Bill Mounce

For an Informed Love of God

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Thursday, August 1, 2019

What does a preposition with two objects tell us about the divinity of Jesus? (1 Tim 1:1)

When you have one preposition and two objects, the writer is telling you, in a very nuanced way, that you should be viewing the two objects as a single entity. Not identical, but in some way functioning as one. So when a single preposition governs both "God" and "Christ," what is Paul saying?

Comments

Submitted by Greg Logan on Fri, 2019-08-02 22:31
Bill Admittedly, this seems like a seriously desperate stretch to create a basis for a huge post Biblical notion using a simple point of grammar that we all know carries various levels of flexibility (not to mention potential textual issues). However, the real problem is contextually - Paul makes a VERY clear and repeated distinction between Jesus and o theos over and over and over ad nauseum. To try and tease some bit of grammar rule - which we all know will result in a multitude of exceptions once we dig in... My only question.... WHY? Why not just stick with the plain, clear, repeated sense of scripture regarding Pauline Christology.... There is one God AND [someone other than the one God] one mediator between man and God - the MAN Christ Jesus. Christ is the head of man and o theos is the head of Christ. And a thousand other instances.... I am at lost as to what the confusion is and ready eagerness to jettison plain texts of scripture.

Submitted by Bill Mounce on Thu, 2019-08-15 11:49
As I said in the blog, this is a nuance issue. I assume you are Mormon. Check out Titus 2:13 and even John 1:18 in your own translation. The Incarnation is a mystery, but the Bible is clear that Jesus is God, the second member of the Trinity.