Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 22:85 (Jan 1865)
Article: An Examination Of The Various Readings Of 1 Timothy 3:16.
Author: William Hayes Ward

BSac 22:85 (Jan 1865) p. 1

An Examination Of The Various Readings Of 1 Timothy 3:16.

Rev. William H. Ward

Καὶ ὁμολογουμένως μέγα ἐστὶ τὸ τῆς εὐσεβείας μυστήριον: θεὸς ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκί, ἐδικαιώθη ἐν πνεύματι, ὤφθη ἀγγέλοις, ἐκηρύχθη ἐν ἔθνεσιν, ἐπιστεύθη ἐν κόσμῳ, ἀνελήφωη ἐν δόξῃ.

Λνστεαδ of θεός in this passage many editors read ὅς, and some writers have defendedὅ. The latter reading may at once be dismissed as untenable, not being supported by any such authority as either of the others, and being plainly a grammatical variation, introduced for the purpose of relieving an apparent impropriety in the gender of ὅς. The question then rests between ὅς and θεός. Having endeavored carefully to investigate all the authorities for either reading, as far as they are accessible to us, we propose to give the result of this labor in such a form that the reader can easily decide for himself between the two readings.

While θεός in this passage supports the divinity of Christ, this is not a doctrine which rests on any single text. If the result of criticism could be proved adverse to this reading, it would not affect our general faith. God does not leave such an important doctrine as the Trinity to depend on so few and feeble arguments that a single proof-text more or less makes any appreciable difference in our belief.

BSac 22:85 (Jan 1865) p. 2

We have perfect confidence in the principles of our faith, and look with no feelings of concern upon investigations of .the purity of the scripture text. Even with the reading ὅς, some of the early Fathers, as will be seen, deduced from this passage the divinity of Christ, and Dr. S. Clarke truly says of this passage, that “the same is evident; that that person was manifest in the flesh, whom John in the beginning of his gospel styles θεός, God.”1

I. Manuscripts

The authority of this source of evidence in identifying the original text is paramount to all others. Although they are not, of course, accessible in this country, yet accurate copies of all the older MSS. have been published, and in the case of doubtful readings they have been carefully and repeat...