The Mystery of Godliness

1 Tim. iii. 16.

Homologoumenos mega estin to tes eusebeias musterion;

Confessedly great is the mystery of godliness:

Hos [Theos] ephanerothe en sarki,

'Who [God] was manifested in the flesh,

edikaiothe en pneumati,

justified in the Spirit,

ophthe angelois,

seen of angels,

ekeruchthe en ethnesin,

preached among the Gentiles,

episteuthe en kosmo,

believed on in the world,

anelephthe en doxe.

received up in glory.'

Note.—The relative OC ( hos , who) is best sustained by evidence ( ' AC—though Aleph has been meddled with, and B is wanting), instead of the noun Th C ( theos , God, in the text. rec.), or of the neuter gender, ho (which). See Tischendorf, ed. viii. maj. ii. p. 849, and the long notes of Alford and Wordsworth. The reading hos improves the rhythm without changing the sense; for it certainly refers to Christ the God-Man, whether we connect it with musterion (by transition from the mystery to the person of Him who is the sum and substance of the revelation of God), or regard it (in accordance with the parallelism and continuity of the following clauses) as a quotation from a primitive hymn or confession. Wordsworth refers 'who' to the preceding 'living God,' but God as such can not be said to have been 'received in glory.'