Papyrus 72 & Christ’s Deity
Papyrus 72 (P72) is dated to the late 3rd century A.D., and was discovered in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. It is the oldest extant manuscript containing 1–2 Peter and Jude (whole books). It also contains Psalms 33-34 and several non-canonical texts, including the Nativity of Mary.
The papyrus contains some unique readings where Jesus is explicitly identified as theos (God). I include these texts here for the benefit of the readers, all of which are taken from the following site: New Testament Papyrus 72.
First Case
“Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have obtained a like precious faith with us in the righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ:” 2 Peter 1:1
Even though this reading is not unique to P72, it is still significant nonetheless since it affirms Christ’s absolute, essential Deity.
Here is what a renowned textual scholar says in respect to this reading:
2 Peter 1:1b
All three editions (TR WH NU) read dikaiosune tou theou hemon kai soteros Iesou Christou ("righteousness of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ”), with excellent support: P72 B C Maj. Instead of theou (God), a few witnesses (ℵ Ψ vgMSS syrph copsa) read kyriou ("Lord"), yielding the rendering: "righteousness of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ." In the Greek, there is one definite article (TOU) governing the two titles theou ("God") and soteros ("Savior") joined by the conjunction kai ("and"). According to a Greek grammatical rule called the "Granville Sharp Rule" (see Dana and Mantey 1927,147; also Titus 2:13), this structure indicates that the two nouns describe one person—in this case, Jesus Christ. Thus, this statement indicates that Jesus Christ is both God and Savior. This is the view of the great majority of twentieth-century commentators, grammarians, and authors of general works on Christology or 2 Peter (see Harris 1992, 230-238 for a full discussion and bibliography). (Philip W. Comfort, New Testament Text and Translation Commentary: Commentary on the variant readings of the ancient New Testament manuscripts and how they relate to the major English translations [Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Il, 2008], p. 758; emphasis mine)
The following textual notes concur that this is one of the clearest testimonies to Christ’s Deity:
2 Peter 1:1 tn Though δοῦλος (doulos) is normally translated “servant,” the word does not bear the connotation of a free individual serving another. BDAG notes that “‘servant’ for ‘slave’ is largely confined to Biblical transl. and early American times…in normal usage at the present time the two words are carefully distinguished” (BDAG 260 s.v.). At the same time, perhaps “servant” is apt in that the δοῦλος of Jesus Christ took on that role voluntarily, unlike a slave. One good translation is “bondservant” (sometimes found in the ASV for δοῦλος) in that it often indicates one who sells himself into slavery to another. But as this is archaic, few today understand its force. Also, many slaves in the Roman world became slaves through Rome’s subjugation of conquered nations, kidnapping, or by being born into slave households.
sn Undoubtedly the background for the concept of being the Lord’s slave or servant is to be found in the Old Testament scriptures. For a Jew this concept did not connote drudgery, but honor and privilege. It was used of national Israel at times (Isa 43:10), but was especially associated with famous OT personalities, including such great men as Moses (Josh 14:7), David (Ps 89:3; cf. 2 Sam 7:5, 8) and Elijah (2 Kgs 10:10); all these men were “servants (or slaves) of the Lord.”
2 Peter 1:1 tc A few witnesses (א Ψ 442 vgmss syph sa) read κυρίου (kuriou, “Lord”) for θεοῦ (theou, “God”) in v. 1, perhaps due to confusion of letters (since both words were nomina sacra), or perhaps because “our God and Savior, Jesus Christ” is an unusual expression (though hardly because of theological objections to θεοῦ).
