At 2 Peter 1:1 the New World Translation reads “the righteousness of our God and the Savior Jesus Christ”, inserting the article before “Savior”. The American Standard Version of 1901 reads almost identically: “in the righteousness of our God and the Saviour Jesus Christ”.
Claim ID claim-bible-2pet-1-1-shared-with-asvConcerns 2013Context
The organisation’s position or later explanation: The organisation applies the same reasoning as at Titus 2:13, pointing to the distinction drawn between God and Jesus in the following verse.
2013 · 2 Peter 1:1 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“to those who have acquired a faith as precious as ours through the righteousness of our God and the Savior Jesus Christ”
The 2013 rendering inserts 'the' before 'Savior', separating the two. The 1984 Reference Bible read 'by the righteousness of our God and [the] Savior Jesus Christ', with the supplied article bracketed.
Provenance and verification note for New World Translation of the Holy Scriptures (Study Edition), 2 Peter 1:1
Confidence note. Both chapter pages opened on wol.jw.org on 19 September 2026 and the verse read in each; the brackets in the 1984 text and their absence in the 2013 text confirmed by eye.
19 September 2026 · Bible Hub (reproducing the named copyright translations)
“New International Version: “the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ”; English Standard Version: “the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ”; New Revised Standard Version: “through the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ”. American Standard Version: “in the righteousness of our God and the Saviour Jesus Christ”; King James Bible: “through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ”.”
The American Standard Version of 1901 renders 2 Peter 1:1 almost exactly as the 2013 New World Translation does, inserting 'the' before 'Saviour'; the King James Version likewise separates the two.
1685 · A continuator of Matthew Poole's Annotations (not Poole himself) · Reproduced on Bible Hub
“And our Saviour Jesus Christ: there being but one article in the Greek, these words are to be understood conjunctly, the particle and being but an explicative, and the sense is: Through the righteousness of our God, even our Saviour Jesus Christ, who is God”
The single-article argument on the other side, stated three centuries before Granville Sharp's rule was formalised in 1798.
Provenance and verification note for Matthew Poole’s Commentary on the Holy Bible, Commentary on 2 Peter 1:1
Confidence note. Commentary page opened on 19 September 2026 and the passage read in full on Bible Hub's reproduction; no printed edition consulted. Independent audit, 19 September 2026: this record previously named Matthew Poole as the author. Poole died in 1679 having annotated only as far as Isaiah 58; the rest of the Annotations upon the Holy Bible, including 1 and 2 Peter, was completed by other Nonconformist divines and published in 1685 (the 1 and 2 Peter portion is usually attributed to Edward Veale). Because the specific attribution is not certain and the text was read on a secondary reproduction, the confidence is “supported”.
Scan provenance. Public-domain seventeenth-century commentary reproduced in full text by Bible Hub.
Accessed. 19 September 2026 · Source ID.src-nwtv-poole-2pet-1-1
1985 · pp.1143-1144 · Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania
“This indicates that when two distinct persons are connected by καί, if the first person is preceded by the definite article it is not necessary to repeat the definite article before the second person. … According to An Idiom Book of New Testament Greek, by C. F. D. Moule, Cambridge, England, 1971, p. 109, the sense “of the great God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ . . . is possible in κοινή [koi·neʹ] Greek even without the repetition [of the definite article].””
The organisation's defence of reading two persons at Titus 2:13. The appendix lists eleven translations from 1719 to 1972 that render it the same way and quotes Ezra Abbot at length.
Provenance and verification note for The Kingdom Interlinear Translation of the Greek Scriptures, Appendix 2E: “Of the Great God and of [the] Savior of Us, Christ Jesus”
Confidence note. Appendix opened in full on wol.jw.org on 19 September 2026; page markers 1143 and 1144 read from the page-number spans. I confirmed the appendix's wording; I did not open Moule's Idiom Book or Abbot's essays to check the quotations against the printed originals.
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