That Blessed Hope – The Glorious Appearing Of Jesus Christ

That Blessed Hope - The Glorious Appearing Of Jesus Christ

“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ”
Titus 2:13 (KJV)

Titus 2:13 is unusual in that it contains 2 instances of the Granville Sharp rule. The Granville Sharp rule is important to theologians and translators because of it's impact on NT doctrine (for example it is used to prove Christ’s deity in Titus 2:13b, cp 2 Pet 1:1).

Unfortunately the KJV makes two additions to the original text of Titus 2:13 that have caused some to completely misinterpret and subsequently misrepresent what the verse says. The KJV translators placed a comma between ‘blessed hope’ and ‘glorious appearing’ and a definite article (the) before ‘glorious appearing’, neither of which are in the original Greek.

The ‘left behind’ pretribulational theology takes this verse to mean that the ‘blessed hope’ is the rapture and the ‘glorious appearing’ is the Second Coming seven years later. They are right that the ‘glorious appearing’ is the Second Coming but wrong in seeing two different events separated by years.

Frank E. Gaebelein, a conservative scholar that worked on the New Scofield Reference Bible comments on Titus 2:13:

In the Greek "the glorious appearing" has no definite article. The use of the dash in NIV assumes that "the glorious appearing of our great God and Savior" is virtually in apposition with "the blessed hope" as a further definition of that hope. The Greek connects "the blessed hope and glorious appearing" under one article, suggesting that the reference is to one event viewed from two aspects. For believers, it is indeed the blessed hope and the longed-for consummation of that hope. For Christ himself, this awaited "glorious appearing" will vindicate his character as the Lord of glory. "Glorious appearing" is more literally "appearing of the glory" and points to his present glorification in heaven. Now unrecognized and disregarded by the world, his glory at his return will be manifested in all its splendor. Verse 11 spoke of his past epiphany in grace; v. 13, of his future epiphany in glory. ^[1]

Dr. Kenneth Wuest, a well-known conservative Greek scholar says of this passage:

“The AV makes "that blessed hope" and "the glorious appearing" to be two different things, whereas the Greek text requires that they be construed as one. We have Granville Sharp's rule here, which says that when there are two nouns in the same case connected by kai (and), the first noun having the article, the second noun not having the article, the second noun refers to the same thing the first noun does and is a further description of it. Thus, that blessed hope is the glorious appearing of our Lord. The translation should read,

"that blessed hope, even the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ."

The same rule applies to the words, "the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Both expressions refer to the same individual. The deity of the Lord Jesus is brought out here by a rule of Greek syntax….the Christian's God and Saviour is Jesus Christ”^[2].

Loraine Boettner (Reformed scholar) comments:

"Looking for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ." Here the blessed hope (which is the coming of Christ) and the appearing are the same. In the original Greek the two substantives hope and appearing are closely united with the common article. They are not two separate events, as if it read, 'looking for the blessed hope and the appearing," but simply, "looking for the blessed hope and appearing." The one explains the other. "The blessed hope" of Christians is "the glorious appearing" of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ.

And when is this appearing?

Doug Milne commenting on Titus 2:11-15 expresses Paul's meaning well^[3]:

All this takes place while we wait for the blessed hope - the glorious appearing of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ (verse 13). Christian morality is driven by Christian eschatology, the confident expectation of the visible coming in glory of Jesus Christ at the close of this age. Believers are saved in this hope (Rom. 8:24f.), because the final events of the history of salvation have still to be played out when Jesus comes again. So believers wait for the hope of righteousness (Gal. 5:5; Col. 1:4f.). Their hope is blessed because it will bring in their perfect blessedness in the enjoyment of the presence of their Lord forever.

Christ's coming in glory will actually be his re-appearing (Paul uses the same word here as in verse eleven for Christ's first coming), for it is the same Jesus who rose to heaven at his ascension (Acts 1:9ff.) who will descend from heaven at his return (1 Thess. 4:16ff.). That promised coming is the continuing focus of the Christian's faith and hope, whether in the meantime he departs through death to be with Christ (the experience of most believers), or lives to see the actual event of Christ's return.

The Lord's coming will be a "glorious appearing" because the full extent of his personal glory as God and Saviour will be revealed on that day for the very first time. The glory of Christ, that is hidden from creation now, will then become universal knowledge, so that every knee will bow to him and every living thing proclaim him Lord (Phil. 2:9ff.). It will be as God and Saviour that Jesus Christ will be revealed in that day. He is God no less than Saviour, a Saviour because he is God. Paul is consistent in his ascription of deity to Jesus (Rom. 9:5; Phil. 2:5f.; Col. 1:19; 2:9), as are the other writers of the New Testament (John 1:1 ff.; Heb. 1:3; 1 John 5:20; Rev. 5:6). The glorious appearing of Jesus will only confirm believers in what they already know. Christians have always sung hymns and said prayers to Christ as God.

Is the rapture our blessed hope as the 'left behind' teachers insist? NO, Jesus Christ is our hope! "Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope" (1 Tim. 1:1) and we expectantly await his "glorious appearing ^[4] .

For further study:

For more information on the Granville Sharp Rule and Titus 2:13 see my article Granville Sharp Rules!
A copy of the original book by Granville Sharp that can be downloaded here: Granville Sharp Book (PDF file).
Also see a good article on Granville Sharp's rules with notes by Tim Warner.

[1] Frank E. Gaebelein, ed., The Expositor's Bible Commentary – Volume 11: Ephesians through Philemon, (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1981). Note: The late Frank E. Gaebelein (New York University and Harvard University) was coeditor of Christianity Today and devoted himself to editing, writing, and speaking. He was vice-chairman for Oxford University Press’s preparation of the New Scofield Reference Bible.

[2] From Dr. Kenneth Wuest's Word Studies in the Greek New Testament, © 1961, Eerdmans Publishing Co. (italics added for emphasis). Also see Dr. Wuest's translation in The New Testament: An Expanded Translation, © Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 1961. Interestingly, even though Dr. Wuest was a hard-core pretribulationist he does not let his theology color his exegesis of the Greek text in this case.

[3] Focus On The Bible, Commentary on Titus by Douglas J. W. Milne, The Ephesians Four Group Electronic Version.

[4] The Greek word for "appearing" is epiphaneia (epiphaneia) which was used by the Greeks of Paul's day when they spoke of the glorious appearing of their gods. In this passage it is used of the glory that will accompany the coming of Christ. Some translations say "glorious appearing", an alternate translation is "the appearing of the glory."

6-4-2011