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DIVINITY SCHOOL
TROWBRIDGE LIBRARY

THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.

PRINTED BY MURRAY AND GIBB
FOR
T. & T. CLARK, EDINBURGH.
London, . . . Hamilton, adams, and co.
dublin, . . john robertson and co.
new york, . . . scribner, welford, and armstrong.

THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.

Wqz CKrecIt Ktxt anli translation.

INTRODUCTION, EXPOSITORY NOTES, AND
DISSERT A TIONS.

BY

PATRICK FAIRBAIRN, D.D.,
PRINCIPAL OF FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW ;
AUTHOR OF ' TYPOLOGY OF SCRIPTURE,' ' REVELATION OF LAW,' ETC.

EDINBURGH :
T. & T. CLARK, GEORGE STREET.
1874.

PR.EFAC E.

THIS expository volume on the Pastoral Epistles had its
origin in a department of labour connected with my
official duties. Till lately, it was for many years my lot to
conduct a class of Pastoral Theology for advanced students
preparing for the work of the Christian ministry ; and a
portion of the time during each session was usually devoted
to .the exposition and illustration of more or less of those
Epistles. Practically, it was found impossible to overtake
more, in any particular session, than a comparatively limited
portion of them. But as comments on the whole had been
prepared, I have thought that the publication of them might
be of some advantage to students of Sacred Scripture,
especially to those who are either in the position of candi
dates for the ministry, or without lengthened experience in
the discharge of its duties. The requirements and interests
of such have been kept specially in view throughout the
volume. On that account also, particular respect has been
had, both in the course of exposition, and in the introduc
tion and supplementary dissertations, to the objections
which have been urged — latterly, indeed, with great bold
ness and persistency — against the apostolic authorship and
divine inspiration of these portions, of New Testament
Scripture.

Vlll PREFACE.
The aim of this volume, therefore, will readily be under
stood to differ considerably from that of Bishop Ellicott's,
whose commentary on the Pastoral Epistles bears the desig
nation of " critical and grammatical." The portion of the
late Dean Alford's Commentary on the New Testament which
embraces these Epistles is to a large extent of the same
description. Both commentators have very ably accom
plished the objects they had more especially in view ; and
the frequent references I have made to their productions
will sufficiently evince how profoundly sensible I am of the
services they have rendered to the correct knowledge of
the language and import of the Epistles — though on points
of some moment I have occasionally, felt myself obliged to
differ from each of them. While the critical and grammati
cal have been with me a somewhat less prominent object,
neither of them has been overlooked ; and wherever the
text or the construction is such as to call for special exami
nation or adjustment, this has uniformly received attention,
before anything as. to doctrine or instruction has been
founded on the words. The text of Tischendorf, in his
8th edition, so nearly coincides with what I take to be the
correct one, that I have simply adopted it — twice with a
measure of hesitation (see pp. 273, 373), and once only with
a formal dissent (p. 233). Minor deviations from the
Received Text, as in respect to the spelling and order of
words, I have consequently deemed it unnecessary to
notice ; but wherever the sense has been at all affected by
any change, the principal grounds have uniformly been
adduced on which the text of Tischendorf seems entitled
to the preference.
In regard to the translation, my object has been simply

PREFACE. ix
to present the meaning of the original, as I understand it,
in the words most nearly equivalent — whether they might
accord with those of the Authorized Version or not. This,
however, has never been needlessly departed from. With
the view of rendering the exposition more extensively use
ful, I have also, for the most part, translated the quotations
taken from the Greek and Latin commentators ; but the
original has always been given when anything of moment
depended upon the precise form of expression. The edition
of Winer's Grammar referred to is that published by the
Messrs. Clark, edited by the Rev. W. F. Moulton.
May the effort here made to explain a portion of the
Divine Word, and to vindicate and apply the important
lessons of truth and duty therein contained, carry with it
the Divine blessing, and prove, in however small a degree,
conducive both to the due appreciation of the Word, and
to the furtherance of the great ends of the Christian
ministry.
P. F.
Glasgow, January 1874.

CONTENTS.

Introduction —
Section I. — The Authorship of the Epistles,
II. — Times and Places of Writing, .
III. — Notices of Timothy, .
IV.— Notices of Titus, . . ¦ .
Text and Translation of First Timothy,
Text and Translation of Titus,
Text and Translation of Second Timothy,
Expository Notes on First Timothy,
Expository Notes on Titus, ....
Expository Notes on Second Timothy, .
Appendix A. — The Peculiar Testimony for Gospel
Times, 
Appendix B.— The Meaning of the Expression.
" Husband of one Wife," in i Tim.
III. 2, etc., 
Appendix C — The Treatment of Slavery in New
Testament Scripture,
Note on i Cor. vii. 21 

PAGE
1-19
19-30
31-34 35-36
38-51 52-57
58-67
71-254
?55-305
306-4044O5-4I6
416-432432-451
448-451

Erratum. — Omit "both" in chap. iv. ro, p. 45.

THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.

INTRODUCTION.
Section i. — The Authorship of the Epistles.
THE designation of Pastoral Epistles has been com
monly applied to the two Epistles to Timothy and
the Epistle to Titus, because alike addressed to persons
engaged in pastoral work, and chiefly discoursing of matters
relating to such work. They all bear on their front the
signature of the Apostle Paul ; and never till a compara
tively recent period has their connection with his name
been called in question by any one having a recognised
position in the Christian Church. There were parties in
ancient times wh,o excluded them from the list of St. Paul's
genuine writings ; but these were the leaders of Gnosticism,
rationalists of a very extreme type,' and always regarded
by the Fathers as opponents, rather than adherents, of
the Christian faith. Speaking of such generally, Clement
of Alexandria states that they rejected the Epistles to
Timothy {Strom, ii. n); and Marcion, we are told by
Tertullian, did the same both with these and with the
Epistle to Titus {Adv. Marc. v. 21). Jerome, at a later
period, repeats the assertion in his Preface to the Epistle
to Titus ; and referring to Tatian, the disciple of Marcion,
mentions that he so far differed from his master as to accept
the Epistle to Titus. The conduct of these parties admits
A

2 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
of a ready explanation : they found the sentiments con
tained in the epistles irreconcilable with their speculative
tenets and ascetic virtues, and so they discarded the
epistles in the interest of their system ; as they also, for the
same reason, distorted the meaning of many parts of the
writings they actually received. The exception made by
Tatian in favour of Titus doubtless arose from its less marked
contrariety to Gnostic tendencies.. But both he and Mar
cion, and several also who preceded them in the Gnostic
schools, are witnesses to the early existence and general
acknowledgment of the epistles in question ; since other
wise their rejection of these could not have been reported
as a noticeable circumstance.
But besides this incidental proof, the direct evidence of
the apostolic authority of the epistles, and of the church's
belief in it, is of the most satisfactory kind. The epistles
have a place in the most ancient versions, the Peschito and
the Italic. They are included in the so-called Canon of
Muratori, which, with reference to St. Paul's epistles, men
tions ad Titum una, et ad Timotheum duas. Irenaeus com
mences his work against heresies with an express quotation
from First Timothy, as the words of an apostle suited to the
occasion and object of his writings ; and in other places
he makes direct reference to other passages in the three
epistles, always identifying them with the penmanship of
the apostle (for example, at iii. 14. 1, iv. 16. 3, i. 16. 3).
The same thing is done by Clement of Alexandria {Strom.
ii. 11, iii. 6, i. 14) and by Tertullian {De Eraser. Har.
c. 25, etc.); while by Eusebius the whole three are included
among the writings universally acknowledged {Eccl. Hist.
iii. 25). As a proof, also, of their being in very early and
common use, we find expressions and forms of thought
peculiar to them appropriated in some of the most ancient
Christian writings ; for example, in the Epistle of tlie Roman
Clement (as at c. 29, comp, with 1 Tim. ii. 8), the Epistle

INTRODUCTION. 3
of Polycarp (c. 4, comp. with 1 Tim. vi. 7, 10), and still
more in the writings of Athenagoras, Justin, and Theophilus
of Antioch. In short, the historical evidence of the authen
ticity of the epistles is as full and explicit as could justly be
expected, and it were impossible to disparage it in their
case without denying its validity in respect to the best
accredited books of New Testament Scripture.
Schleiermacher was the first man of note in the church
who formally rejected the testimony of antiquity on the
subject, and took up a hostile position. His objections,
however, were laid only against the First Epistle to Timothy,
which he held to be chiefly a compilation out of the second,
and the Epistle to Titus. His views were set forth in a
letter, published in 1807 ; but they met with strenuous
opposition, even from some who were not remarkable for
the strictness of their orthodoxy — in particular, Planck,
Bertholdt, Hug, Guericke, Heydenreich. But Schleier
macher had his followers, and followers who, for the most
part, did not confine their attacks to the First Epistle to
Timothy, but took exception to all the three. So, for ex
ample, Eichhorn, Schott, Credner, ¦who regarded them as
forgeries done with a good design, probably by Luke, or
some other of Paul's disciples. But Baur went, further : he
thought the work of criticism was imperfectly done till
another period altogether than that to which Paul himself
belonged was shown to be the one which gave birth to the
epistles. And this he thought he found in the times imme
diately subsequent to the rise of the Marcionite heresy, that
'is, somewhere about the middle of the second- century ;
when, alarmed at the appearance of this heresy, and anxious
to check it, some one bethought himself of a series of
letters as the most effectual antidote, written in the name
of Paul to two of his well-known companions and fellow-
workers. But a date so late, as a basis for such an artificial
hypothesis, so palpably conflicts with the historical evidence

4 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
regarding the epistles, that few beyond the small circle of
the Tubingen school have been" found ready to accept the
solution. De Wette, while he renounced the Pauline
authorship of the epistles, was equally opposed to Baur's
position, and to the last maintained that the epistles must
be ascribed to the closing period of the first century. There
are still probably a considerable number of critics in Ger
many, and a few in our own country, who are inclined to
rest in this unsatisfactory conclusion, — a negative one as
regards the relation of the epistles to Paul, and, must we
not add also, as regards their claim to a place in the canon
of New Testament Scripture ?
Such is not the inference of the parties themselves. With
them the term canon, as applied to Scripture, is of some
what doubtful interpretation, and may include the spurious
as well as the genuine, if only written with a good purpose,
and in conformity with sound doctrine. So Bleek, for
example, in respect to the First Epistle to Timothy (to which
he confines his objections, Introd. § 186, 187) ; but Dr.
Davidson gives it more roundly in the last form of his Intro
duction to the New Testament ; and with reference to all
the Pastoral epistles, he very complacently tells us : " The
author chose the name of an apostle to give currency to
his sentiments. Being impressed with the idea that a united
church with sound doctrine was the best safeguard against
heresy [could anybody, we might ask, doubt it ?], he chose
Timothy and Titus as the superintendents of churches, to
whom Paul might address directions about ecclesiastical
organization and heretical views. In all this there was no
dishonesty, because the intention was good. The device
was a harmless one. Though it misled many, the object of
the author was gained." Does not this, however, savour ofthe
wily maxim, that the end sanctifies the means? that one may
innocently lie, if through the lie the truth of God can any
how be made to abound more to His glory? St. Paul him-

INTRODUCTION. 5
self said of all who espoused such a course, that " their
damnation was just" (Rom. iii. 7, 8). And beyond doubt
it is his verdict, not the loose, easy-going utilitarianism of
modern rationalism, that the conscience of Christendom
will respond to and ratify. The authority of these epistles
for pious uses is gone, if their ' apostolic authorship cannot
be sustained; they must share the fate of all hollow pre
tensions. But then, how unlike to such is their real charac
ter — ;so simple, so earnest, so elevated in tone, so resolutely
contending against every form of corruption, expressly
against speaking lies in hypocrisy ! How all this, if the
writer was conscious to himself of starting with a lie, and
lying throughout ? For it is not merely that he has at the
outset assumed a name not really his own, but has invented
a whole series of circumstances and relations which had no
foundation in truth ; and this, strange to say, in the interest
of the truth, and as the best mode of securing its perpetuity
in the church ! The supposition involves a moral impossi
bility; for, as has been justly said, "the belief preached
by the apostles was not the offspring of the morality, but
the morality was the natural fruit of the belief."
It is no small matter, therefore, which is at stake in this
controversy ; nothing less than the authoritative character
and practical value of these Pastoral epistles. Even this
consideration should not induce us to play false with any
portion of the evidence ; but it should certainly dispose us
to examine carefully, and with much deliberation weigh, the
objections urged against the epistles, before we assent to
their validity. Men of the most varied gifts, but of the
most approved scholarship and matured judgment, have
done so, both in this country and on the Continent, and
arrived at the result that there is nothing in the objections
to shake their confidence in the genuineness of the writings
as the veritable productions of St. Paul. But we shall, for
ourselves, consider the more important of them in order.

O THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
I. One class of objections is derived from an alleged
reference to parties and customs which belong to a later
age than the apostle's.
(i.) Of this description is the supposed allusion in several
places to Gnosticism of the Marcionite or Valentinian type.
There certainly are expressions in the epistles, especially .in
the First Epistle to Timothy, which can scarcely be under
stood otherwise than as pointing to the operation of the
Gnostic spirit ; but still only to this spirit in its incipient
state, not in any developed semi-Christian form. Thus, in
chap. vi. 20, Timothy is warned to avoid "profane and vain
babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called," or
i rather " the falsely named gnosis {ttjs ^jrev8a>vifiov yvaxrcus)."
Nothing is here indicated as to any particular Gnostic
theory, which might be rising to the surface in the sphere
of Timothy's labours. The expression is quite general,
and might have been employed ofthe Gnostic spirit, .as it is
known to have manifested itself in the Gospel age, and even
prior to it. No one acquainted with the history of the
times can doubt that the elements of Gnosticism were then
actively at work in many places, and entered deeply into
the Alexandrian and Eastern theosophy. But tending, as
this always did, to draw the mind into vain and foolish
speculations upon subjects which lay beyond the range of
human apprehension, it was necessarily characterized by
much empty talk, and assumptions of knowledge which had
no foundation in realities — soaring idealisms, which might
please the imagination or gratify the pride of intellect, but
which were of no avail to the higher interests of the soul.
Even in Philo there is not a little of this sort of gnosis,
although in his writings the tendency exhibited itself in a
subdued form as compared with what it did in others.
(2.) Much the same may be said of what is intimated at
the beginning of chap, iv., ofthe apprehended forthputtings
of the ascetic spirit — forbidding people to marry, and

INTRODUCTION. 7
commanding to abstain from meats, which God made to be
received with thanksgiving. Such an intimation is perfectly
c6nsistent with the apostolic authorship. For the writer
does not say that the teaching in question had already
come into operation, and was meeting with acceptance in
the church, but that the Spirit gave warnings of its approach;
and all that there is any need for supposing is, that tend
encies had begun to manifest themselves, which to men of
.spiritual discernment seemed to point in that direction.
But for this there was ample ground in the apostolic age —
in the widespread feeling among the better class of theo-
sophists, that the higher degrees of purity were to be attained
only through corporeal fastings, and a disentanglement from
flesh and blood relations. Such a feeling, with correspond
ing practices, had been known to exist for generations
among the Therapeutae of Egypt and the Essenes of Judea.
And it could scarcely be matter of doubt to thoughtful
minds, even without any special revelation from the Spirit
of God, that the great facts of Christianity, and the mighty
moral impulse that went along' with them, would exert a
potent influence upon many of the class referred to, and
incline them, to court an alliance with the church. Indeed,
we have evidence from the apostle's own hand, in another and
not disputed epistle, that characters of a distinctly marked
ascetic type had already been pressing into the Christian
fellowship, and in a much less likely quarter than the towns
of Asia Minor. It is in chap. xiv. of the Epistle to the
Romans where notice is taken, several years before the
Pastoral epistles were written, of some who, on religious
grounds, would eat nothing but herbs, and abstained from
wine ; whom the apostle, indeed, characterizes as weak, yet
exhorts others to receive and treat as Christian brethren.
Even Baur has said of this part of the apostle's writings
{Paulus, p. 300) : " Among the Jewish Christians at Rome
there already existed a dualistic view of the world, very

8 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
closely allied in its root to the Ebionitism of a later age ;
which is the less to be wondered at, as this dualism in
reference to civil life stands in a very natural connection
with that view, which sees in the life of nature an impure
and demoniacal principle, awakening dislike and abhor
rence." Now this mode of contemplation, and the asceticism
naturally springing from it, were not, it must be remembered,
indigenous at Rome: their native home was in the East,
and they were sure to be met with in greater frequency and
fuller efflorescence in the regions where Timothy was fulfill
ing his commission, than in the western capital ofthe Empire.
The period, also, was more advanced ; and it is but natural
to suppose, that as elements of that description came to
grow and intensify in the church, what might at first be
considered merely as a tolerable weakness, should, a little
further on, be warned against as a dangerous departing from
the simplicity of the gospel.
(3.) There is still another passage in the First Epistle to
Timothy, near the commencement, which has been alleged
to contain a reference to opinions that were first broached
by the Gnostics of the second century. It is at chap. i. 4,
where Timothy is exhorted to beware of giving heed to
fables {(ivBoi) and endless genealogies, which served chiefly
to minister strife and debate. Apparently, it is things of
the same sort which are referred to in Tit. i. 14 under the
name of " Jewish fables and commandments of men," and
again in chap. iii. 9 as " foolish questions and genealogies,
and strifes, and disputations about the law.'' These genea
logies and myths or fables are held by the party of Baur
to refer to the fabulous stories of the Gnostics respecting
the generation of seons, and in particular to the scheme of
Valentinus with its regulated system of 30 aeons. It is true
that Irenaeus, at the beginning of his work on the Gnostic
heresies, prefaces what he is going to say on the Valentinian

INTRODUCTION. 9
gnosis, by saying certain men had arisen " who set the truth
aside, and brought in lying words and vain genealogies,
which, as the apostle says, minister questions rather than
godly edifying, which is in faith;" but it is merely a passing
allusion, and cannot be regarded as more than an accom
modation of scriptural words to the subject in hand, whether
they might have been originally intended to bear such a
reference or not. Tertullian makes a similar use of them,
but is more express in connecting that use' with their original
and proper meaning; for, after noticing the Valentinian
fables about the aeons, he affirms, " These are the fables and
endless genealogies which, while the seeds of them were
beginning to bud forth, the spirit of the apostle by anticipa
tion condemned" {Adv. Valent. c. iii.). Tertullian so often
strains Scripture to make it bear a sense favourable to his
own particular views, that nq_ great stress can be laid on his
interpretation in the present case. But a considerable
number of modern commentators have substantially con
curred in that interpretation, such as Grotius, Hammond,
Mosheim, Alford, etc. It is open, however, to serious, and
indeed fatal objections. First of all, the expressions ofthe
apostle, in their natural and proper sense, refer not to things
in heaven, but to things on earth — to the records preserved
of personal or family relationships, and tales associated with
them. If the writer had actually in view emanations pro
ceeding in the spirit-world, he eould with no propriety have
presented them under the name oi genealogies, which are not
emanations, or even births simply, but birth-registers — a term
inapplicable except by way of figure or accommodation to
the heavenly sphere. Besides, in the parallel passages in
Titus, the genealogies are connected with contests about
the law, and the fables are expressly designated fewish; so
that the parties in question must obviously have been viewed
as standing on distinctively Jewish ground, and dealing with
matters which partook more of a Jewish than a Gnostic

IO THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
complexion. So also, in i Tim. i. 7, the persons spoken
of as desiring to be teachers of the law are evidently the
same with those who a little before are noticed as the
broachers of the fables and genealogies warned against.
But with matters of law Gnosticism of the fully-fledged kind
— the Gnosticism which indulged its fancy in concocting
emanation-systems — -took little concern ; it soared above
them. It is a further confirmation of the same view, that
Polybius, the only ancient writer out of Scripture who
couples together y.v6oi and yeveaXoyiai, does so in precisely
the same manner as the apostle : that is, he applies them to
the origins of families and nations on earth. He speaks of
many having narrated the genealogies and myths of nations,
their colonies, and kindreds, and foundations (L. ix. c. 2).
Schottgen also has brought forward, on 1 Tim. i. 4, some
specimens of Jewish fables respecting genealogies, one of
which at least has an important doctrinal bearing ; and the
whole, whether or not ,as ancient as the apostle's time, are
yet sufficient to show how materials of this description
might be made to minister to much fruitless disputation,
and even to erroneous teaching. So that we hold — in
opposition to a statement made by Alford— they might, and
in reality did, touch religious interests quite enough to
account for the apostle's strong denunciations of them. We
conclude, therefore, that the parties meant by the apostle in
this class of references were a sort of pragmatical formalists,
if in some sense Christian, or with acknowledged leanings
in that direction, yet more Rabbinical than Christian —
persons who delighted to talk and wrangle about legal points,
who could raise questions and relate stories on the nature
and bearings of genealogies, but which were of little moment,
however they might be settled ; which, for the most part,
might be settled anyhow, so far as the great interests of
truth and righteousness are concerned. It was every way
becoming the aged apostle to warn the youthful evangelist

INTRODUCTION. 1 1
to keep aloof from such a friyolous and fruitless line of
things. Indeed, it was just then that such warnings were
likely to be needed ; as, shortly after the close of the
apostolic age, troublers of that description might be said to
lose their standing-ground for the Christian church. After
that, her chief dangers came from other quarters. This is
virtually admitted by Alford, though it seems scarcely to
consist with the view he takes ofthe genealogies and fables.
He is satisfied that the false teachers alluded to in the
epistles have more of a Judaistic cast about them than
could have been the case if full-blown Gnostics had been
referred to ; that, looked at generally, " they seem to hold
a position intermediate to the apostle's former Judaizing
adversaries and the subsequent Gnostic heretics — distinct
from both, and just at that point in the progress from the
one form of error to the other which would suit the period
subsequent to the Epistle to the Philippians, and prior to
the destruction of Jerusalem. There is therefore nothing
in them and their characteristics which can cast a doubt on
the genuineness of the epistles" {Prolog, p. 77). No, but
at the period in question the church had as yet heard
nothing of genealogies, in the sense of generations and
cycles of aeons.
(4.) A class of objections belonging to the same general
head of references to things subsequent to the apostolic
period, but derived from a different quarter, has respect to
the notices contained in the epistles of church order and
organization : these seem to betoken too advanced a state
of matters for St. Paul's time. So De Wette, as well as
Baur and many others, have contended. According to
them, the writer gives indication of hierarchical tendencies.
If so, they must be allowed to have had little in common
with the hierarchical tendencies of a later age. Here we
find no bishop, in the modern sense of the term ; no priest
with strictly sacerdotal functions ; no presiding head even

12 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
of the common council of presbyters, who in a more
special manner was charged with the spiritual oversight of
the church in each particular place ; but an eldership, more
or less numerous, sharing in common the spiritual guardian
ship and edification of the flock. In short, we find only
the earliest and simplest form known to us of church order
and government, that which had already existed for genera
tions in the Jewish synagogues, and which with little varia
tion was transferred to the newly planted churches of
Christian believers. Not only so, but the instructions given
through Timothy and Titus to those spiritual overseers are
entirely void of hierarchical and ritualistic elements : they
press only moral considerations and duties, which had no
thing to do with formal distinctions and minutely prescribed
observances. In addition to that primitive type of spiritual
officers, mention is made only of deacons — the class ap
pointed first, within a few years after the Ascension, in the
mother church at Jerusalem, then in the larger churches
generally, for administering the pecuniary affairs and chari
table offerings of the people. Even these are noticed but
once, in connection with Ephesus, not with Crete, where
matters were only beginning to take a regulated form when
the apostle wrote. All, in a word, as to official organization,
is as one might have expected it to be, if anything of this sort
was to have been noticed at all ; and it is assuredly very
different from the kind of references that would have been
found, if the epistles had been written after hierarchical
principles had developed themselves.
As to what is said about widows, also of marriage-rela
tionships in the case of church officers, there is nothing,
when the passages are rightly interpreted, which can be
deemed indicative of a state of things alien to the first age
.of the church. But this can only be exhibited by an
analysis of the passages bearing on the subject.
II. We now therefore pass on to another feature in the

INTRODUCTION.

