You do not make scripture sense Synergy. He's a few reasons this is so,,,
The word ‘God’ was added into this verse deliberately in a
few translations to say that God was Jesus who was revealed in the flesh. The KJV lead the way.
Additionally, the passage does not read ‘in
the flesh. It says, ‘in flesh’ or as a human being. Some translation read “in a body.”
The word ‘eusebias’ translated as ‘godliness’ is the best translation into English, although still an incomplete thought in its translation.
Christ is that fleshly manifestation of His (God’s) mystery.
The oldest manuscripts do not have the word ‘God’ or in Greek, ‘theos’ in this verse.
Fortunately, modern translators have completed omitted this most probable translators’ error.
Instead of God, they used the word ‘He,’ ‘Who’ or ‘Which’ instead.
NIV 1984 edition - “HE appeared in a body, was vindicated by the Spirit...”
NASB 1995 edition - “HE WHO was revealed in the flesh, was vindicated in the Spirit...”
RSV - “HE was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit...”
ESV 2001 - “HE (R10) was manifested in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit...” Footnote 10 - Greek Who; some manuscripts God; others Which.
Holman Standard 2003 - “HE was manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit”
ISV (International Standard Version) - “In flesh was HE revealed to sight, Kept righteous by the Spirit's might”
Catholic Douay-Rheims 1582 - “And evidently great is the mystery of godliness, WHICH was manifested in the flesh, was justified in the spirit, appeared unto angels,”
Catholic Douay 1950 - "great is the mystery of godliness: WHICH was manifested in the flesh"
St. Joseph New American Bible 1970 - “HE was manifested in the flesh, vindicated in the Spirit...”
Catholic New Jerusalem bible 1985 - “HE was made visible in the flesh, justified in the Spirit...”
Catholic Public Domain Version 2009 - "this mystery of piety, which was manifested in the flesh"
Another clear issue with using ‘God’ for the Greek word ‘euebias,’ is that if we just keep reading further into the verse, it says that God was justified in the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached among the Gentiles, was believed on in the world, and he was received into glory. This would be nonsense as Christ did all these things and not his Father. Unless one wants to use circular logic and say Jesus is God because God who is really Jesus did all these things in the verse, and not just the man and the anointed of God, is Son, Yahshua.
So, the best translated section of passage should read ‘…great is the mystery of godliness who was revealed in flesh…’ This interpretation says that the secret of Godly thoughts and plans, his word (and holiness, piety and godliness) for our salvation was revealed in a human being. His name is Jesus Christ or Yahshua, and not his Father of his (Holy) Spirit.
Next, we can look at a Greek Lexicon of
1 Timothy 3:16, which verifies the Greek interlinear.
Next, we can look at the Mounce reverse Greek interlinear of
1 Timothy 3:16.
Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest complete Greek new testament in existence, dating back to the 4th century.
1 Tim 3:16 in the Lamsa bible - Aramaic text - 5th century.
St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate 405A.D. of
1 Timothy 3:16 in Google translate.
Armenian bible – translated from the Peshitta Syriac text in 411AD of I Timothy 3:16
and openly in the godly counsel, manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen by angels, preached among the nations, was believed in heaven and glory.
The NET BIBLE is a completely new translation of the Bible! It was completed by more than 25 scholars – experts in the original biblical languages – who worked directly from the best currently available Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek texts.
Coptic text – from ancient Egyptian – 4th & 9th century AD of I Timothy 3:16
'^ And confessedly, great is the mystery of the godliness, *that
which was manifested in (the) flesh, was justified in the sjnrit [spirit],
was manifested unto the angels, was proclaimed among the
ncdions [nations], was believed in the tuorld [world], was taken up away
^ Lit. 'be, having become.' ^ Or 'he who.
Near the bottom of the page, look at some quoted highlights of the footnote: [My clarifications are in square brackets]
“It appears that sometime after the 2nd century the θεός [Theos = God] reading came into existence, either via confusion with ὅς [hos = who] or as an intentional alteration to magnify Christ and clear up the syntax at the same time. Once it got in, this theologically rich reading was easily able to influence all the rest of the mss [manuscripts] it came in contact with (including mss already written, such as אA C D). That this reading did not arise until after the 2nd century is evident from the Western reading, ὅ [which].
As TCGNT [Textual Commentary of the Greek New Testament] 574 notes,
“no uncial (in the first hand) earlier than the eighth or ninth century (Ψ) supports θεός [Theos = God]; all ancient versions presuppose ὅς [hos = who] or ὅ [ho = which]; and no patristic writer prior to the last third of the fourth century testifies to the reading θεός [theos].”
Definition of Patristic
pa·tris·tic [puh-tris-tik]
adjective
of or pertaining to the fathers of the Christian church or their writings.
In light of the last fact (and no patristic writer prior to the last third of the fourth century testifies to the reading θεός [Theos = God].”), it is interesting to note that the third part of the trinity had just come into being by the commandments of men in 381A.D.
Encyclopedia Britannica on Council-of-Constantinople
“Council of Constantinople, (381), the second ecumenical council of the Christian church, summoned by the emperor Theodosius I and meeting in Constantinople. Doctrinally, it promulgated what became known to the church as the Nicene Creed; it also declared finally the Trinitarian doctrine of the equality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son.”
Thus, some of the newer texts that read theos [God] were changed many centuries after the bible was already written and contradicts all the oldest uncial manuscripts. Therefore, they are a deliberate corruption of I Timothy 3:16. The companion bible details how it happened.
Screenshot of the Companion Reference Bible; notes on I Timothy 3:16.
Notice that in the blue box, I Timothy 4:1 is highlighted.
Immediately after the Felony Forgery of I Timothy 3:16, I Timothy 4:1 speaks for itself:
"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils."
Facsimile of the Codex Alexandrinus
“Tregelles writes, "The ink in which this has been done in A is sufficiently modern and black to declare its recent application" (An Account of the Printed Text of the Greek New Testament, London, 1854). Without these marks, the manuscript originally read ΟC "He who was manifested in the flesh."”
1 Timothy 3:16 in Codex Alexandrinus
Reproduced below is the text of
1 Timothy 3:16–4:3 from Codex A, as presented in the photographic facsimile volume published by the British Museum in 1879. Of particular interest here is the reading in 3:16, where it may be seen that the manuscript reads ΘC "God was manifested in the flesh," employing the usual abbreviation ΘC for ΘEOC, with a stroke over the letters to indicate an abbreviation.
However, textual critics believe that the ink in the center of the Θ and the stroke above were added by a corrector in modern times. Reasons for this belief are the color of the ink, and the fact that a "dot" has been placed in the Θ instead of a line.
Without these marks, the manuscript originally read ΟC "He who was manifested in the flesh." In the photograph below the ΘC in 3:16 is circled. Further down, in verse 4:3, there is another ΘC circled for comparison.
His Father promised and gave Jesus immortality for the first time in his existence, after his death on the Cross. It was the grace of God his Father. This is what is meant by godliness in 1 Tim 3:16; this mysterious or incomprehensible act by God, the Father, and our Father that transformed his Son from a human to an immortal.
