Our God and Savior, Jesus Christ

DEFENSE

That’s not how New Testament Greek grammar works.

In 1798, the Englishman Granville Sharp published a book in which he identified a rule of Greek grammar that has since become known as Granville Sharp’s rule. It has a direct bearing on the interpretation of Titus 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:1.

The rule focuses on New Testament Greek phrases like the one translated “Our God and Savior,” and it shows that the two nouns in these phrases always refer to the same person when certain conditions are met. The conditions are:

1. In Greek, the phrase begins with the definite article (i.e., the Greek equivalent of “the”).

2. The nouns are joined by the Greek equivalent of “and” (kai). 3. The nouns are personal, singular, and not proper names.

There are more than eighty instances of this construction in the New Testament, and they all obey Granville Sharp’s rule. Examples include:

• “Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James” (Mark 6:13).
• “I am ascending to my Father and your Father” (John 20:17).
• “Tychicus the beloved brother and faithful minister” (Eph. 6:21).
• “Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession” (Heb. 3:1).
• “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Pet. 1:3).

  Not all of these contain “the” in the English translation (Greek uses the definite article more than English does, so it is not always translated), but it is there in the Greek. The same is true of the phrases found in Titus 2:13 and 2 Peter 1:1. They are:

  • Tou megalou theou kai sotēros hēmōn Iēsou Christou (“Our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ”; Titus 2:13)
  • Tou theou hēmōn kai sotēros Iēsou Christou (“Our God and Savior, Jesus Christ”; 2 Pet. 1:1)

    Both these passages thus directly affirm the divinity of Christ.