The Omnipresent Christ on
Earth
By Thomas Golda
"And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven,
even the Son of man WHICH IS IN HEAVEN." John 3:13
John 3:13 is one of the most powerful verses in the entire Bible. Jesus
Himself states that while He was on earth, at the same time He also was in
heaven. Proving an "omnipresent Christ while on earth" and the greatest
statement of the Deity of Christ by Christ Himself. The phase WHICH
IS IN HEAVEN that Jesus said is missing from some modern day Bibles. No
surprise that the missing phrase is linked with "only one" text-type. The
corrupt Alexandrian manuscripts. But we will see that Alexandria itself
witnesses to the Byzantine Greek, and well as other manuscripts and early
witnesses.
Virtually every Greek manuscript of John 3 contains the words, as do all the
Latin, and Syriac versions, the Coptic, Ethiopic, Georgian and Armenian
versions.
The words “which is in heaven” are found in the vast Majority of all Greek
manuscripts including A, E, F, G, H, K, M, S, U, V, Gamma, Delta, Theta, Pi,
Psi, the Old Latin copies of a, aur, b, c, f, ff2, j, l, q, r1.
It is also the reading of the Syriac Peshitta, Curetonian, Harkelian, some
Coptic Boharic copies, the Armenian, Ethiopian, Georgian and Slavonic ancient
versions.
Of the early church fathers in support of this passage, and some of these
go back to the SECOND CENTURY AD - 2nd Century: Hippolytus;
3rd Century: Dionysius of Alexandria, Novatian, Origen; 4th Century: Artibrose,
Aphraates the Persian, Athanasius, Augustine, Basil, Chrysostom, Didymus,
Epiphanius, Hilary, Jerome, Lucifer, Theodorus Herad; 5th Century: Cyril of
Alexandria, Marius Mecator, Nonnus, Paulus, Bishop of Emesa, Theodoret,
Theodorus Mops, Victorinus (possibly 4th cent.); 6th Century: Severus; 8th
Century: Amphilochus, Cosmas, John Damascene. Berry's Greek text supports this
passage. A couple early ones are below:
"And no man hath ascended up into heaven, except him that descended from heaven,
the Son of man, WHICH IS IN HEAVEN." Tatian (140 AD), Diatessaron
"No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the
Son of man WHICH IS IN HEAVEN." Hippolytus, (170-236 AD), Against Noetus
However, other Alexandrian witnesses, most notably several manuscripts of the
Bohairic dialect, indicate that the original phrase were also known early in
Egypt.
Moreover, concerning the patristic evidence, the testimony of Origen,
an Alexandrian father apostate, indicates he was acquainted with the local text
as preserved in Greek witnesses and versions. The phrase is found in
nearly all the uncial and minuscule manuscripts of the NT as well as in
nearly every ancient version, including the Bohairic of lower Egypt.
The testimony of the Coptic and Ethiopic translations, as well as that of
Origen, and other Alexandrian witnesses add further early versional and
patristic support to this important array of Greek manuscripts.
Moreover, this reading is not limited to manuscripts of only one geographical
area. The reading was accepted as genuine over a wide geographic area,
encompassing most of the then civilized ancient world: Rome and the West,
Greece, Syria and Palestine, and even Alexandria, the literary capital of Egypt.
The external evidence shows almost the entire ancient tradition supporting the
phrase including the Old Latin [Itala], which establishes the date of the
longer reading as at least the last quarter of the second century. The
origin of the Itala "before the second century had passed," places the earliest
Latin translations in North Africa within "the last quarter of the second
century."
Also significant is the geographical distribution of the witnesses in support of the longer reading. Being from such a wide geographical it is highly improbable that there is any genealogical relationship between them. The testimony of the Greek manuscripts, ancient versions, and Church Fathers thus forms, as it were, a strong THREE FOLD CHAIN that cannot be broken.