God was manifest in the flesh

George Sayles Bishop on the Revision Version of 1885.

The Revision weakens and removes the Deity of Christ in many places—I will mention five: 

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I Tim. 3:1—“Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh.” The Revision leaves out θεὸς God, and renders it “Great is the mystery of godliness, He who was manifest in the flesh,”—i. e., the manifested One was only one phase—the highest—of godliness, the precise rendering for which all the Unitarians have been contending for the last 1,800 years…Dr. Scrivener says his senses report it Theos. “I have examined it twenty times within as many years,” he declares, “and seeing (as every man must do for himself with my own eyes, I have always felt convinced that Codex ‘A’ reads Theos.” That conviction of Dr. Scrivener is my conviction and on the very same grounds—a conviction so deep that I will never yield it, nor admit as a text of my faith a Book pretending to be a Revelation from God which leaves that word out. The Holy Ghost has written it—let no man dare touch it—Great is the mystery of godliness, God was manifest in the flesh.

“Oh, but it is only one word!” yes, but one word of Scripture of which it is said “Thou has magnified Thy Word above all Thy Name!” “Only one Word!” But that word “God.” Better the whole living church of God should perish than that that one word should perish. If any take away from the words of the book of this prophecy God shall take away his part.” Let criticism pause. The principle at stake is solemn.

George Sayles Bishop, “The Principles and the Tendency of the Revision Examined,” in The Doctrines of Grace: and Kindred Themes, New York, NY: Gospel Publishing House, 1910, pp. 78-80.