The KJV of 1
Tim 3:16 reads:
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 the world, received up into
glory.
Modern
translations read slightly differently; instead of "God" many modern
translations read "he [who]" such as:
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. (NRSV)
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 the world, Taken up in
glory. (NASB)
The reason
for this variation is due to the earliest manuscripts of this verse reads ΟΣ
“he who,” not ΘΣ, an abbreviation (nomina sacra) of θεος, the Greek word for
“God,” something that even conservative New Testament scholars admit (e.g.
Philip Comfort, New Testament Text and
Translation Commentary [Tyndale House Publishers, 2008]). Notwithstanding,
one should not have a knee-jerk reaction and use this as “proof” that “modern
translations” downplay the divinity of Jesus (an attitude one, sadly, has
encountered among LDS, not just some non-LDS, too). Even with “he [who]” the
author affirms the personal pre-existence of Jesus as this is part-and-parcel
of the “Epiphany Christology” of the Pastoral Epistles. As one scholar noted:
the subject of the construction is clearly
not God or any of his qualities or attributes, but Jesus Christ, who was
revealed/appeared ἐν σαρκί, in a human body. Seen in the language of revelation
this dative construction contains a profound christological implication...
while ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκί is not a categorical assertion of Christ's
pre-existence and his incarnational ministry and does not explicitly tell us of
the mystery's hiddenness and subsequent revelation, the language and thought of
line 1 echo that used elsewhere in the NT to depict how the Son of God had
entered history, incarnated at a particular moment in time (cf. 'came into the
world' - 1 Tim. 1.15; cf. 2.5-6); ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκί indeed can be understood
in terms of the revelation and the execution of God's salvation-plan in the
historical (incarnate) appearing of Christ on earth. (Andrew Y. Lau, Manifest in the Flesh: The Epiphany
Christology of the Pastoral Epistles [Tübingen: J.C.B. Mohr, 1996], 98-99)
Interesting,
this is found in the Book of Mormon:
And he said unto me:
Because of thy faith in Christ, whom thou hast never before heard nor seen. And
many years pass away before he shall manifest himself in the flesh; wherefore,
go to, thy faith hath made thee whole. (Enos 1:8; Other texts that speak of the then-future Messiah being manifested "in the flesh" include 2 Nephi 6:9; 25:12; 32:6; Jacob 4:11)
What is
interesting is that this verse does not
say “God shall manifest himself” but “he [Christ] will manifest himself” in the
flesh as the earliest texts of 1 Tim 3:16 does (note: I am not arguing that the
Book of Mormon is dependent upon this verse, just found it interesting).
Notwithstanding personally pre-existing, Jesus manifested himself “in the flesh”
in the Christology of the Bible and the Book of Mormon, showing that being
truly human and personally pre-existent is not incompatible with one another,
especially in light of how LDS theology holds to “universal pre-existence” (for
more, see:
Incidentally, 1 Tim 3:16 is a strong refutation of the forensic model of justification as understood by Protestants (esp. Calvinists). See, for e.g.:
Critique of John Calvin on 1 Timothy 3:16 and Forensic Justification