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6B “Three Witness Bearers”New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures—With References
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6B “Three Witness Bearers”
“For there are three witness bearers, the spirit and the water and the blood, and the three are in agreement.”
—1Jo 5:7, 8.This rendering is in agreement with the Greek texts by C. Tischendorf (eighth ed., 1872); Westcott and Hort (1881); Augustinus Merk (ninth ed., 1964); José María Bover (fifth ed., 1968); United Bible Societies (third ed., 1975); Nestle-Aland (26th ed., 1979).
After “witness bearers” the cursive mss No. 61 (16th century) and No. 629 (in Latin and Greek, 14th to 15th century) and Vgc add the words: “in heaven, the Father, the Word and the holy spirit; and these three are one. (8) And there are three witness bearers on earth.” But these words are omitted by אABVgSyh,p.
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6C With the Blood of God’s Own SonNew World Translation of the Holy Scriptures—With References
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6C With the Blood of God’s Own Son
Ac 20:28—Gr., διὰ τοῦ αἵματος τοῦ ἰδίου
(di·aʹ tou haiʹma·tos tou i·diʹou)
1903
“with the blood of His own Son”
The Holy Bible in Modern English, by F. Fenton, London.
1950
“with the blood of his own [Son]”
New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, Brooklyn.
1966
“through the death of his own Son”
Today’s English Version, American Bible Society, New York.
Grammatically, this passage could be translated as in the King James Version and Douay Version, “with his own blood.” That has been a difficult thought for many. That is doubtless why ACDSyh (margin) (followed by Moffatt’s translation) read “the congregation of the Lord,” instead of “the congregation of God.” When the text reads that way it furnishes no difficulty for the reading, “with his own blood.” However, אBVg read “God” (articulate), and the usual translation would be ‘God’s blood.’
The Greek words τοῦ ἰδίου (tou i·diʹou) follow the phrase “with the blood.” The entire expression could be translated “with the blood of his own.” A noun in the singular number would be understood after “his own,” most likely God’s closest relative, his only-begotten Son Jesus Christ. On this point J. H. Moulton in A Grammar of New Testament Greek, Vol. 1 (Prolegomena), 1930 ed., p. 90, says: “Before leaving ἴδιος [iʹdi·os] something should be said about the use of ὁ ἴδιος [ho iʹdi·os] without a noun expressed. This occurs in Jn 1:11; 13:1, Ac 4:23; 24:23. In the papyri we find the singular used thus as a term of endearment to near relations . . . . In Expos. VI. iii. 277 I ventured to cite this as a possible encouragement to those (including B. Weiss) who would translate Acts 20:28 ‘the blood of one who was his own.’”
Alternately, in The New Testament in the Original Greek, by Westcott and Hort, Vol., 2, London, 1881, pp. 99, 100 of the Appendix, Hort stated: “it is by no means impossible that ΥΙΟΥ [hui·ouʹ, “of the Son”] dropped out after ΤΟΥΙΔΙΟΥ [tou i·diʹou, “of his own”] at some very early transcription affecting all existing documents. Its insertion leaves the whole passage free from difficulty of any kind.”
The New World Translation renders the passage literally, adding “Son” in brackets after ἰδίου to read: “with the blood of his own [Son].”
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6D “God, Who Is Over All”New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures—With References
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6D “God, Who Is Over All”
Ro 9:5—Gr., καὶ ἐξ ὧν ὁ χριστὸς τὸ κατὰ σάρκα, ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων, θεὸς εὐλογητὸς εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας· ἀμήν
(kai ex hon ho khri·stosʹ to ka·taʹ sarʹka, ho on e·piʹ panʹton, The·osʹ eu·lo·ge·tosʹ eis tous ai·oʹnas; a·menʹ)
1934
“and from whom by physical descent the Christ came. God who is over all be blessed through the ages! Amen.”
The Riverside New Testament, Boston and New York.
1935
“and theirs too (so far as natural descent goes) is the Christ. (Blessed for evermore be the God who is over all! Amen.)”
A New Translation of the Bible, by James Moffatt, New York and London.
1950
“and from whom Christ sprang according to the flesh: God who is over all be blest forever. Amen.”
New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, Brooklyn.
1952
“and of their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ. God who is over all be blessed for ever. Amen.”
Revised Standard Version, New York.
1961
“and from them, in natural descent, sprang the Messiah. May God, supreme above all, be blessed for ever! Amen.”
The New English Bible, Oxford and Cambridge.