13

epistles, to which exception has been taken; namely,
certain peculiarities in the cast of thought and the mode of
expression found in these epistles, but not in the genuine
writings of Paul. Undoubtedly there are differences of the
kind referred to, which cannot well be overlooked. The
only question is, Whence did they originate? Are they
not explicable by the different circumstances in which the
epistles were written, the different topics handled, and the
comparatively novel opinions and practices brought into
consideration? Beyond doubt, there were very obvious
and material differences in these respects. It is nothing
to the purpose, therefore, to be told that a great many
words occur in these epistles not elsewhere found in the
apostle's writings : for, to a certain extent, such are to be
found in all his epistles ; and here, for the reasons stated,
they might be justly expected in greater frequency. The
difference is not, after all, very large. Planck has shown
that there are 81 words of the kind in question in First
Timothy, 63 in Second Timothy, and 44 in Titus. But
then in the Epistle to the Philippians there are 54, in Gala
tians 57, in Ephesians and Colossians together 143. But
in these epistles it is the common truths and obligations of
the gospel which form the chief subjects of discourse, while
the three Pastoral epistles occupy ground in a great degree
peculiar to themselves. And when one looks to the varieties
produced, and finds among them such examples as the fol
lowing,^ — eXeos, used in the salutation to Timothy, along with
Xapis and elpr)vrj, moTOS 6 \6yos, \6yos iytr/s, ^rjTrjO-eis, fxvBos,
v&fypav, elo-ePeta, /3e/3ijXoj, — words which any writer might
have used as the particular occasion or the impulse of the
moment might have prompted, — one can only wonder at the
frivolous ingenuity, which out of things so common could
have thought of discovering formidable instances.
The questions which in this respect would really be of a
testing kind are such as these : Does any term occur in

14 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
the Pastoral epistles which was not in use when the apostle
lived? Or are words used in senses which were not ac
quired till a later time? Or, finally, are these turns of
thought and expression not appropriate or natural for the
apostle to have employed in the position' actually occupied
by him, and with reference to the ends for which he lived ?
Such questions would be strictly relevant, and, if capable
of being answered in the affirmative, would be fatal to the
genuineness of the epistles. But nothing of such a descrip
tion has been established. There are, indeed, certain forms
of expression occurring with some frequency in these epistles,
which might, for aught that we can see, have been employed
in the other epistles, though in reality they are not : such,
for example, as the application of the term Saviour specially
to God (i Tim. i.. i, ii. 3, iv. 10 ; Tit. i. 3); the designation
of teaching, according to its quality, as sound, healthful, or
unsound, diseased (1 Tim. i. 10, vi. 3, 4 ; 2 Tim. i. 13, iv. 3 ;
Tit. i. 9, 13, ii. 1, 8) ; and the favourite expression of
"faithful is the word," or saying (1 Tim. i. 15, iii. 1, iv. 9 ;
2 Tim. ii. 11 ; Tit. i. 9). But surely it is quite conceivable
that the state of things in the church about the time the
epistles were written, especially the kind and tendencies of
the errors which had begun to prevail, may have naturally
enough led to the employment of such a phraseology. That
certain probable reasons can be assigned for them, will be
shown in the exposition. But is it not also competent to
ask, whether it was upon the whole less likely that the
apostle would himself resort to such modes of speech in
his latter days ; or that a mere imitator, counterfeiting his
name, would do so ? The latter could scarcely afford to
venture on a liberty of this description ; he would be afraid
of his speech betraying him ; while Paul himself, writing
in the conscious freedom of his own powers and purposes,
might readily vary his language, as seemed natural or
proper in the circumstances. There is the more force in

INTRODUCTION. 1 5
this consideration, as the general character of the diction is
quite Pauline, and in a much greater number of expressions
is there a marked resemblance to the other epistles than in
those referred to a dissimilarity. On the supposition of our
epistles being the production of an artful but well-intentioned
imitator, can- any reason be conceived why so many delicate
and pervading correspondences should have been associated
with such marked divergences ? Surely he who could catch
the one would have taken care to avoid the other.1
So far, then, as a change is perceptible in the style, though
it is not without a measure of difficulty, it seems most readily
accounted for by change of circumstances and lapse of time.
" New words very soon are employed, when new ideas arise
to require them. The growth of new heresies, the develop
ment of church organization, the rapid alteration of circum
stances in a great moral revolution, may fitly account for
the use of new terms in a new sense. Moreover, the
language of letters to individual friends might be expected <
to differ somewhat from that of public letters to churches"
(Conybeare and Howson, ii. 553).
III. A still further source of objections has been found
in the contents and structure of the epistles. Of these some
are so insignificant and captious, that it is unnecessary to
specify them here. Others, also, are so intimately connected
with the nature and design of the epistles, that they might
equally be urged against any author whatever, as against
1 Alford has given a pretty long list of the resemblances found in the
language of the three epistles with a single one of the undisputed
Pauline — that to the Galatians : tou Vovro; iauriv npi. Gal. i. 4, I Tim.
ii. 16, Tit. ii. 14 ; tU roils aiavas tuv aluvuv, Gal. i. 5, ! Tim. 1. 17 j
a-poixoirmv, Gal. i. 14, 2 Tim. ii. 16, iii. 9 ; otvXos, Gal. ii. 9, I Tim.
iii. 15 ; ccvcnroi, Gal. iii. i, I Tim. vi. 9, Tit. iii'. 3 ; i^nrirns, Gal. iii.
jza, 1 Tim. ii. 5 ; li.*U objective, Gal. v. 5, Tit. ii. 13 ; mi/tan
ayiah, Gal. v. 18, 2 Tim. iii. 6 ; xa.ip$ l$i*>, Gal. vi. 19, 1 Tim. ii.
6, Tit. i. 3. In Kom. xvi. 25, also, there are as many as five verbal
correspondences with expressions in the Pastoral epistles.

1 6 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
St. Paul, if not more so. Thus, exception is taken to the
constant moral reference of what is said in various passages
respecting faith, the identifying of sound views of Christian
doctrine with a good conscience, and of erroneous doctrine
with a bad one. In substance, the same thing is done in
other epistles of Paul, 5nly in a more general way (for ex
ample, Rom. i. 17, 18, Gal. ii. 17-20, v. 6, etc.). But if what
served in good measure to call, forth the Pastoral epistles
was the growth of a species of heretical doctrine, which
tended to sophisticate the conscience, and substitute specu
lative for saving knowledge, then, whoever the writer might
be, he could not have effectually met the evil he sought to
correct and guard against, without tracing the evil thus up
to its source. The Apostle John does precisely the same
thing, when writing with a similar aim, though after his own
peculiar style ; for example, 1 John i. 6-10, iii. 5-7, 2 John
9-1 1. " The precepts and directions (says Davidson in his
more advanced criticism on these epistles, Introd. ii. 169)
are ethical and outward, relating to conduct. They touch
upon matters of conscience or propriety. The very health
of Timothy is attended to. Regulations about churches,
their organization, and their office-bearers, are such as
might have been left to the judgment of Timothy and Titus
themselves." That is to say, everything of such a nature is
a matter of perfect indifference as regards the true interests
of the chufch, and may be regulated as seems good to
persons of ordinary capacity; although it is notorious from
the history of the past, that infinite evil has come into the
church from individual caprice in such things, and that if
we had wanted this portion of the apostle's writings, we
should have been without the best materials we now possess
for understanding the original polity and government of the
church. Indeed, as Alford has remarked, the opponents of
the apostolic authorship of the epistles have most effectually
defeated themselves on the aspect of the matter now under

INTRODUCTION. 1 7
consideration., " Schleiermacher, holding First Timothy to
be compiled out of the other two, finds it in many respects
objectionable and below the mark ; Baur will not concede
this latter estimate ; and De Wette charges Schleiermacher,,
with having failed to penetrate the sense of the writer, and
found faults where a more thorough exposition must pro
nounce a favourable judgment. These differences may
well serve to strike out the argument, and indeed all such
purely subjective estimates, from the realms of Biblical
criticism." Nor is there any more force in what has been alleged
from the structure of the epistles, — those especially to
Timothy, — that they want the compactness of Paul's other
writings, are somewhat loosely put together, and are occa
sionally abrupt in their transitions from one topic to another.
As if Paul, in writing to a bosom friend and fellow-labourer,
should have observed the same regard to method, and pur
sued a like formal treatment of subjects, as in those epistles
which were of the nature of regular discussions ! This
would have been unnatural ; the more so, as the things
which fell to be noticed here were of a somewhat varied'
description, partly relating to Timothy's personal behaviour,
and partly to the state of affairs in the church. Accord
ingly, one of the most striking examples of the unmethodical
and abrupt character of the mode of writing characteristic
of the epistles — the advice, interjected amid things of
higher moment, that Timothy should use a little wine for
his stomach's sake and frequent infirmities (i Tim. v. 23) —
is, with his usual discrimination, seized upon by Paley as a
convincing proof of verisimilitude and genuineness. " In
actual letters (he says), in the negligence of a real corre
spondence, examples of this kind frequently take place —
seldom, I think, in any other production. For the moment
a man regards what he writes as a composition, which the
author of a forgery would of all others be the first to do,

15 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
notions of order in the management and succession of his
thoughts suggest themselves to his judgment, and guide his
pen." Thus, what the mere critic, on the, outlook for ob
jections, brands with his mark of suspicion, the man of
shrewd discernment and practical sagacity, guided mainly
by a regard to the habits of actual life, perceived to be one
of the surest indications of a genuine frankness and sim
plicity. Wieseler, I may add, in a recent article in Herzog's
Encyclopaedia (Suppl. iii. p. 296), delivers himself even
more strongly, while considering the passage from a slightly
different point of view : he conceives the passage, so
peculiarly introduced, " to be a striking proof of the
genuineness of the epistle, because the deep solicitude
manifested in it by Paul for Timothy, not only corresponds ,
with what is known of his loving heart, but appears so
individually coloured, and breaks forth so instantaneously,
'that it could not possibly be counterfeited."
A similar judgment might be pronounced upon a request
in 2 Tim. iv. 13, equally homely in its character, and
equally abrupt in its manner of introduction. There Timothy
is desired to bring with him the cloak the apostle had left
at Troas, and the books, especially the parchments ; quite
natural if the apostle himself so wrote, but a most impro
bable and senseless thing for any one to invent in his
name ! For " what possible motive there could- be for in
serting such minute particulars, unexampled in the aposde's
other letters, founded on no incident in history, tending to
no result, might well baffle the acutest observers of the
phenomena of falsification to declare" (Alford).
Without going further into detail here, the conclusion
which forces itself upon us from the leading characteristics
of the contents and structure of the epistles, is diat it was
infinitely more likely they should have proceeded from the
hand of St. Paul, than from any one falsely assuming his
name. There are ample reasons for the one supposition,

INTRODUCTION. 1 9
but none adequate to sustain the other. Had a desire to
meet the rising indications of Gnosticism tempted some one
to enter the field under false colours, the object would have
appeared far more prominent than it actually does, and the
epistles would not have presented either the varied or the
earnest character which belongs to them. No sinister aim,
no predominant idea in the mind of a forger, but only truth
and reality, can account for them as they actually exist.
Section ii. — Time and Places of Writing.
A point remains for consideration, and one certainly not
unattended with difficulty, — namely, where to find in the
history of the apostle a probable or appropriate time and
place for the writing of the epistles. It is a difficulty which
respects more especially the First Epistle to Timothy. The
second epistle bears to have been written in the closing
stage of the apostle's career, when the prospect of martyr
dom was staring him in the face. Nor is there anything in
the known circumstances of the time that can justly be
regarded as incompatible with this supposition. The only
room for question is, whether it may have been written
toward the close of a first or of a second imprisonment.
And on this question opposite opinions have been,- and
probably may still be held ; but we shall have occasion to
advert to it before we close. As for the Epistle to Titus,
since it merely implies a brief connection sometime had by
the apostle with Crete, — a connection never touched on in
the history of the Acts, — it scarcely admits either of con
firmation from circumstantial evidence, or the reverse. It
is quite possible, that during the apostle's long sojourn at
Corinth, he might have paid a visit to that important island.
Or, supposing there was a second imprisonment taking
place after a considerable interval from the first, it is per
fectly conceivable that opportunity was taken during the

20 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
interval to visit Crete, leaving Titus behind him to complete
the organization of the infant churches. Our chief disad
vantage here lies in the scantiness of our materials, the
chief historical record having closed some time before the
termination of his labours. But, from the striking similarity
both in sentiment and modes of expression which the
Epistle to Titus presents to the two other Pastoral episdes,
it can scarcely be doubted that they belong to much the
same period in the apostle's history; and no solution of
the question can be deemed quite satisfactory which would
place a considerable mterval between them.
The historical problem has its chief difficulty, as we have
said, in connection with the First Epistle to Timothy. In
that epistle no allusion is made to any personal arrest or
imprisonment ; and for aught that appears, the aposde was
quite free when he wrote to regulate his own movements,
and discharge his apostolical functions. The most specific
historical allusion is at chap. i. 3, where he states that, on
setting out for Macedonia, he had besought Timothy to
abide still at Ephesus, for the purpose of repressing certain
errors in doctrine and corrupt tendencies which had begun
to manifest themselves. It is clear from this, and from the
whole tenor of the epistle, that the charge devolved on
Timothy at Ephesus was one that would require some time
for its execution, and that it could not have been St. Paul's
intention to assign a very brief limit to it, when, at chap. iii.
14, he expressed a hope of being able to rejoin Timothy
shortly {tclxiov). Now there is no period in the history of the
apostle, as recorded in the Acts, which exactly meets these
conditions, although three several methods have been
devised to bring what is recorded into a measure of con
formity with them.
1. One, and indeed the readiest to have occurred — adopted
by Theodoret, Benson, Michaelis, etc. — was the occasion of
the tumult raised in Ephesus by Demetrius and his crafts-

INTRODUCTION. 21
men, which greatly imperilled the life of the apostle, and
obliged him to leave the city (Acts xix. 24-xx. 1 ; 2 Cor. i.
8). Paul did then actually go from Ephesus to Macedonia.
But a notice in the history shortly before, informs us that he
had previously sent Timothy and Erastus away into Mace
donia, intending himself presently to follow (xix. 22) ; the
outbreak of Demetrius only served to hasten a little the
period of his departure. But since Timothy had on that
occasion been despatched before the apostle, it must plainly
have been of some other time that Paul spoke, when he
represents himself as having gone to Macedonia, and
Timothy as left behind for special work in Ephesus. It is
evident also from another consideration, viz. that when he
reached Macedonia, he appears either to have rejoined
Timothy there, or to have been immediately rejoined by
him ; for the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, which was
written soon after his going into Macedonia, has the name
of Timothy along with his own in the opening salutation.
In another epistle also, that to the Romans, which was
written only a little later, and after he had proceeded to
Corinth, Timothy is mentioned as being at the time with
the apostle (xvi. 21). A short period further on, again, his
name occurs among several others who left Greece with the
apostle, with the view of accompanying him on his last visit
to Jerusalem (Acts xx. 4). In such a chain of circumstances,
with Timothy always present as a constituent portion, there
seems no possibility of getting a situation that corresponds
with the opening statement of the epistle.
2. Nor do they suit any better with another mode of
explanation, — one adopted by Grotius, Hammond, Ber-
tholdt, etc.,, — according to which, while the deputies who
accompanied Paul from Greece to Jerusalem went before
to Troas, where they waited for the apostle (Acts xx. 5),
Timothy, it is supposed, may, have proceeded to Ephesus,
where he was followed by this epistle, requesting him to

22 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
attend to certain matters of importance, and to abide till
Paul himself should come. This is altogether improbable,
and at variance with the language employed. For, in such
a case, it could not with truth have been said that Timothy
was besought to abide still at Ephesus {irpoo-iieivai) after the
apostle had left it. Or, if an earlier period were thought of,
as has been done, when Timothy was left behind at Ephesus,
though he had rejoined the apostle before his work was
completed, and again went back from Troas to resume and
finish it, the supposition becomes so peculiarly complicated,
that it cannot be accepted as a natural explanation of the
historical allusion in the epistle. Besides, Paul could not
have said at Miletus, a few days after leaving Troas, to the
Ephesian elders, that he expected to see their face no more
(Acts xx. 25), and yet have written Timothy that he hoped
ere long to be with him at Ephesus.
3. A third hypothesis has been formed, and, with several
modifications, has met with support from men of thought
and learning. Mosheim was the first to propose the solu
tion, according to which there was a temporary visit of Paul
to Macedonia, and perhaps to other parts of Greece, some
time during his three years' sojourn at Ephesus, — a visit left
unnoticed in the history of the Acts. Mosheim thought
this view afforded an explanation of an apparent discrepance
in the notes of time given in the Acts respecting the duration
ofthe apostle's labours in Ephesus; in one of which, chap.
xix. 9, 1 o, he is said to have first continued for three months,
meeting and disputing with the Jews in the synagogue ;
and in another, that for two whole years he taught in the
school of one Tyrannus ; while he himself, in addressing
the Ephesian elders, reminded them that his labours among
them had been protracted to three years (xx. 31). It is
supposed that by this expression the apostle may have
meant merely that the burden of his time and active agency
for that period had been given to Ephesus, while a portion

INTRODUCTION. 23
of it — eight or nine months — may have been spent in
Macedonia and elsewhere. And if so, then Timothy may
have been left behind at Ephesus to supply the apostle's
place, and attend to the matters mentioned in the first
epistle. Considered by itself, this supposition is not one
that can be designated impossible; and if other things
suited, it might (notwithstanding the silence of the writer
of the Acts) be accepted as a probable, if not quite natural,
solution of the difficulty. But it is attended with serious
embarrassments, which cannot well be got over ; and those
who agree in the general about it, fall out among them
selves when they go to work out the details. Mosheim
placed the supposed visit to Jerusalem early in the three
years, without allowing sufficient time for the formation of a
church at Ephesus so regularly organized, and the develop
ment of tendencies so evidently heretical, as is implied in
the epistle. Therefore Schrader and Wieseler have pre
ferred throwing the time back to the latter part of the
period in question ; but they connect with this tour, be
sides the visit to Macedonia, a visit also to Achaia and
Crete, and even to Cilicia and Antioch.
It seems, however, by no means likely that Paul would
have pursued such a lengthened course of ministerial agency
in these other places, while matters were plainly emerging
at Ephesus which called for delicate and authoritative '
dealing. Some very urgent reason would have been re
quired to ,make him do so ; of which, however, we know
nothing. Then, it is difficult to conceive that at any
period during the three years, and while Paul himself was
taking the chief charge at Ephesus, the teachers of false
doctrine should have begun to- assume so dangerous an
aspect ! their having done so would rather seem to argue
his absence for some considerable time, and more favour
able circumstances for their mischievous purposes. We
may the rather conclude thus, as at a later period still, when

