1 Timothy 3:16 - He [who] manifested in [the] flesh

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Letters of Paul

The First Epistle to Timothy

1 Timothy 3:16

Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.

 

? Proof of Trinitarian Error

Trinitarians claim this verse identifies Jesus as "God" because it says "God was manifested in the flesh." - KJV

? The Claims vs. The Facts

The manuscript evidence, and the immediate context, shows the King James Verison (KJV) reading was not authored by Apostle Paul.

? The Problems with the claims of Trinitarians

Modern translations do not read, "God" at 1 Timothy 3:16. Trinitarians, as do majority of folks of the mainstream, make this particular claim by quoting only from the King James Version reading of this verse. Despite the fact that scholars agree that the KJV reading is a certain corruption, Trinitarians, even those who normally do not read the KJV, continue to cherry-pick this verse from the KJV.

During the time of the Christological controversies that took place in the 4th Century, we do not see even one solitary person making a reference to the "God was manifested in the flesh" version of this verse as evidence for identifying Jesus as "God." This fact does itself undeniably demonstrate it was unknown to them.

NOTE: Even the Bible says God is not like a man or a son of man (Numbers 23:19, 1 Samuel 15:29), furthermore, it is said God is not like us men (Job 9:32).

If 1 Timothy 3:16 really said "God was manifest in the flesh," we can most definitely be sure this passage would have most been brought, yet, not one person mentions it even though this passage more than any other would have supported the teaching that the incarnate Christ was "God." But the facts remain as they are and it was never mentioned once in the myriads of documentation that exist illustrating what was argued in these types of debates. There is a good reason that nobody in the 4th century church ever mentioned the passage. The word "God" did not appear in 1 Timothy 3:16 until much later. It first appears in Patristic Writings and manuscripts after Trinitarian dogma was developed and is an obvious later alteration. The oldest and best manuscripts do not have the word "God" (theos) in 1 Timothy 3:16 which is why modern Bible translations do not have the word "God" at 1 Timothy 3:16 either.

1. Contemporary Trinitarian Translation Scholars

Now because this verse is known to be a scribal error, contemporary Trinitarian Greek scholars, who have access to numerous manuscripts, have not been able to perpetuate this error any longer into English translations, despite the passions of some who desire the word "God" to appear in this verse at the expense of truth.

The verse in question used by Trinitarians and the common translations that they use will show the verse this way, as seen in the KJV:

[KJV/NKJV] - 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.

Let us look at some of the major translations of this passage and note how Trinitarian Greek scholars themselves acknowledged the scribal error:

• [CEV] - Here is the great mystery of our religion: Christ came as a human. The Spirit proved that he pleased God, and he was seen by angels. Christ was preached to the nations. People in this world put their faith in him, and he was taken up to glory.
• [NASB] - By common confession, great is the mystery of godliness: He who was revealed in the flesh, Was vindicated in the Spirit, Seen by angels, Proclaimed among the nations, Believed on in the world, Taken up in glory.
• [BSB] - By common confession, the mystery of godliness is great: He appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the nations, was believed in throughout the world, was taken up in glory.
• [BLB] - And confessedly, great is the mystery of godliness: Who was revealed in the flesh, was justified in the Spirit, was seen by angels, was proclaimed among the nations, was believed on in the world, was taken up in glory.
• [NIV] - Without question, this is the great mystery of our faith: Christ was revealed in a human body and vindicated by the Spirit. He was seen by angels and announced to the nations. He was believed in throughout the world and taken to heaven in glory.
• [ESV] - Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of godliness: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
• [NWT] - Indeed, the sacred secret of this godly devotion is admittedly great: ‘He was made manifest in flesh, was declared righteous in spirit, appeared to angels, was preached about among nations, was believed upon in the world, was received up in glory.Â’
• [ASV] - And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh, Justified in the spirit, Seen of angels, Preached among the nations, Believed on in the world, Received up in glory.
• [ERV] - And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness; He who was manifested in the flesh, justified in the spirit, seen of angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, received up in glory.
• [RSV] - Great indeed, we confess, is the mystery of our religion: He was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
• [NRSV] - Without any doubt, the mystery of our religion is great: He was revealed in flesh, vindicated in spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.
• [Douey-Rheims] - And evidently great is the mystery of godliness, which was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared unto angels, hath been preached unto the Gentiles, is believed in the world, is taken up in glory.
• [NET] - And we all agree, our religion contains amazing revelation: He was revealed in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed on in the world, taken up in glory.
• [NAB] - Undeniably great is the mystery of devotion, Who[a] was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed to the Gentiles, believed in throughout the world, taken up in glory.

