Saturday 21 October 2017

The Deity of Jesus Christ

1 Timothy 3.16 KJV 1611 (AV):

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.

NIV:

Beyond all question, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.

The name which most clearly establishes the deity of Christ is the name 'God' as applied to Him. By the removal of only two letters from the original Greek of this text one of the clearest proof-texts for Christ's deity is rendered useless. It could be said of every man who comes into the world that 'he appeared in a body'. C. H. Spurgeon commented on this text:

Does it tell us that a man was manifest in the flesh? Assuredly that cannot be its teaching, for every man is manifest in the flesh, and there is no sense in making such a statement concerning  any mere man, and then calling it a mystery. Was it an angel then? But what angel was ever manifest in the flesh? And if he were, would it be at all a mystery that he should be 'seen of angels'? Can it be that the devil was manifest in the flesh? If so he has been 'received up into glory', which, let us hope, is not the case. Well, if it was neither a man, nor an angel, nor a devil, who was manifest in the flesh, surely he must have been God; and so if the word be not there, the sense must be there, or else nonsense.

The above was copied from page 18 from an excellent little booklet; "Which Bible Version: Does It Really Matter?" By David Blunt.

The real reason why this alteration is found in the modern text is understood from the history of the Revised Version of 1881. This project was originally sanctioned by the Church of England and intended as a limited revision of the Authorized Version. The final product however was based on the new Greek text of Westcott and Hort begun three decades earlier. The presence of Dr. G. Vance Smith, a Unitarian minister, on the revising committee provoked a row, with several thousand Anglican clergymen signing a protest, but Westcott and Hort defended his presence and he remained. The altered reading of 1 Timothy 3.16 was of course quite suitable to Dr. Smith, who wrote:

The old reading has been pronounced untenable by the Revisers, as it has long been known to be by all careful students of the New Testament...It is another example of the facility with which ancient copiers could introduce the word 'God' into their manuscripts-a reading which was the natural result of the growing tendency in early Christian times to look upon the humble Teacher as the Incarnate Word, and therefore as 'God manifested in the flesh'.

Here is a mischievous idea. It is suggested that early Christians altered the text of the New Testament to make it 'more orthodox' than it originally was, and that by removing the word 'God' from this verse and other similar amendments  the compilers of the Revised Version and subsequent versions have returned the text of the Bible to a purer state. The consequence of course is that one of the clearest statements of Christ's divinity is removed from the Bible, and that after multitudes of believers have for centuries derived instruction and encouragement from it. What sort of view of providential preservation is this?

By substituting the equivocal 'He' for the explicit 'God' the textual critics and the NIV translators have destroyed the value of this verse as a proof-text for the Incarnation, the essence of which, as seen in the Westminster Confession of Faith  chapter VIII. ii, is 'that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures, the Godhead and the manhood, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion'.

Other divine names applied to Christ are omitted in the modern versions. In the NIV New Testament the name 'Lord' is omitted from the text 35 times, the name 'Jesus' 38 times. Particularly serious is the way in which the name 'Lord' or 'Christ' has been separated from the name 'Jesus'at critical places.

CHECK OUT YOUR BIBLE! If such a downgraded rendering is in your Bible of choice (forget the footnotes) I say CHUCK IT OUT!