Zacharias Rhetor - c. 500 AD Greek - O Father, and Word, and Holy Ghost ... threefold and holy unity

Steven Avery

Administrator
Zacharias Rhetor, is a truly fantabulous new Greek evidence for heavenly witnesses authenticity.

Zacharias Rhetor, Bishop of Mytilene
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zacharias_Rhetor

Zacharias of Mytilene (c. 465, Gaza – after 536), also known as Zacharias Scholasticus or Zacharias Rhetor, was a bishop and ecclesiastical historian.

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KJVToday - Johannine Comma (1 John 5:7)
Zacharias Rhetor, Bishop of Mytilene

http://www.kjvtoday.com/home/the-father-the-word-and-the-holy-ghost-in-1-john-57#TOC-Zacharias-Rhetor

Zacharias Rhetor was a bishop of Mytilene in the late 5th century. He cited the Comma as follows in:


Disputatio De Mundi Opificio (PG LXXXV, 1141):
https://books.google.com/books?id=4To2AQAAMAAJ&pg=RA3-PA1152

"Ω Δεσποτα και Δημιουργε τουδε του παντοσ, ω Πατερ, και Λογε, και Πνευμα αγιον, ω Θεια Τριας, και τρισση και αγια μονας."


"The Lord and Creator of all things, O Father, and Word, and Holy Ghost, is the Divine Trinity, both threefold and holy unity." (Translation by KJV Today)

Not only are the three heavenly witnesses named, the following clause, "both threefold and holy unity" mirrors the Comma's "there are three... and the three are one".

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Zacharias Rhetor is a very strong allusion. It would be helpful to see if the section as a whole is using Johannine referencing.

(And should be sent over to the often sonambulent NA-UBS crew, maybe Evangelical Textual Criticism would wake up too. Even James E. Snapp, Jr. might wake up here as well, his forum needs some pizazz.) I wonder when it was first in print?

It would be interesting to see if any of the Latin supporters of the heavenly witnesses authenticity had access to this in the 1600s-1700s (much there is untranslated.)

So far I see the work referenced in 1719:


Bibliotheca Baluziana, Seu Catalogus Librorum Bibliothecae ... Stephani Baluzii:
https://books.google.com/books?id=j3dUAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA152

Oh, lets wake up Daniel Wallace too, how tends to try to slight Greek evidences with various sleight of hand tricks.

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This post originally on Facebook Pure Bible forum, with thanks to KJVToday

Facebook - Pure Bible - Feb 2016
https://www.facebook.com/groups/purebible/permalink/936698136422076/?comment_id=936765823081974&comment_tracking={"tn":"R"}
 
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Steven Avery

Administrator
The Witness of God is Greater

HIT:
B. This also seems to me to be right.
A. Well, O blessed one; we have finished with the issues of our dispute. Now it is time for us, turning our mind to
prayer, to give praise to the Maker and Creator of everything. O Lord, and Creator of everything; O Father, and
Word, and Holy Spirit, O Divine Trinity,
[PAGE 118] and triune and holy Unity; Father without beginning, and
not generated: Son begotten without beginning: Divine Spirit proceeding from the Father without beginning: Trinity
ineffably recapitulated in Unity; Unity unutterably worshipped in Trinity, and not being able to be understood by us;
uncreated, eternal, and consubstantial Trinity, first and blessed Nature, and the beginning (or, principle) of the
existing ones, the abundant goodness and the real Being; give us the mind to be purged, and make it worthy of
your splendor and your contemplation; so that purely, as much as possible, to you most pure One let us
approach, if this is right. "Give us" to drive out the evil characters from the soul, [PAGE 119] and marks: and to
represent the first image with no haze; so that the great coming and the presence of the Trinity, of the one God,
and Word will not be in vain for me; and the salvatory and marvelous sufferings, with the means of which we are
set free from sin. Make our souls around virtue, with carelessness, do not lead, indeed before separation from
bodies, meditation must be meditated; because we have not since [PAGE 120] we will be troubled when our
bonds are broken, and we do not often turn to them because of the separation. Give us more to escape the list of
punishments, and not to experience bitter exiting: but gather us, and place us in the supernal rooms, when you
will like it the most, and when [PAGE 121] we will seriously think about it, honestly living in these frail bodies; in
the bosom of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. We have prayed enough: let's go now.

