While studying the Greek papyri some years ago, I came across another example that might be of interest for the "great god" discussion that pertains to Titus 2:13: ASKLAS ONNWFRIS hO PROGEGRAMMENOS, OSMOLCIS ADELFOS WN KAI hIEROGLUFOS OSEIRIOS QEOU MEGISTOU.
If I find the text again, I will alter the characters to make them Greek, but I find the nomenclature for Osiris of interest. And he is surely being called "the most great god" (A.S. Hunt), not great one of God.
4 comments:
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Titus+2%3A13&version=NASB
Footnote
ESV: "our great God and Savior Jesus Christ"
NASB Ftn (1995): "Or the great God and our Savior"
NABRE Ftn: 2:13 The blessed hope, the appearance: literally, “the blessed hope and appearance,” but the use of a single article in Greek strongly suggests an epexegetical, i.e., explanatory sense. Of the great God and of our savior Jesus Christ: another possible translation is “of our great God and savior Jesus Christ.”
BTW, given the fuidity of the word "theos" at the time, and in that culture I don't think that one can make a straight Nicean argument even if it was calling Jesus Christ the great go, at least not by itself.
I agree. Maurice Casey demonstrated this point well; see also the BDAG Greek-English Lexicon entry for theos.
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