1 Timothy 3:14-16 (NKJV) These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly; 15 but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth. 16 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.
V14 “These things I write to you, though I hope to come to you shortly…” Paul writes this brief note to Timothy in hopes of seeing him in person to teach him more. Hope is not a wish; it is an expectant waiting.
V15 “…but if I am delayed, I write so that you may know how you ought to conduct yourself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.” Not knowing what will happen, Paul decided to write this note. “Yourself” specifically refers to Timothy with applications to other church workers and even all Christians.
V16 “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.”
The idea of God in the flesh would be acceptable to the Greek. Consider Acts 14:11 and Acts 28:6.
The flow of the context is “God” as in “house of God” and “the living God.”
This is an important statement regarding the deity of Jesus Christ.
Dr Wilbur Pickering in his translation notes writes: “Instead of ‘God’, 1% of the Greek manuscripts read ‘who’, and most modern versions follow this 1%. But ‘who’ is nonsensical (in the context), so most of them take evasive action: NEB and NASB have “he who”; Phillips has “the one”; NRSV, Jerusalem, TEV and NIV render “he”. Berkley actually has “who”! In the Greek Text the relative pronoun has no antecedent, so it is a grammatical ‘impossibility’, besides being a stupidity—what is so mysterious about someone being manifested in flesh? All human beings have bodies. The pronoun can be accounted for as an easy transcriptional error, a simple copying mistake, so why not stay with the 98.5%? “God was manifested in flesh”—now there you have a mystery!”
Adam Clarke, who personally examined the MSS a number of times, writes: “The insertion of, Θεος for ὁς, or ὁς for Θεος, may be easily accounted for. In ancient times the Greek was all written in capitals, for the common Greek character is comparatively of modern date. In these early times words of frequent recurrence were written contractedly, thus: for πατηρ, πρ; Θεος, θς; Κυριος, κς· Ιησους, ιης, etc. This is very frequent in the oldest MSS., and is continually recurring in the Codex Bexae, and Codex Alexandrinus. If, therefore, the middle stroke of the Θ, in ΘΣ, happened to be faint, or obliterated, and the dash above not very apparent, both of which I have observed in ancient MSS., then ΘΣ, the contraction for Θεος, God, might be mistaken for ΟΣ, which or who; and vice versa. This appears to have been the case in the Codex Alexandrinus, in this passage. To me there is ample reason to believe that the Codex Alexandrinus originally read ΘΣ, God, in this place; but the stroke becoming faint by length of time and injudicious handling, of which the MS. in this place has had a large proportion, some person has supplied the place, most reprehensibly, with a thick black line. This has destroyed the evidence of this MS., as now it can neither be quoted pro or con, though it is very likely that the person who supplied the ink line, did it from a conscientious conviction that ΘΣ was the original reading of this MS. I examined this MS. about thirty years ago, and this was the conviction that rested then on my mind. I have seen the MS. several times since, and have not changed my opinion. The enemies of the Deity of Christ have been at as much pains to destroy the evidence afforded by the common reading in support of this doctrine as if this text were the only one by which it can be supported; they must be aware that Jhn 1:1, and Jhn 1:14, proclaim the same truth; and that in those verses there is no authority to doubt the genuineness of the reading. We read, therefore, God was manifested in the flesh, and I cannot see what good sense can be taken out of, the Gospel was manifested in the flesh; or, the mystery of godliness was manifested in the flesh. After seriously considering this subject in every point of light, I hold with the reading in the commonly received text.”
Most just read “He was manifest in the flesh” ignoring the relative pronoun ὅς (G3739), which means “who.” The correct Greek word is θεός (G2316).
This passage teaches two important doctrines–the deity of Jesus and the incarnation.
Incarnation important details:
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- Born of a virgin (Isaiah 7:14): some translate virgin as young woman, but 1) what is unusual about a young woman having a baby? And 2) Rachel was described as a virgin in Genesis 24:43 (same word also see Judges 22:23 (same word)). That she was a young, unmarried woman is obvious. Same with the Virgin Mary where Luke, the physician, uses the medical term for virgin (Luke 1:27). There the Greek word for “virgin” is (G3933) παρθένος parthénos, which means virgin. In Luke 1:34-35, she says, “How will this be since I do not know a man?”
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- The virgin born son will be a king with many kingly and godly titles (Isaiah 9:6)
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- Jesus came to be THE Messiah (2 Timothy 1:10 and Titus 2:11)
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- Jesus is the God-Man. He is fully God and fully man (body, soul, and spirit). He assumed (clothed or wrapped Himself in) human flesh through the virgin birth because God was Jesus’s father, not a human male (John 1:14 and John 1:7).
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- The incarnation is important because Jesus had to be a human to be the perfect Passover Lamb (Romans 8:3, Colossians 1:21-22, Hebrews 2:17-18, and Hebrews 4:15)
Deity important details:
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- He is fully God yet because of need for being a human and His special ministry, some of His character traits were not manifested as His glory. See Philippians 2:5-8.
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- He is fully God (John 1:1-2, John 1:18, Titus 2:13, and 1 John 5:20.
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- He existed before creation (1 Peter 1:20 and John 17:5).
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- He is everlasting (John 8:58 and Revelation 5:15).
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- He is referred to as Yahweh (Romans 10:13 (a quote from Joel 2:32).
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- He is one with the Father (John 5:17-18).
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- And many other details.
The top 40 Messianic Prophecies list is here: [Source: https://jewsforjesus.org/learn/top-40-most-helpful-messianic-prophecies]