24 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
addressing at Miletus the elders from Ephesus, it was not
yet the actual presence, but only the probable rise, at no
distant period, of heretical teachers, respecting which the
apostle warned them. Still further, the epistle, in its gene
ral character and bearing, seems plainly to point to a much
more prolonged and responsible agency on the part of
Timothy at Ephesus, than he was at all likely to have had
devolved on him if the apostle had only left it for a brief
missionary tour. And lastly, we should be obliged, on
the hypothesis in question, to separate the First Epistle to
Timothy, and also the Epistle to Titus, from the Second
Epistle to Timothy, by an interval of several years ; while
yet the cast of thought and expression iri it presents so
many resemblances to the two other epistles, and so cha
racteristically differs in that respect from those certainly
belonging to an earlier time, that it is difficult to believe
there did actually exist such an interval. The whole of
the Pastoral epistles must be assigned to much the same
period, and that later by some years than the other
epistles. This combination of difficulties has been felt by many
of the more impartial and considerate investigators to be so
serious, that they have renounced as hopeless the attempt
to find a place for the Pastoral epistles anywhere within
the historical period embraced in the Acts of the Aposdes,
and have consequently transferred them to a time subse
quent to his release from the first imprisonment. So, for
example, Paley, Wiesinger, Huther, Conybeare and HOw-
son, Alford, Ellicott. It is no new notion, however ; for it
was a part of the traditional belief in ancient times con
cerning the apostle, that the appeal he took at Cassarea to
the Emperor terminated in his favour, and that some years
of freedom were granted to him afterwards for the preaching
of the gospel. The closing notice in the Acts may itself
be taken as proof; for a man who " dwelt two whole years

INTRODUCTION. 25
in his own hired house, and received all that came in unto
him," could no longer have been looked upon as a culprit :
he must either have been acquitted of the charge brought
against him, or, as is equally probable, it must have been
allowed to drop by the non-appearance of his accusers to
support it. They must have seen long before, that in the
eye of Roman law they had no proper ground to stand
upon. The cause had been heard twice by Roman pro
curators at Caesarea, and each time without any legal
offence being established against him. Festus even ex
pressed his inability to give formal expression to the charge
in a form that could render it properly cognisable in a court
of law ; and Agrippa, after hearing him, declared his con
viction, that but for his own appeal, the prisoner might
have been set at liberty (Acts xxv. 27, xxvi. 32). It can
scarcely be doubted that lawyers at Rome would come to
the same conclusion about it.
This result — namely, that Paul was acquitted and again
resumed his labours — is confirmed by various allusions and
testimonies. When writing from Rome -to the Philippians,
some time during his first confinement, he spoke of it as not
improbable that he might again be permitted to see them
(i. 27). In his Epistle to Philemon also, written probably
a little later, he even went further ; and as well-nigh certain
of being able to revisit his old field of labour in Asia
Minor, he requested Philemon to prepare for him a lodging
(ver. 22). Then, passing to the Patristic testimonies, the
Roman Clement, in his letter to the church at Corinth,
represents Paul as having, after being frequently imprisoned
and stoned, gone to the extreme west (ro repp.a ttjs tvo-eas),
testifying of the gospel (c. v.), which seems to point to
ministrations somewhere farther west than Rome, as the
capital of the Empire could scarcely be designated the
extremity of the west by any intelligent writer in the Gospel
age. Eusebius, giving the common tradition of his time,

26 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
says that, " after pleading his cause, Paul is reported to have
been again sent forth upon the ministry of preaching, and
that, on coming a second time to the city, he finished his
course with martyrdom" {Eccl. Hist. ii. 22). Eusebius
connects with this second imprisonment the writing of the
Second Epistle to Timothy; and after quoting various
passages from it to support the view he takes, he states
it as probable that, " since Nero was more disposed to
mildness in' the beginning of his reign, the apostle's de
fence of his doctrine would be more willingly received ; "
but that, as he afterwards advanced to the greatest criminal
excesses, the apostles, as well as others, were made to
experience the effects. Jerome confirms this testimony in
its more essential parts. He says ( Vir. illus!) that Paul was
dismissed by Nero to preach the gospel in the west; and
he connects the martyrdom of Paul with the fourteenth year
of Nero's reign, probably a.d. 68, seven years after Paul
first reached Rome, and five after the period at which the
narrative of the Acts closes.
Holding, then, to the fact of two imprisonments, we may
suppose that the apostle, after having regained his liberty
from the first, and continued his labours for some time in
Rome, went elsewhere to prosecute his apostolic calling.
It is possible that he then made good his former purpose
of visiting Spain (Rom. xv. 24), though we have, no certain
evidence of the fact ; and the more advanced period of life
at which he had now arrived would probably induce him,
if not altogether to abandon the design, at least to devote
little time to its accomplishment. Hence no particular
church in Spain appears to have been able to claim him as
its founder. It would naturally seem better for him, a
work more in accordance with his declining years, to re
visit the scenes of his former labours in Greece and Asia,
and give to the churches he had been honoured to plant
the benefit of what still remained to him of active service.

INTRODUCTION. 27
He might the more readily be induced to take this course,
from the knowledge he had obtained, that during his long
confinement, first in Caesarea and then in Rome, the seeds.
of error had begun to spring up in several of those churches,
and needed to be repressed with a firm yet tender hand.
Indications of this are not wanting in some of the epistles
he wrote from Rome. But it is impossible for us to trace
with any certainty the course he followed. He had ex
pressed a hope of soon being able to see in person his
beloved Philippians ; and it is quite probable that Philippi
and other parts of Greece; being the more easily reached,
might be among the first places he revisited. From thence
he may have passed over into Asia, spending more or less
time at such places as Troas, Laodicea, Colossse, Ephesus ;
at which last place, finding matters in a peculiarly critical
condition, and requiring prolonged and careful superin
tendence, he left Timothy behind, himself returning to
Macedonia, whence he might find his way back to Ephesus
or to the Nicopolis which is mentioned in Tit. iii. 12 as
the place where he had resolved to spend a winter. It
was most ptobably the town of that name in Epirus which
was meant, but others have thought of Nicopolis in Cilicia.
In some one or other of those goings and returnings he
most likely took Crete on his way, and, after a short period
of labour, left Titus to complete the work.
When the final arrest was laid on the apostle's move
ments, whether at the instance of some adversaries of the
gospel in the regions he was visiting, or by persons in the
Roman capital after he had again returned thither, we
cannot tell. The ferocious treatment which the Christians
in Rome received from Nero in a.d. 64, would naturally
embolden the formerly baffled opponents of the apostle to
renew their attempts against his life ; and, taught by past
experience, to do it now on more general grounds. The
former accusation turned on what might be called dis-

28 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
tinctively Jewish points ; and being laid against one who
had the rights of a Roman citizen, the result would
necessarily come to be determined by the principles of
Roman jurisprudence. But the persecution of Nero had
drawn a distinction between Jew and Christian, and had
virtually given the adversaries of the gospel a warrant to
regard and treat its adherents as in a kind of exceptional
position, not entitled to the protection afforded to others
by the laws of the Empire. It would therefore be quite
easy to get up an accusation against so noted a Christian as
Paul, charging him with a violation of the law (for instance)
which forbade the introduction of a new and illicit re
ligion {religio nova et illicitd), or of being a ringleader of
the. party who had set fire to the city. To be so arraigned
was to be placed in a far more perilous position than when
charged merely with disrespect as to the punctilios of Jewish
religiousness ; it was to be brought into conflict with the
constitution and safety of the commonwealth, and eyed as
a person of dangerous revolutionary principles. On this
account, doubtless, it is that we are to explain, not only the
different termination of the second impeachment from the
first, but also the painfully different behaviour of his friends
under it. On the former occasion the apostie seems to
have had no reason to complain ; he received from them
the most gratifying proofs of sympathy and kindness, so
that his prison-house became a centre of attraction rather
than a ground of repulsion. But during the second trial all
seems sadly changed for the worse : at the first hearing of
his case, "no man stood by him;" "all forsook him and
fled ; " and things looked so disastrously, that friend after
friend departed, one in this direction, another in that.
Onesiphorus is mentioned as singular in having " sought
him out, not being ashamed of his chain." Luke alone
at last remained with him. All, doubtless, because, from
the nature of the accusation, it was to imperil one's life

INTRODUCTION. 29
even to. appear in a friendly relation to the apostle ; his
sympathizers might be involved in the same condemnation
with himself. It is evident, from the notices in the closing
verses of Second Timothy, that Paul very keenly felt the
loneliness in which this state of matters left him; but he
clung only the more closely to the one all-sufficient Friend,
and found the support he needed. As to the kind of death
he suffered, Jerome says it was by being beheaded, and the
body was buried in the Ostian Way. But these are only
later traditions, and no great value can be attached to
them. There is so much of verisimilitude in the general outline
just sketched, that it may be acquiesced in as by much the
most probable view that can now be entertained of the last
days of the apostle. And in addition to the various col
lateral circumstances already noticed, which speak in favour
of it, there are a few allusions of an incidental kind in the
Second Epistle to Timothy, which can scarcely be made to
consist with anything but a later1 visit to Greece and Asia,
between a first and a second impeachment. Thus, at chap.
iv. 13, he requests Timothy to bring with him the cloak
and the books he had left at Troas, — a request which can
hardly be understood of things left tliere when the apostle
was on his way from Greece to Jerusalem, before his arrest
in the temple ; since, on any computation, a good many
years must have elapsed between that and the writing of
the epistle, and many opportunities must meanwhile have
occurred to regain possession of the things he had left.
Again, it is said in iv. 20, that the apostle had left Tro
phimus at Miletus sick, which was certainly not the. case
on the occasion of his going up from Greece to Jerusalem ;
for not only was Trophimus then with him, but it was his
appearance with Paul in the city which afforded the Jews a
pretext for charging Paul with defiling the temple, by bring
ing Greeks into it. Still further, it is said in the same verse

30 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
that "Erastus abode at Corinth," that is, remained there
when Paul left it. But as Timothy himself was with Paul
when he left Corinth to proceed to Jerusalem, Timothy
could not require to be informed of it; and besides, as
years had anyhow elapsed since then, it would have been
out of place to notice it as a piece of news now. Every
thing seems to point to a succession of circumstances be
longing to a period subsequent to the first imprisonment.
Of the subscriptions to the three Pastoral epistles, the
first is manifestly wrong; for it names Laodicea as the place
of writing, while in the epistle itself the writer speaks of
himself as having left Ephesus for Macedonia: so that
Philippi, or some other town in that region, is most
naturally thought of as the place from which it proceeded.
There is also an error in the subscription to the Epistle to
Titus ; for it gives the date as from Nicopolis in Macedonia,
while no Nicopolis is known to have belonged to that
province. Probably Nicopolis in Macedonia was a mis
take for Nicopolis in Epirus. But even that had been
wrong, (see at Tit. iii. 12). So that, out of three sub
scriptions, two are almost certainly erroneous. And this
is but a sample of the subscriptions generally, which are
oftener wrong than right; because, as Paley notes, they
were founded on loose traditions, or a hasty view of some
particular text. Yet, as he justly adds, " if the epistles had
been forged, the whole must have been made up of the
same elements as those of which the subscriptions are
composed; and it would have remained to be accounted
for, how, whilst so many errors were crowded into the con
cluding clauses of the letters, so much consistency should
be preserved in other parts."

INTRODUCTION.

.31

Section hi.— Notices of Timothy.
The Timothy to whom two of the Pastoral epistles were
addressed, was from an early period a close companion and
attendant of St. Paul. He is first mentioned in the narrative
of Paul's second missionary tour through the cities of Asia
Minor (Acts xvi. 1 sq.). He was a native of Derbe or
Lystra— of which of them cannot be quite certainly deter
mined ; but the probability seems to lie on the side of
Lystra, as, in a passage where Gaius and Timothy are
mentioned together (Acts xx. 4), the epithet AepPatos is
applied only to Gaius, as if in that respect to distinguish
him from Timothy. His mother and grandmother were
exemplary and pious Jewish females (2 Tim. i. 5), but his
father was a Greek. That he was converted to the Christian
faith through the ministrations of the apostle, and on the
occasion of his first visit to Lystra, there can be little doubt,
as the apostle designates him his own or his true child in
the faith (1 Tim. i. 2) ; and by the time of the apostle's
second visit, he was in good repute among the brethren
(Acts xvi. 2). Young as he was, there was something in
his spirit and deportment which deeply impressed the
apostle with his aptitude for the work of the ministry ; and
finding that Timothy himself, and those more immediately
interested in him, were disposed to comply with St. Paul's
wish in the matter, " he took and circumcised him," because
the Jews in the neighbourhood knew that his father was a
Greek, and would, as a matter of course, have refused to
allow Timothy to utter a word in their synagogues, until he
had submitted, to the initiatory prdinance of the covenant
(ver. 3). He was afterwards solemnly destined to the work,
by the imposition both of the apostle's hands and of the
hands ofthe presbytery (1 Tim. iv. 14; 2 Tim. i. 6), though
the specific time and place are not mentioned.

32 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
We have no other instance of such a near, unbroken, and
prolonged fellowship in the history of apostolic times, as
that which appears to have subsisted between Paul and this
youthful disciple ; the more remarkable, considering the
disparity of their ages. From the period that Timothy
entered upon his ministerial discipleship, he seems rarely
to have been absent for any length of time from the apostie ;
and even when not expressly mentioned among his com
panions, some turn in the affairs, or incidental expression,
reveals the presence of the beloved disciple. Thus, in the
narrative of the Acts, Paul and Silas are alone mentioned
as having come to Philippi, preaching the gospel : yet
Timothy, it appears, must also have been with them ; for,
when Paul was sent away from Berasa to Athens, Silas and
Timothy are said to have remained behind (Acts xvii.
14 sq.). His youthful appearance, in all probability, saved
him from the violent treatment which Paul and Silas had to
endure at Philippi, and the other places they visited in that
region. After staying for some time at Berasa, and, at
Paul's request, returning again to Thessalonica (1 Thess.
ii. 5, iii. 2), he rejoined the apostle at Corinth, along with
Silas (1 Thess. iii. 6). He seems to have continued with the
apostle during his long stay in that city ; and the name of
Timothy, as well as that of Silas, is coupled with his own
by the apostle in both of the epistles to the Thessalonians,
which were sent from Corinth. We next find him with St.
Paul at Ephesus (Acts xix. 22), whence he was sent with
Erastus to Macedonia and Corinth (1 Cor. iv. 7, xvi. 10).
He was again with Paul in Macedonia when the Second
Epistle to the Corinthians was written, in which his name
has a place in the address, along with Paul's. He was
also with Paul at Corinth during the brief sojourn there,
when the Epistle to the Romans was written, although his
name is not in the address (Rom. xvi. 21); and he was one
of those who accompanied the apostle from Greece, when

INTRODUCTION. 33
he went towards Jerusalem with the contributions of the
churches (Acts xx. 4). But the last notice of him in that
connection reaches no further than Troas (chap. xx. 5); and
for a period of upwards of two years nothing more is heard
of him. We can scarcely doubt, however, that he was
chiefly at Caesarea during Paul's long imprisonment there,
niinistering as far as possible to his comfort, and in every
availableway acting for him, and for the interests ofthe gospel.
But the next express mention that is made of him is in some
of the epistles written by Paul from Rome ; though we are
without any information as to the mode of his transference
thither — whether by accompanying the apostle (as is most
likely) in his perilous voyage, or going by some other route.
His name, at any rate, occurs in three of the epistles sent
from Rome — those to Philippi, Colossae, Philemon — fol
lowing that of Paul in the opening address ; and in the
Epistle to the Philippians there is a very strong and favour
able testimony given respecting Timothy, placing him above
all the other fellow-labourers of the apostle for thorough
devotedness of spirit and self-sacrificing zeal : " But I trust
in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy shortly unto you, that I
also may be of good comfort when I know your state. For
I have no man like-minded, who will naturally care for your
state ; for all seek their own, not the things which are Jesus
Christ's. But ye know the proof of him, that, as a son with
¦ his father, he hath served me in the gospel" (Phil. ii. 19-22).
Whether Timothy was able to fulfil the mission here con
templated cannot be certainly determined ; nor do we know
much of his future course, except that he appears to have
also, like his master, suffered unto bonds (Heb. xiii. 23) —
showing that he did not want the martyr spirit; and after
having for a time accompanied Paul in his apostolic .labours
during the period between his first and second imprison
ment in Rome, Timothy (as we learn from the two epistles
addressed to him) was left at .Ephesus^s^P^eapr^dsi^

34 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
Paul went to labour elsewhere. The last request from the
apostle to him, of which we have any record, is one en
treating him to hasten with all speed to Rome, that Paul
might see him again before he suffered. But whether this
solace was granted to him or not, remains doubtful. The
connection between the two probably lasted from about
a.d. 51 to a.d. 67 or 68.
The character of Timothy is chiefly to be inferred from
the incidental notices of him which have been alluded to.
It speaks much for his stedfast faith, his warm piety, and
unflagging zeal, that he should have remained so firm in his
attachment to the apostle, sharing with him in all his trials,
dangers, and labours ; and not less that the apostle should
so fondly have clung to him, and so highly appreciated him.
Attempts have been made to show that some abatement has
to be made in this respect in the later period of their connec
tion ; but, I am convinced, entirely without success, as I have
endeavoured to prove in the exposition of those passages in
the Second Epistle on which the charge has been chiefly
grounded. To the last, St. Paul appears to have reposed
in Timothy the fullest confidence, and to have made him
the object of the fondest solicitude and affection. Impor
tant and responsible duties were devolved on him, in the
discharge of which his name is associated with no failure
or disappointment. And yet he seems to have been fitted
for a subordinate rather than a primary place in ministerial
agency; and he may have been constitutionally deficient,
to some extent, in decision and practical energy. This
impression is not unnaturally produced by the very urgent
entreaties to watchfulness and fidelity addressed to him in
the epistles ; and is confirmed by the total absence of any
memorials of his agency, except in connection with his
spiritual father. No church appears to have claimed him
as its founder.

INTRODUCTION. 35

Section iv. — Notices of Titus.
Extremely little is known of Titus, either as a man or as
an evangelist. The accounts that have reached us about
him are 'quite incidental and fragmentary. His name never
occurs in the history of the Acts ; which is sornewhat strange,
as we know from the Epistle to the Galatians that he was
with Paul and Barnabas at Antioch, and accompanied them
to Jerusalem when they went to have the dispute settled
about circumcision (Gal. ii. 1-3). We learn, from the brief
notice given us of what took place on that occasion, that
Paul sternly refused to have him circumcised, as some of the
Jewish Christians wished; because he saw that in his case the
principle of gospel liberty was at stake, and must at what
ever hazard be vindicated. It therefore appears not only
that Titus was a Gentile, but that he must have also been
employed chiefly in ministering to Gentiles, or to churches
in which these formed the predominating element. He
appears, at a later period, to have been with Paul and
Timothy at Ephesus, doubtless sharing with these in the
manifold labours attendant on the planting of the church in
that centre of idolatry and corruption. From Ephesus he
was sent forth by Paul to Corinth, for the purpose of stimu
lating the brethren to get forward their contributions for the
poor saints at Jerusalem (2 Cor. viii. 6, xii. 18). He rejoined
the apostle in Macedonia, and cheered him with the report
he brought, not only of the progress of the contributions,
but also of the salutary effect produced by the first epistle
of Paul to the church at Corinth (vii. 6-15). In the whole
of these delicate transactions he appears to have conducted
himself with great prudence and fidelity.
The precise period when he went with the apostle to
Crete cannot (as already stated) be ascertained. But that
the work entrusted to him there bespoke the high confidence

36 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
placed in him by the apostle, admits of no doubt. And
subsequently to this, only one notice more occurs of him ;
it is in 2 Tim. iv. 10, where he is said to have gone to Dal
matia. The fact alone is mentioned, and we cannot be sure
whether it took place before the apostle was again laid
under arrest, or previously to it. It served, among other
things, to make the apostle feel more lonely and desolate ;
but we are not thence warranted to infer that any blame on
account of it was attributable to Titus.