2 Peter 1:1 tn The terms “God and Savior” both refer to the same person, Jesus Christ. This is one of the clearest statements in the NT concerning the deity of Christ. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. In fact, the construction occurs elsewhere in 2 Peter, strongly suggesting that the author’s idiom was the same as the rest of the NT authors’ (cf., e.g., 1:11 [“the Lord and Savior”], 2:20 [“the Lord and Savior”]). The only issue is whether terms such as “God” and “Savior” could be considered common nouns as opposed to proper names. Sharp and others who followed (such as T. F. Middleton in his masterful The Doctrine of the Greek Article) demonstrated that a proper name in Greek was one that could not be pluralized. Since both “God” (θεός, theos) and “savior” (σωτήρ, sōtēr) were occasionally found in the plural, they did not constitute proper names, and hence, do fit Sharp’s rule. Although there have been 200 years of attempts to dislodge Sharp’s rule, all attempts have been futile. Sharp’s rule stands vindicated after all the dust has settled. For more information on the application of Sharp’s rule to 2 Pet 1:1, see ExSyn 272, 276-77, 290. See also Titus 2:13 and Jude 4. New English Translation (NET; emphasis mine)
Second Case
“Grace to you and peace be multiplied in the knowledge of God Jesus our Lord (tou theou 'Iesou tou kyriou hemon),” 2 Peter 1:2
P72 again describes Jesus as God. Compare:
“May grace and peace be lavished on you as you grow in the rich knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord!” NET
This next one is interesting:
“May good will and peace fill your lives through your knowledge about Yeshua, our God and Lord!” Names of God Bible (NOG)
Here again is Comfort’s commentary:
2 Peter 1:2
TR WH NU epignosei tou theou kai 'Iesou tou kyriou hemon
"knowledge of God and Jesus our Lord"
B C Maj
(KJV NKJV RSV NRSV ESV NASB NTV TNTV NEB REB) NJBmg (NAB NLT HCSB NET)
variant 1 epignosei 'Iesou tou kyriou hemon
"knowledge of our Lord"
P Ψ vgMSS
NJB
variant 2 epignosei tou theou 'Iesou tou kyriou hemon
"knowledge of God, Jesus our Lord"
P72
none
variant 3 epignosei tou theou kai 'Iesou Christou tou kyriou hemon
“knowledge of God and Jesus Christ our Lord"
א AL 0209 (33vid) 1739
NJBmg
Applying the Granville Sharp rule to the TR WH NU reading permits the interpretation that "our Lord" is both "God and Jesus" (see note on 1:1). This should come as no surprise, because this was exactly what was indicated in the first verse of the epistle (see comments). The scribe of Ψ seems to have adjusted the text in 1:1 to obviate an affirmation of Jesus' deity; he may have had the same motivation here. Thus, the change in 1:2 was likely intentional, not just a scribal error of parablepsis (the eye of a scribe passing from TOU to TOU). Nonetheless, NJB, displaying its favoritism for the Western text and the Vulgate, followed the shorter reading. And all the other English versions, while following the TR WH NU reading, chose to separate "God" from "Jesus our Lord" by repeating the preposition "of": "knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." The variant in P72 is very interesting, for it shows that the scribe's change identifies "Jesus" as "God" by means of apposition. The scribe shows the same tendency in Jude 5, where Christ is clearly ascribed the title "God," also by means of apposition (see note on Jude 5). (Comfort, New Testament Text and Translation Commentary, pp. 758-759; emphasis mine)
Third Case
“For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ.
“Now I desire to remind you, though you already know this, that God, Christ (theos christos), having saved a people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed those who didn’t believe.” Jude 1:4-5
P72 makes the shocking assertion that Christ was the God who brought Israel out of Egypt and then subsequently destroyed them in the wilderness for their unbelief. The earliest manuscripts (MSS) reinforce this since they all have the reading “Jesus”.
Compare:
“For certain men have secretly slipped in among you—men who long ago were marked out for the condemnation I am about to describe—ungodly men who have turned the grace of our God into a license for evil and who deny our only Master and Lord, Jesus Christ.
“Now I desire to remind you (even though you have been fully informed of these facts once for all) that Jesus, having saved the people out of the land of Egypt, later destroyed those who did not believe.” NET
“For there are certain men who crept in secretly, even those who were long ago written about for this condemnation: ungodly men, turning the grace of our God into indecency, and denying our only Master, God, and Lord, Jesus Christ (ton despoten, theon kai kyrion, ‘Iesoun Christon).” Jude 1:4 World English Bible (WEB)
After mentioning the following reading,
panta hoti [ho] kyrios hapax
“[knowing that] the Lord having once and for all”
Philip Comfort lists the major variants,
1. hapax panta, hoti Iesous
“[knowing] once for all, Jesus”
2. panta, hoti Iesous hapax
“[knowing] everything, that Jesus once”
3. hapax panta, hoti theos Christos
“[knowing] once and for all, that God [the] Messiah (or, Messiah God)”
4. hapax panta, hoti ho theos
“[knowing] once and for all, that God”
5. hapax touto, hoti ho kyrios
“once [you knew] this, that the Lord”
And writes:
Among all the readings cited above, the first and second variants are the most remarkable, for they say that “Jesus delivered his people out of Egypt.” This reading is found in A B 33 1739 1881 Origen Cyril Jerome Bede–an impressive collection of witnesses. P72 may possibly be an indirect witness to the reading “Jesus,” because it shows that the scribe had before him in his exemplar a messianic title–“Christ” (= “Messiah”). At any rate, it is easier to argue (from a textual perspective) that the reading “Jesus” is the one which all the others deviated than to argue that the reading with “Lord” (or “God”) was changed to “Jesus,” because scribes were not known for fabricating difficult readings.
