describing a person, and the two nouns are connected by the conjunction "and," and the first noun has the article ("the") while the second does not, both nouns are referring to the same person.

In the two clauses above, the word "του" ("the") is the article and the word "και" ("and") is the conjunction. In both, the first noun is "θεου" ("God") and the second noun is "σωτηρος" ("savior"). The first clause includes the adjective "μεγαλου" ("great") between the article and the noun, placing it in the "attributive position," and thus making it gramatically part of the noun. Both include the pronoun "ημων" ("our") which can appear anywhere in the clause. The person is, of course, "Ιησου Χριστου" ("Jesus Christ").

Here is the really cool part: This rule has NO EXCEPTIONS IN ANY GREEK LITERATURE! Those who doubt the deity of Jesus have been trying for more than 200 years to find at least ONE exception to this rule so that they can claim Peter and Paul are NOT calling Jesus God. None have ever been found.

That means that Paul and Peter are blatantly calling Jesus BOTH "God" and "Savior."

Peter uses this construction three more times in his letter (1:11, 2:20 and 3:18), in each he describes Jesus as "Lord and Savior," and no one disputes that both of those reference the same person:

του κυριου ημων και σωτηρος ιησου χριστου

So here we have it, probably the two most prominent, most influential men in the NT (other than Jesus Himself), BOTH of whom are Jewish (so they would have very strong aversions against polytheism), in clear and plain language, they call Jesus "our God" (Paul calling him "our mighty God," which seems to be an intentional reference to Isaiah 9:6).

There is no way around this rule, much to the dismay of those who deny the deity of Jesus.

Grace and peace to you,

Rhomphaia
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