THE GREEK TEXT OF THE EPISTLES

ENGLISH TRANSLATION.

nPOS TTMOOEON A'.
I. 1 JJavAos dirooToAos Xpurrov 'Itio-oS KaT imrayrp' ®eov
o"te>ri?pos ijp.fiv Kai Xpiorov 'Iijcrov t»)s eAttiSos r/puav 2 TifioOe<o
yv7)o~ia> tekvo> ev mcrra. XaP's> <A£os, eiprjvr) awo ®eov irarpos
Kal ~Kpio-rov Irjo-ov tov Kvpiov r/puov.
3 Ka^ws .TrapeKaXeo'd. ore irpoo-p.e7.vai iv *Efp£o-<a, 7rop£vop.£vos
ciS MaKeSoviW, iva irapayyciXjjs twiv fir) IrepoSiSao-KaA.eTi'
4 /aijSc irpocrexew paiOous Kal yeveaXoyiais direpavTois, aiTives
iKt.rynqcrei's 7rapexovo"iv fwXXov ?) oiKOVOfuav ®eov ttjv iv tticttci*
5 to 8c teXos tJjs irapayye\Ca<s eoriv ayairq iK KaQapSs KapSias
Kai O"wei8i;o"£0)s dyaflijs Kai ttmttecos dw7TOKpiTOv, 6 ail' Tives
do-TO^ijo-avTes i^erpwirrKTav eis paTaioAoyiav, 7 0eAovtes Eivai
vop.oSi8ao-KaA.oi, p.*^ voovvtes p/ijTE a Aeyovo"iv P.17TE 7T£pi tiviov
&ia/3e/3aiovvTai. 8 oiSapev 8e oti koAos 6 vop,os, edv tis aura!
vopip.a>s xP^Tai, 9 £l8a>S TOVTO, OTI SlKat'a) vop.os ov KEtrai, dvo-
p.ois 8e Kai dvv7roTaKTOis, acrefiecri Kai dp-apTtoAois, dvoo-iois Kai
fteftijX.oi'S, TraTpoAioais Kai pirrpoAaKus, dv8po<povois, 10 Jropvois,
¦ dpcEVOKOirais, dvopaTroSiarais, xfrevo-TaK, cmopKois, Kai £i ti
erepov tjJ vyiaivovoTi SiSao-KaAia dvTiKEiTai, 11 xarot to cvay-
-veAiov T?)s Soipjs tov fUj.Kapl.ov ©eov, o imo-TevOrj/v eyio. 12 X"P'"
£X<o T(3 Ev8vvap,(0O-avTi p>£ Xpiarai "Iijo-ov tu Kvpia> rjfimv, oti
ttiotov p,€ rtyrKraro 6ep.evoi £is SiokoviW, 13 to irporepov ovra
fSXdxr^rjfiov Kai SiaWiiv Kal ifSpiarrpf aAAa tjAoj&jy, oti dyvoSv
iiroCrjo-a iv airurria, 14 VTrepeTrAeovao-ev 8e ») X'V'5 T0" Kvpiov

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.
I. i Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus, according to the
commandment of God our Saviour, and Christ Jesus our
hope ; 2 to Timothy, [my] true child in the faith : Grace,
mercy, peace from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our
Lord. 3 According as I besought thee when setting out
for Macedonia, [so I do now], to abide still at Ephesus, in
order that thou mightest charge some not to teach any other
doctrine; 4 nor to give heed to fables, and endless genea
logies, inasmuch as they minister strifes rather than God's
dispensation that is in faith. 5 Now the end of the charge
is love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith
unfeigned : 6 from which some having swerved, they turned
aside into vain talk ; 7 desiring to be teachers of the law,
without understanding either what things they speak, or
concerning what things they affirm. 8 We know, indeed,
that the law is good, if one use it lawfully ; 9 knowing
this, that the law is not made for a righteous person, but
for the lawless and unruly, for the ungodly and sinful, the
unholy and profane, for smiters of fathers and smiters of
mothers, for murderers, 10 for fornicators, abusers of them
selves with mankind, men-stealers, liars, perjured persons,
, and if there be anything else that is contrary to the sound
instruction ; 1 1 according to the gospel of the glory of
the blessed God, which was committed to my trust. 12 I
give thanks to Christ Jesus our Lord, who hath strength
ened me, for that he reckoned me faithful, appointing me
to the service [of the ministry] ; 13 though I was formerly a
blasphemer, a persecutor, and outrageous : but I obtained

40 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
r)p,Grv pETa. ir«TT£0)S Kai dydirrf? rrjs iv Xpior<3 Itjo-ov. 15 7tio"tos
6 Aoyos Kai ?rdoT7s diroSox^s a£ios, oti Xpioros It70"ovs rikdev
Eis tov Koo-fiov dp,apT<oAovs caWac, &v TrpwTos eip.i eyw 16 aAAa
Sia, tovto rfKerfirpi, iva ev ep.oi irpdrna evSei^r/rai Iiyo-ovs Xpicrros
t»)v dirao-av p.aKpo6vfdav, irpos inrorvirwo-iv tSv p.eAAovto>v
TricrTEveiv E7r' avT<3 eis ^cotjv aiaiviov. 17 T(3 8e j8ao-iAei tSv
aialvcov, d<pOdpTa> dopdra) p.ova> ©em, Tip.77 Kai 8o£a eis tovs
aiaivas tGv aiwvcov dpvrjv.
18 TavTr/v tt)v irapayyekiav irapariQepxd aroi, tekvov Tip.o-
0ee, Kara Tas irpoayovo-as eVi o~e irpotprjreias, iva o-TpaTevcriy ev
avrais T>yv koAt)v orpaTeiav, 19 ex<ov ttlcttiv koI dyadrjv o-uvei-
Srjo-iv, rjv Tives diru>o-dfi,evoi irepl ttjv itio-tiv evavdyijo-av 20 (Lv
eoriv 'Yp-eVaios Kai 'AAe£av8pos, ovs TrapeSaiKa tu craTava, iva
7rai8ev0a>criv p,r) f3\ao-<pr/fieiv.
II. 1 IlapaKaAS ovv irpwTov irdvroiv Troieur^ai Seijcreis, rrpoo--
evxas, eWev^eis, evxapiorias, virep 7rdvTa>v dvOpmirmv, 2 xnrep fSaxTt-
Aeiov Kai tiwtcdv tgjv ev iirepoyrj ovtoiv, iva rjpefiov koj. r)o-v)(iov
/3iov Sidyuifiev iv iroury evcre^Seia Kai o-ep-voTijTi. 3 tovto koAov koi
diroSeKTOV ivunriov tov o-(OTrjpo<s r)p.wv ©eov, 4 os Travras dvOpm-
ttovs 0eAei o-w^vai Kai eis iiriyvtao-iv dXr/Oeias eA0eiv. 5 ets yap
©eos,- ets Kai peo-inys ©eov Kai dv0pawra>v, dvOpmiro's Xpioros
Il7O"0VS, 6 6 8ovs eavTov dvTi'AvTpov vxep 7rdvTcov, to fiapTvpiov
¦caipois 18101s, 7 eis b ereOrp/ eyo) Krjpv£ Kai d7rdo-ToAos, dAij^eiav
Aeya), ov i//ev8opai, 8i8do-KaAos iOvS>v iv iriarei Kai dkr/Oeia.
8 BovAop-at ovv irpocrev-^eo-Bai tovs dvSpas ev iravri Tomo
CTraipovTas ocriovs x6'Pas XwPts °Py>)s Kai 8iaAoyio-p.ov" 9 aWav-
T(os Kai yvvaiKas ev KaTaoroAj} KOO-p,ia>, fieTa. aiSovs Kai oroitppo-
cvvrji Koo-fjieiv eavrdi, p.r) iv irXey/xao-iv ko.1 xpuo-ai V p-apyapiVais

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 41
mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14 But the
grace of our Lord superabounded with faith and love that
are in Christ Jesus.
15 Faithful is the word, and worthy of all acceptation,
that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of
whom I am chief. 16 Howbeit for this cause I obtained
mercy, in order that in me first Jesus Christ might show
forth all long-suffering, for a pattern to those who are going
to believe on him to life everlasting. 17 Now to the King
of the ages, the incorruptible, invisible, only God, be honour
and glory, for ages of ages (or, for ever and ever). Amen.
18 This charge I commit to thee, child Timothy, accord
ing to the prophecies which went before on thee, in order
that in them thou mayest war the good warfare ; 19 hold
ing faith and a good conscience, which some having thrust
away, concerning faith made shipwreck : 20 of whom is
Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I delivered over to Satan,
that they might leam not to blaspheme.
II. i.I exhort then, first of all, that petitions, prayers,
supplications, thanksgivings, be made for all men ; 2 for
•kings, and all that are in . authority ; in order that we may
pass a quiet and tranquil life in all godliness and gravity.
3 For this is good and acceptable before our Saviour God ;
4 Who willeth all men to be saved, and to come to the full
knowledge of the truth. 5 For there is one God, one
Mediator also of God and men, [a] man Christ Jesus; 6 who
gave himself a ransom for all — the testimony for its own
seasons. 7 Whereunto I was appointed a herald, and an
apostle (I speak the truth, I lie not), a teacher of the
Gentiles in faith and truth. 8 I wish, then, that prayer be
made in every place by men, lifting up holy hands, without
wrath and doubting. 9 Likewise also, that women adorn
themselves in orderly apparel, with shamefastness and dis
cretion; not in plaitings, and gold, or pearls, or costly

42 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
77 Ifiarurfua ttoAvteAei, 10 dAA' o irpiirei ywai£lv iirayyeXXofie-
vais 6e6o-ef3euw, 81' tpybiv dyaOutv. 11 IW^ ev rio-vyia fuxv&a-
veto) ev irdxrrj virorayy- 12 8i8do-Keiv Se yvvaiKi ovk iirvrpeiroj,
oiSe av0evTeiv dvSpos, dAA' eivai iv r/o-vxia. 13 'ASap. yap
irpSTos eirXda-drf, etra Eva. 14 Kai 'ASap. ovk rpraTrfirf, r) Se
ywi) iiairamjOeura iv irapaf3do-ei yeyovev, 15 o-usBrfrerai Se Sia
tj^s TeKvoyovias, eav p.eiv<oo~iv ev iruTTei koj. dydiry koj, dyiao-p.<3
p.eTa o"0)^>poo-vvijs.
III. 1 IIio"tos 6 Aoyos* ei tis EVicrKOiriJs opeyerai, KaAov epyov
iiriOvfiei. 2 Sei ovv rbv hruxKoirov dveirCXyfiirrov Eivai, pias
yvvaiKOS dVSpa, vrjtpdXiov, o-dxppova, Kocrpiov, <f>tX6£evov, SiSaK-
tikov, 3 pi} irdpoivov, fir) irXr/KTr/v, dAAa eitieikt}, dfiaxov, d<pi-
Xapyvpov, 4 tov ISiov oikov koAus irpoiOTdp.evov, Teicva e^ovTa
iv virorayrj pera irdxrrfs o-ep,voTi7TOS, — 5 et Se tis tov tSiov
oikov irpoo-T-ijvai ovk otSev, 7r£s iKKXyo-ias ©eov eVip^Aijo-eTai ; —
6 fir) veocpvTOV, iva fir) TV<pa>#eis eis Kpip,a ifiireio-Q tov 8uxf36Xov.
7 Sei Se Kal papTvpiav koAtjv exeiv airo twv e£u>6ev, iva p.77 eis
dvei8io"pov ifiirecry Kal irayiSa tov 8iaf36Xov. 8 Aioko'vovs
a)a"avVa>s 0-ep.vovs, p.7j SiAoyovs, p/>) oiva> iroXXa 7rpoo-e^cvTas, fir)
aio-xpoKepSei's, 9 exovTas to fivo-rrjpwv Tr)? irwrTeois ev KaOapa
o-vveiSr/o-ei, 10 Kai ovtoi Se hoKifwffaBwo-av irpuyrov, etra
8iaKoveiTtuo"av dvEyKAjTTOi ovtes. 11 yvvaucas wcravTCOS 0-ep.vds,
pij 8ia/3oAovs, vrjcpaXCovs, iriaras ev uwiv. 12 Skikovoi Iotii)-
cav p,tas yvvaiKos avSpes, Teavrnv koASs irpo'urrdp.evoi Kai tSv
181W oikwv. 13 01 yap KaAais SiaKovTjo-avTes fSaOpubv eavTois
KaAov 7repi7roiovvTai Kai itoAAtjv irappr/o-iav ev n-iorei -ry iv
XpiOT<3 IllO"OV.
14 Tavrd 0-01 ypd<p(o iXiriljov iXOeiv irpb? o-e toxiov 15 eav

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 43
raiment; io but, which becometh women professing god
liness, through good works, n Let a woman learn in
silence, in all subjection. 12 But I permit not a woman
to teach, nor to lord it over the man, but to be in silence.
13 For Adam was first formed, then Eve. 14 And Adam
was not deceived ; but the woman, being wholly deceived,
fell into transgression. 15 But she shall be saved through
the child-bearing, if they abide in faith, love, and holiness,
with discretion.
III. 1 Faithful is the saying, If any one seeketh the office
of pastor, he desireth a good work. 2 A pastor, then, ought
to be blameless, husband of one wife, sober, discreet,
orderly, hospitable, apt to teach ; 3 not a brawler, not a
striker, but mild, peaceable; not a lover, of money; 4 ruling
well his own house, having children in subjection with all
gravity. 5 But if one knows not how to rule his own house,
how shall he take charge of the church of God ? 6 Not a
novice, lest, being carried with conceit, he should fall into
the condemnation of the' devil. 7 But he must also have a
good testimony from those that are without, lest he fall into
reproach and the snare of the devil.
8. In like manner, [ought] the deacons to be grave,
'not double-tongued, not addicted to much wine, not lovers
of base gain ; 9 holding the mystery of the faith in a pure
conscience. 10 And these, too, let them first be proved ;
then let them serve as deacons, if they be without blame.
1 1 Women, in like manner, [it behoves] to be grave, not
slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. 1 2 Let the deacons
be husbands of one wife, ruling well their children and their
own houses. 13 For those who have done the office of a
deacon well obtain for themselves a good degree, and much
boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus.
14. These things I write to thee, hoping to come to thee
shortly. 15 But if I should tarry, in order that thou mayest

44 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
Se fSpaSvva, Xva eiSfjs irws Sei ev o"k(o ©eov dvacrTpe<peo-9ai, t/tis
ecrTiv iKKXrjo-ia ©eov £<ovtos, otvAos Kai eSpaioyfia rijs dXrjaeias.
1 6 Kai opoAoyovp.eVios p.eya eo-Tiv to ttjs evcrefSeias fivo-Trjpiov
os i<pavep<j)6rf iv o-apKi, ioiKaitadr/ iv irvevfiaTi, wfpOrj dyyeXois,
iKfjpvxOrj iv eOveo-iv, iirio-TevQrf iv Kocrp.a>, aveXyfitpOrf iv 86£rj.
TV. 1 To Se irvevfia pr/Tws Aeyei on ev vorepots Kaipois
diroo~Tr]o~ovTai Tives ttjs irio"Teo)S, irpoo-iyovTes irvevfiaxriv irAa-
vois Kai SiSao-KaAiais 8aip.ovi<uv, 2 ev viroKpio-ei i/>ev8oAoya>v,
KeKavo-Trjpiacrp.evu>v Tr)v iSiav o-vveiSyo-iv, 3 kcoAvovtojv yap-eiv,
dire\eo-&ai /3pa)paTO)v, a 6 ©eos eKTMrev eis fieTdXrffUJ/iv pera
evxapio-Tias tois iricrrols Kai iireyvwKoa-i rrjv aXrjOeiav. 4 oti
7rav KTicr/xa ©eov KaAov, Kai ovSev dirof3Xr]Tov p.era evxapunias
Xafifiavofievov 5 dyid£erai yap 8ia Aoyov ©eov Kai evT£vf£&>s.
6 Tavra viroTi6ep.evos tois dSeA^>ois koAos eo"17 Siokovos
Xpicrrov Itjo"ov, ivTpecpOfievos tois Aoyois ttjs iriorecos Kai ttjs
koAtjs SiSaavcaAias i) irapr/KoXovOrfKas' 7 tovs Se f3ef3rjXovs Kal
ypaolSeis fivOovs irapaiTOV. yvfivat,e 8e o-eavTOV irpbs eiicref3eiav.
8 77 yap o-(op.aTiKr) yvpvacria irpos oAiyov eotiv o><j>eXifios' r) Se
£vo-e/3eia irpos irdvra djcpiXifios eo-riv, iirayyeXiav exovcra fjarjs
ttjs vvv Kai ttjs fieXXovo-rjS. 9 irio"Tos 6 Aoyos Kai irdaTjs diro-
Soxrjs d£ios. 10 eis tovto yap Komiofiev Kai dymviZpfieOa, oti
rjXiriKafiev iiri ©ec3 tfisVTi, os eariy o-wrr)p irdvTwv dvOpiLirmv,
pdAioTa itio"tSv.
11 IlapdyyeAAE ravYa Kai 8i'8ao-Ke. 12 firf8eis o"ov ttjs veo-
ttjtos KaTa(ppoveiT(i>, dXXb. tvttos yivov tujv iticttSv, ev Aoyco, ev
dvao-Tpo(py, iv dyairy, iv irioTei, ev dyveia. 13 Ia>s epxofiai
irpocexe ttj dvayvwcrEt, tt) irapaKXyo-ei, ttj SiSao-KaAia. 14 p.77
dfieXei tov iv o~oi xaptcpOTOS, b eSo#T/ 0-01 8ta irpo<p7?reias pera

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 45
know how thou oughtest to conduct thyself in God's house,
which indeed is the church of the living God, the pillar and
basement of the truth. 16 And confessedly great is the
mystery of godliness, who was manifested in the flesh, was
justified in the Spirit, was seen by angels, was preached
among the Gentiles, was believed on in ,the world, was
received up into glory.
IV. 1 But the Spirit speaks expressly, that in after times
some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing
spirits and teachings of demons ; 2 in hypocrisy of speakers
of lies, who have had their conscience scarred; 3 forbid
ding to marry, [bidding] to abstain from meats, which God
made to be partaken of with thanksgiving by the faithful,
and those who have the full knowledge of the truth. 4 For
everything made by God is good, and nothing to be rejected,
being received with thanksgiving; 5 for it is sanctified
through the word of God and prayer. 6 By submitting these
things to the brethren, thou shalt be a good servant of
Christ Jesus, nourishing thyself up in the words of the faith,
and of the good instruction which thou hast diligently
followed. 7 But the profane and old-wives' fables avoid;
and rather exercise thyself unto godliness. 8 For bodily
exercise is profitable unto little ; but godliness is profit
able unto all things, having promise of the life that now
is, and of that which is to' come. 9 Faithful is the word,
and worthy of all acceptation. 10 For to this [end] we
. both toil and strive, because we have hoped upon the living
God, who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those who
believe. — n Charge these things, and1 teach. 12 Let no
one despise thy youth ; but become thou a pattern of the
believers, in word, in behaviour, in love, in faith, in purity.
13 Till I come, give attention to the reading, the exhorta
tion, the teaching. 14 Neglect not the gift that is in thee,
which was given thee through prophecy, with the laying on

46 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
E7ri0£O-£(i)S tGv xeipSyv tov irpea-f3vrepiov. 15 tovto fieXerd, ev
tovtois IxrOi, Iva crov r) irpoKoirrf <j>avepa y iraxriv. 16'enexe
o-£avT(3 Kai ttj SiSacrKaAia, eirifieve avrois- tovto yap iroiwv Kal
o-eavTOV crakreis Kai tovs aKOvovrds crov.
V. 1 npecr/3vTEpa) p.7j iiriirXrjiys dXXa irapaKaXei &s irarepa,
vetotEpovs (is dSeAipovs, 2 irpeo-fivTepas cos p-rtrepas, vewTepas ios
dSeAcpas ev irday dyveia. 3 Xijpas Ti/xa tos ovtws x^P"*- 4 ei
8e tis X^P™ TeKva tj eKyova exei, pav^avETcacrav irpuiTOV tov iSiov
oikov eio-efieiv Kai dp.oi/3as diroSiSovai tois irpoyovois' tovto ydp
iaTiv dirdSeKTOV evcoiriov tov ©eov. 5 tj Se ovtois XVPa *ca' fiefio-
viofievrj TjAiriKev Jiri ©eov Kai irpocrfievei Tais Setjcteo-iv Kai rats
irpocrevxais vvktos Kai yp-epas' 6 tj Se OTraTaAajcra £aVra reOirq-
Kev. 7 Kai ravra irapdyyeXXe iva dveiriXr/fiirTOi Scriv. 8 ei Se
tis tSv i8ia>v Kai p.dAicrra oiKeiaiv ov irpovoeiTOi, ttjv irio'Tiv
rfpvrjrai ko.1 ecrriv diricrTOV xeipov.
9 Xijpa KaTaXeyeo-8a) fir) eAarrov eVGv efijKOVTO yeyowia,
evos dvSpos yuVTj, 10 ev epyois KaAois fiapTvpovfihrq, ei etekvo-
Tpotpr/o-ev, el i£evo86xyo-ev, ei dyia>v iroSas evii//ev, ei 0Xij3ofievois
iirtfpKeo-ev, ei iravTi epya) dyaOiS eirrjKoXovOrKrev. 1 1 V£a>Tepas
Se xVPais irapairov- orav yap KaTacrTprfvido-too-iv rov Xjyio-rov,
yafieiv OeXoVo-iv, 12 exovcrai Kpipa on ttjv irpwrtfv irurTiv r)0e-
TTjcrav 13 dp.a Se Kai dpyal fiav9dvovo-iv irepiepxofievai tos
oiKias, ov povov Se. dpyai aAAa Kai <pXvapoi Kal irepCepyoi, Aa-
Aovcrai to, pij SeovTa. ] 4 f3ovXop.ai ovv veoiTEpas yap,eiv, Texvo-
yoveiv, oiKoSeo-iroTEiv, firjSefiiav d(popp,Tjv SiSovai tu dvTiKeiueva)
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craTava. 16 ei tis tticttt) exEi XVPa^> hrapKturOia avrais, Kai p.77
[3apuir0o> r) eKKXyo-ia, iva rais ovtcds X*?PatS hrapKeo-y.

