Titus 2:13

looking for that blessed hope The blessed hope, cf. Romans 8:24, where it is both the hope and the object of the hope; Colossians 1:5, - "for the hope," i.e. looking to the hope which is stored up; the sense of "hope," as of the corresponding words in any language, oscillates between the subjective feeling and the objective realisation." Bp Lightfoot. Cf. 1 Timothy 1:1.

and the glorious appearing So A.V., considering the two nouns as a Hebraism for a noun and an adjective; but R.V. better, literally, and appearing of the glory; this substantive, from the verb -hath appeared" of Titus 2:11, is limited in N.T. use to St Paul, who has it six times, and always, except 2 Timothy 1:10, of the futureappearing of Christ (see note on 1 Timothy 6:14). It comes three times in St Paul's last letter, 2 Tim. The word has been adopted for allthe epiphanies of the Son of God in O.T. days, as the angel of the covenant, at Bethlehem, to the Gentiles with -the doctors," in His miracles and parables, in the -infallible proofs" of the -forty days," in -the powers of Pentecost," in the life of His Church and of each Christian soul by faith, until His -coming with power and great glory."

the great God and our Saviour So A.V., Winer, Alford, Conybeare, on the ground that St Paul's usage is against -our great God Jesus Christ." Alford rightly says that it can be no objection to this that St Paul's usage is also against -the manifestation of the Father God," because it is the appearing of the glorythat St Paul speaks of, and this glory is certainly the Father's andthe Son's, Matthew 16:27 compared with Matthew 25:31, -come in His Father's glory," -come in His glory." Nor can the rule that the one article indicates the one subject, and that therefore the two expressions refer to one personality, be too strongly relied upon as decisive against this view. Bp Ellicott who opposes this A.V. rendering yet admits this, -there is a presumptionin favour of it on this account, but on account of the defining genitive "of us," nothing more;" and in Aids to Faith(quoted in Winer, iii. § 19, 5, note), -the rule is sound in principle but in the case of proper names or quasi-proper names, cannot safely be pressed." The usage in 2 Peter 1:1, and in Judges 4, is also doubtful: R.V. which renders there -our God and Saviour," -our only Master and Lord," but adds the marginal -Or, our God and theSaviour," -Or, the only Master, and our Lord," here too gives our great God and Saviour, but adds in the margin, -Or, of the great God and our Saviour." The early Fathers are with R.V. Ignatius, ad Ephes. i., seems to quote it -according to the will of the Father and Jesus Christ our God." See Bp Lightfoot's note. Chrysostom asks -Where are they who say that the Son is less than the Father?" Jerome, -Magnus Deus Jesus Christus salvator dicitur." Compare the long list in Bp Wordsworth's note; Calvin, Ellicott, Fairbairn, &c. among moderns. The objection raised on the ground of St Paul's usage will be less felt, when the strong language of 1 Timothy 3:15-16 with the reading -He who," and of Philippians 2:6-7; Colossians 1:15-20 is weighed; and when the connexion of this Epistle in its language and thought with St Peter and St Jude is remembered, it may well seem that the later mode of speaking of Christ, in the now settled faith and conviction of the Church, is beginning to find place.