Response: It is certainly a truism of Bible translation and exegesis that one must take a number of factors into consideration, apart from grammatical possibility. A writer's "habitual use of language" and the "presuppositional pool" he 'swims' in are perfectly valid indicators to help the translator determine original intent. However, one cannot simply pick and choose which factors are most significant and ignore or sidestep factors that one does not like. One cannot assume the author's presuppositions on the basis of arguments from silence. The fact that Peter may not call Jesus "God" elsewhere is not an argument that he could not do so in this verse, as Mr. Stafford admits. The question is: Is there anything in Peter's theology that expressly
precludes him from calling Jesus "God?" If there were, Mr. Stafford and the numerous other non-Trinitarian apologists who have written on this verse would surely have mentioned it.
The issue at hand is one of resolving referential ambiguity: Does "God" and "Savior" refer to one Person (Jesus Christ) or two (the Father and the Son)? In such cases, one of the most important factors - perhaps
the most important - is examining the same grammatical construction in other settings where the meaning is clear. In another context, this methodology is defended by Mr. Stafford himself. In one of his Internet postings dealing with the Dana Mantey Greek Grammar and the translation of John 1:1, Mr. Stafford writes:
Still, when they referred to Xenophon's Anabasis 1:4:6 EMPORION D' HN TO XWRION ("the place was a market") and then say "we have a parallel case to what we have in John 1:1" (Dana and Mantey, 148) the foundation is laid, grammatically, for a parallel translation. But, of course, the theology of the grammarians overrides their good grammatical judgment, as is evident by their Trinitarian coloring of this verse on page 140 of the Manual Grammar (
Stafford, "Greg Stafford Responds to the Julius Mantey Letter to the WTB&TS").
Thus, Mr. Stafford recognizes that parallel grammar is essential in resolving ambiguity (in John 1:1, a semantic ambiguity centering on the
anarthrous theos), and that theology may override a scholar's "good grammatical judgment."
If parallel grammatical constructions are valid factors in resolving referential ambiguity, constructions written by the same author in the same book are even more compelling. Mr. Stafford's suggestion that 2 Peter 1:1 is "significantly different" than the "Lord and Savior" verses in 2 Peter, and therefore should not be understood in the same way, is special pleading. The substitution of
theos for
kurios in 2 Peter 1:1 does not change the grammatical structure of the phrase. Indeed, as Harris points out, when "Savior" is used in 2 Peter it always refers to Christ and is always preceded by an
articular noun which also refers to Christ (
Jesus as God, p. 235). It must be pointed out that if Peter wanted to clearly distinguish Christ from His Father in this verse, he had only to add the article before "Savior" (Greek:
tou theos kai tou sôtêros), as he does in the very next verse (Greek:
tou theou kai Iêsou tou kuriou hêmôn).
2
Mr. Stafford suggests that 2 Thessalonians 1:12 is similar grammatically to 2 Peter 1:1 ("the grace of our God and [the] Lord Jesus Christ." Greek:
tên charin tou theou hêmôn kai kuriou Iesou Christou), but here most scholars agree that God and Jesus are distinguished from one another. Mr. Stafford is correct - just as he is when he says that "Grammar is not the sole criterion by which a text should be translated" (
Stafford, p. 403). The difference between this verse and 2 Peter 1:1 is that here we have "Lord Jesus Christ," which is a common New Testament formula (occurring 63 times). While Jesus is called "Savior" many times, He is only referred to with the phrase "Savior Jesus Christ" 4 times - all in 2 Peter. The fact that "Lord" appears so often before "Jesus Christ" makes it likely that it had come to be considered part of a compound proper name. But the same cannot be said of "Savior." When Peter writes "Savior Jesus Christ," he is using a title ("Savior") followed by a name which further defines who that Savior is.
3 This is not the case with "Lord Jesus Christ." There may have been a time in the early church where a believer might say: "I serve my Lord, Jesus Christ," and by this, mean to further define "Lord" as the person named "Jesus Christ." But by the time the New Testament was written, the title "Lord" had become synonymous with "Jesus Christ," and when appearing before it, was thought to be virtually part of His name. This same phenomenon occurred with "Christ." No New Testament author would think of separating "Christ" from "Jesus," as in: "Jesus, Christ" (as if "Christ" further defined who Jesus was), and the same is true of "Lord."
The fact that "Lord Jesus Christ" may be taken as a unit makes it unlikely that "Jesus Christ" is appositional to "God and Lord" (as in, "the grace of our God and Lord, who is Jesus Christ"). It is
grammatically possible, and some scholars have taken it that way (most notably, Bultmann), but most scholars, grammarians, and commentators agree that it is more natural to take "Lord Jesus Christ" as a unit, in which case "God" is a separate subject. But this is not true of "Savior Jesus Christ." In this case, it is unlikely that Peter would expect his readers to take "Savior" as part of Jesus' name. Instead, because Peter knew that simply saying "our God and Savior" would lead his readers to assume that the Father was in view
4, he added "Jesus Christ" to make clear to whom he was referring.
It may be supposed that "God" functions as a proper name in 2 Peter 1:1, in which case it could be isolated from "Savior, Jesus Christ" as a second subject. However, while "God" may function as a proper name in some contexts, the possessive pronoun in this verse militates against "God" being a proper name. Further, there are no examples in the NT or LXX in which "God" appears in the same construction as 2 Peter 1:1 (
articular theos joined by
kai to an
anarthrous singular, personal noun that is not a proper name) where two persons are in view.
In conclusion, Mr. Stafford recognizes - as did Winer before him
5 - that the grammar of 2 Peter 1:1 leads in a theological direction with which he is uncomfortable. He therefore must either overcome the grammar or argue that Peter's theology would preclude him from writing what - grammatically - he seems clearly to have written. Mr. Stafford's grammatical
ripostes actually do little to damage the solid evidence that Jesus is called "God" in this verse. Mr. Stafford - again following Winer
6 - is left with his theological argument.
7 For an apostle who heard Thomas call Jesus "my God," who was comfortable directing the highest praise to Christ in doxological formulas, and who ascribed to Christ the same righteousness as His Father, it is far from impossible that Peter called Jesus "God," particularly when the grammar points us solidly in that direction.