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 47
of the hands of the presbytery. 15 Be mindful of these
things; be in them, In order that thy progress may be
manifest to all. 16 Give heed to thyself and to the teach
ing ; continue in them ; for, by so doing, thou shalt save
both thyself and them that hear thee.
V. 1 Reprimand not an elderly person, but exhort him as
a father, younger men as brothers ; 2 elderly women as
mothers ; the younger as sisters, with all purity. 3 Honour
widows that are widows indeed. 4 If, however, any widow
has children or grandchildren, let them first learn to show
piety in their own home, and requite their parents, for this is
acceptable before God. 5 But she who is a widow indeed,
and desolate, has set her hope on God, and abides in suppli
cations and prayers night and day. 6 But she that lives
deliciously is dead while she lives. 7 And these things en
join, in order that they may be without reproach. 8 But if
any one provides not for his own, and especially for those
of his diwn houpe, he has denied the faith, and is Worse than
an unbeliever. — 9 Let a widow be enrolled who has become
not less, than sixty years old, wife of one man, 10 well
reported of in respect to good works ; if she brought up
children ; if she entertained strangers ; if she washed the
feet of saints ; if she relieved the distressed ; if she followed
after every good work. 1 1 But younger widows decline :
for when they shall become wanton against Christ, they
desire to marry; 12 having condemnation, because they
made void their first faith. 13 Moreover, they learn also to
be idle, going about from house to house ; and not only idle,
but tattlers also, and busybodies, speaking things which they
ought not. 14 I wish, therefore, that the younger [widows]
marry, bear children, manage the house, give no occasion
for reproach to the adversary. 15 For already some have
turned away after Satan. 16 If any woman that believes
hath widows, let support be given to them, and let not the

48 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
17 Oi KaAfis irpoearwres irpeafSvrepoi SiirAijs Tipajs dfiov-
aBoxrav, fidXio-Ta oi koitiSvtes ev Aoya> Kai SiSacrKaAia. 18 Aeyei
yap tj ypacpy- /3ovv dXom/ra ov epifiiaaeis, Kai- dfios 6 ipydrys
tov fiiaOov avrov. 19 Kara, irpea/3vrepov Karrjyopiav p.r) irapa-
Sexov, Jktos ei p/ij eiri 8vo tj rpiusv fiaprvptmv. 20 Tovs dfiaprd-
vovras evwiriov irdvroiv eAeyxe, iva Kai ol Xoiirol <pof3ov exoiaiv.
21 Aiap.aprvpop.ai evcoitiov tov ®eov Kai XpioroS "Iijcrov Kai
tSv EKAeKTuv dyyeAaiv iva tovto (pvXdijys X^P'5 ^poKpipuaros,
fiySev iroiSrv Kara. irpoaKXiaiv. 22 Xeipas Taxea>s p.TjSevi iirirl-
6ei, pTjSe Koivwvei afiapriais dAAorpidis. creavTOV dyvov rypei.
23 pTjKen vSpoiroTEi, aAAa oiv<j) dAiya) xp<* Sia tov ardfiaxov Kai
Tas irvKvds crov do"t5£V£ias. 24 TivSv dvBpwirissv al dfiapriai
irp68rjXoi elaiv irpodyovaai els Kpiaiv, Ticriv Se Kai £7raKoAov-
Oovaiv 25 uicravYios Kai to epya to KaAa irpdSrjAa, Kai to
dAAais exovTa Kpvfirjvai oi Svvavrai.
TT. 1 "Ocroi eicriv viro £vyov SovAoi, tovs iSious SeaTrdras
irdays Tipiqs d£iovs yyetaBwaav, iva p,^ to ovofia tov ©eov Kai 77
SiSacrKaAia fSXao-fpr/fiyTai. 2 oi Se iriorovs e)(OVTes SecriTOTas p.7/
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on iriaroi eicriv Kai dyairyroi 01 ttjs evepyecrias avriXafif3av6fievoi.
Tavra SiSacrKE Kai irapaKaXei. 3 ei tis eTepoSiSao-KoAei Kai
pTj irpoaexerai vyiaivovcriv Aoyois tois tov Kvpiov ijp.a>v 'Itjctov
XpicrTov Kai tt) KaT eiae/3eiav SiSacrKaAia, 4 Terv^KOTai, p.7j8ev
iiriardfievos, dAAa vocrSv irepi ^TjTTjcreis Kai Xoyofiaxias, ef uiv
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iropiafibs peyas tj evaefSeia fiera. airapKeias. 7 ovSev yap eicnj-

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 49
church be burdened, that it may relieve those who are
widows indeed.- 17 Let the elders who govern well be
counted worthy of double honour, especially those who
labour in word and teaching. 18 For the Scripture saith,
Thou shalt not muzzle an ox while treading out [the corn] ;
and, The labourer is worthy of his hire. 19 Against ' an
elder receive not an accusation, except it be upon two or
three witnesses. 20 Those that sin rebuke before all, in
order that the rest also may have fear. 21 I solemnly
charge thee before God and Christ Jesus, and the elect
angels, that thou keep these things, without prejudging,
doing nothing by partiality. 22 Lay hands on no one
hastily, neither' be partaker in other men's sins. 23 No
'longer drink water, but use a little wine for thy stomach's
sake, and thy frequent ailments. 24 The sins of some men
are manifest, going before to judgment ; with some, again,
they follow after. 25 In like manner also the works that
are good are manifest, and those that are otherwise cannot
be hid.
VL 1 Whoever are under the yoke as bond-servants, let
them reckon their own masters worthy of all honour, that
the name of God and his doctrine may not be blasphemed.
2 But such as have believing masters, let them not despise
them, because they are brethren ; but the rather serve them,
because they who receive the benefit are faithful and be
loved. These things teach, and exhort. 3 If any one
teacheth other doctrine, and does not assent to sound
words, those [namely] of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the
instruction that is according to godliness ; 4 he is carried
with conceit, knowing nothing, doting about questions arid
word-fightings, whence come envy, strife, blasphemies, evil
surmisings, 5 settled feuds of men corrupted in their mind
and destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is
gain. 6 But godliness with contentment is great gain. 7
d .

SO THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
veyKafiev eis rbv Koafiov, on ovSe iieveyKeiv n Swdfieda'
8 exovTes Se Siarpocpas Kal aKeirdap/ura, rovrois dpKeaoyao-
fieda. 9 oi Se f3ovX6p.evoi irXovreiv ifiiriirrovaiv eis ireipacrp-ov
Kai irayiSa Kai iiriOvfiias iroAAas dvoTjrovs Kai f3Xaf3epas, airi-
ves pvOitflvaiv tovs dvBpdirovs els oXedpov koi diriaXeimr.
10 pi£a yap irdvrwv tSjv KaK<Sv ecttiv t; tpiXapyvpia, tjs Tives
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ireipav oSvvais iroAAais.
11 Sv Se, u avOpcuire ©eov, tovto <pevye Siawce Se Socaio-
ctvvtjv, evaijSetav, irianv, dydiryv, viropovTjv, irpaviraOiav. 12 dyco-
vi£ov tov KaAov dySva ttjs iriareois, iiriXa/Sov ttjs aicoviov £<otjs,
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aliiiviov, dfiyv.
17 Tois irAovcriois ev T(3 vvv aiGvi irapdyyeAAe pTj wjr^Xa.
<ppoveiv, firjSe yXiriKevai iirl irXovrov dSyXoryri, dAA' em ©e<3 rol
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21 tjv tives eirayyeAAdpevoi 7repi ttjv iricrnv TjordxTjerav.
H X"P'S P-e^ vjiutv.

THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 5 1
For we brought nothing into the world, because neither are
we able to carry anything out of it. 8 But if we have food
and raiment, with these we shall be satisfied. 9 But they
who aim at being rich fall into temptation, and a snare,
and many foolish and hurtful lusts, such as sink men into
destruction and perdition. 10 For a root of all evils is
the love of money, which some reaching after, have wan
dered away from the faith, and pierced themselves through
with many pangs. — 1 1 But thou, O man of God, flee these
things ; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love,
patience, meekness of spirit. 12 Maintain the good contest
of the faith, lay hold of eternal life, unto which thou wert
called, and didst confess the good confession before many
witnesses. 13 I charge thee before God, who preseryeth
; alive all things, and Christ Jesus, who before Pontius
Pilate witnessed the good confession, 14 that thou keep
the commandment spotless and unrebukeable, until the
appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ: 15 which in his own
seasons he shall show, [who is] the blesse'd and only
Potentate, the King of kings^and Lord of lords ; 16 who
only has immortality, dwelling in light that is unapproach
able ; whom no man hath seen, nor can see : to whom be
honour and power everlasting. Amen.
17 Charge them that are rich in this world not to be
high-minded, nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of
riches, but on God, who ministers to us all things richly for
enjoyment; 18 that they do good, that they be rich in
excellent deeds, free in distributing, ready to communicate ;
19 treasuring up for themselves a good foundation for the
future, in order that they may lay hold of what is life
indeed.— 20 O Timothy, keep the deposit, turning away
from the profane babblings, and oppositions of knowledge
falsely so called; 21 which some professing, have erred
concerning the faith. Grace be with you.

IIPOS TITON.
I. 1 IlavAos SovAos ©eov, dirdcrToAos Se Itjctov Xpicrrov KaTa
irianv iKXeKrwv ©eov Kai iiriyvwaiv dXydeias rrjs Kar eiaef3eiav
2 iir eXirt8i t,wys alwviov, yv iiryyyeiXaro 6 dij/ev8ys ®ebs irpo
Xp6v<i>v alwviwv, 3 icpavepwaev Se Kaipois ISiois rbv Xoyov avrov
ev KTjpvypan, o iiriarevOyv iyib Kar iirirayrjv rov aiarrjpos ypiwv
®eov, 4 Tiro) yvyalw tekvo) Kara koivtjv irianv. X"Pts Ka' *ipyvy
dirb ©eov irarpbs Kal Xpiarov lyaov rov awrypos yfiwv.
5 Tovtov X"-Plv direXiirov ae iv jUpyry, iva ra Xeiirovra iiri-
SiopBway Kai Karaaryays Kara. iroXiv irpea(3vrepovs, &s iyti> aoi
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eX<i)v iriard, p,r) iv Karyyopia. dawrias y dwiroraKra. 7 Sei yap
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fiy SpyiXov, p,y irdpoivov, fir) ttAtjkttjv, p,Tj alaxpoKep8r), 8 aAAa
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irapaKaXeiv iv ttj SiSacrKaAia ry vyiaivovay Kai tovs dvnAeyov-
tos eAeyxeiv. 10 Eicriv yap iroAAoi dvviroYaKTOi, pxiTaioAdyoi
Kai (ppevarrdrai, fiaXiara oi iK ttjs irepnofiys, 1 1 ovs Sei eVicrTO-
fii^eiv, oiTives oAovs oikovs dvaTpeirovo-iv SiSdcrKovres a p.»j Sei
aio-xpov ke/dSovs x<*ptv. 12 ei7re'v Tts e£ avroiv iStos avrSv irpo-
tprjrys- Kpyres del {j/evarai, Kara By pia, yaarepes dpyai. 13 tj
papTvpia avTTj ecttiv cIAtjStjs. Si' tjv atnav eAcyxE avToiis diroTO-
p.ws, iva vyiaivwaiv iv ttj iriarei, li firj irpoaexovres 'lovSaiKois
fivOois Kal EVToAais avBpwirwv diroarpetpop,evwv ttjv' dA?jc5eiav.
15 iTavTO KaBapa rois KaBapots' tois Se pep,iap.p,evois Kai airier-

THE EPISTLE TO TITUS.
I. ,i Paul, a servant of God, also an apostle of Jesus Christ
for the faith of God's elect, and the full knowledge of the
truth that is according to godliness; 2 in hope of eternal life,
which God, that cannot lie, promised before eternal times ;
3 but in its own seasons manifested his word in preaching,
which was entrusted to me, according to the commandment
of our Saviour God ; 4 to Titus, [my] true son in respect
to the common faith : Grace and peace from God our
Father, and Christ Jesus our Saviour. — 5 For this cause I
left thee behind in Crete, that thou shouldest further set in
order the things which are wanting, and mightest appoint
elders in every city, as I directed thee : 6 If any one is
blameless, husband of one wife, having faithful children, not
accused of profligacy, or unruly. 7 For a pastor must be
blameless, as God's steward ; not self-willed, not soon angry,
not a brawler, not a striker, not greedy of gain ; 8 but hos
pitable, a lover of good, discreet, righteous, holy, temperate ;
9 holding fast the faithful word according to the teaching,
in order that he may be able both to exhort with the sound
doctrine and to convince the gainsayers. 10 For there are
many unruly vain-talkers and deceivers, especially they of
the circumcision : 1 1 whose mouths must be stopped ; who
for the sake of base gain subverted whole houses, teaching
things which they ought not. 12 One of them, their own
prophet, has said, The Cretans are alway liars, evil beasts,
idle bellies. 13 This testimony is true : wherefore reprove
them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith ; 14 not
giving heed to Jewish fables and commandments of men,
who turn away from the truth. 15 To the pure all things

54 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
tois ovSev KaBapoV, dXXa. fiepiavrai avrwv Kai o rovs Kai y
avvelSyais. 16 ©eov 6p.oAoyovcriv ciSe'vai, tois Se epyois apvow-
Tat, pSeXvKTOi ovtes Kat diretc5eis Kai irpos irav epyov dyaBbv
dSoKifioi.

II. 1 Sv Se AdAet a irpeVet Tg vyiaivovcnj SiSacrKaAia. 2 irpecr-
f3vras vycpaXiovs eivai, aejivovs, awippovas, vyiaivovras ry iriarei,
ry dydiry, rrj iiirofiovrj' 3 irpecr/3vTi8as ucravTws ev Karaaryfian
lepoirpeireis, fiy 8iaf36Xovs, fiy oivw iroAAcS SeSouAeu/xevas, koAo-
StSao-KaAovs, 4 iva aw<ppoyit,ovaiv tos veas fpiXdvSpovs eivat,
<PiAotekvovs, 5 awippovas, dyvds, oiKovpyovs, dyac^ds, viroracr-
aofievas tois iSiois dvSpdcriv, Iva p.y 6 Aoyos tov ©eov f3Xaa-
<pTjp,7jrai. 6 Tovs vecoTepdvs aicravTcos irapaKaAei aw<ppoveiv,
7 irepi irdvra aeavrbv irapexopevos tvitov koASv epywv, iv rrj
SiSacrKaAia dqjBopiav, aefivoryra, 8 Adyov vyiij aKardyvwarov,
iva 6 e£ evavn'as kvrpairy fiySev ex<dv Aeyetv irepi TjpJSv c/SavAov.
9 AovAovs iSiois SecnroTats virordcrcrecrc5at, ev iracriv evapEcrTovs
eivai, pTj dvTiAeyovTas, 10 pTj voatpitpfievovs, aAAa iraaav iricrnv
evSetKwpevovs dya0ijv, i'va ryv StSacrKaAiav ttjv tov croiTTjpos
TjpGv ©eov Koafiwaiv iv iraaiv.
11 *Eire<pdv7j yap tj X»Pl5 tov ©eov cr<DTTjpios iracriv av&pw-
irois, 12 iraiSevovcra ijpas, tva dpvrjcrdpevoi ttjv daefSeiav Kai
Tas KoafiiKas imBvfiias awtppovws Kai SiKaiois Kai eiaef3ws f>j-
awfiev iv tw vvv aliovi, 13 irpoa8ex6fievoi ttjv fiaxapiav iXiriSa
Kai iirupdveiav rrjs 8d£rjs tov peydAov ©eov Kai o-(i)Trjpos 7jp.Sv
Xpiorov 'Itjctov, 14 os eSoiKev EavTov virep tj/xuv iva Xvrpwayrai
yp,3.s airo iraays dvopias Kai KaBapiay eavrw Aaov irepiovaiov,
tyjXwryv koXwv epywv.
15 Tavra AdAet Kat irapaKaAei Kai eAeyxe pera irdcrris ejri-
Tayr^s' pyijSeis aov irepuppoveirw.

THE EPISTLE TO TITUS. 55
are pure : but to them that are defiled and unbelieving is
nothing pure ; but both their mind and conscience are
defiled. 16 They profess that they know God ; but in works
they deny [him], being abominable, and disobedient, and
unto every good work reprobate.
II. i But speak thou the things which become the sound
instruction [of the gospel] : 2 that the aged men be sober,
grave, discreet, sound in faith, in love, in patience. 3 In
like manner the aged women, that they demean themselves
as becomes holiness, not slanderers, not enslaved to much
wine, teachers of what is good; 4 that they school the
young women to be lovers of their husbands, lovers of
their children, 5 discreet, chaste, workers at home, good,
submitting themselves to their own husbands, that the word
of God may not be blasphemed. 6 The younger men, in
like manner, exhort to be sober-minded. 7 In all things
showing thyself a pattern of good works : in thy teaching
[showing] incorruption, gravity, 8 sound discourse that
cannot be condemned ; in order that he who is of the con
trary part may be ashamed, having no evil thing to say of
us. 9 Bondmen [exhort to be] in subjection to their own
masters, in all things to be well-pleasing ; not gainsaying ;
10 not purloining, but showing all good fidelity; in orddr
that in all things they may adorn the doctrine of our
Saviour God. — 1 1 For the grace of God, having salvation
for all men, was manifested ; 12 disciplining us to the end
that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we might live
soberly, justly, and godlily in this present world ; 13 look
ing for the blessed hope and appearing of the glory of
the great God, and of our Saviour Jesus Christ ; 14 who
gave himself for us, in order that he might redeem us
from all iniquity, and purify to himself a peculiar people,
zealous of good works. 15 These things speak, and exhort,
and reprove with all authority. Let no one despise thee.

56 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
III. 1 "Yirop.ip.vTjcrKE avrovs dpxats e£ovaiais virord&aeaBai,
ireiBapxeiv, irpbs irav epyov dyadbv eroip-ovs eivai, 2 p,ijSeva
f3Xaa<f>yfieiv, dfidxpvs etvat, eirieiKeis, iraaav evSencwpievovs
irpavryra irpbs iravras dvBpwirovs. 3 rjfiev ydp ttote Kai Tjp-eis
dvoyroi, aireideis, irXavwfievoi, SovAevoVTes iiridvpiais Kal TjSovais
iroiKiAats, ev KaKia Kai (pBovw Sidyovres, arvyyroi, fivaovvres
oAAtjAovs- 4 ore Se y xPVa'r°TV's K<" V <piXavdpwiria iirecpdvy
tov awrfjpos yfiwv ©eov, 5 ovk it epywv rwv ev SiKaioavvy d
EirotTjcrapev yfieis, dXXa Kara rb avrov eAeos eawaev rjfids 8ia
Xovrpov iraXivyeveaia,s ko.1 dvaKaivwaews irvevfiaros dyiov, 6 ov
e£exeev eip' ijpas irAovcrttos Stct 'Itjo-ov Xpiorov rov awrypos yfiwv,
7 iva SiKaiwBevres ry iKeivov xdpm K.Xypovop.01 yevyBwfiev Kar'
iXiriSa £a>Tjs aiuviov. 8 iricrros 6 Aoyos, Kai irepi tovtktv f3ov-
Xofiai ae 8iaf3ef3aiova6ai, iva <ppovri£waiv KaXwv epywv irpo-
taraaBai ol ireiriarevKores ®e<5. ravra iariv KaXa. Kal HxpiXifia
rois dvdpwirois' 9 fiwpas Se t,yryaeis Kal yeveaXoylas Kai epiv
Kal fidxas vofiiKas irepdaraao- elaiv yap dvw(peXeis Kai fidraioi.
10 alperiKov dvBpwirov p,era p,tav Kai Sevrepav vov0eo-tav irapai
rov, 11 etSios on iiearpairTai 6 toiovtos Kai afiaprdvei wv
avTOKaraKpiros. 12 "Orav irefHJ/w 'Aprefiav irpbs ae y Tvxikov, airovBaaov
iXdeiv irpos fie ets NikoitoAiv eKei yap KeTcpuca irapaxeip.dcrai.
13 ZtjvSv tov vopiKov Kai AiroAAaiv crirovSaiajs irpoirejitliov, iva
p.Tj8ev avTots Aiirrj. 14 piavdaverwaav Se Kai oi yp.erepoi koXwv
epyeuv irpo'iaraadai eis Tas dvayKat'as XPe'as> ""x f"7 <5criv
aKapiroi. 15 Kairdtpvrai ae ol fier ifiov irdvTes. dcr7racrai tovs cpi-
AovvTas ijpas ev iriarei.
'H X"Pts P-tTa '"'dvrwv ifiwv.

THE EPISTLE TO TITUS. 57
III. i Put them in mind to submit themselves to magis
trates, to authorities, to obey rulers, to be ready to every
good work, 2 to revile, no man, to be no brawlers, for
bearing, showing all meekness unto all men. 3 For we
also were once foolish, disobedient, going astray, serving
divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hate
ful, and hating one another. 4 But when the kindness and
the love toward man of our Saviour God was manifested,
5 not of works — works in righteousness — which we did, but
according to his mercy he saved us, through the laver of
regeneration, and [through] renewing of the Holy Ghost ;
6 which he poured out on us richly through Jesus Christ
our Saviour ; 7 in order that, being justified by his grace,
we might become heirs according to the hope of eternal
life. 8 Faithful is the saying, and concerning these things
I would have thee strenuously affirm, to the end that they who
have believed God may be careful to practise good works.
These things are good and profitable to men. 9 But foolish
questionings, and genealogies, and strifes, and contentions
about the law, avoid ; for they are unprofitable and vain.
10 A heretical man, after one and a second admonition,
shun ; 1 1 knowing that such an one is perverted and
sinneth, being self-condemned. 12 When I shall send
Artemas to thee, or Tychicus, make haste to come to me
to Nicopolis ; for I have determined to spend the winter
there. 13 Zealously forward on their journey Zenas the
lawyer and Apollos, that nothing may be wanting to them.
14 But let ours also learn to practise good deeds for neces
sary uses, in order that they may not be unfruitful. 15 All
that are with me salute thee. Salute those that love us in
the faith. The grace [of God] be with you, all.

