Part Six: Riders of the Wrecking Machine

JOHN 3: 13: CHRIST WAS OMNIPRESENT WHILE IN HUMAN FLESH

Bernard Pyron

John 3: 13: Textus Receptus: kai oudeis anabebeken eis ton ouranon ei

me o ek tou ouranou katabas o uios tou anthropou o on en to ourano

John 3: 13: Westcott-Hort: kai oudei anabebhken eis ton ouranon

ei me o ek tou ouranou katabas o uios tou anthropou.

The Westcott-Hort Greek text leaves out "o on en to ourano," "who is in heaven."

For John 3: 13 the King James says "And no man hath ascended up to

heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which

is in heaven."

The American Standard Version (1901) for John 13: 3 says "And no one

hath ascended into heaven, but he that descended out of heaven,

the Son of man, who is in heaven." The American Standard did not

follow Westcott-Hort on John 3: 13.

Here is the New American Standard Version for John 3: 13: "No one has

ascended into heaven, but He who descended from heaven: the Son of

Man."

And the Revised Standard Version says "No one has ascended into heaven

except the one who descended from heaven, the Son of Man."

Finally, the NIV tells us that "No one has ever gone into heaven

except the one who came down from heaven - the Son of Man."

The Douay-Rheims, the Young's Literal Translation and the Green translation all

say "who is in heaven," affirming that Jesus Christ while in the flesh

was still fully God and omnipresent.

The site

http://www.studytoanswer.net/bibleversions/gnostic.html#oldest

says that the Alexandrinus, most Byzantine texts, most of the Old

Latin texts, the Latin Vulgage, the Peshitta Syraic the Harclean

Syraic, some Coptic texts and several others have the wording "who is

in heaven."

The texts that do not have "who is in heaven" are the Sinaiticus,

Vatricanus, papyrus p66, papyrus p75, some Coptic texts and several

others.

The Westcott-Hort or Alexandrian omission of "who is in heaven" from

John 3: 13 takes out of this verse the important statement that while

on earth in the flesh Jesus Christ was also present in heaven.

Gnostic teachings said that while the Christ as the saviour was in the

evil material world, he was completely separated from the Eternal

Father in the spiritual world. Therefore, the Christ as an Aeon

created by the Eternal Father would not be present in heaven while on

earth. But the Textus Receptus-King James, etc. wording of "who is in

heaven" says just the opposite, that the Saviour while on earth in a

physical body was also present in heaven with God the Father and God

the Holy Spirit. Again, the omission of "who is in heaven" is

consistent with gnostic theology. But this one example is not absolute

decisive proof that gnostics changed the Alexandrian Greek New

Testament copies while the copies with the Byzantine wording were not

changed. But it offers evidence that the Alexandrian Greek texts are more consistent with gnostic teachings than is the Textus Receptus, which represents

the Byzantine Greek texts.   Bernard