Titus 2:13
“Looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ;”
King James Version
The church waits for 'the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ': one Person appearing, who is both great God and Saviour.
Fulfillment References
Titus 2:14 2 Peter 1:1 Acts 1:11 1 John 3:2 Revelation 22:3-4
How Traditions Read This Prophecy
Apostolic (Oneness) PentecostalPaul does not describe two persons appearing. He names one: 'the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ.' In the Greek a single article governs both titles, so 'great God' and 'Saviour' are the same Person (compare 2 Pet. 1:1). The next verse says what He did: He 'gave himself for us' (2:14). The great God who appears is the Saviour who died, and His name is Jesus Christ. The church's hope is not to see a second divine person. It is to see God, and His face is the face of Jesus (2 Cor. 4:6; Rev. 22:3-4).
JewishNo traditional Jewish reading. Judaism does not accept Jesus as God or as the Messiah.
CatholicRead as a direct statement of Christ's divinity. Its words are echoed at every Mass after the Lord's Prayer: 'as we await the blessed hope and the coming of our Saviour, Jesus Christ.'
ProtestantMost modern translations (ESV, NIV, NASB) read 'our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ', and most Protestant scholars take it as a direct statement that Jesus is God. Because most Protestants are Trinitarian, they read it as God the Son, the second person of the Trinity, and not as the Father.
OrthodoxOne of the clearest New Testament confessions that Christ is God.
DispensationalMany dispensationalists read 'that blessed hope' as the pre-tribulation rapture, distinct from the glorious appearing.
AcademicMost scholars take the grammar as one person (M. J. Harris, Jesus as God, 1992), though some read two, God and Jesus. Payne lists it as a second-advent prophecy.
Open the full interactive entry →
Audio narration (listen to this prophecy read aloud), cross-references, Hebrew/Greek, Dead Sea Scrolls notes, a prophetic timeline, network maps, study tools and multi-tradition analysis in the interactive explorer.
Bible Prophecy Explorer · based on J. Barton Payne’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Prophecy catalogue · an openly Apostolic (Oneness) Pentecostal study resource — all traditions presented fairly. Pastor: C. Myles Young, D.Min. · Bishop: Nathaniel J. Wilson, Ed.D.