IIPOS TIMO0EON B'.
I. 1 HavAos dirdcTToAos Xpiorov 'Itjctov 81a. deXyfiaros ®eov
Kar iirayyeXiav £wrjs rrjs iv Xpiarw 'lyaov 2 Tifiodew dyairyrw
tekvo). x^P'5> eAeos, elpyvy dirb ©eov irarpos Kai Xpiorov Itjctov
rov Kvpiov yfiwv.
3 Xdpiv exw tu ®ew, w Xarpevw dirb irpoyovwv iv Kadapa
aweiSyaei, cos dStdAEnrrov exw ryv irepl aov /xvetav iv rats SeTjcre-
crt'v pov vvktos Kai yp.epas, 4 iiriirodwv ae ISeiv, fiepuvyfievos aov
rwv SaKpvwv iva xap5s irXypwdw, 5 virofivyaiv Xaf3wv rrjs iv
aol avvirOKpirov iriarews, tjtis ivwKyaev irpwrov iv ry j!.dp.p.y aov
AwiSt Kat ttj fiyrpi aov Evviktj, ireireiapai Se oti Kai ev croi. 6 Al
tjv ainav avafiifivyaKW ae dvat/wirvpeai rb xaptcrpa tov ©eov, o
eanv iv aol Sid ttjs eiriBeaews rwv xaPwv fiov. 7 ov ydp ISaucev
Tjptv 6 ©eos irvevfia SetAias, aAAa Svvdfiews Kai dydirrjs Kai aw-
cppovicrpov. 8 p,r) ovv iiraurxyvBys rb paprvpiov rov Kvpiov
yp.wv fiySe ifie rbv Secrpiov avrov, dAAd awKOKOirdjByaov rw
evayyeXiw Kara. 8vvap.iv ©eov, 9 tov awaavros ij/xas Kai koAe-
o-avros kAtjctei dyta, ov Kara to epya 7jp.Sv dAAd Kara iSiav irpo-
Beaiv Kai X&Plv Tr)v oodeurav ypiiv iv Xpiarw 'Itjo-ov irpo xpovwv
alwviwv, 10 <pavepwBeiaav Se vvv Sid i-ijs iirupaveias rov awrypos
yp,wv Xpiarov lyaov, Karapyyaavros fiev rbv Bdvarov, <pa>n'-
cravTOS Se t,wyv Kai d<pBapaiav Sid tov evayyeXiov, 11 Eis o
iredyv iyw Kijpv£ Kai dirdo-ToAos Kai SiSdo-KaAos- 12 Si' tjv ainav
Kai tovto iracrx<D, dAA ovk eiratcrxvvop.ar oiSa yap w ireiricrTevKa,
Kai ireireiapMi on SvvaTos ecrnv ttjv irapa&yKyv p-ov <pvXd4ai eis
EKeivijv ttjv Tjpepav. 13 viroTviroxriv exe vyiatvdvTtov Adycov tov
irap' ip.ov r^KOvaas iv iriarei ko.1 aydiry rrj iv Xpiarw 'Itjctov"
58

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.
I. i Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God,
according to the 'promise of life which is in Christ Jesus,
2 to Timothy, [my] beloved child : Grace, mercy, peace,
from God the Father, and Christ Jesus our Lord.— 3 I give
thanks to God, whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure
conscience, how unceasing remembrance I have of thee in
my prayers night and day ; 4 longing to see thee, mindful
of thy tears, that I maybe filled with joy; 5 recollecting the
unfeigned faith [that is] in thee, which dwelt first in thy
grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice ; but I am per
suaded that in thee also. 6 For which cause I remind thee
to stir up the gift of God, which is in thee through' the
laying on of my hands. 7 For God gave us not the spirit
of cowardice, but of power, and love, and correction. 8 Be
not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord,
nor of me his prisoner : but suffer hardship with me,
according to the power of God ; 9 Who saved us, and
called us with an holy calling, not according to our works,
but according to his own purpose, and the grace which
was given us in Christ Jesus before eternal times ; 10 but
manifested now by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus
Christ, who abolished death, indeed, but brought life and
immortality to light : 1 1 for which I was appointed a herald,
and apostle, and teacher of the Gentiles. 12 For which
cause also I suffer these things : but I am not ashamed ;
for I know whom I have trusted, and am persuaded that he
is able to keep my deposit against that day. 13 Have
(possess) the pattern of sound words, which thou heardest

60 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
1 4 ttjv KaXrjv irapaByKyv <pvAa|ov Sid irvEv/xaros dyiov tov evoi-
kovvtos ev ijpiv.
1 5 OtSas rovro, on airearpdcpyadv pie irdvres oi ev ttj Acria,
wv iariv <&ijy£Aos Kai 'Epp.oyevys. 16 Sanj eAeos 6 Kvpios ru
'Ovyaupopov o'Ikw, oti iroXXaKis fie dvexjrv$ev ko.1 ryv dAvcriv fiov
ovk hraiaxvvBy, 17 dAAd yevofievos ev 'Twfiy airovSaiws itfiry-
aev fie Kal evpev. 18 SoJtj airw 6 Kvptos evpelv eXeos irapa Kv
piov iv EKeivTj ttj Tjpepa. Kai ocra ev 'Eoieaw SiyKovyaev, f3eXnov
av yivwaKeis.

II. 1 Sv ovv, tekvov p.ov, ev8vvap,ov ev ttj xdpm ry ev Xpiarw
lyaov, 2 Kai a TjKovcras irap' ep,ov Sid iroAASv paprvpwv, ravra
irapaBov iriarois avBpwirois, olnves IkovoI eaovrai Kal erepovs
StSafai. 3 avvKaKoiradyaov a>s koAos arpariwrys Xpurrov iy-
aov. 4 ovSeis arparevofievos ifiirXeKerai Tats rov f3iov irpaypua-
Ttais, tva tu arparoXoyyaavri dpeaa. 5 eav Se Kai dc^Ag tis, ov
OTe<pavovrai eav fiy vop.ip.ws d&Xyay. 6 rbv KOiriwvra yewpybv
Set irpwrov twv Kdpirwv fieraXafifSdveiv. 7 vdei o Aeyco- Stocret
ydp croi 6 Kvpios crvvecriv ev irdo"iv. 8 Mvij/xoveve "Itjctovv Xpiarov
iyyyepfievov eK veKpwv, iK airepfiaros Aavei'S, KaTa to evayyeXiov
fiov, 9 ev a> KaKOiradw fiexpi Seafiwv (bs KaKOvpyos, dAAd 6 Aoyos
tov ©eov ov SeSerat. 10 Sid tovto irdvra virofievw Sid tovs
eVAeKrovs, tva Kat avToi awrypias Tvxaicnv rijs ev Xpicrno 'Irjcrov
p,eTa So^tjs aiioviov. 11 IIicrTOS 6 Aoyos- ei yap crvi'airep'dvop.ev,
Kai crvv^ijcropev 12 ei virop.evop.ev, Kal avvf3aaiXevaop,ev ei
apvyaop,eBa, KaKeivos dpvyaerai 7jp.as- 13 ei dincrTovp.ev, eKeivos
irtcrTOS fiivei, dpvyaaaBai yap eavrbv ov Svvarai.
14 Tavra v7roptp.vTjcTKe, Siapaprupdpevos ev<o7tiov tov ©eov
p,TJ Xoyopaxeiv, iir ovSev XP^cripov, eiri Karaarpocpy tcov okovov-
tcov. 15 OTrovSacrov creavTOV SoKtpov irapacn-ijcrai t(3 ©6(3, ipyd-

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 6 1
of me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. 14 The
goodly deposit keep through the Holy Ghost that dwelleth
in us. 15 Thou knowest, that all who are in Asia turned
away from n\e ; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.
16 The Lord give mercy to the house of Onesiphorus,
because he ofttimes refreshed me, and was not ashamed of
my chain; 17 but (on the contrary), when he arrived in
Rome, he sought me out with greater diligence, and -found
me. 18 May the Lord grant to him that he may find
mercy from the Lord in that day. And how. many things
he ministered at Ephesus, thou knowest very well.
II. 1 Thou therefore, my child, be strengthened in the
grace that is in Christ Jesus. . 2 And the things which thou
nast heard from me with many witnesses, these commit to
faithful men, such as shall be able to teach others also. 3
Suffer hardship with me, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
4 No one serving as a soldier entangles himself in the
businesses of life, in order that he may please him who has
called him to be a soldier. 5 But if any one also strive in the
games, he is not crowned, unless he have striven lawfully.
6 The toiling husbandman must first partake of the fruits.
7 Understand what I say ; for the Lord will give thee dis
cernment in all things. 8 Remember Jesus Christ as having
been raised from the dead, of the seed of David, according
to my gospel : 9 in which I suffer hardship up to bonds, as
a malefactor; but the word of God is not bound. 10 For
this reason I endure all things for the sake of the elect, in
order that they also may obtain the salvation that is in
Christ Jesus with eternal glory. 11 Faithful is the saying :
For if we died with him, we shall also live with him; 12
if we endure, we shall also reign with him; if we shall deny
him, he also will deny us ; 13 if we are unbelieving, he
abideth faithful : he cannot deny himself.— 14 Put them in
mind of these things, solemnly charging them before God

62 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
ttjv dveiraiaxwrov, bpBoropnvvra rbv Xoyov rrjs dXydeias-
16 rds 8e /3e/3tjAovs Kevotpwvias irepiiaraao- iiri irXeiov yap
irpoKotj/ovaiv daefieias, 17 Kai 6 Aoyos avrwv a>s ydyypaiva
vofiyv e£et. wv iariv 'Yfievaios Kal &iXyros, 18 oirives irepi ttjv
dAijp'eiav yaroxyaav, Xeyovres avdaraaiv tjStj yeyovevai, Kai dva
rpeirovaiv ryv nvtov irianv. 19 o fievroi arepeos BefieXios rov
©eov ectttjkev, ex<ov ttjv crtppayiSa tovttjv eyv<o Kvpios tovs
ovras avrov, Kar dirooTTjno dird dSiKias iras d bvofiaifisv ro
ovopa Kvptov. 20 ev peydAij Se oi/«a ovk eanv p.6vov aKevy
Xpvcra Kai dpyvpa, dAAd Kai ^vAiva Kai SarpaKiva, Kal a fiev els
rifiyv d 8e eis drifiiav 21 eav ovv Tts iKKaddpy eavrbv dirb rov-
twv, earai ctkcvos ets rifiyv, yyiaap-evov, evxpyarov rw 8eairory,
els irdv epyov dyadbv yroifiaafievov. 22 Tas 8e vewrepiKas ein-
dvp.ias (pevye, Siioke 8e 8iKatocrvv7jv, irianv, dydiryv, elpyvyv pera
tcov eiriKaAovpevcov rbv Kvpiov Ik Kadapas KapSias. 23 Tas Se
p.wpas ko.1 diraiSevTovs £,yryaeis irapaiTov, eiScos on yewwaiv
fidxas' 24 SovAov Se Kvpiov ov Sei pidxeadai dAAd tjttiov Eivai
irpds iravras, SiSaKTiKov, dvE^iKaKOV, 25 ev irpavryri iraiSevovTa
tovs dvn8ianc5ep,evovs, p.yirore Sutj avrots 6 ©eds fierdvoiav els
iiriyvwaiv dXydeias, 26 Kai dvavyijrwaiv « ttjs tov StajSdAov
iraytSos, itftnypyfievoi vir avrov eis to iKeivov deXyfia.

III. 1 Tovto Se yivwaKe, on ev Ecrxdrais rjfiepais evo-ttjctovtoi
Kaipol xcAeirot. 2 erovrai yap oi avdpwiroi (ptAavrot, <£iAdp-
yvpoi, dAa£dv£S, virepytpavoi, /3Xdatpyp.oi, yovEvcriv dir£i0£is,
dxdpiaroi, dvdcrioi, 3 aaropyoi, dcrirovSoi, 8id/3oAoi, cucpaTeis,
avyfiepoi, dcpiXdyadoi, 4 irpoSdrai, irpoirereis, rervtpwfievoi, <pi-

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 63
not to wrangle about words profitable for nothing, to the
subversion of them that hear.
15 Give diligence to present thyself to God approved, a
workman not ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
16 But profane babblings shun, for they will advance to
more of ungodliness. 17 And their word will eat as a
gangrene: of whom is Hymenaeus and Philetus; 18 men
who concerning the truth swerved, saying that the resurrec
tion has already taken place, and overthrow the faith of
some. 19 Nevertheless the firm foundation of God stands,
having this seal, " The Lord knoweth them that are his."
And, Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart
from iniquity. 20 But in a great house there are not only
vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth ;
and some to honour, others to dishonour. 2 1 If any one,
then, shall have purged himself from these, he shall be
a vessel for honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master,
prepared for every good work. 2 2 But flee youthful lusts ;
but follow after righteousness, faith, love, peace with them
that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart. 23 But foolish
and ignorant questions avoid, knowing that they do gender
strifes. 24 But the servant of the Lord must not strive, but
be gentle toward all, apt to teach, patient of wrong; 25 in
meekness correcting those who oppose themselves, if per
adventure God may give them repentance unto the full
knowledge of the truth ; 26 arid that they may return to
soberness out of the snare of the devil, having been taken
captive by him, according to the will of him (God).
III. 1 This know, however, that in the last days grievous
times shall set in : 2 for men shall be selfish, covetous,
boastful, haughty, censorious, disobedient to parents, un
thankful, unholy, 3 without natural affection, implacable,
false accusers, incontinent, fierce, haters of good, 4 betrayers,
headlong, carried with conceit,- lovers of pleasure rather than

64 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
AtjSovoi pSAAov 77 (piXodeoi, 5 exovtes p,6pcpwaiv evaefSeias rrjv
8e Svvap.tv avrTjs ypvyp-kvov Kal tovtovs dirorpeirov. 6 ek tovtiov
ydp etcrtv 01 evSvvovtes els rds oiKias Kai aixP'aAcoTi^ovTES yvvai
Kapia aeawpevp,eva dpiapriais, dydfieva iiriBvp,iais iroiKiXais,
7 irdvrore piavBdvovra ko.1 fiySeirore els iiriyvwaiv dXyBeias
iXBeiv Svvdfieva. 8 ov rpoirov Se lawrjs Kal lafifSpys dvreary-
aav Mcovcret, ovnos Kai ovtoi dvBiaTavrai ry dXydeia, avdpwiroi
Kare<fii6apfievoi rbv vovv, dSoKifioi irepl ryv irianv. 9 dAA ov
irpoKOifrovaiv iirl irXeiov y yap dvoia avrwv ekStjAos earai iracriv,
d>s Kai tj £Keiv<ov eyevero. 10 Sv Se irapyKoXovdyads fiov ry
SiSacrKaAia, ttj dytoyjj, ttj irpodeaei, rrj iriarei, ry piaKpoBvfiia, ry
dydiry, rrj virofiovrj, 11 tois 8i(oyp.ois, tois iraByfiaaiv, oia p.01
iyevero iv 'Avnoxeta, ev Ikoviw, iv Kvarpois' oiovs Sicoyp.ovs
viryveyKa, Kal iK irdvrwv pe ipvaaro 6 Kvpios. 12 Kal irdvres
Se oi 0eAovTes £tjv eiaefSws iv Xpiarw Itjctov SiwxByaovrai.
13 IIoVTjpoi Se dvBpwiroi Kal ydirres irpOKOif/ovaiv iirl rb xeipov,
irAavcoVTes Kai irAavcop.evoi. 14 av Se fieve iv ots epades Kal
iiriarwBys, elSws irapd tivwv ep.aBes, 15 Kai on dird j3pe<povs
iepd ypdfhfiara otSas ra Svvdfievd ae ao<piaai eis awrypiav Sid
irtcrrecos ttjs ev Xpicrno Itjctov. 16 irouaa ypatprj deoirvevaros
Kal dxpeAipos irpds StSacrKaAiav, irpds eAeypdv, irpds hravopdwaiv,
irpbs iraiSiav ttjv ev StKaiocrvvTj, 17 i'va dpnos y b rov ©eov
dvdpwiros, irpbs irdv epyov dyadbv i£ypriafievos.

IT. 1 Atapapi-vpopai evuiiriov rov ®eov Kal Xpiarov 'lyaov
rov peAAovTos Kpiveiv ^aivras Kai veKpovs, Kal ryv eirttpdveiav
avrov Kat ttjv fSaaiXeiav avTOV, 2 Kypv£ov rbv Xoyov, eiriaryBi
evKaipws aKaipws, eAey^ov, irapaKdXeaov, irriTipiyaov, ev irdcnj
p,aKpo8vp.ia Kai StSaxJJ. 3 so-toi ydp Kaipds OTe ttjs vyiaivovcrns
SiSacrKaAias ovk dv&fovrai, dAAd Kara Tas tSt'as hridvp.ias eavrois

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 65
lovers of God ; 5 having a form of godliness, but denying
the power thereof. From such turn away. 6 For of these
are they who creep into houses, and take captive silly women
laden with sins, led away by divers lusts ; 7 ever learning,
and never able to come to the full knowledge of the truth.
8 Now in the same manner that Jannes and Jambres with
stood Moses, so do these also withstand the truth : men
corrupted in their mind, reprobate concerning the faith.
9 But they shall not make progress ; for their folly shall
become manifest to all, as theirs also came to be.
10 Thou, however, hast closely followed my instruction,
my manner of life, my purpose, my faith, my long-suffering,
my love, my patience, 11 my persecutions, my sufferings,
such as befell me in Antioch, in Iconium, in Lystra ; such
persecutions as I endured : and out of them all the Lord
delivered me. 12 Yea, and all who are minded to live
piously in Christ Jesus shall be persecuted. 13 But evil
men and deceivers shall grow worse and worse, deceivirig,
and being deceived. 14 But do thou continue in the things
which thou didst learn, and wert assured of, knowing of
whom thou didst learn them; 15 and that from a very
child thou knowest the holy Scriptures, which are able to
make thee wise unto salvation, through faith which is in
Christ Jesus. 16 Every scripture [is] given by inspiration
of God, and [is] profitable for instruction, for conviction,
for correction, for discipline in righteousness ; 17 in order
that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished
for every good work,
IV. 1 I solemnly charge thee before God, and Christ
Jesus, who is going to judge living and dead, and by his
appearance and his kingdom : 2 preach the word ; be in
stant in season, out of season ; reprove, exhort, rebuke, in
' all long-suffering and teaching. 3 For there shall be a time
when they will not endure the healthy instruction ; but after
their own lusts will heap up to themselves teachers, having
E

66 The pastoral epistles.
eiriawpevaovaiv SiSacrKaAovs Kvyddfievoi rrjv aKoyv, 4 Kai diro
pev ttjs dXydeias ryv aKoyv diroarpexj/ov aiv, iirl Se tovs p.vdovs
iKtpairy'aovtai. 5 av Se vfj<pe iv irdaiv, KOKOirddyaov, epyov
iroiyaov eiayyeXiarov, rrjv StaKoviav crov irXypocpopyaov. 6 TSyai
yap tjStj airevSofiai, Kal 6 Kaipds ttjs dvaXvaews fiov i<pearyKev.
7 rov KaXbv dywva rrywviap.ai, rbv 8pdp,ov TETeAeKa, ttjv irianv
rerypyKa' 8 Aoiirdv diroKeirai p.oi 6 ttjs StKaiocrvvTjs orecpavos,
bv diroSoicrei p,ot d Kvpios iv eKeivjj ttj yfiepa, 6 SiKaios Kpirys, oi
povov Se epoi dAAd Kai iracri tois yyairyKoai rrjv eiricpaveiav airov.
9 SiTovSacrov eAt^etv irpos fie raxews. 10 AypAs yap fie ey-
KareXiirev dyairyaas rbv vvv attova, Kai iiropevBy eis ©ecrcraAo-
viktjv, Kpijo"KTjs eis TaAAiav, Titos eis AaXfiariav 11 AovkSs
iariv pdvos p£T ifiov. WldpKOv dvaXafiwv dye pierd aeavrov
eanv ydp poi ev,xpyaros els SiaKoviav. 12 Tvxikov Se direoreiAa
ets E^>eo"ov. 13 tov <peAdvTjv, bv dirEAtirov ev TptodSi irapd
Kdpira), ipxdfievos <pepe, Kal ra /3t/3Aia, fidXiara Tas fiefifSpdvas.
14 AAe£av8pos d xaAKevs iroAAd p,oi KaKa eve8ei$arom diro8waei
airw 6 Kvpios Kara ra epya avrov. 15 ov Kai crv <j>vXdaaov Xiav
yap avreary rois yp,erepois . Aoyois. 16 ev ttj irpwry p,ov diro-
Xoyia. ovSeis p.oi irapeyevero, dAAd ttoVtes p.£ eyKaTeAtirov p.Tj
avTots XoyiaBeiy 17 6 8e Kvpios p.ot irapeary Kal iveSwdpiwaev
fie, iva Si' ep.ov to Kijpvypa irXypo<popydrj Kal aKovawaw irdvra
Ta etfvij, Kai epvadyv eK o-rdp-aros Aeovtos. 18 pvaerai fie 6 Kv
pios dird iravrds epyov rrovypov Kai crajcrei sis ttjv fSaaiXeiav avTOV
ttjv iirovpdviov w y 86£a eis tovs atcovas tcov aicovtov, dfiyv.
19 "Acrirao-ai IIptcrKav Kai AKvAav Kai tov 'Ovrjcrnpopov
oikov. 20 "Epacrros efieivev iv Kopiv0a>, Tpd<ptp.ov Se dirE'Atirov
ev MtAijTO) dcr0£vovvra. 21 crirovSaaov irpo xelMcovos eAtfetv.
dcrird^eTai ere Ev/3ovAos Kai IlovSrjs Kai Aivos Kai KAavSia Kai
oi d8eXepoi iravres.
22 'O Kvpios peTa tov irvevptards crov. tj x^P'S P&& up-cov.

