2 Peter 1:1
From Textus Receptus
2 Peter 1:1 Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
Will Kinney
Here we read “To them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Again they say the verse, as it stands in the KJB, does not clearly show the deity of Jesus Christ. The NKJV, NIV and NASB read: “through the righteousness of OUR God and Savior, Jesus Christ.”
First, it needs to be pointed out that there are several textual differences in the Greek of verses one and two. One of the “oldest and best” manuscripts called Sinaiticus reads “righteousness of the Lord” or kurios instead of righteousness of God. But the NASB and NIV didn’t follow this, but rather the majority reading of "God".
In the next verse we read: "Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge OF GOD AND OF JESUS OUR LORD."
Here several texts omit "of God and of Jesus" - The Expositor's Greek Testament does this. Other texts omit just "of God", and Sinaiticus adds the word CHRIST and so says: "of God and of Jesus CHRIST our Lord". Other Greek manuscripts read "Jesus our Saviour" instead of "Jesus our Lord", and others still reverse the word order and add Christ and end up with "of our Lord Jesus Christ" instead of "of Jesus our Lord", while a few others say "of OUR God" instead of "of God". You can verify all this information by looking carefully at the Nestle-Aland Greek New Testament 4th edition. There is thus a wide variety of different readings found in these first two verses of 2 Peter.
Secondly, in the texts followed by the KJB, Beza’s of 1589 and 1598, as well as Elzevirs, there is an additional “our” found before Jesus Christ. Regardless of these textual differences, the verse in question can either serve as a proof text for Christ’s deity or not, depending on how you choose to read it.
Elziever Greek text 1624 equals the reading found in Stephanus
http://www.aramaicpeshitta.com/GreekNTtools/TRGreekScrivener/TRSc_2pet.htm
2 Πετερ 1:1 en dikaiosunh tou yeou hmwn kai swthrov hmwn ihsou cristou = Both these texts have the literal “righteousness of the OUR God and OUR Saviour Jesus Christ.
Some Bible translations actually read this way. Among these are the Worsley Version of 1770 “the righteousness of OUR God and of OUR Saviour Jesus Christ”, Green’s KJV lll of 1993, the French Sainte Bible of 1759 and La Bible du Semeur of 1999 - “notre Dieu et notre Sauveur”. Likewise the Weymouth translation of 1912 has “righteousness of OUR God and of OUR Savior Jesus Christ.” Etheridge’s 1849 translation of the Syriac has “righteousness of OUR Lord and OUR Redeemer Jeshu Meshiha.
Bible Translations that agree with the King James Bible reading:
The Italian Diodati of 1649 reads like the KJB with “righteousness of God and OUR Saviour, Jesus Christ.” - “giustizia dell’Iddio e Salvator NOSTRO, Gesù Cristo.” So too do Webster’s 1833 translation, the KJV 21st Century version 1994 and the Third Millennium Bible of 1998, the Revised English Version of 2010 - http://www.stfonline.org/pdf/rev/2_peter.pdf, The Resurrection Life New Testament 2005, the Holy Scriptures Jubilee Bible 2000, the Evidence Bible 2003, the Heritage Bible 2003, and the Urim-Thummin Version of 2001 by Dallas James.
The reading as it stands in the KJB “the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” can easily be seen as stating that He is both God and our Saviour; but the difference is this - Jesus Christ is God but He is not every body's Saviour. He is OUR Saviour and 2 Peter is written to born again, blood bought Christians. Compare other verses with similar wording. In Isaiah 44:6, 24 we are told “Thus saith the LORD the King of Israel, AND his redeemer the LORD of hosts: I am the first, and I am the last; and beside me there is no God...Thus saith the LORD, thy redeemer, AND he that formed thee from the womb, I am the LORD that maketh all things...” Even though there is the word “and” in between the two nouns, we know there is only one person who is being referred to - God.
The same thing is found in 1 Thessalonians 3:11 “Now God himself AND our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ direct our way unto you.”; Galatians 1:4 “according to the will of God AND our Father.” The “and” is not implying another person, but is bringing out another aspect of the same one. He is both God and our Father.
So too, in 2 Peter the “God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” can be seen as showing another aspect of the same divine Person, just as 2 Peter 1:11 “kingdom of our Lord AND Saviour Jesus Christ.”
Even the reading of the NKJV, NIV and NASB could be looked upon as describing two distinct persons; it all depends on how one reads it.
“Righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ”, can be compared to statements like “our Mom and Dad won’t let us go to the party” or “our boss and manager will be at the meeting”.
In Scripture we have “ye are our glory and joy” 1 Thessalonians 2:20, and Acts 15:25 “our beloved Barnabas and Paul”. Both Barnabas and Paul were beloved but they obviously were two different people. You see, if you wish to see a declaration of Christ’s deity in this verse, it is there. Likewise, it can be explained away by those who do not wish to see it in either rendering. The Jehovah Witness New World Translation reads much the same way as the NKJV, NIV, NASB - "by the righteousness of OUR God and [the] Savior Jesus Christ" (NWT) and yet they manage to explain away the full deity of our Saviour Jesus Christ.
Dr. Thomas Holland has written a very good article refuting James White's groundless criticism of the King James Bible, and these three verses. He addresses Titus 2:13 and the others about two-thirds down in his article here: http://www.purewords.org/kjb1611/html/lesson12.htm
I hope this has been of some help to those who believe that we have all of God’s inspired, pure words today, and that they are found in the King James Holy Bible.