Very clearly we can see here that the Trinitarian translation scholars are admitting this version of the verse is not authentic. One then wonders why Trinitarians so often continue to ignorantly, or dishonestly, appeal to it.

2. Ho, Hos & Theos

Now, if we entertain all possibilities, the remote and the more certain, there are actually three possibilities in this text: ho ("which"), hos ("who"), and "theos ("God/deity"). The first two are attested in early manuscripts. Thus one must look elsewhere to find which one is the one Apostle Paul originally wrote.

 

3. One Small Pen Stroke

We actually have a pretty likely idea how this corruption happened. Scribal copyists routinely used a contracted form of the Greek word for "God" called a "nomem sacrum" (pl. "nomina sacra") that was used at a very early date in Christian history for sacred names. The Greek word for "God" is theos written in the Greek alphabet as qeoV, or QEOS. The copyist abbreviations correspondingly took the form qV, or QS, with an faint overscore line stroke over the abbreviation (see Figure 1 below). These strokes would often become quite faint in the copies. Now the Greek word for "who" is the word hos which is written in Greek as oV, or OS.

Now notice the similarity between these two words QS, and OS, and also remember they were written by hand and would not be written so perfectly and distinctly as the typed letters on this page. With the exception of one penstroke, the Omicron (O) and Theta (Q) are nearly identical. It would be very easy to make a mistake here when copying from one manuscript to another and if that is what happened then it would be excusable. But it would also be very easy for an overzealous scribe to suppose he was doing God a favor and execute a forgery here by changing the manuscript and the handwritten O (Omicron) into a Q (Theta) with a stroke of his pen and thereby completely change the meaning of the verse. It would be also easy to change the word ho to theos by adding a stroke and an "s."

And it would be far more difficult to do it the other way around without getting caught (removing the stroke). There is also evidence that ink may have bled through the other side of the media and made it appear to a copyist to read QS because the bleeding ink added what appeared to be a line where OS had been written. Whether or not it was an honest copying mistake or a forgery, it is very likely that the error was produced in this manner.

 

Figure 1

The Manuscript Evidence

Manuscript Common Name Date Text B Codex Vaticanus ca. 300 Does not contain 1 Timothy Aleph Codex Sinaiticus ca. 350 who was manifest in flesh A Codex Alexandrinus ca. 450 who was manifest in flesh C Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus ca. 450 who was manifest in flesh D Codex Claromontanus ca. 550 which was manifest in flesh   Peshitta Coptic Ethiopic Sahidic   which was manifest in flesh   Gothic   which was manifest in flesh

Patristic Witness

Quotations of 1 Timothy 3:16 in the Fathers Author Reference Date Evidence Comments Ante-Nicene Church All Writings 70-325 A.D. None Not quoted by any writer before Nicea Arian Controversy Church All Writings 325 - 381 A.D. None Not quoted by any writer until late in the fourth century

6. The Internal Evidence

A. The Greek Grammar

The internal evidence also reveals the truth of the matter. First, the passage does not say "in the flesh" with a definite article but simply "in flesh." The word eusebias translated as "godliness" is difficult to translate into English with a word that exacts the Greek intention. The word "godliness" is a justified translation of the word and it is about as good as we can do with the selection of English words we have available. However, it does tend to over translate the Greek scope of the word. This is a common problem when translating from one language to another. The Greek word does not precisely mean what the English word "godly" tends to convey but it means something like reverent piety in a worshipful sense. The Greek words for "God" and "godliness" which are theos and eusebias are not related word cognates as they are in English. This can also tend to be misleading to readers who speak/read in English who might conclude the word "godliness" in this passage is intended to correlate with the word "God" in the KJV translation.

