Mm..lots ot words here Brad.Continued...
Another three commentaries say the same. Note they all say that the parousia (the second coming) never includes the Father – only Christ.
“In these last words not only does the grammar indicate that the inspired writer identified the Great God and the Saviour; not only is there a continuous chain of authorities, reaching from the apostolic age to our own, to this effect; but, further, the fact that “appearing” is a term peculiarly applied to the Son, and never to the Father, and that the immediate context especially refers to Christ, places it almost beyond doubt that our Blessed Lord is here said to be the great God; and that in the words of Ellicott, “this text is a direct, definite, and even studied declaration of the Divinity of the Eternal Son.” (Thee Rev. Edward Henry Bickersteth, M. A., A practical and Explanatory Commentary on the New Testament) “The text, declaring the true hope of the believer to be the appearing of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, bears attractive testimony to the deity of Christ. In favour of this translation it can be said that nowhere else in the NT is God the Father said to appear, nor is the adjective great used of Him. The most convincing argument, however, is the presence of only one definite article which has the effect of binding together the two titles” (A Bible Commentary for Today, Edited by G. C. D. Howley, Page 1574, Comments by Alan G. Nute, 1979) “This verse is an eloquent expression of Paul’s belief in the divinity of Christ. Sometimes the translation is found: “of the great God [i. e., the Father] and our Saviour Jesus Christ. The following considerations militate against this translation: (1) In the Greek the expression “great God” and “our Saviour Jesus Christ” are governed by a single definite article; (2) the verse refers to the parousia, and everywhere else the glorious manifestation of the parousia pertains to Christ (1 Tm 6:14-15; 2 Tm 4:1; 1 Cor 1:7; 2 Thess 1:7; etc.); (3) the rest of the sentence (v.14) speaks only of Christ and ascribes to him a divine prerogative, the possession of a chosen people.” (The Jerome Biblical Commentary, R. E. Brown, J. A. Fitzmyer, R. E. Murphy, pages 360-361, Commentary on Titus, 1970) The same in principle applies to 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:” 2 Peter 1:1 Most scholars I have read, because there is only one definite article modifying “God” and “Saviour”, favour the Greek construct as referring to one and the same person. In keeping with these scholars, the Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary makes this comment (which summarizes it quite well) “The Greek construction makes it reasonably certain that “God and our Saviour Jesus Christ” refers to one person, Jesus Christ. The phrase may be rendered “our God, even the Saviour Jesus Christ”. (The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary, Volume 7, page 595, Comment on 2 Peter 1:1)
Addressed all of them before, many times.
One element that must be really examined before plucking our choice scripture verses is to know the context. The understanding and explanation for this scripture has to be crunched in the right settings....not in isolation to force an expected result...
Hope you are staying healthy as part of the 70s club..