THE SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 67
itching ears ; 4 and they will turn away their ears from
the truth, and be turned aside to fables. 5 But watch thou
in all things ; endure hardship ; do the work of an evan
gelist ; fully accomplish thy ministry. 6 For I am already
being offered, and the time of my departure is at hand. 7 I
have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I
have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me
the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous
Judge, shall award to me in that day ; and not to me only,
but to all them that love his appearing.
9 Do thy endeavour to come to me quickly. 10 For
Demas forsook me, having loved this present world, and
is gone to Thessalonica; Crescens to Gaul, Titus to Dal
matia. n Luke alone is with me. Mark take up, and
bring with thee, for he is serviceable to me for the ministry.
12 But Tychicus I sent to Ephesus. 13 The cloak which
I left at Troas with Carpus, bring when thou comest, and
the books, especially the parchments. 14 Alexander the
coppersmith did me much evil. The Lord will requite him
according to his works. 15 Of whom be thou also on thy
guard, for he exceedingly withstood our words. 16 In my
first defence no man stood forward with me, but all forsook
me. May it not be laid to their charge. 17 But the Lord
stood by me, and strengthened me, in order that through me
the preaching [of the gospel] might be fully accomplished,
and that all the Gentiles might hear ; and he delivered me
out of the mouth of the lion. 18 The Lord will deliver
me from every evil work, and preserve me to his heavenly
kingdom : to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
19 Salute Prisca and Aquila, and the household of
Onesiphorus. 20 Erastus abode at Corinth; but Tro
phimus I left at Miletus sick. 21 Do thy endeavour to
come before winter. Eubulus saluteth thee, and Pudens,
and Linus, and Claudia, and all the brethren.
22 The Lord be with thy spirit ; grace be with you.

THE

FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.

CHAPTER I.
Vers, i, 2. Paul, an apostle of Christ fesus according
to the commandment of God our Saviour, and Christ fesus
our hope; to Timothy, [my] true child in the faith : Grace,
mercy, peace, from God the Father, and Christ fesus our
Lord. If this had been simply a private letter, having for its
object the expression merely of kindly feelings, or the com
munication of prudent advice as from one friend to another,
it would certainly have been unnatural in the apostle (as
some have objected) to begin in so formal a manner, and
to give such prominence at the outset to his divine call
to the apostleship, with which Timothy was doubtless per-
'fectly familiar. But the letter plainly bears an official
character; and while partaking of the graceful and affec
tionate freedom which fitly arose from the intimate relations •
of the parties, it was designed to carry with it an authorita
tive value — to convey instructions respecting church order
and Christian work, which called for, implicit obedience.
Timothy, the youthful companion, was now coming in a
measure to take the place of the apostle in ministerial
agency; and he must have both the nature of the work,
and the warrant on which he was to proceed with it, dis-
«9

70 . THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
tinctly laid upon his conscience. He might possibly need
such an authoritative commission to bear him up against
others in the discharge of his delegated function; and
therefore I would not exclude (with Ellicott) a regard to
the due maintenance of his authority. He might have at
times to exhibit, or even press, the grounds on which he
spake and acted as he did. But for himself also it was
needful. For it was evidently an irksome and delicate
task which was assigned him at Ephesus, with so many
germs of error sprouting, and headstrong, conceited men
bent on carrying matters their own way. If himself, as
would appear, of a meek, amiable disposition, and accus
tomed hitherto to be led rather than to lead, he rhight in
some things be tempted to give way to the will or resistance
of others. It was right, therefore, he should feel that
necessity was laid upon him ; that the voice which speaks
to him is that not merely of a revered instructor or a
spiritual father, but of a Heaven-commissioned ambassador,
who has a right to declare the divine will and rule with
authority in the Christian church. So Bengel : Hie titulus
facit ad confirmandum Timotheum; familiaritas seponenda
est, ubi causa Dei agitur.
St. Paul's mode of expressing his divine relation to the
apostleship here is somewhat peculiar : he is an apostle of
Christ Jesus, not, as he sometimes puts it, from being called
thereto (Rom. i. i ; i Cor. i. i), or as having received his desti
nation to it through the will of God (i Cor. i. i ; 2 Cor. i. 1 ;
also in Ephesians, Colossians, 2 Timothy), but according to
God's commandment {Kar eiriTayrjv ©eov), or by God's appoint
ment (as KaTa tv'x'/v, by chance, Kar evvotav, by good-will).
His apostolic calling is thus brought into connection with
the direct ordering of Heaven — the active carrying out or
result of the divine will. If it is asked, How or when was
the commandment issued ? we may point, with Chrysostom,
to Acts xiii. 2, where the Holy Ghost is related to have

I TIMOTHY I. I, 2. 71
said by certain prophets in the church at Antioch :
" Separate me Barnabas and Saul for the work whereunto
I have called them ; " only, this command of the Spirit was
but the echo, as indeed it professes to be, of a prior com
mand or vocation given from above, which therefore was
the fundamental thing. And so Chrysostom himself felt,
for he presently refers the matter to that original source ;
stating, that while it was the glorified Redeemer from whom
the command was directly received, it was not the less
from God : for the things of the Father are the Son's, as
those again of the Son are the Spirit's.- So that whether we
look to the Spirit's injunction to the church at Antioch, or
to Christ's charge to the apostle himself on the road to
Damascus, we see in each the expression of the Father's
will and appointment. In two other passages — Rom. xvi.
26, Tit. i. 3 — the apostle has used the same expression of
" God's commandment ; " in the former case generally, with
respect to the ministration of the gospel, in the latter
specially, with respect to his own commission.
It is another peculiarity here that God is called our
Saviour, a designation applied to God with great frequency
in the Pastoral epistles (not only here, but at 1 Tim. ii. 3,
iv. ,10, Tit. i. 3, ii. 10, iii. 4), and occurs elsewhere only in
Luke i. 47, and Jude, ver. 25. It is impossible to deny,
however, that the idea involved in the designation is com
mon to all the epistles of Paul ; in some of the others, also,
salvation is expressly and formally coupled with God (as
in 2 Thess. ii. 12, 1 Cor. i. 21). So that it is merely the
employment of Saviour as a personal designation of God
in Christ which is peculiar to the Pastoral epistles. Why
the apostle should in these have not only adopted, but
evinced a special fondness for such a designation, can only
be proximately determined. But it may not improbably
have presented itself to his mind, as a kind of counteractive
to the false teaching which in his latter days was beginning

72 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
to corrupt the truth. In that presumptuous, self-willed
spirit, which was striving to hew out new paths for itself,
and aiming at heights of knowledge and virtue beyond
those which were accessible to ordinary believers in Christ,
the apostle could not fail to see what tended to separate
between God and salvation ; in fact, to change altogether
the idea of salvation as a work originating in the purpose,
and carried into effect by the agency, of God. Christianity
would come to be viewed only as a higher sort of school
instruction and spiritual disciplme, which might be ever
so much remodelled and improved upon by the efforts of
successive theosophists. To associate salvation, therefore,
not simply with Christ (which, however, is also done by the
apostle, i Tim. i. 14, Tit. i. 4, ii. 13, iii. 6), but directly
and prominently with God, might seem a fitting mode of
testifying against the false tendency of the times. It would
certainly have been to believers a preservative against
much of the evil then emerging, if they kept firm hold
of the truth that salvation is of God ; for thus would all
arbitrariness in speculation and undue licence in practice
be repressed.
With God as our Saviour the apostle couples Christ
Jesus as our hope, precisely as in Eph. ii. 14 he calls Him
our peace; and, with a still nearer resemblance to the pre
sent passage, in Col. i. 27, the hope of glory in believers.
He is so called, not merely because the reception of His
gospel lights up the hope of blessing and glory in the heart,
but because all that is hoped for is so indissolubly linked
to Christ Himself, that our relation to Him carries also
our relation to it. In eo solo tota salutis nostra: materia
(Calvin). To Timothy, \my\ true child in the faith. The rendering in
the Authorized Version, " mine own son," is not altogether
correct, yvTj'o-tos being true, in opposition to false or spurious ;
hence genuine, real. Had it been used of a relation in

I TIMOTHY I. I, 2. 73
the natural sphere, own might have been taken as the proper
equivalent : one's own child, as contradistinguished from
another's, from a supposititious offspring. But it is other
wise in the spiritual; for Timothy might have been a
genuine child of the divine kingdom, though brought into
it through the instrumentality of another than the apostle.
But as having been so brought, — brought as a mere youth,
and almost from the date of his conversion kept in constant
attendance upon the apostle, — it was natural for the latter
to use the term child rather than son to express the relation,
even now when Timothy was in the ripeness and vigour of
manhood ; it was more distinctly indicative of tenderness
and affection. The other would have been more natural
to an imitator. The addition, in faith, or, in the faith, — for
there can be no doubt that it refers to the specific faith of
the gospel, — is made to prevent mistake, by defining the
sphere to which the filial relationship belonged. So also,
in i Cor. iv. 17, Timothy is described by the apostle as
"his beloved child, and faithful in the Lord." The en
dearing spiritual relationship subsisting between them had
on Timothy's part been properly maintained.
Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father, and Christ
fesus our Lord. The only thing calling for special notice
here is the insertion of eAeos, mercy, between grace and peace.
In all the rest of Paul's epistles, except the Second to
Timothy (in Titus the word, though in the received text,
should likewise be omitted), mercy is not found in the
salutation, but onlv grace and peace. It seems, however,
a strange mode of reasoning to press this as an argument
against the genuineness of the two epistles ; for the very
uniformity of the apostle's style in his earlier epistles would
have been sure to catch the eye of a forger, and in a manner
constrained him to adopt the same. It was not for him at
the very outset to deviate from the beaten track ; least of
all to do so by such an addition to the two regular epithets

74 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
as mercy, which has respect to sin and misery in the object
of it. Grace and peace might fitly enough be sought for
Timothy as an honoured member of the church of Christ,
and more especially as one called to the discharge of an
onerous and responsible commission in it; but who, save
such a man as Paul, could have thought of mercy ? If even
in the case of the erring Galatians and the backsliding
Corinthians, mercy was omitted from the apostolic saluta
tion, was it for an unknown, a lying imitator, to conceive of '
Paul's dear child of faith, his substitute in the performance
of what was properly apostolic work, as a subject for mercy?
This, surely, was a very unlikely thing to come from such a
quarter ; and it may therefore be regarded as the apostle's
own signature — the impress of his peculiarly thoughtful and
deeply exercised heart. He knew how much he needed
mercy for himself, not merely at the outset of his spiritual
career, when he was rescued as a brand from the burning,
but also when engaged in his work as an ambassador of
Christ. He knew that, even when he was outwardly doing
all, he was still spiritually coming short ; that evil was more
or less present with him, when seeking to do what was good;
therefore he must ever feel himself a debtor to mercy.
And could, he wish his dear child and deputy to feel other
wise ? Would he not rather be disposed to consider it
essential to Timothy's safety and success to live in the
exercise of such a spirit ? It came well from so richly en
dowed a workman, and so experienced a saint, to convey to
his youthful disciple the important instruction couched under
this word — from him alone could it have so come ; and it
embodies a lesson for all future ministers of the gospel,
which it well becomes them to ponder. While they are
ambassadors of mercy to others, let them never forget ,that
they need to be themselves partakers of mercy — never more
so than when they are engaged in the higher duties, and
pressing the more sacred interests of the gospel. If they

I TIMOTHY I. 3, 4. 75
know aright what they are, and what they should be, they
will be ever throwing themselves on God's mercy, and also
looking for the glorious issue as the consummating display
of that same mercy toward them in Christ Jesus unto eternal
life (Jude 25).
The proof should not be overlooked which this impetra-
tion of grace, mercy, and peace for Timothy affords of the
essential divinity of Christ ; since He is coupled with God
the Father as alike concerned in the bestowal of strictly
divine gifts. Had our Lord possessed only a creature's
place and prerogatives, even though it were the highest in
creation, it had been impossible for a truly pious mind to
have presented Him, without further explanation, in this
apparently co-equal fellowship with the Father ; such a mind
would have instinctively shrunk from so unseemly a con
junction. We can only, therefore, regard the place given to
Christ here as a virtual declaration of the apostle's belief in
the truth enunciated by Christ Himself, " All things that the
Father hath are mine," and again, when He affirmed that
the Son hath life in Himself, even as the F'ather hath life
in Himself (Matt. xi. 27 ; John xvi. 15, v. 26).
Vers. 3, 4. According as I besought thee when setting
out for Macedonia, [so I do now\ to abide still at Ephesus, in
order that thou mightest charge some not to teach any other
doctrine, nor to give heed to fables and endless genealogies,
inasmuch as they minister strifes rather than God's dispensa
tion in faith. The sentence is elliptical in the earlier part,
to be explained, with Winer {Gr. § 64), by the rapidity of the
apostle's style, throwing into the protasis what should have
been expressed in an apodosis, such as ovtco Kai vvv irapaKaXw :
As before I besought, so now also I beseech. Our trans
lators, after Erasmus {ita facito), have supplied, at the end
of the entire sentence, so do — which makes the sense plain
enough ; but it seems better to introduce the supplement a
little earlier. The verb expressive of Timothy's continued

76 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
residence at Ephesus, which as to the sense betokens a kind
of prolonged present, is put in the aorist {irpoafieivai), because
dependent on an aorist which precedes, according to the
principle of the parity of tenses, which the Greeks particu
larly regarded (Winer, § 45, 8). The preceding verb itself
— ifapeKdAecra, I besought — was viewed by Chrysostom as
indicative of the apostle's gentleness and affection toward
Timothy : he would not authoritatively enjoin his prolonged
stay at Ephesus, but would only give an earnest expression
of his desire regarding it, as in a matter that deeply con
cerned the interests of the church. There appears ground
for the remark; and Tit. i. 5, where a stronger word is used
in regard to the evangelistic labours of Titus in Crete — " as
I appointed," or ordered thee {8ieraidfiyv) — is no argument to
the contrary, for the cases were not strictly similar. Titus
stood in a somewhat different relation to Paul from Timothy.
The latter, like a beloved son and bosom companion, had
his appropriate place beside the apostle ; and any arrange
ment which involved a departure from this rule, was rather
a subject for mutual consent, or at the most for earnest
entreaty on the one side, and submissive compliance on the
other, than for express command. Titus, however, was
simply one of various fellow-labourers in the gospel, and
by the nature of his office stood under the authority and
direction of the apostle. So that, viewed with respect to
the relative position of the parties, there was a fitness and
delicacy in the choice of the words applied to each, such
as might quite naturally present itself to the mind of the
apostle, though by no means likely to occur to another
person. The difficulties connected with the apostie's going
into Macedonia, and leaving Timothy to tarry on at Ephesus,
in a historical point of view, have already been considered
in the Introduction.
The more special and immediate object of Timothy's
continued residence at Ephesus, was that he might charge

I TIMOTHY I. 3, 4. 77
some not to teach any other doctrine — eVepoSiSao-KaAETv. By
eTepos is meant other, or different, in the sense of diverse, or
of another kind ; so that the teaching meant was teaching
after a different type of doctrine from that which bore on it
the sanction of apostolic authority. This, it is implied, was
the standard ; all right teaching must conform to it ; what
did not do so was an unwarranted deviation — a heterodoxy.
So, at an earlier period, the apostle had designated the
Jewish leaven introduced into the churches of Galatia ; it
was another gospel {h-epov eiayyeXiov, i. 6) which they had
received, and the persons who had pressed it on their
acceptance were false teachers. But in neither case might
there be any formal abjuration of the essential facts of the
gospel, such as to constitute them heretics in the modern
sense ; the error lay rather in superinducing thereupon
foreign elements, and giving way to considerations and
practices which were" at variance with the proper genius of
the gospel, and inevitably tended to corrupt its character
and mar its design. Here, the false admixtures are described
as fables and endless genealogies. The application which
began to be made at an early period of these words to the
generations of aeons in the Gnostic systems of the second
century, has already been noticed in the Introduction : it
was an accommodation, as there stated, rather than a just-
and proper interpretation ; both because the term genealogies
could not, except in a kind of secondary and figurative
sense, be understood of such ethereal fancies ; and also
because alike here and in Titus they are connected directly
with Jewish perversions and misuses of the law.
We have undoubted- evidence, that about, and even pre
vious to, the gospel era, the minds of a certain portion of
the Jewish dispersion took a set in that direction, and from
a strange, incongruous combination of their own religion
with the spirit of heathen philosophy, formed a sort of
Cabalistic system, made up of allegory, fable, mystic notions,

78 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
and legal technicalities. Philo partly reflected and partly,
also aided this false tendency, though with him it was -kept
free from many of the extravagances which discovered them-^
selves among the inferior class of Jews, who often sought
through such things to secure their own carnal and selfish
ends. But with whatever view prosecuted, as they were in
their nature entirely speculative and fanciful, they necessarily
tended, as the apostle says, to give occasion to questions
and strifes which admitted of no proper settlement, and/
yielded no real profit : ainves £yryaeis irapexovaiv, being such
as do so, having that for their natural consequence.
The converse of this has unhappily been obscured by a
corruption in the received text. Following this, the A. V.
reads, " rather than godly edifying," a fair enough rendering
of oiKoSop.tav ©eov., But it should undoubtedly be o'-.ovop/av
®eov, which is the reading of all the older mss. ; and this
can only mean God's dispensation, or economy — His specific
plan or arrangement for the administration of His kingdom.
So it is plainly used by St. Paul in other parts of his writings,
as at i Cor. ix. 17, Eph. i. 10, iii. 9. The method of salva
tion by Jesus Christ unfolded in the gospel is God's dispensa
tion, as connected with the fulness of the times (Eph. i. 10);
and as an apostle of Christ, Paul had this dispensation en
trusted to him ; as a steward, he was put in charge, to a cer
tain extent, wjth the direction of its affairs (1 Cor. iv. 1, ix. 17).
The idea, it is true, does not exactly suit the verb in the
preceding clause (irapexovo-tv) ; as one can scarcely say, " do
not minister God's dispensation ; " and hence, no doubt,
the tendency in the later copyists and the versions to sub
stitute edification for dispensation. But it is merely an
example of what is of frequent occurrence in Greek — of
construction by zeugma, which requires that a verb, when
coupled with words too diversified in import to be strictly
applicable to each, be taken in a looser sense with its more
remote than with its more immediate object. Here, the

I TIMOTHY I. 5. 79
apostle chose a verb that was quite appropriate to the
things which were foremost in his regard — namely, the
frivolous disputations which the fondness for fables and
' genealogies naturally generated ; and he left it to the good
sense of his reader to make the requisite adaptation of the
import to the matter subsequently presented : they minister
questions rather than subserve what belongs to God's dis
pensation. And he indicates the reason, when he adds ttjv
eV iriarei, that is in faith, has its sphere therein, or stands
vitally related to that humble, confiding principle in the
soul, as the bond more especially which connects men with
it, and the avenue through which it developes spiritual life
and hope in their experience. But fables and genealogies
of whatsoever sort belonged to a different category ; they
did not address themselves to the principle of faith ; they
merely exercised the fancy and the intellect, and did so in
a manner fitted rather to create a distaste for the proper
objects of faith. The more one might give himself to such
a line of things, the more would he find himself carried away
from the sphere of God's merciful economy for the salvatjon
of sinners.
Ver. 5. Now the end of the charge is love out of a pure
heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. The charge
(irapayyeXias) here meant cannot be the law strictly so called
; — as if irapay. were all one with vdpos or evtoAtj — for the word
is never so used; but it indicates the charge lying upon
those who have a part to do in connection with God's dis
pensation — the obligation they have to fulfil in order to
carry out its design. They are emphatically persons under
charge (viro irapayyEAids), being put in trust with the scheme
of God for the wellbeing of men, and so having love for its
grand aim (teAos) — love in the fullest sense — love to God,
the author of the dispensation, and love to mankind as the
-objects whose present and eternal good it contemplates.
The possession and exercise of such love_ may be taken as