1966
“and Christ, as a human being, belongs to their race. May God, who rules over all, be praised for ever! Amen.”
Today’s English Version, American Bible Society, New York.
1970
“and from them came the Messiah (I speak of his human origins). Blessed forever be God who is over all! Amen.”
The New American Bible, New York and London.
These translations take ὁ ὤν (ho on) as the beginning of an independent sentence or clause referring to God and pronouncing a blessing upon him for the provisions he made. Here and in Ps 67:19 LXX the predicate εὐλογητός (eu·lo·ge·tosʹ, “blessed”) occurs after the subject θεός (The·osʹ, “God”).—See Ps 68:19 ftn.
In his work A Grammar of the Idiom of the New Testament, seventh ed., Andover, 1897, p. 551, G. B. Winer says that “when the subject constitutes the principal notion, especially when it is antithetical to another subject, the predicate may and must be placed after it, cf. Ps. lxvii. 20 Sept [Ps 67:19 LXX]. And so in Rom. ix. 5, if the words ὁ ὢν ἐπὶ πάντων θεὸς εὐλογητός etc. [ho on e·piʹ panʹton The·osʹ eu·lo·ge·tosʹ etc.] are referred to God, the position of the words is quite appropriate, and even indispensable.”
A detailed study of the construction in Ro 9:5 is found in The Authorship of the Fourth Gospel and Other Critical Essays, by Ezra Abbot, Boston, 1888, pp. 332-438. On pp. 345, 346 and 432 he says: “But here ὁ ὤν [ho on] is separated from ὁ χριστός [ho khri·stosʹ] by τὸ κατὰ σάρκα [to ka·taʹ sarʹka], which in reading must be followed by a pause,—a pause which is lengthened by the special emphasis given to the κατὰ σάρκα [ka·taʹ sarʹka] by the τό [to]; and the sentence which precedes is complete in itself grammatically, and requires nothing further logically; for it was only as to the flesh that Christ was from the Jews. On the other hand, as we have seen (p. 334), the enumeration of blessings which immediately precedes, crowned by the inestimable blessing of the advent of Christ, naturally suggests an ascription of praise and thanksgiving to God as the Being who rules over all; while a doxology is also suggested by the ᾿Αμήν [A·menʹ] at the end of the sentence. From every point of view, therefore, the doxological construction seems easy and natural. . . . The naturalness of a pause after σάρκα [sarʹka] is further indicated by the fact that we find a point after this word in all our oldest MSS. that testify in the case,—namely, A, B, C, L, . . . I can now name, besides the uncials A, B, C, L, . . . at least twenty-six cursives which have a stop after σάρκα, the same in general which they have after αἰῶνας [ai·oʹnas] or ᾿Αμήν [A·menʹ].”
Therefore, Ro 9:5 ascribes praise and thanksgiving to God. This scripture does not identify Jehovah God with Jesus Christ.
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6E “Of the Great God and of [the] Savior of Us, Christ Jesus”New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures—With References
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6E “Of the Great God and of [the] Savior of Us, Christ Jesus”
Tit 2:13—Gr., τοῦ μεγάλου θεοῦ καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ
(tou me·gaʹlou The·ouʹ kai so·teʹros he·monʹ Khri·stouʹ I·e·souʹ)
1934
“of the great God and of our Savior Christ Jesus”
The Riverside New Testament, Boston and New York.
1935
“of the great God and of our Saviour Christ Jesus”
A New Translation of the Bible, by James Moffatt, New York and London.
1950
“of the great God and of our Savior Christ Jesus”
New World Translation of the Christian Greek Scriptures, Brooklyn.
1957
“of the great God and of our Savior Jesus Christ”
aLa Sainte Bible, by Louis Segond, Paris.
1970
“of the great God and of our Savior Christ Jesus”
The New American Bible, New York and London.
1972
“of the great God and of Christ Jesus our saviour”
The New Testament in Modern English, by J. B. Phillips, New York.
In this place we find two nouns connected by καί (kai, “and”), the first noun being preceded by the definite article τοῦ (tou, “of the”) and the second noun without the definite article. A similar construction is found in 2Pe 1:1, 2, where, in vs 2, a clear distinction is made between God and Jesus. This indicates that when two distinct persons are connected by καί, if the first person is preceded by the definite article it is not necessary to repeat the definite article before the second person. Examples of this construction in the Greek text are found in Ac 13:50; 15:22; Eph 5:5; 2Th 1:12; 1Ti 5:21; 6:13; 2Ti 4:1. This construction
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