(Zacharius of Rhetor. Disputatio de Mundi Opificio; Migne Graeca, PG 85.1141; Translated by Pavlos D. Vasileiadis,
correspondence, December 2018)

Greek:
B. Δίκαιον ἐφάνη καὶ τοῦτο.
A. Εἷεν, ὧ μακάριε· πεπλήρωται ἡμῖν τὰ τῆς διαλέξεως. Νῦν δὴ καιρὸς εἰς εὐχὴν τὸν νοῦν τρέφαντας,
ὑμνεῖν τὸν τοῦδε τοῦ παντὸς Ποιητὴν καὶ Δημιουργόν. Ὥ Δέσποτα καὶ Δημιουργὲ τοῦδε τοῦ παντ̀ς, ὧ
Πάτερ, καὶ Λόγε, καὶ Πνεῦμα ἅγιον, ὧ θεία Τριὰς, καὶ τρισσὴ καὶ ἁγία μονὰς. Πάτερ ἅναρχε καὶ
ἀγέννητε, Υἱὲ ἀνάρχως γεγεννημένε, Πνεῦμα θεῖον, προελθὸν ἀνάρχως ἐκ Πατρὸς, Τριὰς ἀῤῥήτως εἰς
μονάδα ἀνακεφαλαιουμένη, μονὰς ἀνεκφράστως ἐν Τριάδι προσκυνουμένη, καὶ μὴ καταλαμβανομένη,
Τριὰς ἄκτιστε, ἀϊδιε καὶ ὁμοούσιε, ἡ πρώτη καὶ μακαρία φύσις, καὶ τῶν ὄντων ἀρχή, ἡ ἄφθονος ἀγαθότης
καὶ τὸ ὄντως. Ὄν, δοίης ἡμῖν καθᾶραι τὸν νοῦν, καὶ ἅξιον ποιῆσαι τῆς σῆς ἐλλάμφεως καὶ θεωρίας, ἵνα
καθαρῶς ὡς οἷόν τε, σοῦ τοῦ καθαρωτάτου ἐφαπτώμεθα, εἰ θέμις ἐστί· καὶ τοὺς κακοὺς χαρακτῆρας καὶ
τύπους τῆς ψυχῆς, ἐξελάσαι, δεϊξαί τε τὴν εἰκόνα τὴν πρώτην ἀθόλωτον, καὶ μὴ εἰς μάτην ἡμῖν γενέσθαι
τὴν μεγάλην σου τοῦ τῆς Τριάδος ἑνὸς Θεοῦ καὶ Λόγου ἐπιδημίαν καὶ παρουσίαν, καὶ τὰ σωτήρια καὶ
ὑπερφυῆ παθήματα, δι' ὧν τῆς ἁμαρτίας λελύμεθα. Ποιήσειας δὲ τὰς ἡμετέρας ψυχὰς, μὴ ἀμελετήτως
ἔχειν πρὸς ἀρετήν· ἀλλὰ γὰρ μελετῆσαι τὴν λύσιν, πρὸ τῆς λύσεως τῶν σωμάτων· ὡς ἂν μὴ ταραχθείημεν
λουμένων ἡμῖν τῶν δεσμῶν, καὶ πυκνὰ στρεφώμεθα πρὸς τὰ ὧδε, δυσχεραίνοντες τὴν διάζευξιν. Δοίης δὲ
γε διαφυγεῖν τὸν κατάλογον τῶν κολάσεων, καὶ μὴ πειραθῆναι πικρᾶς τῆς ἐκδημίας, ἀλλ' εἰς τὰς ἅνω
μονὰς συνάπποις καὶ συντάττοις, ἡνίκα σοι φίλον ᾗ, καὶ ἡμῖν ἔχοι διὰ τῆς μελέτης καλῶς, καὶ τοῦ
(85.1144) μετὰ τῶν σωμάτων βίου τῶν ἑπικήρων, εἰς κόλπους Ἀβραὰμ καὶ Ἰσαὰκ καὶ Ἰακώβ. Ἰκανῶς ἡμῖν
ηὗκται. Ἀλλ' ἴωμεν. (Zacharius of Rhetor. Disputatio de Mundi Opificio; Migne Graeca, PG 85.1141)

Comment:
[KJV Today] Not only are the persons of the Trinity named according to the wording of the Comma, the following
clause, "both threefold and holy unity" mirrors the Comma's "there are three... and the three are one". (Zacharias
Rhetor. Greek fathers knew of the Comma. Johannine Comma (1 John 5:7). KJV Today.
<www.kjvtoday.com/home/the-father-the-word-and-the-holy-ghost-in-1-john-57>)
 
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