Christ said to the Pharisees, "before Abraham was,= I AM".
So, that is Jesus, before Abraham was born. ...= "BEFORE Abraham".
This is Jesus referring to Himself = "pre-incarnate" as John 1.
"The WORD.... was God"..
As confirmed by : 1 Timothy 3:16
I have yet to find pre-incarnate in the Word of God it appears to be only in in religion which has to make up stuff to fit their beliefs.
And unfortunately ….
1Timothy 3:16 does not confirm your belief.
And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.
It would make no difference what this verse states... I would accept and believe whatever was God breathed ... but this verse has clearly been altered.
Why ??? probably because some translators over the years have felt it necessary to insert their belief …and it really irritates me when people try to alter Gods word, which I believe we both hold in the highest esteem.
This verse caught my attention because it read awkwardly …. and didn’t really match up with other scripture.
Here is just a small portion of what I found…. you can use it or disregard it.
The words “
he who” in place of God (
theos) is supported by the earliest and best uncials … no uncials in the first hand earlier than the 8th or 9th century supports
theos (God). All ancient versions read as
hos or
ho …. meaning
“he who” or
“he” ….and no patristic writer prior to the last third of the 4th century testifies to it reading
theos.
This change arose either accidentally or deliberately. ….
* The Codex Sinaiticus, the oldest complete Greek NT from the 4th century does not have the word "God" (
theos) in it
*The Lamsa Bible, an Aramaic text from the 5th century, does not have the word "God" (
theos) in it
*St. Jerome's Latin Vulgate from 405AD does not have the word "God" (
theos) in it
*The Armenian Bible, translated from the Peshitta Syriac text in 411AD, does not have the word "God" (
theos) in it
*The New-English-Translation-NET-Bible does not have the word "God" (
theos) in it
*The Coptic text, translated from ancient Egyptian manuscripts from the 4th & 9th centuries, does not have the word "God" (
theos)in it
*None of the church fathers before the last third of the fourth century testified that this verse had the word “God” in it.
*The majority of the commentaries agree that the original word was "which" or "who", which was later altered to "God"
*At least half of the critical Greek texts agree that the original word was "which" or "who", which was later altered to "God"
*The original reading was “which”, was later changed by a scribe after the second century to “who”, then later still it was finally changed to “God”.
*The Bullenger Companion Bible details how the corruption of the text happened over time, step by step
*We can see the Facsimile of the Codex Alexandrinus (a Greek uncial text from the 5th century, Alexandria, Egypt) from the British museum that reveals the progressive corruption of the text
----------------------------------------------------------------
American Standard has -
He who
Revised Standard has -
He
New Living Translation has -
Christ ….with a footnote →
3:16b Greek
He who;
New English Translation has -
He
Christian Standard Bible has -
He
New King James Version has -
God …with a footnote →
Text reads Who
Legacy Standard Bible reads -
He who
English Standard Version reads -
He