However, in Greek the word eusebias and theos do not bear that correlation. Also, there were also no sentence ending periods in the Greek text. If the word "which" is the proper rendering, the passage actually says in the Greek, "great is the mystery of godliness which was manifested in flesh, justified in spirit..." However, if the word "God" is used we have an abrupt break in the flow of the sentence, "great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in flesh, justified in spirit..." The rendering which uses the word "who" or "which" is much smoother and natural. Not only so, it is typical Pauline style to compose run-on sentences.

b. The Immediate Context and Pauline Thought

And there is yet more which reveals this verse was corrupted. Paul here is talking about the mystery. In 2 Timothy 1:8-9 he says:

[8] Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God, [9] who saved us and called us to a holy calling, not because of our works but because of his own purpose and grace, which he gave us in Christ Jesus before the ages began,

This is nearly identical to what he says in Romans 16:25:

Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery that was kept secret for long ages

 

In Ephesians 1:9-10 he says:

[9] making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his purpose, which he set forth in Christ [10] as a plan for the fullness of time, to unite all things in him, things in heaven and things on earth.

Or Ephesians 3:9:

and to bring to light for everyone what is the plan of the mystery hidden for ages in God, who created all things,

Or Ephesians 5:32:

This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church.

Or Ephesians 6:19:

and also for me, that words may be given to me in opening my mouth boldly to proclaim the mystery of the gospel,

Or Colossians 4:3:

At the same time, pray also for us, that God may open to us a door for the word, to declare the mystery of Christ, on account of which I am in prison—

For, the mystery of the ages is Christ himself revealed to us by God. He tells us in Colossians, "the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory" (Col. 1:27, see 1 Cor. 1:30; 2:7). God's mystery appeared in flesh and Christ is that fleshly manifestation of His mystery.

God was Justified in the Spirit?

Another problem associated with the "God" rendering is that if we just keep reading it would then say that God was justified in the Spirit. It makes absolutely no sense to say God was justified in the Spirit, God was seen by angels, God was preached among the Gentiles, God was believed on in the world, and God was received into glory."

C. Paul's Vocabulary Elsewhere

At Colossians 1:27 we read:

• To them God chose to make known how great among the Gentiles are the riches of the glory of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.

The relative pronoun used here is the masculine relative pronoun hos which refers back to the neuter noun "mystery." This is nearly identical to 1 Timothy 3:16 which ends with the phrase "taken up in glory." Hence we can see that hos is the likely relative pronoun to be used at 1 Timothy 3:16.

D. Constructio Ad Sensum

Trinitarians have sometimes insisted the gender of the pronoun in question necessitates in Greek grammar the "God" rendering. This is highly misleading. Pronouns do not always refer to the immediate antecedent but sometimes to the contextual antecedent.

Determining Factors

Quote

Trinitarians are appealing to a version of a text which is known to be a scribal error.           Modern Trinitarian translation reflect that Trinitarian translation scholars admit this is a scribal error. Therefore, they do not translate this passage in a way that supports Trinitarian doctrine           We have a pretty good idea that this error was accomplished by either (1) one additional stroke of a pen changing the Greek word from "who" to "God" or (2) by two additional strokes of a pen changing the Greek word from "which" to God, or (3) by ink bleeding through the media.           This version of the verse cannot be found absolutely anywhere in early Christian writings before the Trinity was developed. Considering the fourth and fifth century men were having a crisis in the church concerning the nature of Christ and his relationship to God, it is preposterous to claim this version of the verse is valid and they overlooked this passage.           No early manuscripts contain this version of the verse. The corrupted version of this text appears only after the doctrine of the Trinity was developed in the fourth/fifth century.           The Greek grammar and immediate context also indicates this rendering is wrong.

Conclusion

So when we review all the evidence the solution is plain to see. The historical evidence indicates the word "God" was not there before the late fourth century at the earliest. The manuscript evidence indicates the word "God" was not in the original text. The grammar and the immediate context also indicate the KJV reading is not authentic. Christ is the mystery in question which is why the passage should read, "great is the mystery of godliness who/which was manifested in flesh, justified in spirit..." It "which" is correct it refers back the mystery; if "who" is correct it refers to Christ. Very obviously then the passage reads smoothly and makes total sense with the rest of Scripture by using either the word "who" or "which" which are attested in early manuscripts, as well as the KJV reading is an obvious error or forgery.

Great is the mystery of godliness which/who was manifested in flesh."