What’s clear is the scripture plainly says Moses was afraid to LOOK UPON God.
The Angel of the LORD is God; the Son of God
In scripture angels are called sons of God.
The Angel of the LORD is the Son of God.
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory.
1Timothy 3:16
Well let me start with last item first. I gave this commentary of 1 Timothy 3:16 in another thread on this site not too long ago. Here it is again...
1 Timothy 3:16 – segments of Christ’s life
This verse is set as a creed as a hymn in poetic language.
The controversy centers around the use of the word ‘God’ or ‘who’ or ‘which, or ‘He.’ Now the message of the verse really does not alter by using any of the choices, although some will take the opportunity if the word is ‘God’ as the more acceptable word as proof that Yeshua, the Son of God is also God the Son. And fail to realize the point of the verse is about Yeshua’s’ life of godliness, shown in segments.
If God is used it surely does not mean God the Son is revealed in the flesh. It can mean that since God was in his Son, then his Father who is God was revealed through his Son, who was born human person. And if one of the other three choice of words was the best fit, then it would clearly reveal Yeshua the human being as part of the theme of godliness. And thus indicating his natural and yet unique method of creation.
Now from the start it must be said that the use of the word 'God' was a later insertion into the verse.
The majority of modern critical editions of the Greek New Testament, such as the Nestle-Aland and United Bible Societies' texts, favor the reading "He who was manifested in the flesh" or "Who was manifested in the flesh" based on the earliest extant manuscripts, including Codex Sinaiticus, Codex Alexandrinus, and others.
“God was manifested in flesh” is what we still have in the Textus Receptus but they who follow the Westcott & Hort / Nestle text do not have it.
In An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture (posthumously published in 1754), Isaac Newton argues that a small change to early Greek versions of this verse effectively changed "which" (referring to godliness) was changed to "God". This change increases textual support for trinitarianism, a doctrine to which Newton did not subscribe. There is evidence that the original Greek read 'ος' but was modified by the addition of a strikethrough to become 'θς' (see the excerpt from the Codex Sinaiticus, above). 'θς' was then assumed to be a contraction of 'θεος.' The biblical scholar Metzger explains, "no uncial (in the first hand) earlier than the eighth or ninth century (Ψ) supports θεος; all ancient versions presuppose ὃς or ὃ; and no patristic writer prior to the last third of the fourth century testifies to the reading of θεος."[24] In other words, Bible manuscripts closest to the original said 'who' and not 'God' in verse 16.
[ Source for paragraph above :
First Epistle to Timothy - Wikipedia ]
The difference between these two readings has nothing to do with anyone wanting to "
weaken the relationship between Father and Son"; it is simply a statement of fact consistent with the textual philosophy of the particular version being used. More specifically:
- If we accept that earlier manuscripts are more likely to have the original text, then we essentially arrive at the UBS5/NA28 text. In 1 Tim 3:16 this gives "he/who" uniformly for all early MSS
- If we accept the much later Byzantine text, then we essentially arrive at the Robinson-Pierpoint text (quite different from the TR but similar to the majority text). In 1 Tim 3:16 this gives "God".
The evidence from a number of Greek texts and textual authorities clearly indicates that the word “God” (
theos in the Greek) was not originally in this verse. The King James Version was translated from the Stephens Greek text; and the Stephens Greek text does have in this verse the word
theos, from which “God” was accurately translated. However, in
Jesus Christ Is Not God, page 33, Dr. Victor Paul Wierwille reveals that in all the critical Greek texts other than Stephens, the masculine relative pronoun
hos appears, instead of the word
theos. These critical texts are documented in a note at the bottom of page 543 in
The Interlinear KJV Parallel New Testament in Greek and English by George Ricker Berry. As noted in place of
theos, these texts all have
hos, meaning “who.”
The Companion Bible adds the understanding that it’s probable that an earlier reading was the neuter pronoun
ho (which), to agree with
mustērion, the Greek word translated “mystery,” which is also neuter. This agrees with the Syriac Version and all the Latin Versions….
[1]
1 Timothy 3:16 in Codex Alexandrinus
Reproduced below is the text of 1 Timothy 3:16–4:3 from Codex A, as presented in the photographic facsimile volume published by the British Museum in 1879. Of particular interest here is the reading in 3:16, where it may be seen that the manuscript reads
ΘC "
God was manifested in the flesh," employing the usual abbreviation
ΘC for
ΘEOC, with a stroke over the letters to indicate an abbreviation. However, textual critics believe that the ink in the center of ‘the
Θ and the stroke above were added by a corrector in modern times. Reasons for this belief are the color of the ink, and the fact that a "dot" has been placed in the
Θ instead of a line. Tregelles writes, "The ink in which this has been done in A is sufficiently modern and black to declare its recent application" (
An Account of the Printed Text of the Greek New Testament, London, 1854). Without these marks, the manuscript originally read
ΟC "
He who was manifested in the flesh." In the photograph below the
ΘC in 3:16 is circled. Further down, in verse 4:3, there is another
ΘC circled for comparison. Click on the circled areas for a larger view.
[2]
Figure 2 - 1 Tim 3:16 text alteration
And for your first subject, again...
"What’s clear is the scripture plainly says Moses was afraid to LOOK UPON God."
And you have not given your explanation for it either. Why was Moses afraid, in your own words?
Have you read in the OT where this
created angel or messenger of YHWH was also an immoral Son of God, of any kind? Not likely! If as you believe, this angel of the OT is the same Son of YHWH of the NT, what was his name in the OT? And the angel of God does not cut it either, unless you are happy fooling yourself, using circular illogic by which you believe.
[1] (Way, 2021)
[2] (1 Timothy 3:16 in Codex Alexandrinus)
