'A pillar and ground of truth and confessedly great is the mystery of

Here the teaching is that whatever or whoever the mystery of godliness shall

prove to be, it or He is the pillar and ground of truth.  The Mystery of

godliness is then explained as 'God manifest in the flesh' and He, we know,

is a sure and tried foundation.

The A.V. reads 'God', the R.V. reads 'He Who', some versions read

'which'.  To the Greek student the origin of such apparently diverse readings

will be on the surface.  First, in every ancient Greek manuscript will be

found abundant abbreviations, and when one remembers that every word was

written by hand, such devices similar to our &, cd, wd, are to be expected.

We find that most names are abbreviated, and even the word Theos, 'God', is

written Ths.  Now the letter theta in the Greek is like O with a bar across

the middle.  So far all is clear.  It is not so evident on the surface to the

English reader how Ths can be mistaken for 'who' or 'which'.  The word 'who'

is hos.  The aspirate 'h' is not represented as a letter of the alphabet, so

that the only difference between Theos 'God' and hos 'who', would be the

presence or absence of the horizontal stroke across the centre of the O.

Before dealing with the reading of the Alexandrian manuscript, over

which the controversy arises, we give the testimony of the manuscripts and of

the Fathers.  Theos is the reading of all the uncial copies extant but two,

and of all the cursives but one.  The universal consent of the Lectionaries

proves that Theos has been read in all the assemblies of the faithful since

the fourth or fifth century of our era.  At what earlier period of her

existence is it then supposed that the church availed herself of the

privilege to substitute Theos for hos or ho, whether in error or in fraud?

Nothing short of a conspiracy, to which every region of the Eastern Church

must have been a party, would account for the phenomenon.

We inquire of the testimony of the Fathers, and discover that, (1)

Gregory of Nyssa quoted Theos no less than twenty -two times.  That Theos  is

also recognized by (2) his namesake of Nazianzen in two places; as well as by

(3) Didymus of Alexandria; and (4) by Pseudo -Dionysius of Alexandria.  It is

also recognized (5) by Diodorus of Tarsus, and (6) Chrysostom quotes 1

Timothy 3:16 in conformity with the Received Text at least three times.  In

addition there are twelve others, bringing the number up to eighteen.

A great deal of controversy

has gathered around the Alexandrian

manuscript which is to be seen in

the British Museum.  Since this came to

England 300 years ago the writing

has faded considerably and we are not

therefore to find our warrant for

substituting hos for Theos by what can be

seen today, but by what competent

observers saw at the time of arrival of the

Dean Burgon writes:

'That Patrick Young, the first custodian and collator

of the Codex (1628 -52), read Theos, is certain.  Young communicated

the "various Readings" of A to Abp. Ussher: and the latter, prior to

1653, communicated them to Hammond, who clearly knew nothing of hos.

It is plain that Theos was the reading seen by Huish -- when he sent

his collation of the Codex (made, according to Bentley, with great