CLAIM: Paul writes, “Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus” (Titus 2:13). Does this refer to Christ?
RESPONSE: There are several reasons to conclude that this text affirms the deity of Christ:
First, the earlier context supports this reading. This passage expounds upon what Paul began in his introduction, when he wrote about “God our Savior” (Titus 1:3). Here, Paul tells us that Jesus is “our great God and Savior.”
Second, the immediate context supports this reading. Just two verses earlier, Paul writes that “the grace of God has appeared (epiphaneia)” (Titus 2:11). In this passage, Paul writes that we should look for “the appearing (epiphaneia) of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus.” The “referent of the term ‘appearing’ (epiphaneia), which occurs four times in the Pastorals (1 Tim 6:14; 2 Tim 1:10; 4:1, 8) and elsewhere only in 2 Thess 2:8, is always Jesus.”[1] Indeed, Mounce states that the term “in Paul always refers to Jesus’ second coming and never to God.”[2]
Third, the OT supports this reading. Isaiah writes, “I… am the LORD (Yahweh), and there is no savior besides me” (Isa. 43:11). If Yahweh is the only savior, and Jesus is the Savior, then Jesus is Yahweh.
Fourth, the surrounding culture used the term “God and Savior” to refer to one person. In Hellenistic Greek, the words “God and Savior” (theos kai soter) was a title that “always referred to one person.” However, this expression was incredibly rare in the LXX. Thus, “this is how it would have been understood in Cretan society.”[3]
Fifth, the grammar requires this reading. The term “savior” (soter) occurs eight other times in the Pastoral Epistles, and in seven out of the eight occurrences, it has the article (“the savior”).[4] Here, however, the word lacks the article. This suggests that there is a reason for the term lacking the article here.[5]
There is a grammatical rule called the Granville Sharp’s rule that applies here. Regarding the use of this rule in the NT, Greek grammarian Daniel Wallace writes, “Even Sharp’s opponents could not find any exceptions; all had to admit that the rule was valid in the NT.”[6] (We see the same construction in 2 Peter 1:1.)
In NT Greek, whenever the article (“the”), a substantive (noun), kai (translated “and, but, even, also, namely”), and a substantive (noun) are used, they always refer to the same person.[7] This is called the TSKS construction. Thus, this expression (tou megalou theou kai soteros) must all refer to Jesus. Greek grammarian Daniel Wallace affirms, “There is no good reason to reject Titus 2:13 as an explicit affirmation of the deity of Christ.”[8] Likewise, Greek expert Bill Mounce goes so far to say that the deity of Christ is “required by the grammar.”[9]
For more on this subject, see “Defending the Deity of Christ.”
[1] Thomas D. Lea and Hayne P. Griffin, 1, 2 Timothy, Titus, vol. 34, The New American Commentary (Nashville: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1992), 313.
[2] William D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, vol. 46, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2000), 429.
[3] William D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, vol. 46, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2000), 428.
[4] It lacks the article in 1 Timothy 1:1 “it is anarthrous in accordance with Apollonius’s Canon.” William D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, vol. 46, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2000), 427.
[5] William D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, vol. 46, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2000), 427.
[6] Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 273.
[7] James White points out, “Sharp’s study of the text of the New Testament led him to recognize that when the writer used a particular construction of “article (the word “the”)—substantive (noun)— καί,—substantive,” and when the personal nouns involved were singular and not proper names, they always referred to the same person.” James R. White, The Forgotten Trinity (Minneapolis, MN. Baker Publishing Group. 1998), 77-78.
[8] Daniel B. Wallace, Greek Grammar beyond the Basics: An Exegetical Syntax of the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1996), 276.
[9] William D. Mounce, Pastoral Epistles, vol. 46, Word Biblical Commentary (Dallas: Word, Incorporated, 2000), 431.