Like you, my two go-to verses are Titus 2:13 " looking for the blessed hope and glorious appearing of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ,
and the other one is 2 Peter 1:1 To those who have obtained like precious faith with us by the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ.
Everyone memorize these two texts. I've memorized the verse in Titus as having one of Los Angeles' phone number prefix 213, and adding the first verse to my already favorite passage of supernatural power of God, from 2 Peter 1:2-11 to 2 Peter 1:1-11. Now that is even easier to memorize.
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'Sharp's Rule' Primer (part 1)
In an attempt to prove the trinity doctrine, Granville Sharp made up a rule in 1798. It is often called "Sharp's Rule" by trinitarians. It says, in effect, that when two or more words (nouns) in the original Greek New Testament (NT) text are joined by the word "and," they all refer to the
same person if the word "the" (the
article) comes before the first noun and not before the other noun(s).
For example, if we saw "
the king
and _master of the slave" in the Greek text of the Bible, it would always mean, according to Sharp, that only
one person was being called both "king" and "master." ("King" and "master" are joined by "and" - - only "king" has the article.)
Sharp invented this rule after he noticed this particular construction (sometimes called a "Sharp's construction") was used with "God" and "Christ" in 5 places in the NT. If he could convince others that his "rule" was true, then they would think there was
finally (after 1400 years of a "trinity" tradition) absolute grammatical Bible
proof (see WALLACE study) that God and Jesus are the same "person"!
The 5 "proofs" of Jesus' Godhood according to Sharp himself are (in the literal wording of the original manuscripts):
(a) Titus 2:13: "of
the great God
and savior of us Christ Jesus"
τοῦ μεγάλου θεοῦ καὶ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ
(b) 2 Pet. 1:1: "righteousness of
the God of us
and savior Jesus Christ"
δικαιοσύνῃ τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ σωτῆρος Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ
(c) 2 Thess. 1:12:"the grace of
the God of us
and Lord Jesus Christ"
τὴν χάριν τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν καὶ κυρίου Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ
(d) 1 Tim. 5:21: "in sight of
the God
and Christ Jesus
and the chosen angels"
ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ Χριστοῦ Ἰησοῦ καὶ τῶν ἐκλεκτῶν ἀγγέλων
(e) Eph. 5:5: "...in the kingdom of
the Christ
and God"
ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ θεοῦ
Since the first noun ("God" in the first four scriptures) has the article ("the") with it and the following noun ("savior" in the first two scriptures) does not have the article ("the"), then (
according to Sharp) God and Christ (the savior, etc.) are the
same person!
There are a number of reasons why Sharp's Rule, as applied to these 5 "proofs," is invalid (See the
SHARP study). One important strike against it is the fact that even many respected
trinitarian NT grammar experts and translators have rejected it as a valid rule - e.g., see G. B. Winer; J. H. Moulton; C. F. D. Moule; Dr. James Moffatt (see Titus 2:13; and 1 Tim. 5:21); Dr. William Barclay (2 Thess. 1:12); and Roman Catholic scholar Karl Rahner (2 Peter 1:1).
In vol. 5, p. 257 the respected
The Expositor's Greek Testament says: "In the present case [Jude 1:4], however, the second noun (
kupiov [“
lord”]) belongs to the class of words which may stand without the article .... A similar
doubtful case is found in
Tit. ii. 13.... Other examples of the same kind are Eph. v. 5 ... 2 Thess. i: 12 ... 1 Tim. v. 21 (cf. 2 Tim. iv. 1) ... 2 Peter i. 1."
For example, examine the following trinitarian Bible's renderings of these "Sharp's Constructions":
2 Thess. 1:12 -
KJV; KJIIV; NASB; NAB (1970);
MLB; LB; GNB; RSV; NRSV; NIV.
Eph. 5:5 -
KJV; KJIIV; RSV; NRSV; LB; MLB; NIV; NEB; REB; GNB; TEV; NAB (`70,'91).
2 Tim. 4:1 - most trinitarian Bibles.
1 Tim. 6:13 - all trinitarian Bibles.
These many respected Bibles, translated by expert
trinitarian New Testament scholars, clearly disregard Sharp's "Rule" at these (and other) places and show
two persons being spoken of!
Notice Eph. 5:5, for example. Most trinitarian Bibles translate this example of Sharp's Construction: "in the kingdom of Christ
and of God" -
KJV; NRSV; RSV; NIV; NEB; REB; NAB; Douay; MLB; LB; GNB; TEV; The Amplified Bible; Third Millenium Bible; New Living Translation; New Century Version; God's Word; Holman Christian Standard Bible; Wesley's New Testament; Phillips; and the Webster Bible. This is
not the way it would be translated if the two descriptions were of the same person! (At the
very least it would be rendered more literally as "the kingdom of
the Christ and God.") Instead it clearly shows
two persons!
Even noted trinitarian scholar Murray J. Harris notes, in discussing Eph. 5:5, that “It is highly improbable that Paul would introduce a profound, unqualified doctrinal affirmation (Christ is
theos) in an incidental manner [such as here], in a context where the assertion is not crucial to the flow of argument.” - p. 262,
Jesus as God, Baker Book House, 1992.
Also, 1 Tim. 6:13 is translated in trinitarian Bibles as: "before (in the sight or presence of) God ...
and before Christ Jesus...". Although Sharp's Rule insists that this should be translated to show that it is speaking of the same person, it obviously is not! Most trinitarian grammar experts simply do not believe Sharp's Rule is a valid absolute rule!
Of the many reasons invalidating Sharp's Rule grammatically there are at least two of extreme importance - each of which is conclusive by itself.
(1) Prepositional Constructions (with phrases containing prepositions: "
of God;" "
in the Lord;" "God
of...;" etc.) are known by NT grammarians to cause
uncertainty of article usage. That is, if a prepositional phrase (including
genitives) is attached to a word, that word may
sometimes have the article ("the") and
sometimes not have it --
without changing the intended meaning! (See A. T. Robertson, pp. 780, 790, 791; C. F. D. Moule, p. 117; J. H. Moulton, pp. 175, 179-180; et al.) This means that the NT writers sometimes wrote, for example, "
The God
of me" (
with article) and "_God
of me" (
without article) with exactly the same intended meaning. The definite article ("the") was ambiguous in such cases.
Therefore any grammatical rules which depend on the presence or absence of the article in the NT Greek must not use as examples those scriptures which use a 'prepositional' construction attached to a word (noun) in question if they are to be used honestly and properly.
But if you examine the 5 trinitarian "proofs" above, you will see that they
all use such prepositional constructions: "
of us" in
(a) Titus 2:13 and
(b) 2 Peter 1:1 is a "prepositional"
genitive, and even "savior" itself is a
genitive in both scriptures and literally means "
of savior;" "Lord" in
(c) 2 Thess. 1:12 is a
genitive and literally means "
of Lord" (as rendered in the
Modern Language Bible; Living Bible; Good News Bible; Douay Version; New American Bible [1970 ed.]; and Barclay's
Daily Study Bible); "Christ" in
(d)1 Tim. 5:21 is a
genitive and literally means "
of Christ" (as in the
Good News Bible [and TEV]; New American Standard Bible; Modern Language Bible;
Revised Standard Version; and
New Revised Standard Version); and "God" in
(e) Eph. 5:5 is a
genitive and literally means "
of God" (as in the
King James Version; Revised Standard Version; New Revised Standard Version; Living Bible; New English Bible; Revised English Bible; Modern Language Bible;
New American Bible (1970 and 1991)
; Douay Version; New International Version; Good News Bible; and Phillips translation).
