The living of the Christian life is in the context of “waiting,” which is to say that the present is always related to the future. Awaiting is literally “looking for,” with the confidence that the search will be successful. “To wait” in this context therefore includes the expectation and confidence that what is being awaited will come in due time. What we wait for is, as New Revised Standard Version puts it, “the blessed hope and the manifestation of the glory of our great God and Savior, Jesus Christ.” Several observations need to be made. “The blessed hope and the manifestation” is most probably a hendiadys, with “manifestation” being the content of the “hope.” “Manifestation” is related to the word translated “has appeared” in verse 11; hence the appearing. Hope once again is not simply wishing for something but expecting something with confidence (see further on 1 Tim 1.1). This hope is described as blessed (for which see 1 Tim 1.11 and 6.15), which Good News Translation has correctly restructured as “the blessed day we hope for.” Therefore what we are waiting for with confidence is the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ. It is possible to take glory as a noun describing appearing; hence “glorious appearing” (compare King James Version); it is more likely, however, that glory is what is going to “appear.” It is probably best to take appearing as referring to the second coming of Jesus Christ, during which time his glory will be revealed. Glory here may mean “greatness,” “majesty,” or “power to save,” or else Christ’s very nature as someone who is equal to God and the same as God.
As the Revised Standard Version footnote shows, our great God and Savior Jesus Christ can also be rendered as “the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ.” The question is, is this referring to Jesus Christ alone, or to both God and Jesus Christ? Either one is possible, although the translation in the Revised Standard Version text seems to be closer to the Greek text for the following reasons: (1) Grammatically there is only one definite article in the phrase, before “God,” and it should be assumed before Savior as well. So literally the Greek text reads “of the God and Savior of us.” This argument becomes more telling if one takes into account the fact that “Savior” occurs five other times in Titus, and in all five cases with the definite article. (2) The expression “God and Savior” exists as a definite unit in both the mystery religions and in the Septuagint. (3) Finally, if we are correct in relating this passage to the second coming of Christ, it is rather unlikely that God the Father would be spoken of as also returning with the Son. In view of all this, God in this verse is better understood as a noun that, together with Savior, describes the nature of Jesus Christ.
An alternative translation model for this verse is:
• We [inclusive] wait expectantly for the wonderful Day when our [inclusive] God and Savior Jesus Christ returns gloriously.
Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Hatton, Howard A. A Handbook on Paul’s Letter to Titus. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1995. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .