'(■;■" '':vhiv '■'{■' ■■•■■V-''-l'''i' i tihvaxy of t:he trheolo^ical ^tmimvy PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY From the Library of Frof . Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield 'BS2735 .P735 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. BY THE REV. ALFRED PLUMMER, M.A., D.D., Master cf University College, Durham ; formerly Fellow and Senior Tutor of Trinity College, Oxford. Author of " The Church of the Early Fathers" and Editor of " The Gospel and Epistles of St. John" etc. NEW YORK: A. C. ARMSTRONG & SON, 714 BROADWAY. CONTENTS. INTRODUCTORY. CHAPTER I. FACE THE CHARACTER AND THE GENUINENESS OF THE PASTORAL EPISTLES I TIMOTHY. CHAPTER n. TIMOTHY THE BELOVED DISCIPLE OF S. PAUL, — HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER --------- I9 CHAPTER HL THE DOCTRINE CONDEMNED IN THE PASTORAL EPISTLES A JEWISH FORM OF GNOSTICISM. — ^THE GNOSTIC'S PROBLEM 32 CHAPTER IV. THE MORAL TEACHING OF THE GNOSTICS. — ITS MODERN COUNTERPART --------42 CHAPTER V. THE lord's COMPASSION IN ENABLING A BLASPHEMER AND A PERSECUTOR TO BECOME A SERVANT OF CHRIST JESUS AND A PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL - - " $2 CONTENTS CHAPTER VI. PAGE THE PROPHECIES ON TIMOTHY. — ^THE PROPHETS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AN EXCEPTIONAL INSTRUMENT OF EDIFICATION ---------62 CHAPTER VII. THE PUNISHMENT OF HYMEN^US AND ALEXANDER. — ^DE- LIVERING TO SATAN AN EXCEPTIONAL INSTRUMENT OP PURIFICATION. — THE PERSONALITY OF SATAN - - 72 CHAPTER VIII. ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP: INTERCESSORY PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING. — THE SOLIDARITY OF CHRISTENDOM AND OF THE HUMAN RACE ------ 82 CHAPTER IX. BEHAVIOUR IN CHRISTIAN WORSHIP.— MEN's ATTITUDE OF BODY. AND MIND. — WOMEN'S ATTIRE AND ORNAMENT - 94 CHAPTER X. THE ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. — ^VARIOUS CERTAINTIES AND PROBABILITIES DISTINGUISHED - - I04 CHAPTER XI. THE JAPOSTLE'S RULE RESPECTING SECOND MARRIAGES. — ITS MEANING AND PRESENT OBLIGATION - - - - I18 CHAPTER XII. THE RELATION OF HUMAN CONDUCT TO THE MYSTERY OF GODLINESS - - - - - - • • -130 CHAPTER XIII. THE COMPARATIVE VALUE OF BODILY EXERCISE AND OF GODLINESS -.-- 141 Contents. CHAPTER XIV. PAGE THE pastor's behaviour TOWARDS WOMEN. — THE CHURCH WIDOW - -- - -151 CHAPTER XV. THE pastor's RESPONSIBILITIES IN ORDAINING AND JUDGING PRESBYTERS. — THE WORKS THAT GO BEFORE AND THAT FOLLOW US--------- 164 CHAPTER XVI. THE NATURE OF ROMAN SLAVERY AND THE APOSTLE'S ATTI- TUDE TOWARDS IT. — ^A MODERN PARALLEL - - - 175 CHAPTER XVII. THE GAIN OF (A LOVE OF GODLINESS AND THE UNGODLI- NESS OF A LOVE OF GAIN - - . • - 1 88 TITUS. CHAPTER XVIII. THE EPISTLE TO TITUS. — HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER - - 20I CHAPTER XIX. THE CHURCH IN CRETE AND ITS ORGANIZATION. — ^THE apostle's directions for APPOINTING ELDERS - - 212 CHAPTER XX. CHRISTIANITY AND UNCHRISTIAN LITERATURE • - - *24 CHAPTER XXI. THE MEANING AND VALUE OF SOBERMINDEDNESS. — THE USE AND ABUSE OF RELIGIOUS EMOTION - - - 237 CONTENTS. CHAPTER XXII. PACK THE MORAL CONDITION OF SLAVES. — ^THEIR ADORNMENT OF THE DOCTRINE OF GOD- ----.- 248 CHAPTER XXIII. HOPE AS A MOTIVE POWER. — THE PRESENT HOPES OF CHRISTIANS --------- 259 CHAPTER XXIV. THE DUTY OF OBEDIENCE TO AUTHORITY WITH ITS LIMITS. — THE DUTY OF COURTESY WITHOUT LIMITS - - - 27O CHAPTER XXV. THE CO-OPERATION OF THE DIVINE PERSONS IN EFFECTING THE NEW BIRTH. — THE LAVER OF REGENERATION - 282 CHAPTER XXVI. THE MEANING OF HERESY IN THE NEW TESTAMENT AND THE apostle's DIRECTIONS RESPECTING HERETICAL PERSONS -----•••- 294 a TIMOTHY. CHAPTER XXVII. THE CHARACTER AND CONTENTS OF THE LAST EPISTLE OF S. PAUL. — THE- NEMESIS OF NEGLECTED GIFTS - - 309 CHAPTER XXVIII. THE HEARTLESSNESS OF PHYGELUS AND HERMOGENES. — THE DEVOTION OF ONESIPHORUS. — PRAYEPS FOR THE DEAD ^19 CONTENIS, CHAPTER XXIX. PAGE THE NEED OF MACHINERY FOR THE PRESERVATION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE FAITH. — THE MACHINERY OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH - - - - - - 331 CHAPTER XXX. THE christian's LIFE AS MILITARY SERVICE; AS AN ATHLETIC CONTEST; AS HUSBANDRY - - - - 343 CHAPTER XXXI. THE POWER OF A BELIEF IN THE RESURRECTION AND THE INCARNATION. — THE GOSPEL OF S. PAUL - - 353 CHAPTER XXXII. THE NEED OF A SOLEMN CHARGE AGAINST A CONTRO- VERSIAL SPIRIT, OF A DILIGENCE FREE FROM SHAME, AND OF A HATRED OF THE PROFANITY WHICH WRAPS UP ERROR IN THE LANGUAGE OF TRUTH - - - 364 CHAPTER XXXIII. THE LAST DAYS. — THE BEARING OF THE MENTION OF JANNES AND JAMBRES ON THE QUESTION OF INSPI- RATION AND THE ERRORS CURRENT IN EPHESUS - - 375 CHAPTER XXXIV. THE PERILS OF RATIONALISM AND THE RESPONSIBILITIES OF A LIFELONG CONTACT WITH TRUTH. THE PROPERTIES OF INSPIRED WRITINGS- - - - . - 38$ CHAPTER XXXV. THE PARADOXICAL EXULTATION OF THE APOSTLE. — HIS APPARENT FAILURE AND THE APPARENT FAILURE OF THE CHURCH. — THE GREAT TEST OF SINCERITY - - 397 Contents. CHAPTER XXXVI. PAGE THE PERSONAL DETAILS A GUARANTEE OF GENUINENESS - 406 CHAPTER XXXVn. THE APOSTLE FORSAKEN BY MEN BUT STRENGTHENED BY THE LORD, — THE MISSION TO THE GENTILES COM- PLETED.— THE SURE HOPE, AND THE FINAL HYMN OF PRAISE -- ,--.•-- 418 INTRODUCTORY. CHAPTER I. THE CHARACTER AND THE GENUINENESS OF THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. "Paul, an Apostle of Christ Jesus." — i Tm. i; 2 Tim. I I. •'Paul, a servant of God, and an Apostle of Jesus Christ." — Titus i. I. THE first question which confronts us on entering upon the study of the Pastoral Epistles is that of their authenticity, which of late has been confidently denied. In reading them are we reading the farewell words of the great Apostle to the ministers of Christ ? Or are we reading only the well-meant but far less weighty counsels of one who in a later age assumed the name and imitated the style of St. Paul ? It seems necessary to devote the first of these expositions to a discussion of this question. The title *' Pastoral Epistles " could hardly be im- proved, but it might easily be misunderstood as imply- ing more than is actually the case. It calls attention to what is the most conspicuous, but by no means the only characteristic in these Epistles. Although the words which most directly signify the pastor's office, such as ''shepherd," ''feed," "tend," and "flock," do not occur in these letters and do occur elsewhere in Scripture, yet in no other books in the Bible do we find so many directions respecting the pastoral care of Churches. The title is much less appropriate to INTRODUCTORY, 2 Timothy than to the other two Epistles. All three are both pastoral and personal ; but while I Timothy and Titus are mainly the former, 2 Timothy is mainly the latter. The three taken together stand between the other Epistles of St. Paul and the one to Philemon. Like the latter, they are personal ; like the rest, they treat of large questions of Church doctrine, practice, and government, rather than of private and personal matters. Like that to Philemon, they are addressed, not to Churches, but to individuals ; yet they are written to them, not as private friends, but as delegates, though not mere delegates, of the Apostle, and as officers of the Church. Moreover the important Church matters of which they treat are regarded, not, as in the other Epistles, from the point of view of the congregation or of the Church at large, but rather from that of the overseer or minister. And, as being official rather than private letters, they are evidently intended to be read by other persons besides Timothy and Titus. Among the Epistles which bear the name of St. Paul none have excited so much controversy as these, especially as regards their genuineness. But the con- troversy is entirely a modern one. It is little or no exaggeration to say that from the first century to the nineteenth no one ever denied or doubted that they were written by St. Paul. It is true that certain heretics of the second century rejected some or all of them. Marcion, and perhaps Basilides, rejected all three. Tatian, while maintaining the Apostolicity of the Epistle to Titus, .repudiated those to Timothy. And Origen tells us that some people doubted about 2 Timothy because it contained the names of Jannes and Jambres, whicli do not occur in the Old Testament. But it is will known that Marcion in framing his GENUINENESS OF THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. mutilated and meagre canon of the Scriptures, did not profess to do so on critical grounds. He rejected everything excepting an expurgated edition of St. Luke and certain Epistles of St. Paul,— not because he doubted their authenticity, but because he disHked their contents. They did not fit into his system. And the few others who rejected one or more of these Epistles did so in a similar spirit. They did not profess to find that these documents were not properly authenticated, but they were displeased with passages in them. The evidence, therefore, justifies us in assert- ing that, with some very slight exception in the second century, these three Epistles were, until quite recent times, universally accepted as written by St. Paul. This large fact is greatly emphasized by two con- siderations, (i) The repudiation of them by Marcion and others directed attention to them. They were evidently not accepted by an oversight, because no one thought anything about them. (2) The evidence respecting the general acceptance of them as St. Paul's is full and positive, and reaches back to the earliest times. It does not consist merely or mainly in the absence of evidence to the contrary. Tertulhan * wonders what can have induced Marcion, while accept- ing the Epistle to Philemon, to reject those to Timothy and Titus : and of course those who repudiated them would have pointed out weak places in their claim to be canonical, if such had existed. And even if we do not insist upon the passages in which these Epistles are almost certainly quoted by Clement f of Rome (c. A.D. 95), Ignatius of Antioch (c. a.d. 112), Polycarp of * Adv. Marc.y V. xxi. f Clem, Rom, I. ii., xxix,, Ixi. ; Ign. Magn. viii., Pol. passim ; Poly- INTRODUCTORY, Smyrna (c. a.d. 112), and Theophilus of Antioch (c. a.d. 1 80); we have direct evidence of a very convincing kind. They are found in the Peshitto, or early Syriac Version, which was made in the second century. They are contained in the Muratorian canon, the date of which may still be placed as not later than a.d. 170. Irenseus, the disciple of Polycarp, states that '^Paul mentions Linus in the Epistle to Timothy," and he quotes Titus iii. 10 with the introduction ''as Paul also says." Eusebius renders it probable that both Justin Martyr and Hegesippus quoted from I Timothy ; and he himself places all three Epistles among the universally accepted books and not among the disputable writings : i.e,, he places them with the Gospels, Acts, I Peter, I John, and the other Epistles of St. Paul, and not with James, 2 Peter, 2 and 3 John, and Jude. In this arrangement he is preceded by Clement of Alexandria and Tertullian, both of whom quote frequently from all three Epistles, sometimes as the words of Scripture, sometimes as of *' the Apostle," sometimes as of Paul, sometimes as of the Spirit. Occasionally it is expressly stated that the words quoted are addressed to Timothy or to Titus. It would take us too far afield to examine in detail the various considerations which have induced some eminent critics to set aside this strong array of external evidence and reject one or more of these Epistles. They fall in the main under four heads. (l) The diffi- culty of finding a place for these letters in the life of St. Paul as given us in the Acts and in his own writings. (2) The large amount of peculiar phraseology carp, iv ; Theoph. Autol., III., xiv. ; Iren., Hoer.^ III. iii. 3, 4 ; Euseb. H. E.y III. XXV., 2., xxvi. 4., xxxii. 8. GENUINENESS OF THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. 7 not found in any other Pauline Epistles. (3) The Church organization indicated in these letters which is alleged to be of a later date than St. Paul's time. (4) The erroneous doctrines and practices attacked, which are also said to be those of a later age. To most of these points we shall have to return on some future occasion : but for the present this much may be asserted with confidence, (i) In the Acts and in the other Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle's life is left incomplete. There is nothing to forbid us from supposing that the remain- ing portion amounted to several years, during which these three letters were written. The Second Epistle to Timothy in any case has the unique interest of being the last extant utterance of the Apostle St. Paul. (2) The phraseology which is peculiar to each of these Epistles is not greater in amount than the phraseology which is peculiar to the Epistle to the Galatians, which even Baur admits to be of unquestionable genuineness. The peculiar diction which is common to all three Epistles is well accounted for by the peculiarity of the common subject, and by the fact that these letters are separated by several years from even the latest among the other writings of St. Paul.* (3, 4) There is good reason for believing that during the lifetime of St. Paul the organization of the Church corresponded to that which is sketched in these letters, and that errors were already in existence such as these letters denounce. Although the controversy is by no means over, two results of it are very generally accepted as practically certain, (i) The three Epistles must stand or fall * "The wealth and mobihty of the Pauline intellect. . . must not be fettered in mode of teaching or expression by a rule taken from a number of older epistles arbitrarily selected." — Bernhard Weiss, Introduction to the N. T., i. p. 410 (Hoddcr: 1887). INTRODUCTORY, together. It is impossible to accept two, or one, or any portion of one of them, and reject the rest. (2) They stand or fall with the hypothesis of St. Paul's second imprisonment. If the Apostle was imprisoned at Rome only once, and was put to death at the end of that imprisonment, then these three letters were not written by him. (i) The Epistles stand or fall together: they are all three genuine, or all three spurious. We must either with the scholars of the Early Church, of the Middle Ages, and of the Renaissance, whether Roman 01 Protestant, and with a clear majority of modern critics,* accept all three letters ; or else with Marcion, Basilides, Eichhorn, Bauer, and their followers,t reject all three. As Credner himself had to acknowledge, after having at first advocated the theory, it is impossible to follow Tatian in retaining Titus as apostolic, while repudiating the other two as forgeries. Nor have the two scholars | who originated the modern controversy found more than one critic of eminence to accept their conclusion that both Titus and 2 Timothy are genuine, but I Timothy not. Yet another suggestion is made by Reuss, that 2 Timothy is unquestionably genuine, while the other two are doubtful. And lastly we have Pfleiderer admitting that 2 Timothy contains at least two sections which have with good reason been recog- nized as genuine (i. 15 — 18 and iv. 9 — 21), and Renan * Among them Alford, Baumgarten, Beck, Bollinger, Fairbairn, Farrar, Gucricke, Herzog, Hofmann, Huther, KoUing, Lange, Light- foot, Ncander, Oosterzee, Otto, Plumptre, Salmon, Schaff, Thiersch, Wace, Wicseler, Wiesinger, Wordsworth. t Among th^m Credner, S. Davidson, Ewald, Hausrath, Hilgenfeld, Holtzmann, Mangold, Schenkel, and on the whole De Wette. X Schmidt and Schleiermacher followed by Bleek. J GENUINENESS OF THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. 9 asking whether the forger of these three Epistles did not possess some authentic letters of St. Paul which he has enshrined in his composition.* It will be seen, therefore, that those who impugn the authenticity of the Pastoral Epistles are by no means agreed among themselves. The evidence in some places is so strong, that many of the objectors are com- pelled to admit that the Epistles are at least in part the work of St. Paul. That is, certain portions, which admit of being severely tested, are found to stand the test, and are passed as genuine, in spite of surrounding difficulties. The rest, which does not admit of such testing, is repudiated on account of the difficulties. No one can reasonably object to the application of whatever tests are available, nor to the demand for explanations of difficulties. But we must not treat what cannot be satisfactorily tested as if it had been tested and found wanting; nor must we refuse to take account of the support which those parts which can be thoroughly sifted lend to those for which no decisive criterion can be found. Still less must we proceed on the assump- tion that to reject these Epistles or any portion of them is a proceeding which gets rid of difficulties. It is merely an exchange of one set of difficulties for another. To unbiassed minds it will perhaps appear that the difficulties involved in the assumption that the Pastoral Epistles are wholly or partly a forgery, are not less serious than those which have been urged against the well-established tradition of their genuineness. The very strong external evidence in their favour has to be * Similar admissions, which are quite fatal to the view that the three Epistles are not genuine, are made by Hausrath, Immer and Lemme ; while Ewald, Hitzig, Krenkel, and Weisse think that Titus contains authentic fragments. See the exposition of 2 Tim. iv. 9—21. 10 INTRO D UCTOR Y. accounted for. It is already full^ clear, and decided, as soon as we could at all expect to find it, viz., in Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, and Tertullian. And it must be noticed that these witnesses give us the . traditional beliefs of several chief centres in Christendom. Irenaeus speaks with full knowledge of what was accepted in Asia Minor, Rome, and Gaul; Clement witnesses for Egypt, and Tertullian for North Africa. And although the absence of such support would not have caused serious perplexity, their direct evidence is very materially supported by passages closely parallel to the words of the Pastoral Epistles found in writers still earlier than Irenaeus. Renan admits the relation- ship between 2 Timothy and the Epistle of Clement of Rome, and suggests that each writer has borrowed from a common source. Pfleiderer admits that the Epistle of Ignatius to Polycarp ^'displays striking points of contact with 2 Timothy." Bauer's theory, that all three letters are as late as a.d. 1 50, and are an attack on Marcion, finds little support now. But we are still asked to believe that 2 Timothy was forged in the reign of Trajan (98 — 1 17) and the other two Epistles in the reign of Hadrian (117 — 138). Is it credible that a forgery perpetrated a.d. 120 — 135 would in less than fifty years be accepted in Asia Minor, Rome, Gaul, Egypt, and North Africa, as a genuine letter of the Apostle St. Paul ? And yet this is what must have happened in the case of I Timothy, if the hypothesis just stated is correct. Nor is this all, Marcion, as we know, rejected all three of the Pastoral Epistles ; and Tertullian cannot think why Marcion should do so. But, when Marcion was framing his canon, about the reign of Hadrian, 2 Timothy according to these dates, would be scarcely twenty years old, and I Timothy i GENUINENESS OF THE PASTORAL EPISTLES, il would be brand-new. If this had been so, would Marcion, with his intimate knowledge of St. Paul's writings, have been in ignorance of the fact ; and if he had known it, would he have failed to denounce the forgery ? Or again, if we assume that he merely treated this group of " Epistles with silent contempt, would not his rejection of them, which was well-known, have directed attention to them, and caused their recent origin to be quickly discovered ? From all which it is manifest that the theory of forgery by no means frees us from grave obstacles. It will be observed that the external evidence is large in amount and overwhelmingly in favour of the Apostolic authorship. The objections are based on internal evidence. But some of the leading opponents admit that even the internal evidence is in favour of certain portions of the Epistles. Let us, then, with Renan, Pfleiderer, and others admit that parts of 2 Timothy were written by St. Paul ; then there is strong presumption that the whole letter is by him ; for even the suspected portions have the external evidence in their favour, together with the support lent to them by those parts for which the internal evidence is also satisfactory. Add to which the improbability that any one would store up genuine letters of St. Paul for fifty years and then use parts of them to give substance to a fabrication. Or let us with Reuss contend that in 2 'Timothy '^ the whole Epistle is so completely the natural expression, of the actual situation of the author, and contains, unsought and for the most part in the form of mere allusions, such a mass of minute* and * What forger would have thought of the cloak (or book-case) left at Troas with Carpus, or would have been careful to speak only of " the house of Onesiohorus," and not of himself, in two places? 11 tNTROD UCTOR V. unessential particulars, that even did the name of the writer not chance to be mentioned at the beginning it would be easy to discover it." Then there is strong presumption that the other two letters are genuine also ; for they have the external evidence on their side, together with the good character reflected upon them by their brother Epistle. This result is of course greatly strengthened, if, quite independently of 2 Timothy, the claims of Titus to be Apostolic are considered to be adequate. With two of the three letters admitted to be genuine, the case for the remaining letter becomes a strong one. It has the powerful external evidence on its side, backed up by the support lent to it by its two more manifestly authentic companions. Thus far, therefore, we may agree with Baur: "The three Epistles are so much alike that none of them can be separated from the others ; and from this circumstance the identity of their authorship may be confidently inferred." * But when he asserts that whichever of this family of letters be examined will appear as the betrayer of his brethren, he just reverses the truth. Each letter, upon examination, lends support to the other two ; " and a threefold cord is not easily broken." The strongest member of the family is 2 Timothy : the external evidence in its favour is ample, and no Epistle in the New Testament is more characteristic of St. Paul. It would be scarcely less reasonable to dis- pute 2 Corinthians. And if 2 Timothy be admitted, there is no tenable ground for excluding the other two. II. But not only do the three Epistles stand or fall together, they stand or fall with the hypothesis of the • Paul^ his Life and Works, Pt. II., ch. viiL Eng. Trans., p. 105. GENUINENESS OF TEE PASTORAL EPISTLES. 13 release and second imprisonment of the Apostle. The contention that no place can be found for the Pastoral Epistles in the narrative of the Acts is valid; but it is no objection to the authenticity of the Epistles. The conclusion of the Acts implies that the end of St Paul's life is not reached in the narrative. "He abode two whole years in his own hired dwelling," implies that after that time a change took place. If that change was his death, how unnatural not to mention it! The conclusion is closely parallel to that of St. Luke's Gospel; and we might almost as reasonably contend that " they were continually in the temple/* proves that they were never '^ clothed with power from on high," because they were told to " tarry in the city " until they were so clothed, as contend that " abode two whole years in his own hired dwelling," proves that at the end of the two years came the end of St. Paul's life. Let us grant that the conclusion of the Acts is unexpectedly abrupt, and that this abrupt- ness constitutes a difficulty. Then we have our choice of two alternatives. Either the two years of imprison- ment were followed by a period of renewed labour, or they were cut short by the Apostle's martyrdom. Is it not more easy to believe that the writer did not consider that this new period of work, which would have filled many chapters, fell within the scope of his narrative, than that he omitted so obvious a conclusion as St. Paul's death, for which a single verse would have sufficed ? But let us admit that to assert that St. Paul was released at the end of two years is to maintain a mere hypothesis : yet to assert that he was not released is equally to maintain a mere hypothesis. If we exclude the Pastoral Epistles, Scripture gives no means of deciding the question, and whichever alternative we 14 INTRODUCTORY. adopt we are making a conjecture. But which hypo- thesis has most evidence on its side ? Certainly the hypothesis of the release, (i) The Pastoral Epistles, even if not by St. Paul, are by some one who believed that the Apostle did a good deal after the close of the Acts. (2) The famous passage in Clement of Rome {Cor. v.) tells that St. Paul " won the noble renown which was the reward of his faith, having taught righteousness unto the whole world, and having reached the furthest bound of the West {jo repfxa t?}? 8ua-6ft)9)." This probably means Spain ; * and if St. Paul ever went to Spain as he hoped to do (Rom. xv. 24, 28), it was after the imprisonment narrated in the Acts. Clement gives us the tradition in Rome (c. a.d. 95). (3) The Muratorian fragment (c. a.d. 170) mentions the " departure of Paul from the city to Spain." (4) Eusebius (H.E., II. xxii. 2) says that at the end of the two years of imprisonment, according to tradi- tion, the Apostle went forth again upon the ministry of preaching, and on a second visit to the city ended his career by martyrdom under Nero ; and that during this imprisonment he composed the Second Epistle to Timothy. All this does not amount to proof; but it raises the hypothesis of the release to a high degree of probability. Nothing of this kind can be urged in favour of the counter hypothesis. To urge the impro- bability that the labours of these last few years of St. Paul's life would be left unrecorded is no argument. (1) They are partly recorded in the Pastoral Epistles. (2) The entire labours of most of the Twelve are left unrecorded. Even of St. Paul's hfe, whole years are left a blank. How fragmentary the narrative in the * It cannot possibly mean Rome ; least of all in a document written in Rome, Rome was a centre, not a frontier. GENUINENESS OF THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. 1 5 Acts must be is proved by the autobiography in 2 Cor- inthians. That we have very scanty notice of St. Paul's doings between the two imprisonments does not render the existence of such an interval at all doubtful. The result of this preliminary discussion seems to show that the objections which have been urged against these Epistles are not such as to compel us to doubt that in studying them we are studying the last writings of the Apostle of the Gentiles. If any doubts still survive, a closer examination of the details will, it is hoped, tend to remove rather than to strengthen them. When we have completed our survey, we may be able to add our testimony to those who through many centuries have found these writings a source of Divine guidance, warning, and encouragement, especially in ministerial work. The experience of countless numbers of pastors attests the wisdom of the Church, or in other words the good Providence of God, in causing these Epistles to be included among the sacred Scrip- tures. " It is an established fact," as Bernhard Weiss rightly points out {IrJroduction to the New Testament, vol. i., p. 410), ^' that the essential, fundamental features of the PauHne doctrine of salvation are even in their specific expression reproduced in our Epistles with a clearness such as we do not find in any Pauline disciple, excepting perhaps Luke or the Roman Clement." Whoever composed them had at his command, not only St. Paul's forms of doctrine and expression, but large funds of Apostolic zeal and discretion, such as have proved capable of warming the hearts and guiding the judgments of a long line of successors. Those who are conscious of these effects upon themselves will probably find it easier to beHeve that they have derived i6 INTRODVCTORV. these benefits from the great Apostle himself, rather than from one who, with however good intentions, assumed his name and disguised himself in his mantle. Henceforward, until we find serious reason for doubt, it will be assumed that in these Epistles we have the farewell counsels of none other than St. Paul, THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY* CHAPTER II. TIMOTHY THE BELOVED DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL. HIS LIFE AND CHARACTER. "Timothy, my true child in faith." — -i Tim. L 2. "Timothy, my beloved child." — 2 Tim. i. 2. IN the relation of St. Paul to Timothy we have one of those beautiful friendships between an older and a younger man which are commonly so helpful to both. It is in such cases, rather than where the friends are equals in age, that each can be the real complement of the other. Each by his abundance can supply the other's want, whereas men of equal age would have common wants and common supplies. In this respect the friendship between St. Paul and Timothy reminds us of that between St. Peter and St. John, In each case the friend who took the lead was much older than the other ; and (what is less in harmony with ordinary experience) in each case it was the plde r^ friend who had the impulse and the enthusiasm, th^ younger who had the reflectiveness and the reserve. These latter qualities are perhaps less marked in St. Timothy than in St. John, but nevertheless they are there, and they are among the leading traits of his character. St. Paul leans on him while he guides him, and relies upon his thoughtfulness and circumspection in cases requiring firmness, delicacy, and tact. Of the affection wi'h which he regarded Timothy we have evidence in the 20 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. whole tone of the two letters to him. In the sphere of faith Timothy is his ^^ own true child" (not merely adopted, still less supposititious), and his ^'beloved child." St. Paul tells the Corinthians that as the best means of making them imitators of himself he has sent unto them '* Timothy, who is my beloved and faithful child in the Lord, who shall put you in remembrance of my ways which be in Christ, even as I teach every- where in every Church" (i Cor. iv. 17). And a few years later he tells the Philippians that he hopes to send Timothy shortly unto them, that he may know how they fare. For he has no one like him, who will have a genuine anxiety about their welfare. The rest care only for their own interests. ^' But the proof of him ye know, that, as a child a father, so he slaved with me for the Gospel " (ii. 22). Of all whom he ever converted to the faith Timothy seems to have been to St. Paul the disciple who was most beloved and most trusted. Following the example of the fourth Evan- gelist, Timothy might have called himself " The disciple whom Paul loved." He shared his spiritual father's outward labours and most intimate thoughts. He was with him when the Apostle could not or would not have the companionship of others. He was sent on the most delicate and confidential missions. He had charge of the most important congregations. When the Apostle was in his last and almost lonely imprison- ment it was Timothy whom he summoned to console him and receive his last injunctions. There is another point in which the beloved disciple of the Pastoral Epistles resembles the beloved disciple of the Fourth Gospel. We are apt to think of both of them as always young. Christian art nearly invariably represents St. John as a man of youthful and almost i.2.] THE BELOVED DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL. 21 feminine appearance. And, although in Timothy's case, painters and sculptors have not done much to influence our imagination, yet the picture which we form for ourselves of him is very similar to that which we commonly receive of St. John. With strange logic this has actually been made an argument against the authenticity of the Pastoral Epistles. Myth, we are told, has given to this Christian Achilles the attributes of eternal youth. Timothy was a lad of about fifteen when St. Paul converted him at Lystra, in or near A.D. 45 ; and he was probably not yet thirty-five when St. Paul wrote the First Epistle to him. Even if he had been much older there would be nothing surprising in the tone of St. Paul's letters to him. It is one of the commonest experiences to find elderly parents speaking of their middle-aged children as if they were still boys and girls. This trait, as being so entirely natural, ought to count as a touch beyond the reach of a forger rather than as a circumstance that ought to rouse our suspicions, in the letters of " Paul the aged " * to a friend who was thirty years younger than himself Once more, the notices of Timothy which have come down to us, like those which we have respecting the beloved disciple, are very fragmentary ; but they form a beautiful and consistent sketch of one whose full portrait we long to possess. Timothy was a native, possibly of Derbe, but more probably of the neighbouring town of Lystra, where he was piously brought up in a knowledge of the Jewish Scriptures by his grandmother Lois and his mother Eunice. It was probably during St. Paul's first visit to * "Paul an ambassador, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ" is probably right in Philemon ; but even there " Paul the aged " would be true. 22 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOIHY. Lystra, on his first missionary journey, that he became the boy's spiritual father, by converting him to the Christian faith. It was at Lystra that the Apostle was stoned by the mob and dragged outside the city as dead : and there is no improbability in the suggestion that, when he recovered consciousness and re-entered the town, it was in the home of Timothy that he found shelter. In any case Lystra was to the Apostle a place of strangely mixed associations ; the brutality of the pagan multitude side by side with the tender friendship of the young Timothy. When St. Paul on his next missionary journey again visited Lystra he found Timothy already enjoying a good report among the Christians of that place and of Iconium for his zeal and devotion during the six or seven years which had elapsed since his first visit. Perhaps he had been engaged in missionary work in both places. The voices of the prophets had singled him out as one worthy of bearing office in the Church; and the Apostle, still grieving over the departure of Barnabas with John Mark, recognized in him one who with Silas could fill the double vacancy. The conduct of the Apostle of the Gentiles on this occasion has sometimes excited sur- prise. Previously to the ordination, Paul, the great proclaimer of the abrogation of the Law by the Gospel, circumcised the young evangelist. The inconsistency is more apparent than real. It was an instance of his becoming ^' all things to all men " for the salvation of souls, and of his sacrificing his own convictions in matters that were not essential, rather than cause others to offend. Timothy's father had been a Gentile, and the son, though brought up in his mother's faith, had never been circumcised. To St. Paul circumcision was a worthless rite. The question was, whether it i.2j THE BELOVED DISCIPLE OF' ST. PAUL. 23 was a harmless one. This depended upon circum- stances. If, as among the Galatians, it caused people to rely upon the Law and neglect the Gospel, it was a superstitious obstacle with which no compromise could be made. But if it was a passport whereby preachers, who would otherwise be excluded, might gain access to Jewish congregations, then it was not only a harmless but a useful ceremony. In the synagogue Timothy as an uncircumcised Jew would have been an intolerable abomination, and would never have obtained a hearing. To free him from this crippling disadvantage, St. Paul subjected him to a rite which he himself knew to be obsolete. Then followed the ordination, performed with great solemnity by the laying on of the hands of all the elders of the congregation : and the newly ordained Evangelist forthwith set out to accompany Paul and Silas in their labours for the Gospel. Wherever they went they distributed copies of the decrees of the Apostolic Council at Jerusalem, which declared circumcision to be unnecessary for Gentiles. Their true position with regard to circumcision was thus made abundantly evident. For the sake of others they had abstained from availing themselves of the very liberty which they proclaimed. In the Troad they met Luke the beloved physician (as indicated by the sudden use of the first person plural in the Acts), and took him on with them to Philippi. Here probably, as certainly afterwards at Beroea, Timothy was left behind by Paul and Silas to consolidate their work. He rejoined the Apostle at Athens, but was thence sent back on a mission to Thessalonica, and on his return found St. Paul at Corinth. The two Epistles written from Corinth to the Thessalonians are in the joint names of Paul and 24 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. Timothy. At Corinth, as at Lystra, Iconium, and Philippi, Timothy became prominent for his zeal as an evangelist ; and then for about five years we lose sight of him. We may think of him as generally at the side of St. Paul, and as always working with him ; but of the details of the work we are ignorant. About a.d, 57 he was sent by St. Paul on a delicate mission to Corinth. This was before I Corinthians was written ; for in that letter St. Paul states that he has sent Timothy to Corinth, but writes as if he expected that the letter would reach Corinth before him. He charges the Corinthians not to aggravate the young evangelist's natural timidity, and not to let his youth prejudice them against him. When St. Paul wrote 2 Corinthians from Macedonia later in the year, Timothy was again with him, for his name is coupled with Paul's : and he is still with him when the Apostle wrote to the Romans from Corinth, for he joins in sending salutations to the Roman Christians. We find him still at St. Paul's side on his way back to Jerusalem through Philippi, the Troad, Tyre, and Caesarea. And here we once more lose trace of him for some years. We do not know what he was doing during St. Paul's two years' imprisonment at Caesarea ; but he joined him during the first imprisonment at Rome, for the Epistles to the Philippians, the Colossians, and Philemon are written in the names of Paul and Timothy. From the passage already quoted from Philippians we may conjecture that Timothy went to Philippi and returned again before the Apostle was released. At the close of the Epistle to the Hebrews we read, ^^ Know ye that our brother Timothy hath been set at libert3\" It is possible that the imprisonment to which this notice refers was contemporaneous with the first imprisonn.ent 1 2.j THE BELOVED DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL, 25 of St. Paul, and that it is again referred to in i Timothy (vi. 12) as " the good confession " which he "confessed in the sight of many witnesses." The few additional facts respecting Timothy are given us in the two letters to him. Some time after St. Paul's release the two were together in Ephesus ; and when the Apostle went on into Macedonia he left his companion behind him to warn and exhort certain holders of erroneous doctrine to desist from teaching it. There were tears, on the younger friend's side at any rate, to which St. Paul alludes at the opening of the Second Epistle ; and they were natural enough. The task imposed upon Timothy was no easy one ; and after the dangers and sufferings to which the Apostle had been exposed, and which his increasing infirmities continually augmented, it was only too possible that the friends would never meet again. So far as we know, these gloomy apprehensions may have been realized. In his first letter, written from Macedonia, St. Paul expresses a hope of returning very soon to Timothy ; but, like some other hopes expressed in St. Paul's Epistles, it was perhaps never fulfilled. The second letter, written from Rome, contains no allusion to any intermediate meeting. In this second letter he twice im.plores Timothy to do all he can to come to him without delay, for he is left almost alone in his imprison- ment But whether Timothy was able to comply with this wish we have no means of knowing. We like to think of the beloved disciple as comforting the last hours of his master ; but, although the conjecture may be a right one, we must remember that it is conjecture and no more. With the Second Epistle to him ends all that we really know of Timothy. Tradition and ingenious guesswork add a little more which can be 26 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. neither proved nor disproved. More than two hundred years after his death, Eusebius tells us that he is related to have held the office of overseer of the diocese of Ephesus; and five centuries later Nicephorus tells us, that he was beaten to death by the Ephesian mob for protesting against the licentiousness of their worship of Artemis. It has been conjectured that Timothy may be the "Angel" of the Church of Ephesus, who is partly praised and partly blamed in the Apocalypse, and parallels have been drawn between the words of blame in Rev. ii. 4, 5, and the uneasiness which seems to underHe one or two passages in the Second Epistle to Timothy. But the resemblances are too slight to be relied upon. All we can say is, that even if the later date be taken for the Apocalypse, Timothy may have been overseer of the Church of Ephesus at the time when the book was written. But of all the scattered memorials that have come down to us respecting this beautiful friendship between the great Apostle and his chief disciple, the two letters of the older friend to the younger are by far the chief. And there is so much in them that fits with exquisite nicety into the known conditions of the case, that it is hard to imagine how any forger of the second century could so have thrown himself into the situation. Where else in that age have we evidence of any such literary and historical skill ? The tenderness and affection, the anxiety and sadness, the tact and discretion, the strength and large-mindedness of St. Paul are all there ; and his relation to his younger but much-trusted disciple is quite naturally sustained throughout. Against this it is not much to urge that there are some forty words and phrases in these Epistles which do not occur in the other Epistles of St. Paul. The explanation of that fact i.2.] THE BELOVED DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL. 27 is easy. Partly they are words which in his other Epistles he had no need to use ; partly they are words which the circumstances of these later letters suggested to him, and which those of the earlier letters did not. The vocabulary of every man of active mind who reads and mixes with other men, especially if he travels much, is perpetually changing. He comes across new meta- phors, new figures of speech, remembers them, and uses them. The reading of such a work as Darwin's Origin of Species gives a man command of a new sphere of thought and expression. The conversation of such a man as " Luke the beloved physician " would have a similar effect on St. Paul. We shall never know the minds or the circumistances which suggested to him the language which has now become our own posses- sion; and it is unreasonable to suppose that the process of assimilation came to a dead stop in the Apostle's mind when he finished the Epistles of the first imprison- ment. The result, therefore, of this brief survey of the life of Timothy is to confirm rather than to shake our belief that the letters which are addressed to him were really written by his friend St. Paul. The friendship between these two men of different gifts and very different ages is full of interest. It is difficult to estimate which of the two friends gained most from the affection and devotion of the other. No doubt Timothy's debt to St. Paul was immense : and which of us would not think himself amply paid for any amount of service and sacrifice, in having the privilege of being the chosen friend of such a man as St. Paul ? But on the other hand, few men could have supplied the Apostle's peculiar needs as Timothy did. That intense craving for sympathy which breathes so strongly throughout the writings of St. Paul, found its chief 28 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. human satisfaction in Timothy. To be alone in a crcwd is a trial to most men ; and few men have felt the oppressiveness of it more keenly than St. Paul. To have some one, therefore, who loved and reverenced him, who knew his '' ways " and could impress them on others, who cared for those for whom Paul cared and was ever willing to minister to them as his friend's missioner and delegate — all this and much more was inexpressibly comforting to St. Paul. It gave him strength in his weaknesses, hope in his many disap- pointments, and solid help in his daily burden of ** anxiety for all the Churches." Specially consoling was the cHnging affection of his young friend at those times when the Apostle was suffering from the coldness and neglect of others. At the time of his first imprison- ment the respect or curiosity of the Roman Christians had moved many of them to come out thirty miles to meet him on his journey from Caesarea to Rome ; yet as soon as he was safely lodged in the house of his gaoler they almost ceased to minister to him. But the faithful disciple seems to have been ever at his side. And when the Romans treated Paul with similar indif- ference during his second imprisonment, it was this same disciple that he earnestly besought to come with all speed to comfort him. It was not merely that he loved and trusted Timothy as one upon whose devotion and discretion he could always rely : but Timothy was the one among his many disciples who had sacrificed everything for St. Paul and his Master. He had left a loving mother and a pleasant home in order to share with the Apostle a task which involved ceaseless labour, untold anxiety, not a little shame and obloquy, and at times even danger to fife and limb. When he might have continued to live on as the favourite of his family, 1.2.] THE BELOVED DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL. 29 enjoying the respect of the presbyters and prophets of Lycaonia, he chose to wander abroad with the man to whom, humanly speaking, he owed his salvation, '*in journeyings often," in perils of every kind from the powers of nature, and from the violence or treachery of man, and in all those countless afflictions and neces- sities, of which St. Paul gives us such a touching sum- mary in the second letter to the Corinthians. All this St. Paul knew, and he knew the value of it to himself and the Church ; and hence the warm affection with which the Apostle always speaks of him and to him. But what did not Timothy owe to his friend, his father in the faith, old enough to be his father in the flesh ? Not merely his conversion and his building up in Christian doctrine, though that was much, and the chief item of his debt. But St. Paul had tenderly watched over him among the difficulties to which a person of his temperament would be specially exposed. Timothy was young, enthusiastic, sensitive, and at times showed signs of timidity. If his enthusiasm were not met with a generous sympathy, there was danger lest the sensitive nature would shrivel up on contact with an unfeehng world, and the enthusiasm driven in upon itself would be soured into a resentful cynicism. St. Paul not only himself gave to his young disciple the sympathy that he needed ; he encouraged others also to do the same. *' Now if Timothy come," he writes to the Corinthians, ^' see that he be with you without fear; for he worketh the work of the Lord, as I also do : let no man therefore despise him." He warned these factious and fastidious Greeks against chilling the generous impulses of a youthful evangelist by their sarcastic criticisms. Timothy might be wanting in the brilliant gifts which Corinthians adored : in knowle'dge 36 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, of the world, in address, in oratory. But he was real. He was working God's work with a single heart and with genuine fervour. It would be a cruel thing to mar that simplicity or quench that fervour, and thus turn a genuine enthusiast into a cold-blooded man of the world. On their treatment of him might depend whether he raised them to his own zeal for Christ, or they dragged him down to the level of their own paralysing superciliousness. The dangers from which St. Paul thus generously endeavoured to shield Timothy, are those which beset many an ardent spirit, especially in England at the present day. Everywhere there is a cynical disbelief in human nature and a cold contempt for all noble im- pulses, which throw a damp and chilHng atmosphere over society. At school and at the university, in family Hfe and in domestic service, young men and young women are encouraged to believe that there is no such thing as unselfishness or holiness, and that enthusiasm is always either silly or hypocritical. By sarcastic jests and contemptuous smiles they are taught the fatal lesson of speaking slightingly, and at last of thinking shghtingly, of their own best feelings. To be dutiful and affectionate is supposed to be childish, while reverence and trust are regarded as mere ignor- ance of the world. The mischief is a grave one, for it poisons life at its very springs. Every young man and woman at times has aspirations which at first are only romantic and sentimental, and as such are neither right nor wrong. But they are nature's material for higher and better things. They are capable of being developed into a zeal for God and for man, such as will ennoble the characters of all -who come under its influence. The sentimentalist may become an enthu- i.2.] THE BELOVED DISCIPLE OF ST. PAUL. 31 siast, and the enthusiast a hero or a saint. Woe to him who gives to such precious material a wrong turn, and by offering cynicism instead of sympathy turns all its freshness sour. The loss does not end with the blight of an exuberant and earnest character. There are huge masses of evil in the world, which seem to defy the good influences that from time to time are brought to bear upon them. Humanly speaking, there seems to be only one hope of overcoming these strong- holds of Satan, — and that is by the combined efforts of many enthusiasts. *' This is the victory which over- cometh the world, even our faith." It will be a grievous prospect for mankind, if faith in God, in ourselves, and in our fellow-men becomes so unfashionable as to be impossible. And this is the faith which makes enthu- siasts. If we have not this faith ourselves, we can at least respect it in others. If we cannot play the part of Timothy, and go forth with glowing hearts to what- ever difficult and distasteful work may be placed before us, we can at least avoid chilling and disheartening others ; and sometimes at least we may so far follow in the footsteps of St. Paul as to protect from the world's cynicism those who, with hearts more warm perhaps than wise, are labouring manfully to leave the world purer and happier than they found it. CHAPTER III. THE DOCTRINE CONDEMNED IN THE PASTORAL EPISTLES A /EWISH FORM OF GNOSTICISM.— THE GNOSTIC'S PROBLEM. " As I exhorted thee to tarry at Ephesus, when I was going into Macedonia, that thou mightest charge certain men not to teach a different doctrine, neither to give heed to fables and endless genealo- gies, the which minister questionings, rather than a dispensation of God which is in faith ; so do I now " — I Tim. i. 2, 3. THIS Epistle falls into two main divisions, of which the first continues down to the 13th verse of chap. iii. It treats of three different subjects : Chris- tian doctrine ; Christian worship ; and the Christian ministry. The first of these three subjects is intro- duced in the words of the text, which in the original form an incomplete sentence. The last four words, " so do I now," are not expressed in the Greek. But something must be supplied to complete the sense ; and it is more natural to understand with the Revisers '' So do I now exhort thee," than with the A. V. *' So do thou tarry at Ephesus." But the question is not of great moment and cannot be decided with absolute certainty. It is of more importance to enquire what was the nature of the "different doctrine" which Timothy was to endeavour to counteract. And on this point we are not left in serious doubt. There are various expressions used respecting it in these two letters to Timothy which seem to point to two factors i.2,30 THE GNOSTICS PROBLEM. 33 in the heterodoxy about which St. Paul is anxious. It is clear that the error is Jewish in origin ; and it is almost equally clear that it is Gnostic as well. The evidence of the letter to Titus tends materially to confirm these conclusions. (i) The heresy is Jewish in character. Its promoters '' desire to be teachers of the Law " (ver. 7). Some of them are "they of the circumcision" (Tit. i. 10). It consists in '^Jewish fables" (Tit. i. 14). The ques- tions which it raises are "fightings about the Law" (Tit. iii. 9). (2) Its Gnostic character is also indicated. We are told both in the text and in the Epistle to Titus (i. 14 ; iii. 9) that it deals in '^ fables and genealogies." It is "empty talking" (ver. 6), "disputes of words" (vi. 4), and " profane babblings " (vi. 20). It teaches an un- scriptural and unnatural asceticism (iv. 3, 8). It is " Gnosis falsely so called " (vi. 20). A heresy containing these two elements, Judaism and Gnc sticism, meets us both before and after the period covered by the Pastoral Epistles : before in the Epistle to the Colossians ; afterwards in the Epistles of Igna- tius. The evidence gathered from these three sources is entirely in harmony with what we learn elsewhere — that the earliest forms of Christian Gnosticism were Jewish in character. It will be observed that this is indirect confirmation of the genuineness of the Pastoral Epistles. The Gnosticism condemned in them is Jewish ; and any form of Gnostic'sm that was in existence in St. Paul's time would almost certainly be Jewish.* * F. C. Baur himself contends that the false teachers here con- demned are " Judaizing Gnostics, who put forth their figurative inter- ^ THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, Professor Godet has pointed out how entirely the relation of Judaism to Christianity which is implied in these Epistles, fits in with their being the last group of Epistles written by St. Paul. At first, Judaism was entirely outside the Church, opposing and blaspheming. Then it *^ntered the Church and tried to make the Church Jewish, by foisting the Mosaic Law upon it. Lastly, it becomes a fantastic heresy inside the Church, and sinks into profane frivolity. "Pretended revela- tions are given as to the names and genealogies of angels ; absurd ascetic rules are laid down as counsels of perfection, while daring immorality defaces the actual life." * This is the phase which is confronted in the Pastoral Epistles : and St. Paul meets it with a simple appeal to faith and morality. It is quite possible that the " fables," or *' myths,'' and "genealogies" ought to be transferred from the Gnostic to the Jewish side of the account. And thus Chr3^sostom interprets the passage. " By fables he does not mean the Law; far from it ; but inventions and forgeries, and counterfeit doctrines. For, it seems, the Jews wasted their whole discourse on these un- profitable points. They numbered up their fathers and grandfathers, that they might have the reputation of historical knowledge and research." The " fables " then, may be understood to be those numerous legends which the Jews added to the Old Testament, specimens of which abound in the Talmud. But similar myths abound in Gnostic systems, and therefore " fables " may represent both elements of the heterodox teaching. So pretation of the Law as true knowledge of the Law. Such were the earlier Gnostics, such as the Ophites and Saturninus" (^Protestant Commentary, note on I Tim. i. 7). • Expositor, July, 1888, p. 42. i.2,3.] THE GNOSTIC'S PROBLEM. 35 also with the " endless genealogies." These cannot well refer to the genealogies in Genesis, for they are not endless, each of them being arranged in tens. But it is quite possible that Jewish speculations about the genealogies of angels may be meant. Such things, being purely imaginary, would be endless. Or the Gnostic doctrine of emanations, in its earlier and cruder forms, may be intended. By genealogies in this sense •4 early thinkers, especially in the East, tried to bridge < the chasm between the Infinite and the Finite, between -God and creation. In various systems it is assumed that matter is inherently evil. The material universe has been from the beginning not ** very good '' but very bad. How then can it be believed that the Supreme Being, infinite in goodness, would create such a thing ? This is incredible : the Ayorld must be the creature of some inferior and perhaps evil being. But when this was conceded, the distance between this inferior power and the supreme God still remained to be bridged. This, it was supposed, might be done by an indefinite number of generations, each lower in dignity than the preceding one, until at last a being capable of creating the universe was found. From the Supreme God emanated an inferior deity, and from this lower power a third still more inferior ; and so on, until the Creator of the world was reached. These ideas are found in the Jewish philosopher Philo ; and it is to these that St. Paul probably alludes in the ''endless genealogies which minister questionings rather than a dispensation of God." The idea that matter is evil dominates the whole philosophy of Philo. He endeavoured to recon- cile this with the Old Testament, by supposing that matter is eternal ; and that it was out of pre-existing material that God, acting through His creative powers, 36 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, made the world which He pronounced to be "very good." These powers are sometimes regarded as the angels, sometimes as existences scarcely personal. But they have no existence apart from their source, any more than a ray apart from the sun. They are now the instruments of God's Providence, as formerly of His creative power. St. Paul condemns such speculations on four grounds, (i) They are fables, myths, mere imaginings of the human intellect in its attempt to account for the origin of the world and the origin of evil. (2) They are endless and interminable. From the nature of things there is no limit to mere guesswork of this kind. Every new speculator may invent a fresh genealogy of emanations in his theory of creation, and may make it any length that he pleases. If hypotheses need never be verified, — need not even be capable of verification, — one may go on constructing them ad infinitum. (3) As a natural consequence of this (aiVti/e?) they minister questionings and nothing better. It is all barren specu- lation and fruitless controversy. Where any one may assert without proof, any one else may contradict without proof; and nothing comes of this see-saw of affirmation and negation. (4) Lastly, these vain im- aginings are a different doctrine. They are not only empty but untrue, and are a hindrance to the truth. They occupy the ground which ought to be filled with the dispensation of God ivhicli is in faith. Human minds are limited in their capacity, and, even if these empty hypotheses were innocent, minds that were filled with them would have little room left for the truth. But they are not innocent : and those who are attracted by them become disaffected towards the truth. It is im- possible to love both, ibi the two are opposed to one i. 2,3.] THE GNOSTIC'S PROBLEM. 37 another. These fables are baseless ; they have no foundation either in revelation or in human life. More- over they are vague, shifting, and incoherent. They ramble on without end. But the Gospel is based on a Divine Revelation, tested by human experience. It is an economy, a system, an organic whole, a dispensation of means to ends. Its sphere is not unbridled imagina- tion or audacious curiosity, but faith. The history of the next hundred and fifty years amply justifies the anxiety and severity of St. Paul. The germs of Gnostic error, which were in the air when Christianity was first preached, fructified with amazing rapidity. It would be hard to find a parallel in the history of philosophy to the speed with which Gnostic views spread in and around Christendom between a.d. 70 and 220. Eusebius tells us that, as soon as the Apostles and those who had listened " with their own ears to their inspired wisdom had passed away, then the conspiracy of godless error took its rise through the deceit of false teachers, who (now that none of the Apostles was any longer left) hence- forth endeavoured with brazen face to preach their knowledge falsely so called in opposition to the preach- ing of the truth."* Throughout the Christian world, and especially in intellectual centres such as Ephesus, Alexandria and Rome, there was perhaps not a single educated congregation which did not contain persons who were infected with some form of Gnosticism. Jerome's famous hyperbole respecting Arianism might be transferred to this earlier form of error, perhaps the most perilous that the Church has ever known : " The whole world groaned and was amazed to find itself Gnostic r * H. £"., VI, xxxii. 8. 38 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. However severely vi^e may condemn these specula- tions, we cannot but sympathize with the perplexities which produced them. The origin of the universe, and still more the origin of evil, still remain unsolved problems. No one in this life is ever likely to reach a complete solution of either. What is the origin of the material universe ? To assume that it is not a creature, but that matter is eternal, is to make two first principles, one spiritual and one material ; and this is perilously near making two Gods. But the belief that God made the world is by no means free from difficulty. What was His motive in making the world ? Was His perfection increased by it ? Then God was once not fully perfect. Was His perfection diminished by the act of creation ? Then God is now not fully perfect ; and how can we suppose that He would voluntarily surrender anything of His absolute perfection ? Was God neither the better nor the worse for the creation of the universe ? Then the original question returns with its full force : What induced Him to create it? We cannot suppose that creation was an act of caprice. No complete answer to this enigma is possible for us. One thing we know; \ — that God is light and that God is love. And we may be sure that in exercising His creative power He was manifesting His perfect wisdom and His exhaustless affection. But will the knowledge that God is light and that God is love help us to even a partial solution of that problem f which has wrung the souls of countless saints and thinkers with anguish — the problem of the origin of evil ? How could a God who is perfectl}^ wise and perfectly good, make it possible for evil to arise, and allow it to continue after it had arisen ? Once more i.2,3.] THE GNOSTIC'S PROBLEM. 39 the suggestion that there are two First Principles pre- sents itself, but in a more terrible form. Before, it was the thought that there are two co-eternal Existences, God and Matter. Now, it is the suggestion that there are two co-eternal, and perhaps co-equal Powers, Good and Evil. This hypothesis, impossible for a Christian, and rejected by John Stuart Mill,* creates more diffi- culties than it solves. But, if this is the wrong answer, what is the right one ? Cardinal Newman, in one of the most striking passages even in his works, has told us how the problem presents itself to him. ^' Starting then with the being of God (which, as I have said, is as certain to me as the certainty of my own existence, though when I try to put the grounds of that certainty into logical shape, I find difficulty in doing so in mood and figure to my satisfaction), I look out of myself into the world of men, and there I see a sight which fills me with unspeakable distress. The world seems simply to give the lie to that great truth, of which my whole being is so full ; and the effect upon me is, in consequence, as a matter of necessity, as confusing as if it denied that I am in existence myself. If I looked into a mirror , and did not see my face, I should have the sort of feeling which actually comes upon me, when I look into this living busy world and see no reflection of its Creator. This is, to me, one of the great difficulties of this absolute primary truth, to which I referred just now. Were it not for this voice, speaking so clearly in my conscience and my heart, I should be an atheist, or a pantheist, or a polytheist, when I looked into the world. I am. speaking for myself only ; and I am far from denying the real force of the arguments in proof of a God, drawn * Three Essays on Religion, pp. 185, 186. 40 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, from the general facts of human society, but these do not warm me or enHghten me ; they do not take away the winter of my desolation, or make the buds unfold and the leaves grow within me, and my moral being rejoice. The sight of the world is nothing else than the prophet's scroll full of * lamentations, and mourn- ing, and woe.' . . . What shall be said to this heart- piercing, reason-bewildering fact ? I can only answer, that either there is no Creator, or this living society of men is in a true sense discarded from His presence. Did I see a boy of good make and mind, with the tokens on him of a refined nature, cast upon the world without provision, unable to say whence he came, his birth- place or his family connexions, I should conclude that there was some mystery connected with his hi stor y, and that he was one, oTwhom, from one cause or other, his parents were ashamed. Thus only should I be able to account for the contrast between the promise and con- dition of his being. And so I argue about the world ; — //"there be a God, since there is a God, the human race is implicated in some terrible aboriginal calamity. It is out of joint with the purposes of its Creator. This is a fact, a fact as true as the fact of its existence ; and thus the doctrine of what is theologically called original sin becomes to me almost as certain as that the world exists, and as the existence of God." * But this only carries us a short way towards a solu- tion. Why did God allow the "aboriginal calamity" of sin to be possible ? This was the Gnostic's difficulty, and it is our difliculty still. Can we say more than this by way of an answer? God willed that angels and men should honour Him with a voluntary and not a • apologia ^10 Vita Sua (Longmans, 1864), pp. 376—379. 1. 2, 3.] THE GNOSTIC'S PROBLEM. 41 mechanical service. If they obeyed Him, it should be of their own free will, and not of necessity. It should be possible to them to refuse service and obedience. In short, God willed to be reverenced and w^orshipped, and not merely served and obeyed. A machine can render service; and a person under the influence of mesmerism may be forced to obey. But do we not all feel that the voluntary service of a conscious and willing agent, who prefers to render rather than to withhold his service, is a nobler thing both for him who gives, and him who receives it? Compulsory labour is apt to turn the servant into a slave and the master into a tyrant. We see, therefore, a reason why the Creator in creating conscious beings made them also moral ; made them capable of obeying Him of their own free will, and therefore also capable of disobeying Him. In other words. He made sin, with all its consequences, possible. Then it became merely a question of his- torical fact whether any angelic or human being would ever abuse his freedom by choosing to disobey. That '* aboriginal calamity," we know, has taken place ; and all the moral and physical evil which now exists in the world, is the natural consequence of it. This is, perhaps, the best solution that the human mind is likely to discover, respecting this primeval and terrible mystery. But it is only a partial solution ; and the knowledge that we have still not attained to a complete answer to the question which perplexed the early Gnostics, ought to banish from our minds any- thing Hke arrogance or contempt, when we condemn their answer as unchristian and inadequate. '' The end of the charge " which has been given to us is not the condemnation of others, but " love out of a pure heart and a good conscience and faith unfeigned." CHAPTER IV THE MORAL TEACHING OF THE GNOSTICS.— ITS MODERN COUNTERPART. " But we know that the law is good if a man use it lawfully, as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous man, but for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane, for murderers of fathers and murderers of mothers, for man- slayers, for fornicators, for abusers of themselves with men, for men- stealers, for liars, for false swearers, and if there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine; according to the gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which was committed to my trust " — I Tim. i. 8— 1 1. THE speculations of the Gnostics in their attempts to explain the origin of the universe and the origin of evil, virere wild and unprofitable enough ; and in some respects involved a fundamental contradiction of the plain statements of Scripture. But it was not so much their metaphysical as their moral teaching, which seemed so perilous to St. Paul. Their " endless gene- alogies " might have been left to fall with their own dead weight, so dull and uninteresting were they. Specimens of them still survive, in what is known to us of the systems of Basilides and Valentinus; and which of us, after having laboriously worked through them, ever wished to read them a second time ? But it is impossible to keep one's philosophy in one com- partment in one's mind, and one's religion and morality quite separate frorn it in another. However unpractical 1.8-11.] MORAL TEACHING OF THE GNOSTICS. 43 metaphysical speculations may appear, it is beyond question that the views which we hold respecting such things may have momentous influence upon our life. It was so with the early Gnostics, whom St. Paul urges Timothy to keep in check. Their doctrine respecting the nature of the material world and its relation to God, led to two opposite forms of ethical teaching, each of them radically opposed to Christianity. This fact fits in very well with the character of the Pastoral Epistles, all of which deal with this early form of error. They insist upon discipline and moraHty, more than upon doctrine. These last solemn charges of the great Apostle aim rather at making Christian ministers, and their congregations, lead pure and holy hves, than at constructing any system of theology. Erroneous teaching must be resisted ; the plain truths of the Gospel must be upheld ; but the main thing is holiness of life. By prayer and thanksgiving, by quiet and grave conduct, by modesty and temperance, by self-denial and benevolence, by reverence for the sanc- tity of home life. Christians will furnish the best antidote to the intellectual and moral poison which the false teachers are propagating. '^ The sound doctrine " has its fruit in a healthy, moral life, as surely as the ^'different doctrine" leads to spiritual pride and lawless sensuality. The belief that Matter and everything material is inherently evil, involved necessarily a contempt for the human body. This body was a vile thing ; and it was a dire calamity to the human mind to be joined to such a mass of evil. From this premise various conclusions, some doctrinal and some ethical, were drawn. On the doctrinal side it was urged that the resurrec- tion of the body was incredible. It was disastrous 44 THE FIRST EPISTLE 2 TIMOTHY, enough to the soul that it should be burdened with a body in this world. That this degrading alliance would be continued in the world to come, was a monstrous belief. Equally incredible was the doctrine of the Incarnation. How could the Divine Word consent to be united with so evil a thing as a material frame ? Either the Son of Mary was a mere man, or the body which the Christ assumed was not real. It is with these errors that St. John deals, some twelve or fifteen years later, in his Gospel and Epistles. On the ethical side the tenet that the human body is utterly evil produced two opposite errors, — asceticism and antinomian sensuality. And both of these are aimed at in these Epistles. If the enlightenment of the soul is everything, and the body is utterly worthless, then this vile clog to the movement of the soul must be beaten under and crushed, in order that the higher nature may rise to higher things. The body must be denied all indulgence, in order that it may be starved into submission (iv. 3). On the other hand, if enlighten- ment is everything and the body is worthless, then every kind of experience, no matter how shameless, is of value, in order to enlarge knowledge. Nothing that a man can do can make his body more vile than it is by nature, and the soul of the enlightened is incapable of pollution. Gold still remains gold, however often it is plunged in the mire. The words of the three verses taken as a text, look as if St. Paul was aiming at evil of this kind. These Judaizing Gnostics " desired to be teachers of the Law." They wished to enforce the Mosaic Law, or rather their fantastic interpretations of it, upon Christians. They insisted upon its excellence, and would not allow that it has been in many respects superseded. ** We know i.8-ii.] MORAL TEACHING OF THE GNOSTICS. 45 quite well/' says the Apostle, " and readily admit, that the Mosaic Law is an excellent thing ; provided that those who undertake to expound it make a legitimate use of it. They must remember that, just as law in general is not made for those whose own good prin- ciples keep them in the right, so also the restrictions of the Mosaic Law are not meant for Christians who obey the Divine will in the free spirit of the Gospel." Legal restrictions are intended to control those who will not control themselves ; in short, for the very men who by their strange doctrines are endeavouring to curtail the liberties of others. What they preach as *' the Law " is really a code of their own, " command- ments of men who turn away from the truth. . . . They profess that they know God ; but by their works they deny Him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate " (Tit. i. 14, 16). In re- hearsing the various kinds of sinners for whom law exists, and who are to be found (he hints) among these false teachers, he goes roughly through the Decalogue. The four commandments of the First Table are indi- cated in general and comprehensive terms ; the first five commandments of the Second Table are taken one by one, flagrant violators being specified in each case. Thus the stealing of a human being in order to .make him a slave, is mentioned as the most outrageous breach of the eighth commandment. The tenth command- ment is not distinctly indicated, possibly because the breaches of it are not so easily detected. The overt acts of these men were quite sufficient to convict them of gross immorality, without enquiring as to their secret wishes and desires. In a word, the very persons who in their teaching were endeavouring to burden men with the ceremonial ordinances, which had been done away 46 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, in Christ, were in their own lives violating the moral laws, to which Christ had given a new sanction. They tried to keep alive, in new and strange forms, what had been provisional and was now obsolete, while they trampled under foot what was eternal and Divine. ^* If there be any other thing contrary to the sound doctrine." In these words St. Paul sums up all the forms of transgression not specified in his catalogue. The sound, healthy teaching of the Gospel is opposed to the morbid and corrupt teaching of the Gnostics, who are sickly in their speculations (vi. 4), and whose word is Hke an eating sore (2 Tim. ii. 17). Of course healthy teaching is also health- giving, and corrupt teaching is corrupting ; but it is the primary and not the derived quality that is stated here. It is the healthiness of the doctrine in itself, and its freedom from what is diseased or distorted, that is insisted upon. Its wholesome character is a consequence of this. This word " sound " or " healthy " (yyialvcavy vytyf;), as applied to doctrine,* is one of a group of expressions which are pecuHar to the Pastoral Epistles, and which have been condemned as not belonging to St. Paul's style of language. Pie never uses "healthy" in his other Epistles ; therefore these three Epistles, in which the phrase occurs eight or nine times, are not by him. This kind of argument has been discussed already, in the first of these expositions. It assumes the manifest untruth, that as life goes on men make little or no change in the stock of words and phrases which they habitually use. With regard to this particular phrase, the source of it has been conjectured with a fair amount of probability. It may have come from " the beloved * I Tim. vi. 3 ; 2 Tim. i. 13, iv. 3; Tit. i. 9, 13, ii. i, 2, 8. i.8-ii.] MORAL TEACHING OF TB^ GNOSTICS. 47 physician/' who, at the time when St. Paul wrote the Second Epistle to Timothy, was the Apostle's sole com- panion. It is worth remarking that the word here used for '^ sound " (with the exception of one passage in the Third Epistle of St. John) occurs nowhere in the New Testament in the literal sense of being in sound bodily health, except in the Gospel of St. Luke. And it occurs nowhere in a figurative sense, except in the Pastoral Epistles. It is obviously a medical metaphor ; a metaphor which any one who had never had anything to do with medicine might easily use, but which is specially likely to be used by a man who had lived much in the society of a physician. Before we call such a phrase un- Pauline we must ask : (i) Is there any passage in the earlier Epistles of St. Paul where he would certainly have used this word '' sound/' had he been familiar with it ? (2) Is there any word in the earlier Epistles which would have expressed his mean- ing here equally well ? If either of these questions is answered in the negative, then we are going beyond our knowledge in pronouncing the phrase " sound doctrine " * to be un-Pauline. ^ " Contrary to the sound doctrine." It sums up in a comprehensive phrase the doctrinal and moral teaching of the Gnostics. What they taught was unsound and morbid, and as a consequence poisonous and pestilen- tial. While professing to accept and expound the Gospel, they really disintegrated it and explained it * The Revisers as a rule render 8i8a 17- % ii, 16, 21, 23. § Rev. ii. 14, 20—22; 2 Peter ii. 10—22; Jude 8, 10. 13, 16, 18, i.8-ii.] MORAL TEACHING OF THE GNOSTICS. 49 the first part of chapter iii. in the Second Epistle. As we might expect, St. Paul uses stronger language in the Pastoral Epistles than he does in writing to the Colossians ; and in St. John and the Catholic Epistles we find stronger language still. Antinomian licentiousness is a far worse evil than misguided asceticism, and in the interval between St. Paul and the other writers the profligacy of the antinomian Gnostics had increased. St. Paul warns the Colossians against delusive " per- suasiveness of speech," against " vain deceit," '* the rudiments of the world," *' the precepts and doctrines of men." He cautions Timothy and Titus respecting ** seducing spirits and doctrines of devils," " profane and old wives' fables," *' profane babblings " and teach- ings that "will eat as doth a gangrene," "vain talkers and deceivers" whose "mind and conscience is deceived," and the like. St. John denounces these false teachers as *' liars," " seducers," " false prophets," " deceivers," and '* antichrists ; " and in Jude and the Second Epistle of Peter we have the profligate lives of these false teachers condemned in equally severe terms. It should be observed that here again everything falls into its proper place if we assume that the Pastoral Epistles were written some years later than the Epistle to the Colossians and some years earlier than those of St. Jude and St. John. The ascetic tendencies of Gnosticism developed first. And though they still con- tinued in teachers like Tatian and Marcion, yet from the close of the first century the hcentious conclusions drawn from the premises that the human body is worth- less and that all knowledge is divine, became more and more prevalent; as is seen in the teaching of Carpo- crates and Epiphanes, and in the monstrous sect of the Cainites. It was quite natural, therefore, that St. Paul 4 $0 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, should attack Gnostic asceticism first in writing to the Colossians, and afterwards both it and Gnostic licen- tiousness in writing to Timothy and Titus. It was equally natural that his language should grow stronger as he saw the second evil developing, and that those who saw this second evil at a more advanced stage should use sterner language still. The extravagant theories of the Gnostics to account for the origin of the universe and the origin of evil are gone and are past recall. It would be impossible to induce people to believe them, and only a comparatively small number of students ever even read them. But the heresy that knowledge is more important than conduct, that brilliant intellectual gifts render a man superior to the moral law, and that much of the moral law itself is the tyrannical bondage of an obsolete tradi- tion, is as dangerous as ever it was. It is openly preached and frequently acted upon. The great Florentine artist, Benvenuto Cellini, tells us in his auto- biography that when Pope Paul III. expressed his willingness to forgive him an outrageous murder com- mitted in the streets of Rome, one of the gentlemen at the Papal Court ventured to remonstrate with the Pope for condoning so heinous a crime, " You do not understand the matter as well as I do," replied Paul III. : "I would have you to know that men like Benvenuto, unique in their profession, are not bound by the lawsP Cellini is a braggart, and it is possible that in this particular he is romancing. But, even if the story is his invention, he merely attributes to the Pope the sentiments which he cherished himself, and upon which (as experience taught him) other people acted. Over and over again his murderous violence was overlooked by those in authority, because they admired and wished i.8-ii.] MORAL TEACHING OF THE GNOSTICS. 51 to make use of his genius as an artist. " Ability before honesty " was a common creed in the sixteenth century, and it is abundantly prevalent in our own. The most notorious scandals in a man's private life are condoned if only he is recognized as having talent. It is the old Gnostic error in a modern and sometimes agnostic form. It is becoming daily more clear that the one thing needful for the regeneration of society, whether upper, middle, or lower, is the creation of a " sound " public opinion. And so long as this is so, God's ministers and all who have the duty of instructing others will need to lay to heart the warnings which St. Paul gives to his followers Timothy and Titus. CHAPTER V. THE LORD'S COMPASSION IN ENABLING A BLAS- PHEMER AND A PERSECUTOR TO BECOME A SERVANT OF CHRIST JESUS AND A PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL. "I thank Him that enabled me, even Christ Jesus our Lord, for that He counted me faithful, appointing me to His service; though I was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious : howbeit 1 obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief; and the grace of our Lord abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." — I Tim. i. 12 — 14. IN the concluding sentence of the preceding paragraph (vv. 3, 1 1) the Apostle points out that what he has been saying respecting the erroneous teaching and practice of the heterodox innovators is entirely in harmony with the spirit of the Gospel which had been committed to his trust.* This mention of his own high commission to preach " the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God" suggests at once to him some thoughts both of thankfulness and humility, to which he now gives expression. His own experience of the Gospel, especially in connexion with his conversion from being a persecutor to becoming a preacher, offer * It is worth while pointing out that the peculiar construction 6 iiriffTevOrji' iyw occurs in the New Testament, only in the Pastoral Epistles and in other Pauline Epistles, the genuineness of which is now scarcely disputed — I Thess, ii. 4 * I Cor, ix. 17: Rom. iii. 2J G*l ii. 7, i. 12-14.] THE LORD'S COMPASSION'. 53 further points of contrast between Gnosticism and Christianity. The false teachers wasted thought and attention upon barren speculations, which, even if they could under any conceivable circumstances be proved true, would have supplied no guidance to mankind in re- gulating conduct. And whenever Gnostic teaching * became practical, it frittered away morality in servile * observances, based on capricious interpretations of the Mosaic Law. Of true morality there was an utter disregard, and frequently an open violation. Of the one thing for which the self-accusing conscience was yearning — the forgiveness of sin — it knew nothing, because it had no appreciation of the reality of sin. Sin was only part of the evil which was inherent in the material universe, and therefore in the human body. A system which had no place for the forgiveness of sin had also no place for the Divine compassion, which it is the purpose of the Gospel to reveal. How very real this compassion and forgiveness are, and how much human beings stand in need of them, St. Paul testifies from his own experience, the remembrance of which makes him burst out into thanksgiving. The Apostle offers thanks to Jesus Christ, the source of all his strength, for having confidence in him as a person worthy of trust. This confidence He proved by " appointing Paul to His service ; " a confidence all the more marvellous and worthy of gratitude because Paul had before been ''a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious." He had been a blasphemer, for he had thought that he ''ought to do many things con- trary to the name of Jesus of Nazareth ; " and he had been a persecutor for he had punished behevers " often- times in all the synagogues/' and " strove to makq 54 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. them blaspheme." That is ever the persecutor's aim ; — to make those who differ from him speak evil of what they reverence but he abhors ; to say they re- nounce what in their heart of hearts they believe. There is, therefore, thus far an ascending scale in the iniquity which the Apostle confesses. He not only blasphemed the Divine Name himself, but he en- deavoured to compel others to do the same. The third word, although the English Version obscures the fact, continues the ascending scale of self-condemnation. *' Injurious " does scant justice to the force of the Greek word used by the Apostle (u/Spto-r^j^), although it is not easy to suggest a better rendering. The word is very common in classical authors, but in the New Testament occurs only here and in Rom. i. 30, where the A.V. translates it ''despiteful" and the R.V. "insolent." It is frequent in the Septuagint. It in- dicates one who takes an insolent and wanton delight in violence, one whose pleasure lies in outraging the feelings of others. The most conspicuous instance of it in the New Testament, and perhaps anywhere, would be the Roman soldiers mocking and torturing Jesus Christ with the crown of thorns and the royal robe. Of such conduct St. Paul himself since his conversion had been the victim, and he here confesses that before his conversion he had been guilty of it himself. In his misguided zeal he had punished innocent people, and he had inflicted punishment, not with pitying re- luctance, but with arrogant delight. It is worth pointing out that in this third charge against himself, as well as in the first, St. Paul goes beyond what he states in the similar passages in the Epistles to the Corinthians, Philippians, and Galatians. There he simply draws attention to the fact that he i. 12-14.] THE LORD'S COMPASSION. 55 had been a persecutor who had made havoc of the Church.* He says nothing about blaspheming or taking an insolent satisfaction in the pain which he inflicted. This has some bearing on the genuineness of this Epistle, (i) It shows that St. Paul was in the habit of alluding to the fact that he had been a per- secutor. It was part of his preaching, for it proved that his conversion was directly and immediately God's work. He did not owe the Gospel which he preached to any persuasion on the part of man. It is, therefore, quite in harmony with St. Paul's practice to insist on his former misconduct. But it may be urged that a forger might notice this and imitate it. That of course is true. But if these Epistles are a forgery, they are certainly not forged with any intention of injuring St. Paul's memory. Is it likely, then, that a forger in imitating the self-accusation of the Apostle, would use stronger language than the Apostle himself uses in those Epistles which are indisputably his ? Would he go out of his way to use such strong language as '' blasphemer," and " insolent oppressor " ? But, if St. Paul wrote these Epistles, this exceptionally strong language is thoroughly natural in a passage in which the Apostle wishes to place in as strong a light as may be the greatness of the Divine compassion in forgiving sins, as manifested in his own case. He had been foremost as a bitter and arrogant opponent of the Gospel ; and yet God had singled him out to be fore- most in preachmg it. Here was a proof that no sinner need despair. What comfort for a fallen race could the false teachers offer in comparison with this ? Like St. Peter's sin in denying His Lord, St. Paul's * I Cor. XV, 8, 10; Ga). i. 13, 23; Phil. iii. 6; comp. Acts xxii, 4, ^. 19. $6 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, sin in persecuting Him was overruled for good. The Divine process of bringing good out of evil was strongly exemplified in it. The Gnostic teachers had tried to show how, by a gradual degradation, evil might proceed from the Supreme Good. There is nothing Divine in such a process as that. The fall from good to evil is rather a devilish one, as when an angel of light became the evil one and involved mankind in his own fall. Divinity is shown in the converse process of making what is evil work towards what is good. Under Divine guidance St. Paul's self-righteous con- fidence and arrogant intolerance were turned into a blessing to himself and others. The recollection of his sin kept him humble, intensified his gratitude, and gave him a strong additional motive to devote himself to the work of bringing others to the Master who had been so gracious to himself. St. Chrysostom in com- menting on this passage in his Homilies on the Pastoral Epistles points out how it illustrates St. Paul's humility, a virtue which is more often praised than practised. ** This quality was so cultivated by the blessed Paul, that he is ever looking out for inducements to be humble. They who are conscious to themselves of great merits must struggle much with themselves if they would be humble. And he too was one likely to be under violent temptations, his own good conscience swelling him up like a gathering tumour. . . . Being filled, therefore, with high thoughts, and having used magnificent expressions, he at once depresses himself, and engages others also to do the like. Having said, then, that the Gospel was committed, to his trust, lest this should seem to be said with pride, he checks himself at once, adding by way of correction, / thank Htm (hat enabled me, Christ Jesus our Lord, /or that He counted me 1. 12-14.] THE LORDS COMPASSION. 57 faithful y appointing me to His service. Thus every- where, we see, he conceals his own merit and ascribes everything to God, yet so far only as not to take away free will." These concluding words are an important qualifica- tion. The Apostle constantly insists on his conversion as the result of a special revelation of Jesus Christ to himself, in other words a miracle: he nowhere hints that his conversion in itself was miraculous. No psy- chological miracle was wrought, forcing him to accept Christ against his will. God converts no one by magic. It is a free and reasonable service that he asks for from bemgs whom He has created free and reasonable. Men were made moral beings, and He who made them such does not treat them as machines. In his defence at Csesarea St. Paul tells Herod Agrippa that he " was not disobedient to the heavenly vision," He might have been. He might, like Judas, have resisted all the miraculous power displayed before him and have continued to persecute Christ. If he had no choice whatever in the matter, it was an abuse of language to affirm that he "was not disobedient." And in that case we should need some other metaphor than " kicking against the goads." It is impossible to kick against the goads if one has no control over one's own limbs. The limbs and the strength to use them were God's gifts, without which he could have done nothing. But with these gifts it was open to him either to obey the Divine commands or '' even to fight against God " — a senseless and wicked thing, no doubt, but still possible. In this passage the Divine and the human sides are plainly indicated. On the one hand, Christ enabled him and showed confidence in him : on the other, Paul accepted the service and was faithful. He might have 58 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. refused the service; or, having accepted it, he might have shown himself unfaithful to his trust. '* Howbeit, I obtained mercy because I did it ignor- antly in unbelief." These words are sometimes mis- understood. They are not intended as an excuse, any more than St. John's designation of himself as '* the disciple whom Jesus loved " are intended as a boast. St. John had been the recipient of very exceptional favours. Along with only St. Peter and St. James he had been present at the raising of Jairus's daughter, at the Transfiguration, and at the Agony in the Geth- semane. From even these chosen three he had been singled out to be told who was the traitor; to have the lifelong charge of providing for the Mother of the Lord ; to be the first to recognize the risen Lord at the sea of Tiberias.* What was the explanation of all these honours ? The recipient of them had only one to give. He had no merits, no claim to anything of the kind ; but Jesus loved him. So also with St. Paul. There were multitudes of Jews who, like himself, had had, as he tells the Romans, ^^a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge."! There were many who, like himself, had opposed the truth and persecuted the Christ. Why did any of them obtain merc}^ ? Why did he receive such marked favour and honour ? Not because of any merit on their part or his : but because they had sinned ignor- " antly {i.e.^ without knowing the enormity of their sin), - and because "the grace of the Lord abounded ex- • ceedingly." The Apostle is not endeavouring to ^ extenuate his own culpability, but to justify and • magnify the Divine compassion. Of the whole Jewish ♦ St. John xiii. 23, xix. 26, xxi. 7, \ Rom. X. 2. i. 12-14.] THE LORD'S COMPASSION. 59 nation it was true that " they knew not what they did " in crucifying Jesus of Nazareth ; but it was true in very various degrees. " Even of the rulers many believed on Him ; but because of the Pharisees they did not confess, lest they should be put out of the synagogue : for they loved the glory of men more than the glory of God." It was because St. Paul did not in this way sin against light that he found mercy, not merely in being forgiven the sin of persecuting Christ, but in being enabled to accept and be faithful in the service of Him whom he had persecuted. Two of the changes made by the Revisers in this passage seem to call for notice : they both occur in the same phrase and have a similar tendency. Instead of ^'putting me into the ministry'^ the R.V. gives us " appointing me to His serviced A similar change has been made in v. 7 of the next chapter, where " I was appointed a preacher " takes the place of '' I am ordained a preacher," and in John xv. 16 where " I chose you and appointed you " has been substituted for " I have chosen you and ordained you."* In these alterations the Revisers are only following the example set by the A.V. itself in other passages. In 2 Tim. i. II, as in Luke X. I, and I Thess. v. 9, both versions have '' ap- pointed." The alterations are manifest improvements. In the passage before us it is possible that the Greek has the special signification of " putting me into the ministry," but it is by no means certain, and perhaps not even probable, that it does so. Therefore the more comprehensive and general translation, *' appointing me to His service," is to be preferred. The wider rendering include^ and covers the other; and this is a further * Comp. Acts xxii. 14 and 2 Cor. viii, 19; also Mark iii. 14 and Acts xiv. 23. See on Tit. i. 5 — 7. 6o THR FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTIIV. advantage. To translate the Greek words used in these passages (TiOevai, iroielv, ic.r.X) by such a very definite -word as ^' ordain " leads the reader to suppose these texts refer to the ecclesiastical act of ordination ; of which there is no evidence. The idea conveyed by the Greek in this passage, as in John xv. 1 6, is that of placing a man at a particular post, and would be as applicable to civil as to ministerial duties. We are not, ^therefore, justified in translating it by a phrase which has distinct ecclesiastical associations. The question is not one of mere linguistic accuracy. There are larger issues involved than those of correct translation from Greek to English. If we adopt the t wider rendering, then it is evident that the blessing for which St. Paul expresses heartfelt gratitude, and which he cites as evidence of Divine compassion and forgiveness, is not the call to be an Aposile, in which none of us can share, nor exclusively the call to be a minister of the Gospel, in which only a Hmited number of us can share ; but also the being appointed to any service in Christ's kingdom, which is an honour to which all Christians are called. Every earnest Christian , knows from personal experience this evidence of the Divine character of the Gospel. It is full of compas- •sion for those who have sinned ; not because, Hke the Gnostic teachers, it glosses over the malignity and culpability of sin, but because, unlike Gnosticism, it recognizes the preciousness of each human soul, and the difficulties which beset it. Every Christian knows ■ 'that he has inherited an evil nature : — so far he and ' the Gnostic are agreed. But he also knows that to * the sin which he has inherited he has added sin for which he is personally responsible, and which his con- science does not excuse as if it were something which 1.12-14.] THE LORD'S COMPASSION. 6i is a misfortune and not a fault. Yet he is not left without remedy under the burden of these self-accusa- tions. He knows that, if he seeks for it, he can find forgiveness, and forgiveness of a singularly generous kind. He is not only forgiven, but restored to favour and treated with respect. He is at once placed in a position of trust. In spite of the past, it is assumed that he will be a faithful servant, and he is allowed to minister to his Master and his Master's followers. To him also ''the grace of our Lord" has "abounded exceedingly with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus." The generous compassion shown to St. Paul is not unique or exceptional ; it is typical. And it is a type, not to the few, but to many ; not to clergy only, but to all. " For this cause I obtained mercy, that in me as chief might Jesus Christ show forth all His long- suffering, for an ensample of them which should hereafter believe on Him unto eternal life." CHAPTER VI. THE PROPHECIES ON TIMOTHY.— THE PROPHETS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT, AN EXCEPTIONAL IN- STRUMENT OF EDIFICATION "This charge I commit unto thee, my own child Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that by them thou mayest war the good warfare ; holding faith and a good conscience ; which some having thrust from them made shipwreck concerning the faith : of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander ; whom I delivered unto Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme." — i Tim. i. 18—20. IN this section St. Paul returns from the subject of the false teachers against whom Timothy has to contend (w. 3 — ll), and the contrast to their teaching exhibited by the Gospel in the Apostle's own case (vv. 12 — 17), to the main purpose of the letter, viz., the instructions to be given to Timothy for the due performance of his difficult duties as overseer of the Church of Ephesus. The section contains two subjects of special interest, each of which requires considera- tion ; — the prophecies respecting Timothy and the punishment of Hymenaeus and Alexander. I. '^ This charge I commit unto thee, my child Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee." As the margin of the R.V. points out, this last phrase might also be read " according to the prophecies which kd the way to thee" for the Greek may mean either. The question is, whether St. Paul i. I8-20.] THE PROPHECIES ON TIMOTHY, 63 is referring to certain prophecies whiclj " led the way to" Timothy, i.e.y which designated him as specially suited for the ministry, and led to his ordination by St. Paul and the presbyters ; or whether he is referring to certain prophecies which were uttered over Timothy {IttX ere) either at the time of his conversion or of his admission to the ministry. Both the A.V. and the R.V. give the preference to the latter rendering, which (without excluding such a view) does not com- mit us to the opinion that St. Paul was in any sense led to Timothy by these prophecies, a thought which is not clearly intimated in the original. All that we are certain of is, that long before the writing of this letter prophecies of which Timothy was the object were uttered over him, and that they were of such a nature as to be an incentive and support to him in his ministry. But if we look on to the fourteenth verse of the fourth chapter in this Epistle and to the sixth of the first chapter in the Second, we shall not have much doubt when these prophecies were uttered. There we read, ** Neglect not the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by propJiecy, with the laying on of the hands of the presbytery ! " and " For which cause I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee through the laying on of my hands." Must we not believe that these two passages and the passage before us all refer to the same occasion — the same crisis in Timothy's life ? In all three of them St. Paul ap- peals to the spiritual gift that was bestowed upon his disciple " by means o/" prophecy " and " by means of the laying on of hands." The same preposition and case (hid with the genitive) is used in each case. Clearly, then, we are to understand that the prophesying and the 64 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. laying on of hands accompanied one anotlier. Here only the prophesying is mentioned. In chapter iv. the prophesying, accompanied by the imposition of the presbyters* hands, is the means by which the grace is conferred. In the Second Epistle only the laying on of the Apostle's hands is mentioned, and it is spoken of as the means by which the grace is conferred. Therefore, although the present passage by itself leaves the question open, yet when we take the other two into consideration along with it, we may safely neglect the possibility of prophecies which led the way to the ordination of Timothy, and understand the Apostle as referring to those sacred utterances v/hich were a marked element in his disciple's ordination and formed a prelude and earnest of his ministry. These sacred utterances indicated a Divine commission and Divine approbation publicly expressed respecting the choice of Timothy for this special work. They were also a means of grace; for by means of them a spiritual blessing was bestowed upon the young minister. In alluding to them here, therefore, St. Paul reminds him Who it was by whom he was really chosen and ordained. It is as if he said, ^' We laid our hands upon you ; but it was no ordinary election made by human votes. It was God who elected you; God who gave you your commission, and with it the power to fulfil it. Beware, therefore, of disgracing His appointment and of neglect- ing or abusing His gift."* The voice of prophecy, therefore, either pointed out Timothy as a chosen vessel for the ministry, or publicly ratified the choice which had already been made by St. Paul and others. But by whom was this voice of * Chrysostom in loco. Han. v. sub init. I. iB-20.] THE PROPHECIES ON TIMOTHY, 65 prophecy uttered ? By a special order of prophets ? Or by St. Paul and the presbyters specially inspired to act as such ? The answer to this question involves some consideration of the office, or x2X\\^x function^ of a prophet, especially in the New Testament. The word " prophet " is frequently understood in far too limited a sense. It is commonly restricted to the one function of predicting the future. But, if we may venture to coin words in order to bring out points of differences, there are three main ideas involved in the title ''prophet." (i) A/or-teller; one who speaks for or instead of another, especially one who speaks for or in the name of God ; a Divine messenger, ambassador, interpreter, or spokesman. (2) A forth- teller ; one who has a special message to deliver fo7ih to the world ; a proclaimer, harbinger, or herald. (3) A ybr^- teller ; one who tells beforehand what is coming; a predicter of future events. To be the bearer or interpreter of a Divine message is the fundamental conception of the prophet in classical Greek ; and to a large extent this conception prevails in both the Old and the New Testament. To be in immediate inter- course with Jehovah, and to be His spokesman to Israel, was what the Hebrews understood by the gi t of prophecy. It was by no means necessary that the Divine communication which the prophet had to make known to the people should relate to the future. It might be a denunciation of past sins, or an exhortation respecting present conduct, quite as naturally as a prediction of what was coming. And in the Acts and Pauline Epistles the idea of a prophet remains much the same. He is one to whom has been granted special insight into God's counsels, and who communicates these mysteries to others. Both in the Jewish and 5 66 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. primitive Christian dispensations, the prophets are the means of communication between God and His Church. Eight persons are mentioned by name in the Acts of the Apostles as exercising this gift of prophecy : Agabus, Barnabas, Symeon called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen the foster-brother of Herod the tetrarch, Judas, Silas, and St. Paul himself. On certain occasions the Divine communication made to them by the Spirit included a knowledge of the future ; as when Agabus foretold the great famine (xi. 28) and the imprisonment of St. Paul (xxi. ii), and when St. Paul told that the Holy Spirit testified to him in every city, that bonds and aftlictions awaited him at Jerusalem (xx. 23). But this is the exception rather than the rule. It is in their character of prophets that Judas and Silas exhort and confirm the brethren. And, what is of special interest in reference to the prophecies uttered over Timothy, we find a group of prophets having special influence in the selection and ordination of Apostolic evangelists. *^ And as they ministered to the Lord, and fasted, the Holy Ghost said, Separate Me Barnabas and Saul, for the work whereunto I have called them. Then when they had fasted and prayed and laid their hands on them, they sent them away " (xiii. 2, 3). We see, therefore, that these New Testament prophets were not a regularly constituted order, like apostles, with whom they are joined both in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (xii. 28) and in that to the Ephesians (iv. 11). Yet they have this in common with apcstles, that the work of both lies rather in founding Churches than in governing them. They have to convert and edify rather than to rule. They might or might not be apostles or presbyters as well as prophets ; but as i. i8-20.] THE PROPHECIES ON TIMOTHY. 67 prophets they were men or women (such as the daughters of PhiHp) on whom a special gift of the Holy Spirit had been conferred : and this gift enabled them to understand and expound Divine mysteries with inspired authority, and at times also to foretell the future. So long as we bear these characteristics in mind, it matters little how we answer the question as to who it was that uttered the prophecies over Timothy at the time of his ordination. It may have been St, Paul and the presbyters who laid their hands upon him, and who on this occasion at any rate were endowed with the spirit of prophecy. Or it may have been that besides the presbyters there were prophets also present, who, at this solemn ceremony, exercised their gift of inspira- tion. The former seems more probable. It is clear from chap. iv. 14, that prophecy and imposition of hands were two concomitant acts by means of which spiritual grace was bestowed upon Timothy ; and it is more reasonable to suppose that these two instrumental acts were performed by the same group of persons, than that one group prophesied, while another laid their hands on the young minister's head. This gift of prophecy, St. Paul tells the Corinthians (l Cor. xiv.), was one specially to be desired ; and evidently it was by no means a rare one in the primitive Church. As we might expect, it was most frequently exercised in the public services of the congregation. '* When ye come together, each one hath a psalm, hath a teaching, hath a revelation, hath a tongue, hath an interpretation. . . . Let the prophets speak by two or three, and let the others discern. But if a revelation be made to another sitting by, let the first keep silence. For ye all can prophesy one by one^ that all may learn 68 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. and all may be comforted ; and the spirits of the pro- phets are subject to the prophets." The chief object of the gift, therefore, was instruction and consolation, for the conversion of unbelievers (24, 25), and for the building up of the faithful. But we shall probably be right in making a distinc- tion between the prophesying which frequently took place in the first Christian congregations, and those special interv^entions of the Holy Spirit of which we read occasionally. In these latter cases it is not so much spiritual instruction in an inspired form that is communicated, as a revelation of God's will with regard to some particular course of action. Such was the case when Paul and Silas were '' forbidden of the Holy Ghost to speak the word in Asia," and when ''they assayed to go into Bitb} nia, and the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not : " or when on his voyage to Rome Paul was assured that he would stand before Caesar, and that God had given him the lives of all those who sailed with him."" Some have supposed that the Revelation of St. John was intended to mark the close of New Testament prophecy and to protect the Church against unwarrant- able attempts at prophecy until the return of Christ to judge the world. This view would be more probable if the later date for the Apocalypse could be established. But if, as is far more probable, the Revelation was written c. a. d. 6Z^ it is hardly likely that St. John, during the lifetime of Apostles, would think of taking any such decisive step. In his First Epistle, written probably fifteen or twenty years after the Revelation, he gives a test for distinguishing true from false * Acts xvi. 6, 7, xxvii, 24 ; comp. xviii. 9, xx, 23, xxi. 4, 11, xxii. 17—21. i.i8-20.] THE PROPHECIES ON TIMOTHY. 69 prophets (iv. I — 4) ; and this he would not have done, if he had believed that all true prophecy had ceased. In the newly discovered " Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles." we find prophets among the ministers of the Church, just as in the Epistles to the Corinthians, Ephesians, and Philippians. The date of this interest- ing treatise has yet to be ascertained ; but it seems to belong to the period between the Epistles of St. Paul and those of Ignatius. We may safely place it between the writings of St Paul and those of Justin Martyr. In the Epistle to the Corinthians (l Cor. xii. 28) we have *' First apostles, secondly prophets, thirdly teachers, then " those who had special gifts, such as healing or speaking with tongues. In Ephes. iv. 1 1 we are told that Christ " gave some to be apostles ; and some evangelists ; and some, pastors and teachers." The Epistle to the Philippians is addressed '' to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons," where the plural shows that *' bishop " cannot be used in the later diocesan sense ; otherwise there would be only one bishop at Philippi. Prophets, therefore, in St. Paul's time are a common and important branch of the ministry. They rank next to apostles, and a single congregation may possess several of them. In Ignatius and later writers the ministers who are so conspicuous in the Acts and in St. Paul's Epistles disappear, and their place is taken by other ministers whose offices, at any rate in their later forms, are scarcely found in the New Testament at all. These are the bishops, presbyters, and deacons ; to whom were soon added a number of subordinate officials, such as readers, exorcists, and the like. The ministry, as we find it in the '' Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles," is in a state of transition from the Apostolic to the latter stage. As in 70 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. the time of St. Paul we have both itinerant and local ministers ; the itinerant ministers being chiefly apostles and prophets, whose functions do not seem to be marked off from one another very distinctly ; and the local ministry consisting of two orders only, bishops and deacons, as in the address to the Church of Philippi. When we reach the Epistles of Ignatius and other documents of a date later than a.d. 1 10, we lose distinct traces of these itinerant apostles and prophets. The title ''Apostle" is becoming confined to St. Paul and the Twelve, and the title of '' Prophet " to the Old Testament prophets. The gradual cessation or discredit of the function of the Christian prophet is thoroughly intelligible. Possibly the spiritual gift which rendered it possible was withdrawn from the Church. In any case the extravagances of enthusiasts who deluded themselves into the belief that they possessed the gift, or of impostors who deliberately assumed it, would bring the office into suspicion and disrepute. Such things were possible even in Apostolic times, for both St. Paul and St. John give cautions about it, and directions for dealing with the abuse and the false assumption of prophecy. In the next century the eccentric delusions of Montanus and his followers, and their vehement attempts to force their supposed revelations upon the whole Church, completed the discredit of all profession to prophetical power. This discredit has been intensi- fied from time to time whenever such professions have been renewed ; as, for example, by the extravagances of the Zwickau Prophets or Abecedarians in Luther's time, or of the Irvingites in our own day. Since the death of St. John and the close of the Canon, Christians have sought for illumination in the written word of i. 18-20.] THE PROPHECIES ON TIMOTin, 71 Scripture rather than in the utterances of prophets. It is there that each one of us may find ^' the prophecies that went before on " us, exhorting us and enabhng us to "war the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience." There will always be those who crave for something more definite and personal ; who long for, and perhaps create for themselves and believe m, some living authority to whom they can perpetually appeal. Scripture seems to them unsatisfying, and they erect for themselves an infaUible pope, or a spiritual director, whose word is to be to them as the inspired utterances of a prophet. But we have to fall back on our own consciences at last : and whether we take Scripture or some other authority as our infallible guide, the responsibility of the choice still rests with ourselves. If a man will not hear Christ and His Apostles, neither will he be persuaded though a prophet was granted to him. If we believe not their writings, how shall we believe his words ? CHAPTER VIL THE PUNISHMENT OF HYMENMUS AND ALEX- ANDER.— DELIVERING TO SATAN AN EXCEP- TIONAL INSTRUMENT OF PURIFICATION— THE PERSONALITY OF SATAN " Holding faith and a good conscience ; which some having thrust from them made shipwreck : of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I delivered unto Satan, that they might be taught not to blaspheme." — I Tim. i. 19, 20. IN the preceding discourse one of the special charis- mata which distinguish the Church of the Apostolic age was considered, — the gift of prophecy. It seems to have been an exceptional boon to enable the first Christians to perform very exceptional work. On the present occasion we have to consider a very different subject — the heavy penalty inflicted on two grievous offenders. This again would seem to be something exceptional. And the special gift and the special punishment have this much in common, that both of them were extraordinary means for promoting and preserving the holiness of the Church. The one existed for the edification, the other for the purification, of the members of the Christian community. The necessity of strict discipline both for the indivi- dual and for the community had been declared by Christ from the outset. The eye that caused offence was to be plucked out, the hand and the foot that PUNISHMENT OF HYMENMUS AND ALEXANDER. 73 caused offence were to be cut off, and the hardened offender who refused to listen to the solemn remon- strances of the congregation was to be treated as a heathen and an outcast. The experience of the primitive Church had proved the wisdom of this. The fall of Judas had shown that the Apostolic band itself was not secure from evil of the very worst kind. The parent Church of Jerusalem was no sooner founded than a dark stain was brought upon it by the conduct of two of its members. In the very first glow of Ils youthful enthusiasm Ananias and Sapphira con- spired together to pervert the general unselfishness to their own selfish end, by attempting to gain the credit for equal generosity with the rest, while keeping back something for themselves. The Church of Corinth was scarcely five years old, and the Apostle had been absent from it only about three years, when he learnt that in this Christian community, the first- fruits of the heathen world, a sin which even the heathen regarded as a monstrous pollution had been committed, and that the congregation were glorying in it. Christians were boasting that the incestuous union of a man with his father's wife during his father's lifetime was a splendid illustration of Christian liberty. No stronger proof of the dangers of lax discipline could have been given. In the verses before us we have instances of similar peril on the doctrinal side. And in the insolent opposition which Diotrephes offered to St. John we have an illustration of the dangers of insubordination. If the Christian Church was to be saved from speedy collapse, strict discipline in morals, in doctrine, and in government, was plainly necessary. The punishment of the incestuous person at Corinth 74 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, should be placed side by side with the punishment of Hymenaeus and Alexander, as recorded here. The two cases mutually explain one another. In each of them there occurs the remarkable formula of delivering or handing over to Satan. The meaning of it is not indisputable, and in the main two views are held respecting it. Some interpret it as being merely a synonym for excommunication. Others maintain that it indicates a much more exceptional penalty, which might or might not accompany excommunication. 1. On the one hand it is argued that the expression "deliver unto Satan" is a very intelligible periphrasis for "excommunicate." Excommunication involved " exclusion from all Christian fellowship, and conse- quently banishment to the society of those among whom Satan dwelt, and from which the offender had publicly severed himself." * It is admitted that " hand- ing over to Satan " is strong language to use in order to express ejection from the congiegation and exclusion from all acts of worship, but it is thought that the acuteness of the crisis makes the strength of language intelligible. 2. But the strength of language needs no apology, if the " dehvering unto Satan" means something ex- traordinary, over and above excommunication. This, therefore, is an advantage which the second mode of interpreting the expression has at the outset. Ex- communication was a punishment which the congre- gation itself could inflict ; but this handing over to Satan was an Apostolic act, to accompHsh which the community without the Apostle had no power. It was a supernatural infliction of bodily infirmity, or ♦ Pr. PaMfl Brown in SchafTs Popular Cpmnientary, iii., p. i8o, PUNISHMENT OF HYMENMVS AND AtEXANDEk. 7$ disease, or death, as a penalty for grievous sin. We know this in the cases of Ananias and Sapphira and of Elymas. The incestuous person at Corinth is pro- bably another instance : for " the destruction of the flesh " seems to mean some painful malady inflicted on that part of his nature which had been the instrument of his fall, in order that by its chastisement the higher part of his nature might be saved. And, if this be correct, then we seem to be justified in assuming the same respecting Hymenaeus and Alexander. For although nothing is said in their case respecting *' the destruction of the flesh," yet the expression " that they may be taught not to blaspheme," implies some- thing of a similar kind. The word for " taught " (iraLSevOcocTL) implies discipline and chastisement, sometimes in Classical Greek, frequently in the New Testament, a meaning which the word *' teach " also not unfrequently has in English (Judges viii. 1 6). In illustration of this it is sufficient to point to the passage in Heb. xii., in which the writer insists that "whom the Lord loveth He chasieneth." Throughout the section this very word {iraiheveLv) and its cognate (iraiheia) are used.* It is, therefore, scarcely doubtful that St. Paul delivered Hymenaeus and Alexander to Satan, in order that Satan might have power to afflict their bodies (just as he was allowed power over the body of Job), with a view to their spiritual amelioration. This personal suffering, following close upon their sin and declared by the Apostle to be a punishment for it, would teach them to abandon it. St. Paul himself, as he has just told us, had been a blasphemer and by a supernatural visitation had been converted : why should * Heb. xii. 5, 1 1 ; comp. I Cor, xi. 32 ; 2 Cor. vi. 9 ; 2 Tim. ii. 25 ; Luke xxiii. 16, 22 : Soph., AJax 595 ; Xen., Mem, I. iii, 5» 76 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHV. not these two follow in both respects in his steps ? Satan's willingness to co-operate in such measures need not surprise us. He is always ready to inflict suffering ; and the fact that suffering sometimes draws the sufferer away from him and nearer to God, does not deter him from inflicting it. He knows well that suffering not unfrequently has the very opposite effect. It hardens and exasperates some men, while it humbles and purifies others. It makes one man say " I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes." It makes another will to " renounce God and die." Satan hoped in Job's case to be able to provoke him to ''renounce God to His face." In the case of these two blasphemers he would hope to induce them to blaspheme all the more. We may pass by the question, " In what way did Hymenaeus and Alexander blaspheme ? " We can only conjecture that it was by publicly opposing some article of the Christian faith. But conjectures without evidence are not very profitable. If we were certain that the Hymenaeus here mentioned with Alexander is identical with the one who is condemned with Philetus in 2 Tim. ii. i8 for virtually denying the resurrection, we should have some evidence. But this identification, although probable, is not certain. Still less certain is the identification of the Alexander condemned here with "Alexander the copper-smith," who in 2 Tim. iv. 14 is said to have done the Apostle much evil. But none of these questions is of great moment. What is of importance to notice is the Apostolic sentence upon the two blasphemers. And in it we have to notice four points, (i) It is almost certainly not identical with excommunication by the congregation, although it very probably was accompanied by this other penalty. THE PERSONALITY OF SATAN. 77 (2) It is of a very extraordinary character, being a handing over into the power of the evil one. (3) Its object is the reformation of the offenders, while at the same time (4) it serves as a warning to others, lest they by similar offences should suffer so awful a punishment. To all alike it brought home the serious nature of such sins. Even at the cost of cutting off the right hand, or plucking out the right eye, the Christian community must be kept pure in doctrine as in life. These two passages, — the one before us, and the one respecting the case of incest at Corinth, — are conclusive as to St. Paul's teaching respecting the existence and personality of the devil. They are supported and illustrated by a number of other passages in his writings ; as when he tells the Thes- salonians that "Satan hindered" his work, or warns the Corinthians that '^even Satan fashioneth himself into an angel of light," and tells them that his own sore trouble in the flesh was, like Job's, " a messenger of Satan to buffet " him.. Not less clear is the teaching of St. Peter and St. John in Epistles which, with those of St. Paul to the Corinthians, are among the best authenticated works in ancient literature. '* Your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour," says the one : " He that doeth sin is of the devil ; for the devil sinneth from the beginning," says the other. And, if we need higher authority, there is the declaration of Christ to the malignant and unbelieving Jews. " Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and stood not in the truth, because there is no truth in hinx. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his 78 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. own : for he is a liar, and the father thereof." * With regard to this last passage, those who deny the personal existence of Satan must maintain either (i) that the Evangelist here attributes to Christ words which He never used ; or (2) that Christ was willing to make use of a monstrous superstition in order to denounce his opponents with emphasis ; or (3) that He Himself erroneously believed in the existence of a being who was a mere figment of an unenlightened imagination : in other words, that '' the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil," when all the while there was no devil and no works of his to be destroyed. The first of these views cuts at the root of all trust in the Gospels as historical documents. Words which imply that Satan is a person are attributed to Christ by the Synoptists no less than by St. John ; and if the Evangelists are not to be believed in their report of Christ's sayings on this topic, what security have we that they are to be believed as to their reports of the rest of His teaching ; or indeed as to anything which they narrate ? Again, how are we to account for the very strong statements made by the Apostles them- selves respecting the evil one, if they had never heard anything of the kind from Christ. The second view has been adopted by Schleiermacher, who thinks that Christ accommodated His teaching to the ideas then prevalent among the Jews respecting Satan without sharing them Himself. He knew that Satan was a mere personification of the moral evil which every man finds in his own nature and in that of his fellow-men : but the Jews believed in the per- * 1 Thess. ii. i8; 2 Cor. xi. 14, xii. 7; i Pet. v. 8 ; i John iii. 8; John viii. 44. The personality of satan. 79 sonality of this evil principle, and He acquiesced in the belief, not as being true, but as offering no fundamental opposition to His teaching. But is this consistent with the truthfulness of Christ ? If a personal devil is an empty superstition, He went out of his way to confirm men in their belief in it. Why teach that the enemy who sowed the tares is the devil ? Why interpret the birds that snatch away the freshly sown seed as Satan ? It would have been so easy in each case to have spoken of impersonal temptations. Again, what motive can Christ have had for telling His Apostles (not the ignorant and superstitious multitude), that He Him- self had endured the repeated solicitations of a personal tempter, who had conversed and argued with Him ? Those who, like Strauss and Renan, believe Jesus of Nazareth to have been a mere man, would naturally adopt the third view. In believing in the personality of Satan Jesus merely shared the superstitions of His age. To all those who wish to discuss with him whether we are still Christians, Strauss declares that ^' the belief in a devil is one of the most hideous sides of the ancient Christian faith," and that ** the extent to which this dangerous delusion still controls men's ideas or has been banished from them is the very thing to regard as a measure of culture." But at the same time he admits that **to remove so fundamental a stone is dangerous for the whole edifice of the Christian faith. It was the young Goethe who remarked against Bahrdt that if ever an idea was biblical, this one [of the existence of a personal Satan] was such."* And elsewhere Strauss declares that the conception of th'5 Messiah and His kingdom without the antithesis of an * Strauss, Der alte und der neue Glaiibe, p. 22, So THE FIRST EPISTLE 10 TIMOTHY. infernal kingdom with a personal chief is as impossible as that of North pole without a South pole. * To refuse to believe in an evil power external to ourselves is to believe that human nature itself is diabolical. Whence come the devilish thoughts that vex us even at the most sacred and solemn moments ? If they do not come from the evil one and his myrmi- dons, they come from ourselves : — they are our own oflfspring. Such a belief might well drive us to despair. So far from being a " hideous" element in the Christian faith, the belief in a power, " not ourselves^ that makes for" wickedness, is a most consoling one. It has been said that, if there were no God, we should have to invent one : and with almost equal truth we might say that, if there were no devil, we should have to invent one. Without a belief in God bad men would have little to induce them to conquer their evil passions. Without a belief in a devil good men w^ould have little hope of ever being able to do so. The passage before us supplies us with another consoling thought with regard to this terrible adver- sary, who is always invisibly plotting against us. It is oii^xi for our own good that God allows him to have an advantage over us. He is permitted to inflict loss upon us through our persons and our property, as in the case of Job, and the woman whom he bowed down for eighteen years, in order to chasten us and teach us that "we have not here an abiding city." And he is permitted even to lead us into sin, in order to save us from spiritual pride, and to convince us that apart from Christ and in our own strength we can do nothing. These are not Satan's motives, but they are ♦ Herzog und Plitt, XV. p. 361. THE PERSONALITY OF SATAN. 8l God's motives in allowing him to be "the ruler of this world," and to have much power over human affairs. Satan inflicts suffering from love of inflicting it, and leads into sin from love of sin : but God knows how to bring good out of evil by making the evil one frustrate his own wiles. The devil malignantly afflicts souls that come within his power; but the affliction leads to those souls being '' saved in the day of the Lord." It had that blessed effect in the case of the incestuous person at Corinth. Whether the same is true of Hymenaeus and Alexander, there is nothing in Scripture to tell us. It is for us to take care that in our case the chastisements which inevitably follow upon sin do not drive us further and further into it, but teach us to sin no more. CHAPTER VIII. ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP; INTERCESSORY PRAYER AND THANKSGIVING.— THE SOLIDARITY OF CHRISTENDOM AND OF THE HUMAN RACE. •• I 2xhort, iherefore, first of all, that supplications, prayers, inter- cessions, thanksgivings, be made for all men : for kings and all that are in high places ; that we may lead a tranquil and quiet Hfe in all godliness ind gravity" — I Tim. ii. I. THE first chapter of the Epistle is more or less introductory. It repeats what St. Paul had already said to his beloved disciple by word of mouth, on the subject of Christian doctrine, and the necessity of keeping it pure. It makes a digression respecting the Apostle's own conversion. It reminds Timothy of the hopeful prophecies uttered over him at his ordina- tion ; and it points out the terrible consequences of driving conscience from the helm and placing oneself in antagonism to the Almighty. In this second chapter St. Paul goes on to mention in order the subjects which led to the writing of the letter; and the very first exhortation which he has to give is that respecting Christian worship and the duty of intercessory prayer and thanksgiving. There are two things very worthy of remark in the treatment of the subject of worship in the Pastoral Epistles. First, these letters bring before us a more developed form of worship than we find indicated in ii. I.] ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP, 83 the earlier writings of St. Paul. It is still very primi- tive, but it has grown. And this is exactly what we ought to expect, especially when we remember how rapidly the Christian Church developed its powers during the first century and a half. Secondly, the indications of this more developed form of worship occur only in the letters to Timothy, which deal with the condition of things in the Church of Ephesus, a Church which had already been founded for a con- siderable time, and was in a comparatively advanced stage of organization. Hence we are not surprised to find in these two Epistles fragments of what appear to be primitive liturgical forms. In the First Epistle w^e have two grand doxologies, which may be the outcome of the Apostle's devotion at the moment, but are quite as likely to be quotations of formulas well known to Timothy (i. 17; vi. 15, 16). Between these two we have what looks like a portion of a hymn in praise of Jesus Christ, suitable for singing antiphonally (iii. 16 ; comp. Pliny, Epp. x. 96) : and also what may be a baptismal exhortation (vi. 12). In the Second Epistle we have traces of another liturgical formula (ii. 1 1 — 13). St. Paul of course does not mean, as the A.V. might lead us to suppose, that in all Christian worship intercession ought to come first ; still less that interces- sion is the first duty of a Christian. But he does place it first among those subjects about which he has to give directions in this Epistle. He makes sure that it shall not be forgotten by himself in writing to his delegate at Ephesus ; and he wishes to make sure that it shall not be forgotten by Timothy in his ministration. To offer prayers and thanksgivings on behalf of all men is a duty of such high importance that the Apostle places it first among the topics of his pastoral charge. 84 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, Was it a duty which Timothy and the congregation committed to his care had been neglecting, or were in serious danger of neglecting ? It may well have been so. In the difficulties of the overseer's own personal position, and in the varied dangers to which his little flock were so unceasingly exposed, the claims of others upon their united prayer and praise may some- times have been forgotten. When the Apostle had left Timothy to take his place for a time in Ephesus he had hoped to return very soon, and consequently had given him only brief and somewhat hasty directions as to his course of action during his absence. He had been prevented from returning ; and there was a probability that Timothy would have to be his re- presentative for an indefinite period. Meanwhile the difficulties of Timothy's position had not diminished. Many of his flock were much older men than himself, and some of them had been elders in the Church of Ephesus long before the Apostle's beloved disciple was placed in charge of them. Some of the leaders in the congregation had become tainted with the Gnostic errors with which the intellectual atmosphere of Ephesus was charged, and were endeavouring to make compromise and confusion between heathen lawless- ness and Christian liberty. Besides which, there was the bitter hostility of the Jews, who regarded both Paul and Timothy as renegades f/om the faith of their ancestors, and who never lost an opportunity of thwarting and reviling them. Above all there was the ever-present danger of heathenism, which confronted the Christians every time they left the shelter of their own houses. In the city which counted it as its chief glory that it was the " Temple-keeper of the great Artemis" (Acts xix. 35), every street through which ii. I.] ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 85 the Christians walked, and every heathen house which they entered, was full of pagan abominations ; to say nothing of the magnificent temples, beautiful groves, and seductive idolatrous rites, which were among the main features that attracted such motley crowds to Ephesus. Amid difficulties and perils such as these, it would not be wonderful if Timothy and those com- mitted to his care had been somewhat oblivious of the fact that " behind the mountains also there are people ; " that be3'ond the narrow limits of their contracted horizon there were interests as weighty as their own — Christians who were as dear to God as themselves, whose needs were as great as their own, and to whom the Lord had been equally gracious ; and moreover countless hosts of heathen^ who also were Gcd's children, needing His help and receiving His blessings ; for all of whom, as well as for themselves, the Church in Ephesus was bound to offer prayer and thanks- giving. But there is no need to assume that Timothy, and those committed to his care, had been specially neglect- ful of this duty. To keep clearly in view our responsi- bilities towards the whole human race, or even towards the whole Church, is so difficult a thing for all of us, that the prominent place which St. Paul gives to the obligation to offer prayers and thanksgivings for all men is quite intelligible, without the supposition that the disciple whom he addresses was more in need of such a charge than other ministers in the Churches under St. Paul's care. The Apostle uses three different words for prayer, the second of which is a general term and covers all kinds of prayer to God and the first a still more general term, including petitions addressed to man. 86 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, Either of the first two would embrace the third, which indicates a bold and earnest approach to the Almighty to implore some great benefit. None of the three words necessarily means intercession in the sense of prayer on behalf of others. This idea comes from the context. St. Paul says plainly that it is prayers and thanks- givings ''for all men" that he desires to have made: and in all probability he did not carefully distinguish in his mind the shades of meaning which are proper to the three terms which he uses. Whatever various kinds of supplication there may be which are offered by man at the throne of grace, he urges that the whole human race are to have the benefit of them. Obviously, as Chrysostom long ago pointed out, we cannot limit the Apostle's " all men " to all believers. Directly he enters into detail he mentions " kings and all that are in high place ; " and in St. Paul's day not a single king, and we may almost say not a single person in high place, was a believer. The scope of a Christian's desires and gratitude, when he appears before the Lord, must have no narrower Hmit than that which embraces the whole human race. This important principle, the Apostle charges his representative, must be exhibited in the public worship of the Church in Ephesus. The solidarity of the whole body of Christians, how- ever distant from one another in space and time, however different from one another in nationality, in discipline, and even in creed, is a magnificent fact, of which we all of us need from time to time to be reminded, and which, even when we are reminded of it, we find it somewhat difficult to grasp. Members of sects that we never heard of, dwelling in remote regions of which we do not even know the names, are never- theless united to us by the eternal ties of a common ii. I.] ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 87 baptism and a common belief in God and in Jesus Christ. The eastern sectarian in the wilds of Asia, and the western sectarian in the backwoods of North America, are members of Christ and our brethren; and as such have spiritual interests identical with oui own, for which it is not only our duty but our advantage to pray. " Whether one member sufFereth, all the members suffer with it; or one member is honoured, all the members rejoice with it." The ties which bind Christians to one another are at once so subtle and so real, that it is impossible for one Christian to remain unaffected by the progress or retrogression of any other. Therefore, not only does the law of Christian charity require us to aid all our fellow-Christians by praying for them, but the law of self-interest leads us to do so also ; for their advance will assuredly help us forward, and their relapse will assuredly keep us back. All this is plain matter of fact, revealed to us by Christ and His apostles, and confirmed by our own experi- ence, so far as our feeble powers of observation are able to supply a test. Nevertheless, it is a fact of such enormous proportions (even without taking intc account our close relationship with those who have passed away from this world), that even with our best efforts we fail to realize it in its immensity. What shall we say, then, about the difficulty of realizing the solidarity of the whole human race ? For they also are God's offspring, and as such are of ci:e family with ourselves. If it is hard to remember that the welfare of the humblest member of a remote and obscure community in Christendom intimately concerns ourselves, how shall we keep in view the fact that we have both interests and obligations in reference to the wildest and most degraded heathens in the heart of 8S THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, Africa or in the islands of the Pacific ? Here is a fact on a far more stupendous scale ; for in the population of the globe, those who are not even in name Christians, outnumber us by at least three to one. And yet let us never forget that our interest in these countless multi- tudes, whom we have never seen and never shall see in this life, is not a mere graceful sentiment or empty flourish of rhetoric, but a sober and solid fact. The hackneyed phrase, " a man and a brother," represents a vital truth. Every human being is one of our brethren, and, whether we like the responsibility or not, we are still our '^ brother's keeper." In our keep- ing, to a very real extent, lie the supreme issues of his spiritual life, and we have to look to it that we discharge our trust faithfully. We read with horror, and it may be with compassion, of the monstrous outrages com- mitted by savage chiefs upon their subjects, their wives, or their enemies. We forget that the guilt of these things may lie partly at our door, because we have not done our part in helping forward civilizing influences which would have prevented such horrors, above all because we have not prayed as we ought for those who commit them. There are few of us who have not some opportunities of giving assistance in various ways to missionary enterprise and humanizing efforts. But all of us can at least pray for God's blessing upon such things, and for His mercy upon those who are in need of it. Of those who, having nothing else to give, give their struggles after holiness and their prayers for their fellow-men, the blessed commendation stands written, " They have done what they could." "For kings and all that are in high place.'* It is quite a mistake to suppose that "kings" here means the Roman Emperors. This has been asserted, and ii. I.] ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP, 89 from this misinterpretation has been deduced the erroneous conclusion that the letter must have been written at a time when it was customary for the Emperor to associate another prince with him in the empire, with a view to securing the succession. As Hadiian was the first to do this, and that near to the close of his reign, this letter (it is urged) cannot be earlier than A.D. 138. But this interpretation is impossible, for ''kings" in the Greek has no article. Had the writer meant the two reigning Emperors, whether Hadrian and Antoninus, or M. Aurelius and Verus, he would inevitably have written "for the kings and for all in high place." The expression " for kings," obviously means " for monarchs of all descriptions," including the Roman Emperor, but including many other potentates also. Such persons, as having the heaviest responsi- bilities and the greatest power of doing good and evil, have an especial claim upon the prayers of Christians. It giv^es us a striking illustration of the transforming powers of Christianity when we think of St. Paul giving urgent directions that among the persons to be remem- bered first in the intercessions of the Church are Nero and the men whom he put " in high place," such as Otho and Vitellius, who afterwards became Emperor : and this, too, after Nero's peculiarly cruel and wanton persecution of the Christians a.d. 64. How firmly this beautiful practice became established among Christians, is shown from their writings in the second and third centuries. Tertullian, who lived through the reigns of such monsters as Commodus and Elagabalus, who remembered the persecution under M. Aurelius, and witnessed that under Septimius Severus, can neverthe- less write thus of the Emperor of Rome : " A Christian is the enemy of no one, least of all of the Emperor, 90 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, whom he knows to have been appointed by his God, and whom he therefore of necessity loves, and rever- ences, and honours, and desh'es his well-being, with that of the whole Roman Empire, so long as the world shall stand ; for it shall last as long. To the Emperor, therefore, we render such homage as is lawful for us and good for him, as the human being who comes next to God, and is what he is by God's decree, and to God alone is inferior. . . . And so we sacrifice also for the well-being of the Emperor ; but to our God and his ; but in the way that God has ordained, with a prayer that is pure. For God, the Creator of the universe, has no need of odours or of blood."* In another passage Tertullian anticipates the objection that Christians pray for the Emperor, in order to curry favour with the Roman government and thus escape persecution. He says that the heathen have only to look into the Scriptures, which to Christians are the voice of God, and see that to pray for their enemies and to pray for those in authority is a fundamental rule with Christians. And he quotes the passage before us.f But he appears to misunderstand the concluding words of the Apostle's injunction, — " that we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity." Tertullian understands this as a reason for praying for kings and rulers ; because they are the preservers of the public peace, and any disturbance in the empire will necessarity aftect the Christians as well as other subjects, — which is giving a rather narrow and selfish motive for this great duty. " That we may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness and gravity," is the object and consequence, not of our praying for kings * Ad Scapuianif ii. f Apoi,, xxxi. i. I.] ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP, 91 and rulers in particular, but of our offering prayers and thanksgivings on behalf of all men. When this most pressing obligation is duly dis- charged, then, and only then, can we hope with tran- quil consciences to be able to live Christian lives in retirement from the rivalries and jealousies and squabbles of the world. Only in the attitude of mind which makes us pray and give thanks for our fellow- men is the tranquillity of a godly life possible. The enemies of Christian peace and quietness are anxiety and strife. Are we anxious about the well-being of those near and dear to us, or of those whose interests are bound up with our own ? Let us pray for them. Have we grave misgivings respecting the course which events are taking in Church, or in State, or in any of the smaller societies to which we belong ? Let us offer supplications and intercessions on behalf of all con- cerned in them. Prayer offered in faith to the throne of grace will calm our anxiety, because it will assure us that all is in God's hand, and that in His own good time He will bring good out of the evil. Are we at strife with our neighbours, and is this a constant source of disturbance ? Let us pray for them. Fervent and frequent prayers for those who are hostile to us will certainly secure this much, — that we ourselves become more wary about giving provocation ; and this will go a long way towards bringing the attainment of our desire for the entire cessation of the strife. Is there any one to whom we have taken a strong aversion, whose very presence is atrial to us, whose every gesture and every tone irritates us, and the sight of whose handwriting makes us shiver, because of its disturbing associations ? Let us pray for him. Sooner or later dislike must give way to prayer. It is impossible to 9i THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. go on taking a real interest in the welfare of another, and at the same time to go on detesting him. And if our prayers for his welfare are genuine, a real interest in it there must be. Is there any one of whom we are jealous ? Of whose popularity, so dangerous to our own, we are envious ? Whose success — quite un- deserved success, as it seems to us — disgusts and frightens us ? Whose mishaps and failures, nay even whose faults and misdeeds, give us pleasure and satis- faction ? Let us thank God for the favour which He bestows upon this man. Let us praise our heavenly Father for having in His wisdom and His justice given to another of His children what He denies to us ; and let us pray Him to keep this other from abusing His gifts. Yes, let us never forget that not only prayers but thanksgivings are to be offered for all men. He who is so good to the whole Church, of which we are members, and to the great human family to which we belong, certainly has claim upon the gratitude of every human being, and especially of every Christian. His bounty is not given by measure or by merit. He maketh His sun to shine upon the evil and the good, and sendeth His rain upon the just and the unjust : and shall we pick and choose as to what we will thank Him for, and what not ? The sister who loves her erring or her half-witted brother is grateful to her father for the care which he bestows upon his graceless and his useless son. And shall we not give thanks to our heavenly Father for the benefits which He bestows on the countless multitudes whose interests are so closely interwoven with our own ? Benefits bestowed upon any human being are an answer to our prayers, and as such we are bound to give thanks for them. How ii. I.] ELEMENTS OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 93 much more grateful shall we be, when we are able to look on them as benefits bestowed upon those whom we love ! This is the cause of so much of our failure in prayer. We do not couple our prayers with thanksgiving ; or at any rate our thanksgivings are far less hearty than our prayers. We give thanks for benefits received by ourselves: we forget to give thanks *'for all men." Above all, we forget that the truest gratitude is shown, not in words or feelings, but in conduct. We should send good deeds after good words to heaven. Not that our ingratitude provokes God to withhold His gifts ; but that it does render us less capable of receiving them. For the sake of others no less than for our- selves let us remember the Apostle's charge that '* thanksgivings be made for all men." We cannot give plenty and prosperity to the nations of the earth. We cannot bestow on them peace and tranquillity. We cannot bring them out of darkness to God's glorious light. We cannot raise them from impurity to holiness. We can only do a little, a very little, towards these great ends. But one thing we can do. We can at least thank Him who has already bestowed some, and is preparing to bestow others, of these blessings. We can praise Him for the end towards which He will have all things work. — " He willeth that all men should be saved " (ver. 4), " that God may be all in all" CHAPTER IX. BEHAVIOUR IN CHRISTIAN WORSHIP: MENS ATTI- TUDE OF BODY AND MIND: WOMENS ATTIRE AND ORNAMENT " I desire, therefore, that the men pray in every place, lifting up holy hands, without wrath and disputing. In like manner, that women adorn themselves in modest apparel, with shamefacedness and sobriety ; not with braided hair, and gold or pearls or costly raiment ; but (which becometh women professing godliness) through good works. Let a woman learn in quietness with all subjection. But I permit not a woman to teach, nor to have dominion over a man, but to be in quietness." — I Tim. ii. 8 — 12. IN the preceding verses of this chapter, St. Paul has been insisting on the duty of unselfishness in our devotions. Our prayers and thanksgivings are not to be bounded in their scope by our own personal interests, but are to include the whole human race; and for this obvious and sufficient reason, — that in using such devotions we know that our desires are in harmony with the mind of God, ^'who willeth that all men should be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth." Having thus laid down the principles which are to guide Christian congregations in the subject- matter oi iX-.^xx prayers and thanksgivings, he passes on now to give some directions respecting the behaviour of men and women, when they meet together for common worship of the one God and the one Mediator between God and man, Christ Jesus. U.8-I2.] BEHAVIOUR IN CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 95 There is no reasonable doubt (although the point has been disputed) that St. Paul is here speaking of public worship in the congregation ; the whole context impHes it. Some of the directions would be scarcely intelligible, if we were to suppose that the Apostle is thinking of private devotions, or even of family prayer in Christian households. And we are not to suppose that he is indirectly finding fault with other forms of worship, Jewish or heathen. He is merely laying down certain principles which are to guide Christians, whether at Ephesus or elsewhere, in the conduct of public service. Thus there is no special emphasis on 'Mn every place," as if the meaning were, "Our ways are not like those of the Jews ; for they were not allowed to sacrifice and perform their services any- where, but assembling from all parts of the world were bound to perform all their worship in the temple. For as Christ commanded us to pray for all men, because He died for all men, so it is good to pray everywhere ^ * Such an antithesis between Jewish and Christian worship, even if it were true, would not be in place here. Every place is a place of private prayer to both Jew and Christian ahke : but not every place is a place of public prayer to the Christian any more than to the Jew.t Moreover, the Greek shows plainly that the emphasis is not on " in every place," but on '* pray." Wherever there may be a customary " house of prayer," whether in Ephesus or anywhere else, the Apostle desires that prayers should be offered publicly by the men in the congregation. After ''pray," the emphasis falls on '' the men," public prayer is to be made, and it * So Chrysostom in loco ; but this is an exaggeration respecting Jewish hmitations. ")■ See Clement of Rome Cor. xli. $6 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. is to be conducted by the men and not by the women in the congregation. It is evident from this passage, as from I Cor. xiv., that in this primitive Christian worship great freedom was allowed. There is no Bishop, President, or Elder, to whom the right of leading the service or uttering the prayers and thanksgivings is reserved. This duty and privilege is shared by all the males alike. In the recently discovered Doctrine of the Tivelve Apostles nothing is said as to who is to offer the prayers, of which certain forms are given. It is merely stated that in addition to these forms extempore prayer may be offered by " the prophets." And Justin Martyr men- tions that a similar privilege was allowed to ^' the president " of the congregation according to his ability.* Thus we seem to trace a gradual increase of strictness, a development of ecclesiastical order, very natural under the circumstances. First, all the men in the congrega- tion are allowed to conduct public worship, as here and in I Corinthians. Then, the right of adding to the prescribed forms is restricted to the prophets, as in the Didache. Next, this right is reserved to the presiding minister, as in Justin Martyr. And lasth^, free prayer is abolished altogether. We need not assume that pre- cisely this development took place in all the Churches ; but that something analogous took place in nearly all. Nor need we assume that the development was simul- taneous : while one Church was at one stage of the process, another was more advanced, and a third less so. Again, we may conjecture that forms of prayer gradually increased in number, and in extent, and in * Didache, x. 7; Just. Mart., Apol,, I. Ixvii. Justin probably uses the term "president" (6 Tr/aoeo-rws) in order to be intelligible to heathen readers. ii.8.i2.] BEHAVIOUR IN CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 9^ Stringency. But in the directions here given to Timothy we are at the beginning of the development. ^' Lifting up holy hands." Here again we need not suspect any polemical purpose. St. Paul is not in- sinuating that, when Gnostics or heathen lift up their hands in prayer, their hands are not holy. Just as ever}' Christian is ideally a saint, so every hand that is lifted up in prayer is holy. In thus stating the ideal, the Apostle inculcates the realization of it. There is a monstrous incongruity in one wlio comes red-handed from the commission of a sin, lifting up the very members which witness against him, in order to im- plore a blessing from the God whom he has outraged. The same idea is expressed in more general terms by St. Peter: ''Like as He which called you is holy, b<^ y^ yourselves also holy in all manner of living ; because it is written, ye shall be holy; for I am holy" (i Pet. i. 15, 16). In a passage more closely parallel to this, Clement of Rome says, "Let us therefore approach Hini in holiness of soul, lifting up pure and undcfiied hands unto Him, with love towards our gentle and compassionate Father who made us an elect portion unto Himself" {Cor. xxix). And Tertullian urges that "a defiled spirit cannot be recognized by the Holy Spirit " (De Orat., xiii). No\a here else in the New Testament do we read of this attiiiude of lifting up the hands during prayer. But to this day it is common in the East. Solomon at the dedicaticn of the temple " stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the congreration of Israel, 2iX\d spread forth his hands toward heaven " (i Kings viii. 22) ; and the Psalmist repeatedly speaks of " lifting up the hands " in worship (xxviii. 2 ; Ixiii. 4 ; cxxxiv. 2). Clement of Alexandria seems to have regarded it as the ideal attitude in prayer, 7 98 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. as symbolizing the desire of the body to abstract itself from the earth, following the eagerness of the spirit in yearning for heavenly things.* Tertullian, on the other hand, suggests that the arms are spread out in prayer in memory of the crucifixion, and directs that they should be extended, but only slightly raised, an attitude which is more in harmony with a humble spirit : and in another place he says that the Christian by his very posture in prayer is ready for every inflic- tion. He asserts that the Jews in his day did not raise the hands in prayer, and characteristically gives as a reason that they were stained with the blood of the Prophets and of Christ. With evident reference to this passage, he says that Christian hands must be lifted up pure from falsehood, murder, and all other sins of which the hands can be the instruments.! Ancient Christian monuments of the earliest age frequently represent the faithful as standing with raised hands to pray. Eusebius tells us that Constantine had himself represented in this attitude on his coins, ^* looking upwards, stretching up toward God, like one praying." J Of course this does not mean that kneeling was unusual or irregular ; there is plenty of evidence to the contrary. But the attitude here commended by St. Paul was very ancient when he wrote, and has continued in some parts of the world ever since. Like so many other things in natural religion and in Judaism, it received a new and intensified meaning when it was adopted among the usages of the Christian Church. " Without wrath and disputing : " that is, in the spirit of Christian peace and trust. Ill-will and mis- * Strom. ^ VII. vii. t De Oral., xiii., xiv., xvii. : Apol. xxx. ; Comp. Adv.Jud.^ x, X Vii. Const., IV. XV. i. ii.8-i2.] BEHAVIOUR IN CHRISTIAN WORSHIP, 99 giving respecting one another are incompatible with united prayer to our common Fatlier. The atmosphere of controversy is not congenial to devotion. Christ Himself has told us to be reconciled to our brother before presuming to offer our gift on the altar. In a similar spirit St. Paul directs that those who are to conduct public service in the sanctuary must do so without angry feelings or mutual distrust. In the Pastoral Epistles warnings against quarrelsome conduct are frequent ; and the experience of every one of us tells us how necessary they are. The bishop is charged to be " no brawler, no striker ; but gentle, not contentious." The deacons must not be *' double-tongued." Women must not be " slanderers." Young widows have to be on their guard against being '^ tattlers and busybodies." Timothy is charged to " follow after . . . love, patience, meekness," and is reminded that " the Lord's servant must not strive, but be gentle towards all, apt to teach, forbearing, in meekness correcting them that oppose themselves." Titus again is told that a bishop must be '* not self-willed, not SDon angry," '' no brawler, no striker," that the aged women must not be " slanderers," that all men are to be put in mind " to speak evil of no man, not to be contentious, to be gentle, showing all meekness toward all men."* There is no need to assume that that age, or that those Churches, had any special need of warnings of this kind. All ages and all Churches need them. To keep one's tongue and one's temper in due order is to all of us one of the most constant and necessary duties of the Christian life ; and the neglect cannot fail to be disastrous to the reality and efficacy of our devotions. Those who have * I Tim. iii. 3, 8, ii ; v. 13; vi. II ; 2 Tim. ii. 24; Tit. i. 7; ii. 3 ; ill. 2. 100 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. ill-will and strife in their hearts cannot unite to much purpose in common thanksgiving and prayer. And just as the men have to take care that their attitude of body and mind is such as befits the dignity of public worship, in like manner the women also have to take care that their presence in the congregation does not appear incongruous. They must come in seemly attire and with seemly behaviour. Everything which might divert attention from the service to themselves must be avoided. Modesty and simplicity must at all times be the characteristics of a Christian woman's dress and bearing ; but at no time is this more necessary than in the public services of the Church. Excessive adornment, out of place at all times, is grievously offensive there. It gives a flat contradiction to the profession of humility which is involved in taking part in common worship, and to that natural sobriety which is a woman's fairest ornament and best protection. Both reverence and self-reverence are injured by it. Moreover, it may easily be a cause of offence to others, by provoking jealousy or admiration of the creature, where all ought to be absorbed in the worship of the Creator. Here again St. Paul is putting his finger upon dangers and evils which are not peculiar to any age or any Church. He had spoken of the same thing years before, to the women of Corinth, and St. Peter utters similar ^^a^nings to Christian women throughout all time. * Clement of Alexandria abounds in protests against the extravagance in dress so common in his own day. In one place he says; "Apclles ihe painter seeing one of his pupils painting a figure thickly with 2-16; I Pet. iii. 3, 4. ii.8-i2.] BEHAVIOUR IN CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. loi gold colour to represent Helen, said to him ; ' My lad, you were unable to paint her beautiful, and so you have made her rich.' Such Helens are the ladies of the present day ; not really beautiful, but richly got up. To these the Spirit prophesies by Zephaniah : And their gold shall not be able to deliver them in the day of the Lord's anger."* Tertullian is not less emphatic. He says that most Christian women dress hke heathen, as if modesty required nothing more than stopping short of actual impurity. '' What is the use," he asks, " of showing a decent and Christian simplicity in your face, while you load the rest of your body with the dangling absurdities of pomps and vanities?"! Chrysostom also, in commenting on this very passage, asks the congregation at Antioch : "And what then is modest apparel? Such as covers them completely and decently, and not with superfluous ornaments ; for the one is decent and the other is not. What ? Do you approach God to pray with broidered hair and ornaments of gold ? Are you come to a ball ? to a marriage-feast ? to a carnival ? There such costly things might have been seasonable : here not one of them is wanted. You are come to pray, to ask pardon for your sins, to plead for your offences, beseeching the Lord, and hoping to render Him propitious to you. Away with such hypocrisy ! God is not mocked. This is the attire of actors and dancers, who live upon the stage. Nothing of this kind becomes a modest woman, who should be adorned with shamefastness and sobriety. . . . And if St. Paul " (he continues) " would remove those things which are merely the marks of wealth, as gold, pearls, and costly array ; how much more those * Poed., II. xiii. f De Cult Fern., II. i. ix. 102 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. things which imply studied adornment, as painting, colouring the eyes, a mincing walk, an affected voice, a languishing look ? For he glances at all these things in speaking of modest apparel and shamefastness." But there is no need to go to Corinth in the first century, or Alexandria and Carthage in the second and third, or Antioch in the fourth, in order to show that the Apostle was giving no unnecessary warning in admonishing Timothy respecting the dress and be- haviour of Christian women, especially in the public services of the congregation. In our own age and our own Church we can find abundant illustration. Might not any preacher in any fashionable congregation echo with a good deal of point the questions of Chrysostom ? ^' Have you come to dance or a levee ? Have you mistaken this building for a theatre ? " And what would be the language of a Chrysostom or a Paul if he were to enter a theatre nowadays and see the attire, I will not say of the actresses, but of the audience ? There are some rough epithets, not often heard in pohte society, which express in plain language the condition of those women who by their manner of life and conversation have forfeited their characters. Preachers in earlier ages were accustomed to speak very plainly about such things : and what the Apostle and Chrysostom have written in their epistles and homilies does not leave us in much doubt as to what would have been their manner of speaking of them. But what is urged here is sufficient. " You are Christian women," says St. Paul, '' and the profession which you have adopted is reverence towards God {deoae^uav). This profession you have made known to the world. It is necessary, therefore, that those externals of which the world takes cognisance should ii.8-i2.] BEHAVIOUR IN CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 103 not give the lie to your profession. And how is unseemly attire, paraded at the very time of public v^^orship, compatible with the reverence which you have professed? Reverence God by reverencing yourselves ; by guarding with jealous care the dignity of those bodies with which He has endowed you. Reverence God by coming before Him clothed both in body and soul in fitting attire. Let your bodies be freed from meretricious decoration. Let your souls be adorned with abundance of good works." CHAPTER X. ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY ; VARIOUS CER- TAINTIES AND PROBABILITIES DISTINGUISHED. " If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. The bishop therefore must be without reproach, the husband of one wife, temperate, sober-minded, orderly, given to hospitality, apt to teach; no brawler, no striker; but gentle, not contentious, no lover of money; one that ruleth well his own house, having his children in subjection with all gravity ; (but if a man knoweth not how to rule his own house, how shall he take care of the house of God ?) not a novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the condemnation of the devil. "Moreover he must have good testimony from them that are without ; lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Deacons in like manner must be grave, not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre ; holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved ; then let them serve as deacons, if they be blameless."' — I Tim. iii. I — lo. THIS passage is one of the most important in the New Testament respecting the Christian ministry ; and in the Pastoral Epistles it does not stand alone. Of the two classes of ministers mentioned here, one is again touched upon in the Epistle to Titus (i. 5 — 9), and the qualifications for this office, which is evidently the superior of the two, are stated in terms not very different from those which are used in the passage before us. Therefore a series of expositions upon tlie Pastoral Epistles would be culpably incomplete which did not attempt to arrive at some conclusions respecting the question of the primitive Christian ministry ; a iii. i-io.] ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 105 question which at the present time is being investigated with immense industry and interest, and with some clear and substantial results. The time is probably- far distant when the last word w^ill have been said upon the subject ; for it is one on which considerable difference of opinion is not only possible but reason- able : and those persons would seem to be least worthy of consideration, who are most confident that they are in possession of the whole truth on the subject. One of the first requisites in the examination of questions of fact is a power of accurately distinguishing what is certain from what is not certain : and the person who is confident that he has attained to certainty, when the evidence in his possession does not at all warrant certainty, is not a trustworthy guide. It would be impossible in a discussion of moderate length to touch upon all the points which have been raised in connexion with this problem ; but some service will have been rendered if a few of the more important features of the question are pointed out and classified under the two heads just indicated, as certain or not certain. In any scientific enquiry, whether historical or experimental, this classification is a useful one, and very often leads to the enlargement of the class of certainties. When the group of certainties has been properly investigated, and when the various items have been placed in their proper relations to one another and to the whole of which they are only constituent parts, the result is Kkely to be a transfer of other items from the domain of what is only probable or possible to the domain of what is certain. At the outset it is necessary to place a word of caution as to what is meant, in a question of this kind, by certainty. There are no limats to scepticism, as the io6 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. history of speculative philosophy has abundantly shown. It is possible to question one's own existence, and still more possible to question the irresistible evidence of one's senses or the irresistible conclusions of one's reason. A joHiori it is possible to throw doubt upon any historical fact. We can, if we like, classify the assassinations of Julius Caesar and of Cicero, and the genuineness of the ^neid and of the Epistles to the Corinthians, among things that are not certain. They cannot be demonstrated like a proposition in Euclid or an experiment in chemistry or physics. But a sceptical criticism of this kind makes history impossible ; for it demands as a condition of certainty a kind of evidence, and an amount of evidence, which from the nature of the case is unattainable. Juries are directed by the courts to treat evidence as adequate, which they would be willing to recognize as such in matters of very serious moment to themselves. There is a certain amount of evidence which to a person of trained and well-balanced mind makes a thing " practically certain :" ^>., with this amount of evidence before him he would confidently act on the assumption that the thing was true. In the question before us there are four or five things which may with great reason be treated as practically certain. I. The solution of the question as to the origin of the Christian ministry, has no practical bearing upon the lives of Christians, For us the problem is one of his- torical interest without moral import. As students of Church History we are bound to investigate the origines of the ministry which has been one of the chief factors in that history : but our loyalty as members of the Church will not be affected by the result of our investi- m.I-io.] ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRV. 107 gations. Our duty towards the constitution consisting of bishops, priests, and deacons, which existed un- challenged from the close of the second century to the close of the Middle Ages, and which has existed down to the present day in all the three great branches of the Catholic Church, Roman, Oriental, and Anglican, is no way affected by the question whether the constitu- tion of the Church during the century which separates the writings of St. John from the writings of his disciple's disciple, Irenseus, was as a rule episcopal, collegiate, or presbyterian. For a churchman who accepts the episcopal form of government as essential to the well-being of a Church, the enormous prescription which that form has acquired during at least seventeen centuries, is such ample justification, that he can afford to be serene as to the outcome of enquiries respecting the constitution of the various infant Churches from A.D. 85 to A.D. 185. It makes no practical difference either to add, or not to add, to an authority which is already ample. To prove that the episcopal form of government was founded by the Apostles may have been a matter of great practical importance in the middle of the second century. But, before that century had closed, the practical question, if there ever was one^ had settled itself. God's providence ordained that the universal form of Church government should be the episcopal form and should continue to be such; and for us it adds Httle to its authority to know that the way in which it became universal was through the instrumentality and influence of Apostles. On the other hand, to prove that episcopacy was established independently of Apostolic influence would detract very little from its accumulated authority. 2. A second point, which may be regarded as certain io8 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, with regard to this question, is, i\\2it for the period which joins the age oj Irenceiis to the age of St. John, we have not sufficient evidence to arrive at anytliing like proof. The evidence has received important additions during the present century, and still more important additions are by no means impossible ; but at present our materials are still inadequate. And the evidence is insufficient in two ways First, although surprisingly large as compared with what might have been reason- ably expected, yet in itself, the literature of this period is fragmentary and scanty. Secondly, the dates of some of the most important witnesses cannot as yet be accurately determined. In many cases to be able to fix the date of a document within twenty or thirty years is quite sufficient : but this is a case in which the difference of twenty years is a really serious difference ; and there is fully that amount of uncertainty as to the date of some of the writings which are our principal sources of information ; e.g., the Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles, the Epistles of Ignatius, the Shepherd of Hernias and the Clementines. Here also our posi- tion may improve. Further research may enable us to date some of these documents accurately. But, for the present, uncertainty about precise dates and general scantiness of evidence compel us to admit that with regard to many of the points connected with this question nothing that can fairly be called proof is possible respecting the interval which separates the last quarter of the first century from the last quarter of the second. This feature of the problem is sometimes represented by the useful metaphor that the history of the Church just at this period " passes through a tunnel " or " runs underground." We are in the light of day during iii. i-io.] ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 109 most of the time covered by the New Testament ; and we are again in the light of day directly we reach the time covered by the abundant writings of Irenaeus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian, and others. But during the intervening period we are, not indeed in total darkness, but in a passage the obscurity of which is only slightly relieved by an occasional lamp or light- hole. Leaving this tantalizing interval, about which the one thing that is certain is that many certainties are not likely to be found in it, we pass on to look for our two next certainties in the periods which precede and follow it. 3. In the period covered by the New Testament it is certain that the Church had officers who discharged spiritual functions which were not discharged by ordinary Christians; in other words a distinction was made from the first between clergy and laity. Of this fact the Pastoral Epistles contain abundant evidence ; and further evidence is scattered up and down the New Testament, from the earliest document in the volume to the last. In the First Epistle to the Thes- salonians, which is certainly the earliest Christian writing that has come down to us, we find St. Paul beseeching the Church of the Thcssalonians " to know them that labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you ; and to esteem them exceed- ing highly in love for their work's sake" (v. 12, 13). The three functions here enumerated are evidently functions to be exercised by a few with regard to the many : they are not duties which every one is to dis- charge towards every one. In the Third Epistle of St. John, which is certainly one of the latest, and perhaps the very latest, of the writings contained in the New Testament, the incident about Diotrephes no THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, seems to show that not only ecclesiastical government, but ecclesiastical government by a single official, was already m existence in the Church in which Diotrephes "loved to have the pre-eminence" (9, 10). In between these two we have the exhortation in the Epistle to the Hebrews : " Obey them that have the rule over you and submit to them : for they watch in behalf of your souls^ as they that shall give account" (xiii. 17). And directly we go outside the New Testament and look at the Epistle of the Church of Rome to the Church of Corinth, commonly called the First Epistle of Clement, we find the same distinction between clergy and laity observed. In this letter, which almost certainly was written during the lifetime of St. John, we read that the Apostles, " preaching everywhere in country and town, appointed their firstfruits, when they had proved them by the Spirit, to be bishops and deacons unto them that should believe. And this they did in no new fashion ; for indeed it had been written concerning bishops and deacons from very ancient times ; for thus saith the scripture in a certain place, I will appoint their bishops in righteousness, and their deacons in faith" — the last words being an inaccurate quotation of the LXX. of Isa. Ix. 17. And a little further on Clement writes : " Our Apostles knew through our Lord Jesus Christ that there would be strife over the name of the bishop's office. For this cause, therefore, having received complete fore-knowledge, they appointed the aforesaid persons, and afterwards they provided a continuance, that if these should fall asleep, other approved men should succeed to their ministration. Those therefore who were appointed by them, or after- ward by other men of repute with the consent <:^i the whole Church, and have ministered unblamably to iil. i-io.] ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. in the flock of Christ in lowliness of mind, peacefully and with all modesty, and for long time have borne a good report with all — these men we consider to be unjustly thrust out from their ministration. For it will be no light sin for us, if we thrust out those who have offered the gifts of the bishop's office unblamably and holily. Blessed are those presbyters who have gone before, seeing that their departure was fruitful and ripe, for they have no fear lest any one should remove them from their appointed place. For we see that ye have displaced certain persons, though they were living honourably, from the ministration which they had kept blamelessly " (xlii., xliv.). Three things come out very clearly from this passage, confirming what has been found in the New Testa- ment, (i) There is a clear distinction made between clergy and laity. (2) This distinction is not a temporary arrangement, but is the basis of a permanent organiza- tion. (3) A person who has been duly promoted to the ranks of the clergy as a presbyter or bishop (the two titles being here synonymous, as in the Epistle to Titus) holds that position for life. Unless he is guilty of some serious offence, to depose him is no light sin. None of these passages, either in the New Testa- ment or in Clement, tell us very clearly the precise nature of the functions which the clergy, as distinct from the laity, were to discharge ; yet they indicate that these functions were of a spiritual rather than of a secular character, that they concerned men's souls rather than their bodies, and that they were connected with religious service (XecTovpyla). But the one thing which is quite clear is this, — that the Church had, and was always intended to have, a body of officers distinct iii THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. from the congregations to which they ministered and over which they ruled. 4. For our fourth certainty we resort to the time when the history of the Church returns once more to the full light of day, in the last quarter of the second century. Then we find two things quite clearly esta- blished, which have continued in Christendom from that day to this. We find a regularly organized clergy^ not only distinctly marked off from the laity, but distinctly marked off among themselves by well defined gradations of rank. And, secondly, we find that each local Church is constitutionally governed by one chief officer , whose powers are large and seldom resisted, and who univer- sally receives the title of bishop. To these two points we may add a third. There is no trace of any belief, or even suspicion, that the constitution of these local Churches had ever been anything else. On the con- trary, the evidence (and it is considerable) points to the conclusion that Christians in the latter part of the second century — say a.d. 180 to 200 — were fully persuaded that the episcopal form of government had prevailed in the different Churches from the Apostles' time to their own. Just as in the case of the Gospels, Irenaeus and his conterrtporaries not only do not know of either more or less than the four which have come down to us, but cannot conceive of there ever being either more or less than these four : so in the case of Church Government, they not only represent episcopacy as everywhere prevalent in their time, but they have no idea that at any previous time any other form of government prevailed. And although Irenaeus, like St. Paul and Clement of Rome, sometimes speaks of bishops under the title of presbyter, yet it is quite clear that there were at that time presbyters who were iii. i-io.] ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY, 113 not bishops and who did not possess episcopal authority. Irenaeus himself was such a presb3^ter, until the martyr- dom of Pothinus in the persecution of a.d. 177 created a vacancy in the see of Lyons, which Irenaeus was then called upon to fill ; and he held the see for up- wards of twenty years, from about a.d. 1 80 to 202. From Irenaeus and from his contemporary Dionysius, Bishop of Corinth, we learn not only the fact that episcopacy prevailed everywhere, but, in not a few cases, the name of the existing bishop ; and in some cases the names of their predecessors are given up to the times of the Apostles. Thus, in the case of the Church of Rome, Linus the first bishop is connected \yith " the two most glorious Apostles Peter and Paul " : and, in the case of Athens, Dionysius the Areopagite is said to have been appointed first bishop of that Church by the Apostle Paul. This may or may not be correct : but at least it shows that in the time of Irenaeus and Dionysius of Corinth episcopacy was not only recognized as the universal form of Church government, but was also believed to have prevailed in the principal Churches from the very earliest times. * 5. If we narrow our field and look, not at the whole Church, but at the Churches of Asia Minor and Syria, we may obtain yet another certainty from the obscure period which lies between the age of the Apostles and that of Dionysius and Irenaeus. The investigations of Lightfoot, Zahn, and Harnack have placed the genuine- ness of the short Greek form of the Epistles of Ignatius beyond reasonable dispute. Their exact date cannot * See an admirable article on the Christian ministry by Dr. Salmon in the Expositor for July, 1887 ; also the present writer's Church of the Early Fathers, pp. 58 ff. ; 92 ff. ; 2nd ed. Longmans, 1887. 8 114 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. as yet be determined. The evidence is strong that Ignatius was martyred in the reign of Trajan : and, if that is accepted, the letters cannot be later than A.D. 117. But even if this evidence be rejected as not conclusive, and the letters be dated ten or tvi^elve years later, their testimony will still be of the utmost import- ance. They prove that long before a.d. 150 episcopacy was the recognized form of government throughout the Churches of Asia Minor and Syria ; and, as Ignatius speaks of "the bishops that are settled in the farthest parts of the earth (Kara to, irepara opiaOevrei) " they prove that, according to his belief, episcopacy was the recognized form everywhere {Ephes. iii.). This evidence is not a little strengthened by the fact that, as all sound critics on both sides are now agreed, the Epistles of Ignatius were evidently not written in order to magnify the episcopal office, or to preach up the episcopal system. The writer's main object is to deprecate schism and all that might tend to schism. And in his opinion the best way to avoid schism is to keep closely united to the bishop. Thus, the magnifying of the episcopal office comes about incidentally ; because Ignatius takes for granted that everywhere there is a bishop in each Church, who is the duly appointed ruler of it, loyalty to whom will be a security against all schismatical tendencies. These four or five points being regarded as esta- blished to an extent which may reasonably be called certainty, there remain certain other points about which certainty is not yet possible, some of which admit of a probable solution, while for others there is so little evidence that we have to fall back upon mere conjecture. Among these would be the distinctions of office, or gradations of rank, among the clergy in the first century iii. i-io.] ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY, 115 or century and a half after the Ascension, the precise functions assigned to each office, and the manner of appointment. With regard to these questions three positions may be assumed with a considerable amount of probability. 1. There was a distinction made between itinerant or missionary clergy and stationary or localized clergy. Among the former we find apostles (who are a much larger body than the Twelve), prophets, and evangelists. Among the latter we have two orders, spoken of as bishops and deacons, as here and in the Epistle to the Philippians (i. i) as well as in the Doctrine of the Twelve ApostleSf presbyter or elder being sometimes used as synonymous with bishop. This distinction between an itinerant and a stationary ministry appears in the First Epistle to the Corinthians (xii. 28), in the Epistle to the Ephesians (iv. ii), and perhaps also in the Acts of the Apostles and in the Epistles of St. John. In the Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles it is clearly marked. 2. There seems to have been a further distinction between those who did, and those who did not, possess supernatural prophetical gifts. The title of prophet was commonly, but perhaps not exclusively, given to those who possessed this gift : and the Doctrine of the Twelve Apostles shows a great respect for prophets. But the distinction naturally died out when these supernatural gifts ceased to be manifested. During the process of extinction serious difficulty arose as to the test of a genuine prophet. Some fanatical persons believed themselves to be prophets, and some dishonest persons pretended to be prophets, when they were not such. The office appears to have been extinct when Ignatius wrote : by prophets he always means the prophets of the Old Testament, Montanism was Ii6 THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY, probably a forlorn attempt to revive this much desired office after the Church as a whole had decided against it. Further discussion of the gift of prophecy in the New Testament will be found in a previous chapter (vi.). 3. The clergy were not elected by the congregation as its delegates or representatives, deputed to perform functions which originally could be discharged by any Christian. They were appointed by the Apostles and their successors or substitutes. Where the congrega- tion selected or recommended candidates, as in the case of the Seven Deacons (Acts vi. 4 — 6), they did not themselves lay hands on them. The typical act of laying on of hands was always performed by those who were already ministers, whether apostles, prophets, or elders. Whatever else was still open to the laity, this act of ordaining was not. And there is good reason for believing that the celebration of the Eucharist also was from the first reserved to the clergy, and that all ministers, excepting prophets, were expected to use a prescribed form of w^ords in celebrating it. But, although much still remains untouched, this discussion must draw to a close. In the ideal Church there is no Lord's Day or holy seasons, for all days are the Lord's, and all seasons are holy ; there are no places especially dedicated to God's worship, for the whole universe is His temple ; there are no persons especially ordained to be His ministers, for all His people are priests and prophets. But in the Church as it exists in a sinful world, the attempt to make all times and all places holy ends in the desecration of all alike ; and the theory that all Christians are priests becomes indistinguishable from the theory that none are such. In this matter let us not try to be wiser than God, Whose will may be discerned in His providential ii. i-io.] ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTIAN MINISTRY. 117 guiding of His Church throughout so many centuries. The attempt to reproduce Paradise or to anticipate heaven in a state of society which does not possess the conditions of Paradise or heaven, can end in nothing but disastrous confusion. In conclusion the following weighty words are grate- fully quoted. They come with special force from one who does not himself belong to an Episcopalian Church. "By our reception or denial of priesthood in the Church, our entire view of what the Church is must be affected and moulded. We shall either accept the idea of a visible and organized body, within which Christ rules by means of a ministry, sacraments, and ordinances to which He has attached a blessing, the fulness of which we have no right to look for except through the channels He has ordained (and it ought to be needless to say that this is the Presbyterian idea), or we shall rest satisfied with the thought of the Church as consisting of multitudes of individual souls known to God alone, as invisible, unorganized, with ordinances blessed because of the memories which they awaken, but to which no promise of present grace is tied, with, in short, no thought of a Body of Christ in the world, but only of a spiritual and heavenly principle ruling in the hearts and regulating the lives of men. Conceptions of the Church so widely different from each other cannot fail to affect in the most vital manner the Church's life and relation to those around her. Yet both conceptions are the logical and necessary result of the acceptance or denial of the idea of a divinely appointed and still living priest- hood among men." * * Professor W. Milligan, D.D., on " The Idea of the Priesthood," in the Expositor for July, 18S8, p. 7. CHAPTER XI. THE APOSTLE'S RULE RESPECTLNG SECOND MAR- RIA GES; ITS MEANING AND PRESENT OBLIGA TION. "The husband of one wife." — I Tim. iii. 2. THE Apostle here states, as one of the first quaUfications to be looked for in a person who is to be ordained a bishop, that he must be '' husband of one wife." The precise meaning of this phrase will probably never cease to be discussed. But, although it must be admitted that the phrase is capable of bearing several meanings, yet it cannot be fairly contended that the meaning is seriously doubtful. The balance of probability is so largely in favour of one of the meanings, that the remainder may be reasonably set aside as having no valid ground for being supported in competition with it. Three passages in which the phrase occurs have to be considered together^ and these have to be compared with a fourth, (i) There is the passage before us about a bishop, (2) another in ver. 12 about deacons, and (3) another in Tit. i. 6 about elders or presbyters, whom St. Paul afterwards mentions under the title of bishop. In ti.ese three passages we have it plainly set forth that Timothy and Titus are to regard it as a necessary qualification in a bishop or elder or presbyter, and also in a deacon, that he should be a iii.2.j RESPECTING SECOND MARRIAGES. 1 19 " man of one woman " or *' husband of one wife " (/Ltta? 7ui/at/co? avr]p). In the fourth passage (l Tim. iv. 9) he gives as a necessary qualification of one who is to be placed on the roll of church widows, that she must be a '' woman of one man " or " wife of one husband" (kvo^ dpSpo