Some scholars, such as Wikgren (1967, 147-152) have argued that Jude may have written Iesous in Jude 5 intending “Joshua” (see NEBmg), as in Heb 4:8. But this is very unlikely, because Joshua led the Israelites into the good land of Canaan, but not out of Egypt, and Joshua certainly did not destroy those who did not believe (Jude 5b). This was a divine activity. Thus, it is likely that Jesus here is being seen as Yahweh the Savior. In other words, from Jude’s perspective, it was Jesus, the I AM (see John 8:58), who was present with the Israelites and operative in their deliverance from Egypt. Paul shared a similar view inasmuch as he proclaimed that “Christ” was the Rock that accompanied the Israelites in their desert journeys and that “Christ” was the one the Israelites constantly “tested” during these times (see 1 Cor 10:4, 9 and note on 1 Cor 10:9). Thus, the reading “Jesus,” though difficult, is not impossible. As such, it should be accepted AS THE ORIGINAL READING (as it was by Eberhard Nestle [1901, 328-329] and F. F. Bruce [1964, 63]).
The first edition of the United Bible Societies’ Greek New Testament contained the reading “Jesus” in the text. But this was changed in the third edition, when a slim majority of the editors voted to put the reading with “Lord” in the text and the one with “Jesus” in the margin (Metzger and Wikgren voted against the decision and stated their reasons for doing so in TCGNT.)
The first English translation to adopt the wording “Jesus” was NLT. (As the New Testament coordinator who proposed this reading to the NLY committee, I was glad to see them adopt it.) Two other recent versions have adopted this reading: TNIV (a change from the NIV) and NET (see the note in NETmg). Otherwise, it has been regulated to the margin of all the other versions. NASB notes that “two early manuscripts read ‘Jesus.’” Those manuscripts are A and B. (Comfort, New Testament Text and Translation Commentary, pp. 802-803; emphasis mine)
And here is what the NET notes say:
Jude 1:4 tc Most later witnesses (Pvid Ψ 5 88 1175 1611 1735 2492 M sy) have θεόν (theon, “God”) after δεσπότην (despotēn, “master”), which appears to be a motivated reading in that it explicitly links “Master” to “God” in keeping with the normal NT pattern (see Luke 2:29; Acts 4:24; 2 Tim 2:21; Rev 6:10). In patristic Greek, δεσπότης (despotēs) was used especially of God (cf. BDAG 220 s.v. 1.b.). The earlier and better witnesses (P72,78 א A B C 0251 33 81 323 436 442 1241 1243 1739 2344 al co) lack θεόν; the shorter reading is thus preferred on both internal and external grounds.
sn The Greek term for Master (δεσπότης, despotēs) is the same term the author of 2 Peter used (2 Pet 2:1) to describe his Lord when he prophesied about these false teachers. Since δεσπότης is used only ten times in the NT, the verbal connection between these two books at this juncture is striking. This is especially so since both Peter and Jude speak of these false teachers as denying the Master (both using the same verb). The basic difference is that Peter is looking to the future, while Jude is arguing that these false teachers are here now.
Jude 1:4 tn The terms “Master and Lord” both refer to the same person. The construction in Greek is known as the Granville Sharp rule, named after the English philanthropist-linguist who first clearly articulated the rule in 1798. Sharp pointed out that in the construction article-noun-καί-noun (where καί [kai] = “and”), when two nouns are singular, personal, and common (i.e., not proper names), they always had the same referent. Illustrations such as “the friend and brother,” “the God and Father,” etc. abound in the NT to prove Sharp’s point. For more discussion see ExSyn 270-78. See also Titus 2:13 and 2 Pet 1:1
Jude 1:5 tc The reading ᾿Ιησοῦς (Iēsous, “Jesus”) is deemed too hard by several scholars, since it involves the notion of Jesus acting in the early history of the nation Israel (the NA27 has “the Lord” instead of “Jesus”). However, not only does this reading enjoy the strongest support from a variety of early witnesses (e.g., A B 33 81 88 322 424c 665 915 1241 (1735: “the Lord Jesus”) 1739 1881 2298 2344 vg co eth Or1739mg Cyr Hier Bede), but the plethora of variants demonstrate that scribes were uncomfortable with it, for they seemed to exchange κύριος (kurios, “Lord”) or θεός (theos, “God”) for ᾿Ιησοῦς (though P72 has the intriguing reading θεὸς Χριστός [theos Christos, “God Christ”] for ᾿Ιησοῦς). As difficult as the reading ᾿Ιησοῦς is, in light of v. 4 and in light of the progress of revelation (Jude being one of the last books in the NT to be composed), it is wholly appropriate. The NA28 text now also reads Ιησοῦς. For defense of this reading, see Philipp Bartholomä, “Did Jesus Save the People out of Egypt: A Re-examination of a Textual Problem in Jude 5, ” NovT 50 (2008): 143-58.
sn The construction our Master and Lord, Jesus Christ in v. 4 follows Granville Sharp’s rule (see note on Lord). The construction strongly implies the deity of Christ. This is followed by a statement that Jesus was involved in the salvation (and later judgment) of the Hebrews. He is thus to be identified with the Lord God, Yahweh. Verse 5, then, simply fleshes out what is implicit in v. 4.
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