80 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
the measure of one's sympathy with the spirit of the dispen
sation, and preparedness for executing the charge which
comes along with the knowledge and belief of its realities,
and which rests especially upon those who are called to act
as its more select instruments of working. — [The word
irapay. was probably suggested in this connection by the
irapayyeiXys in ver. 3, and only makes general what was there
given with a special application. Timothy was to charge the
teachers in the church at Ephesus, who seemed in danger
of turning aside from the right path, to beware of giving
heed to things which were quite alien to the proper aim and
calling of the evangelical office. And proceeding now from
the particular to the general, the apostle briefly describes
the nature of the charge which lies upon all true evangelists
— what, from the very nature of the gospel, is and must be
the heart and spirit of their calling. Comp. also ver. 18,
iv. 11, v. 7, vi. 13, 1 Thess. iv. 2.]
But as the apostle has indicated the relation of the gospel
charge to love, so, lest the nature of love itself might be
mistaken, he shows its connection with the internal state
and condition of the regenerated man : it is love out of a
pure heart, hence incapable of working to ignoble ends, or
the gratification of corrupt desires, but issuing like crystal
streams from a pure fountain ; also out of a good conscience,
properly responsive to the claims of moral obligation,
honestly bent on following out its convictions of truth and
duty ; finally, out of faith unfeigned {dwiroKpirov), — a term
frequently used to characterize the graces of the Christian
character— love (Rom. xii. 9 ; 2 Cor. vi. 6), brotherly kind
ness (1 Pet. i. 22), spiritual wisdom (Jas. iii. 17) ; but when
applied to faith, serving to indicate its reality and power as
an internal principle, its living apprehension and firm grasp
of the things presented to its view ; hence widely different
from that lazy assent to the doctrines of the gospel, that
merely formal profession of adherence to them, which often

I TIMOTHY I. 6. 8 1
goes by the name of faith. In specifying so many sources
of Christian love, the apostle is not to be understood as
giving a theoretical exposition of the matter, or presenting
in strict philosophical order the relation of love to the heart,
conscience, and faith respectively, or of these to each other.
He is contemplating the subject in a practical point of view,
and simply unfolding, in the order that seemed natural to
him at the time, the several elements which must conspire to
the production and exercise of genuine Christian love. In
the order of nature, the unfeigned faith must undoubtedly
be placed first ; for in fallen men, laden with guilt and
alienated from the life of God, there is no way of attaining
to real purity of heart and a purged conscience but through
faith in Christ. When through this faith entering, however,
the soul is brought into fellowship with the realities of sal
vation, the borids of its captivity are broken ; it becomes
re-united to the one source of life and blessing, and at once
experiences and reciprocates a love which prompts it to a
life of beneficence and worth. But considered with respect
to practical working, the order adopted by the apostle is
quite natural : farthest in, as the deep fountainhead of all
the outgoings of Christian love, there is the purified heart ;
then, to regulate the actings of love, and determine their
course and measure, there is the good conscience ; and
finally, to sustain and animate the soul in the varied works
and labours proper to love, there is the faith unfeigned,
embracing the glorious promises of God, and ministering
strength from the things therein contained to its vital
energy. Such, probably, is the order and relation in which
these spiritual characteristics presented themselves to the
mind of the apostle ; and in the concurrent action and due
subordination of them to each other will ever be found to
consist the stability and progress of the Christian life.
Ver. 6. From which — namely, the several moral qualities
just mentioned — some having swerved, daroxyo-avres (found

82 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
only besides in chap. vi. 20, 2 Tim. ii. 18, where it is
coupled with irepi), — " said in regard to those who do not
reach whither they are tending — do not attain their aim"
(Bengel) : failing, either because they did not set the aim
properly before them, or did not prosecute it in a manner
fitted to accomplish what was sought. They wanted, in
short, the requisite moral bent and energy of soul ; and so
they turned aside into vain talk — the preposition in the verb/
{iierpdiryaav) having respect to the path or direction which
should have been followed, but from which the parties in
question deviated. They had not the root of the matter in
them ; and having thus no heart for the great things of the
gospel, they naturally fell to discoursing about vain ques
tions, the debateable and speculative points about which
they could find themselves at home. The secret undoubt
edly lies here of much unsatisfactory and unprofitable
preaching. If the heart is not in the great things of the
gospel, if it is out of accord with their deep spiritual tone, it
cannot delight to speak of them, and will be only too glad
to turn aside to inferior topics.
Ver. 7. The parties warned against are further character
ized as desiring {BeXovres, wishing) to be teachers of the law ;
implying that it was but a wish, a bootless aiming at what,
in its proper reality, lay far from them, as is afterwards
more distinctly brought out. The interpretation of Baur,
which was demanded by his hypothesis, would find in this
description not law teachers, but law opposers, Antinomians
of the Marcionite school ; but the view is so arbitrary, and
so much at variance with the natural import of the words,
that it has met with almost universal rejection. The
apostle is evidently speaking of men who by no means
disparaged the law as vile, or at least as too low and car
nal for persons aspiring to perfection, but rather had high
notions of the law, and set themselves up as its more
advanced and enlightened advocates, though utterly dis-

I TIMOTHY I. 7. 83
qualified for the office they assumed. It is also evident,
from the . concession made in regard to their pretensions
in ver. 8, " We know, indeed, that the law is good ; " so far
there is no dispute between us. It was an admission to the
parties against whom he was contending, in favour of that
which they so zealously lauded, in case the apostle's own
position regarding it might be perverted or misunderstood.
The false teachers, then, were in some sense legalists ; the
question is, in what sense? In what form, or with what
intent, did they press the claims of law? Not, we have
good reason to believe, after the manner of the Jewish
Christians, who first disturbed the church — zealous for the
maintenance of the ancient customs ; for the way in which
the apostle meets them (as noticed by all the recent .better
commentators) is quite different from what we find in the
Epistles . to the Romans, Galatians, and Colossians. Here
he charges the parties in question, not with bringing in
legal observances out of their proper place, but with utter
ignorance and misapprehension as to the real nature arid
design of the law : pjrj voovvres p,yre d Xeyovaiv, firjre irepi rivwv
*8ia/3ef3aiovvrai — not understanding neither, or, as suits > our
idiom better, without understanding either what things tliey
speak, or concerning wliat things they affirm. They spoke, it .
would seem, dogmatically enough ; for the verb {Siafiefiaiov-
aBai) means to make asseveration, or give forth- one's view in
a firm, dogmatic tone. But in doing so, the apostle declares
they went beyond their depth ; they merely displayed their
own ignorance, and that in two respects — both as regards
the things they said, and the topics concerning which they
uttered their sentiments. The language is such as might
very readily be applied to persons of a dreamy and
speculative mood, disposed to take things otherwise than
in their plain natural sense ; attempting, as men of a higher
order of thought, to refine and soar, and lose themselves
in mystic reveries Or fanciful allegorizings. And this, as

84 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
already stated, is precisely the form of evil which we are
led to understand then began to develope itself. It was a
compound of Gnostic and Judaic elements. The persons
who advocated it would keep the law — they would even
make more of it than the apostle did ; but then, the law
not according to the letter — the law sublimated by the
speculative reason, and explained in accordance with the
theosophy of the East. A dangerous spirit this in which
to meddle with the law ! Even as applied by the thought
ful, discreet, Platonic mind of Philo, it served in good
measure to evacuate the moral element in the old reve
lation, and sought to explain by the help of a mistaken
physics many things that should have been viewed with a
direct reference to the heart and conscience. But in the
hands of inferior men — especially men of a sophistical
cast of mind, who wished to employ religion to their
own sinister purposes — both the fancifulness of the ex
planations given of the law, and its misapplication to other
than its legitimate and proper ends, may justly be supposed
to have been of a much more marked and conspicuous
kind. There would now, probably, be frivolous distinc
tions, wild extravagance, possibly licentious freedom cloaked
under high-sounding professions, a hunting after everything
but that which should have been most especially regarded.
And so, indeed, the corresponding passage in Titus dis
tinctly tells us, chap. i. 10 sq., "There are many unruly
and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circum
cision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole
houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy
lucre's sake." Then he refers to the Jewish fables and
commandments of men that turn from the truth, and
¦speaks of tho.se who set them forth as unbelieving, and
in their very conscience defiled. Their dreamy refine
ments and speculations on the law not only led them into
practical neglect of its profoundly ethical spirit, but left

I TIMOTHY I. 8. 85
them in a manner incapable of perceiving it — deadened
their whole moral nature. And in the writings of St. John,
so far as they bore respect to the state of things existing
at a later period, and existing in that very region in which
Timothy now laboured, we perceive indications of the
same spirit, only in a more advanced stage of development.
They make mention of " the blasphemy of those which say
they are Jews and are not, but are of the synagogue of
Satan" (Rev. ii. 9); of persons "teaching the doctrine of
Balaam," practising the seductions of Jezebel, and knowing
the depths of Satan (chap. ii. 14, 20, 24) ; in short, of men
who had so sophisticated their own minds, and tried so
to sophisticate the minds of others, that the apostle had
to warn the disciples to remember that "he who doeth
righteousness is righteous, and that he who committeth
sin is ofthe devil;" that "no lie is of the truth;" that for
one to say he has fellowship with God, while he walks in
darkness, is practically to lie (1 John iii. 7, ii. 21, i. 6). The
state of things had come to be such, that it was found
necessary to recall them to first principles, and teach them,
as it were, the A B C of Christian truth and morality.
[Mark here the progression of error in false teaching.
What in its first movements may be but a deflectiori in a
single line, may in course of time lead to a general de
pravation; for example, ritualism in the early church. Mark,
too, what is the result of that knowledge and teaching which
would soar above the simplicity of the gospel : it ends in
licence and corruption — becomes dazzled in the clearer
light it affects to live in, and stumbles as in gross darkness.]
Ver. 8. The apostle turns here from the false to the true,
gives his own view of the nature of the law, and of the right
use of it, as contradistinguished from that which he had
condemned in others. We know, indeed (so Se' here may be
best rendered), that the law is good : our quarrel, therefore,
with those pretentious law-teachers is not about the quality

86 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
of the instrument they profess to handle, but only about
their manner of handling it ; we know it to be like Him
from whom it proceeds — good. The theme, in this point
of view, had been already discussed at considerable length
in other parts of the apostle's writings, especially in his
Epistle to the Romans. Here, as what he says is of the
nature of an admission, he merely asserts it ; and then
brings in a regulating principle as to that respecting which
there was a difference betwixt him and the false teachers at
Ephesus, — namely, as to the use or application to be made
of the law. The principle is, if one use it lawfully ; that is,
in accordance with its proper nature and design. For, if a
man mistakes regarding this, he cannot possibly handle the
law rightly ; he necessarily turns it into a wrong direction,
and loses at least the spirit, if not also the substance, of its
teaching. Vers. 9, io. The specific application is here given of the
general principle just announced — not, of course, the only
application which it admitted of, but the one which was of
importance for the present time : knowing this (holding it
as a settled point regarding the proper design of the law),
that the law is not made for a righteous person. Although
vdp.os is here without the article, there seems no reason why
it should not be understood of the law of God as revealed
in Old Testament Scripture, rather than, with some, of law
generally. For parallel passages, see Rom. ii. 25, iii. 30,
vii. 1 ; Gal. ii. 19, vi. 13, etc.1 Middleton would take an
intermediate view ; he would understand law in the general
sense, but take it as inclusive of the law of Moses. It is,
however, of this law, specially and peculiarly, that the
1 See Winer, Gr. § 19. 1. He brings the usage under the general rule,
that appellatives often want the article, when they are such that only
one of the kind exists, or are so used that there can be no reasonable
doubt as to what object is intended. Besides vcpos, such words as
SixxioiruvM, u-y&wn, and others, are similarly used.

I TIMOTHY I. 9, IO. 87
apostle is evidently speaking : for the persons against whom
he is directing his remarks assumed to be teachers of law
only in this speeific sense ; and we have no reason for sup
posing that the subject of law was in any other respect
before the mind of the apostle. But law so considered,
unless the context plainly determines otherwise, always
bears pointed reference to the decalogue ; for this was the
law in the more eriiphatic sense — the heart and essence of
the whole economy of law ; hence alone deposited in the
ark of the covenant. And that this ' here also is more
especially in the eye of the apostle, is evident from the
different sorts of character presently after mentioned as in
tended to be checked and restrained by the law : they
admit of being all ranged under the precepts of the two
tables. Now this law is not made {ov Keirai, the appropriate
expression for the introduction or enactment of a law ;
whence oi vdpoi ol Keip,evoi is equivalent to our phrase, " the
established laws ") for the righteous (Swcat'co). , By the latter
expression is to be understood, not one who in a worldly
sense is just or upright (for the apostle is not here speaking
of such), but who in the stricter sense is such, — one who,
whether by nature or by grace, has the position and cha
racter of a righteous man. Why is the law not made for
such ? It can only be because he is of himself inclined to
act in conformity with its requirements. If Adam had con
tinued in such a state of righteousness, he would not have
needed any objective revelation of law ; the spirit of the
law in his bosom would spontaneously have prompted him
to all that is pure and good. And of justified believers now
the apostle elsewhere says : " They are not under law, but
under grace ; " yet so under grace that sin cannot have
dominion over them, and their walk is not after the flesh,
but after the Spirit (Rom. vi. 14, viii. 4). It is thus they
have found whatever goodness belongs to them, and thus
also that they are to go on to perfection — not by serving

08 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
*
themselves of the law, or using it as the ladder for reaching
to higher attainments in goodness, but by laying hold of,
or apprehending, that for which they are apprehended of
Christ ; drinking more deeply into the spirit of His gospel,
and receiving into their souls fuller impressions of the great
realities and hopes it presents to their acceptance. But this
bespeaks nothing as to imperfection in the law itself, or the
possibility of attaining to a height of excellence beyond its
requirements. What is said has respect, not to the kind or
measure of goodness men are called to aspire after, but to
the way and means necessary to reach it; and when the
law is represented as the antithesis of moral evil, in its
various forms of irreligious and wicked behaviour, it is
manifestly implied that the spirit and aim of the law itself
is the perfection of moral excellence.
In regard to those for whom, he says, the law is made, —
those, that is, who need the check and restraint of its dis
cipline, — the apostle gives first a general description : they
are the lawless and unruly, or disobedient, the self-willed,
fiery and arrogant spirits that would fain spurn from them
all surveillance and control. Then he branches out into
particulars, the earlier portion of which have respect to
offences against God, the later to offences against one's
fellow-men : for the ungodly and sinful {daef3eaiv ko.1 dpap-
rwXois, both words occurring in i Pet. iv. 18), the unlwly and
profane {dvoaiois ko.1 /3£/3tjAois), differing from the preceding
pair only in pointing more distinctly to certain manifesta
tions of the ungodly spirit, in irreverent and contemptuous
behaviour toward the things more peculiarly associated with
the name of God. What follows has respect to human
relations : for smiters of fathers and smiters of motliers —
7raTpoAa!ais Kai fiyrpoXwais — such is the proper import of
the terms, rather than murderers of fathers and mothers ;
for the verb (dAdaw or dAoia<o) which forms the root of the
second part of the compound expressions signifies merely

I TIMOTHY I. 9, IO. 89
to thresh, smite, or beat down ; and so the smiting of father
and mother, in itself a most unnatural and shameful viola
tion of the honour due to them, whether or not it might
issue in fatal consequences, was in the Old Testament
legislation reckoned so heinous a transgression of the fifth
command, that the penalty of death was attached to it
(Ex. xxi. 15). Then come the violators of the sixth com
mand, murderers ; those of the seventh, fornicators, abusers
of themselves with mankind {dpaevoKoirais, a term for which
fortunately our language has no proper equivalent) ; those
of the eighth, the most repulsive and inhuman class of
them, men-stealers, kidnapping and making merchandise of
their fellow-creatures ; finally, those of the ninth command
ment, liars, perjured persons. But as in this enumeration the
apostle had mentioned only the more flagrant forms of trans
gression, and had no intention of furnishing a complete list
of lawless characters, he winds up the description with a
comprehensive form of expression, which includes whatever
besides that can be reckoned evil : and if there be anything
else that is contrary to the sound instruction {ry vyiaivovay
SiSao-KaAia), — that sort of instruction, namely, which was
exemplified in the teaching of our Lord and His apostles.
Why such teaching should be characterized as sound or
healthful — why, at least, it should be so characterized here,
and often besides in the Pastoral epistles (as at 1 Tim. vi. 3 ;
2 Tim. i. 13, iv. 3; Tit. i. 9, ii. 1), but not in Paul's other
writings, we may be but imperfectly competent to say. But
neither can others be entitled to deny that the circum
stances of the time were of a kind to render such an expres
sion natural to Paul— natural for him now, as contradistin
guished from a preceding time. And the simple fact of its
absence from the earlier epistles of Paul was almost certain
to have deterred a forger of Paul's name to have used it, at
least with such marked frequency. The apostle himself,
however, might well enough do it, if the erring tendencies

90 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
against which he warned and wrote in the closing period
of his ministry differed materially from those which had
manifested themselves previously, and, in a moral respect,
were of a sickly and distempered nature. Such appears to
have been actually the case. It was no longer the avowed
adversaries of the gospel that the aposde had to meet, nor
its mistaken and bigoted corrupters of the pharisaical type,
but a class of sophistical, dreamy, self-sufficient theosophists,
who, without directly opposing or disparaging the gospel,
sought to introduce a fine-spun but sickly sentimentalism,
— teaching abstinence from things in themselves proper and
lawful, as if incompatible with the higher attainments of the
divine life, and refining upon the law so as to derive from
it an instruction it could not yield in its direct and natural
import. This was essentially a morbid, an unhealthful sort
of teaching, to which the apostle fitly opposed the sound
and robust character of his own teaching and that of the
other apostles. It was therefore the altered circumstances
of the times which gave rise to this change in the language
of the apostle ; and it is absurd to urge the phraseology
employed as an argument against the apostolic origin of
the epistles, unless one could disprove the previous altera
tion in the circumstances — which has certainly not yet been
done. Ver. 1 1. According to the gospel of ihe glory ofthe blessed
God, which was committed to my trust — not the glorious
gospel, taking ttjs Sdfrjs as a qualitative genitive, equivalent
to evSo£os (see Winer, Gr. § 34. 6). The gospel of God's
glory is the gospel which peculiarly displays His glory, —
unfolds this to the view of men by showing the moral
character and perfections of God exhibited as they are no
where else in the person and the work of Christ Quite
similarly, the apostle speaks in 2 Cor. iv. 4 of " the gospel
of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God ; " and
elsewhere of " the riches of God's glory toward the vessels

I TIMOTHY I. 12. 91
of mercy," or of the power which He gives them, " accord
ing to the riches of His glory" (Rom. ix. 23 ; Eph. iii. 16).
By presenting the gospel thus as the manifestation of God's
glory, and, the God from whom it comes as the blessed God,
the apostle evidently intends to make it known as adequate
to all the wants of men's spiritual natures, and the purposes
of their salvation. But while the meaning of the words is
thus clear, what precisely is the nature of the connection
between them and the preceding context ? What does the
apostle mean to tell us is according to his gospel ? Is
it simply the sound doctrine spoken of immediately be
fore ? So some have thought (as "Theophylact, Bengel) ;
but in that case there must have been required a connect
ing link with the SiSacrKaAia, such as ttj KaTa to evay. (as is
done in D ; and Theophylact has the gloss, ttj ovotj Kara
rb evay.). But there being no such connecting particle, we
are obliged to refer this concluding statement to the whole
of the preceding passage ; 'and so , the meaning comes to
be, that the assertion about the law being made rather for
restraining the wicked, than for establishing and perfecting
the righteous, is according to the gospel ofthe grace of God
with which the apostle was entrusted.
Ver. 12. The thought of such a gospel having been
committed to him — one so unworthy in himself of having
any treasure of God entrusted to him — leads, the apostle
to recall with adoring gratitude the treatment he had received
from God his Saviour. In doing so, he in one sense breaks
off the thread of his former discourse, — leaving, as he does,
for a time the false teachers, against whom he had been
cautioning Timothy ; but, in another, he is still prosecuting
his design : for undoubtedly his main object was to inspire
Timothy with right views of the nature of the gospel, and
of the course it behoved him to follow in teaching and
enforcing its lessons. The reference to false teachers was
itself subordinate to this design ; so that the occasion now

92 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
taken to discourse of his own case as a singular exempli
fication of the gospel of God's glory, is not of the nature
of a digression, but is in perfect keeping with the general
drift and aim of his instructions. It is also such an experi
mental record as might well come from the pen of the
apostle himself, though we can scarcely conceive any one
presuming to indite it in his behalf, far less to palm it on
the church in his name. Ellicott, who vindicates the entire
suitableness of the passage to the purpose of the apostle,
justly says of it : " Thus, without seeking to pursue the sub
ject in the form of a studied contrast between the law and
the gospel (he was not now writing against direct Judaizers),
or of a declaration how the transgressors of the law were
to attain righteousness, he more than implies it all in the
history of his own case. In a word, the law was for the con
demnation of sinners, the gospel of Jesus Christ was for the
saving of sinners and the ministration of forgiveness ; verily,
it was a gospel of the glory of the blessed God."
Xdpiv exw — I give thanks. This is not the apostle's
usual mode of expressing thanks : he generally uses the
single verb eixapiarw ; but x°-Ptv *X£lv a^so occurs in 2 Tim.
i. 3, in Heb. xii. 28, Luke xvii. 9 ; and x°LPl's itself in the
sense of thanks frequently by our apostle, Rom. vi. 17 ;
1 Cor. xv. 57; 2 Cor. ii. 14, etc. The apostle gives
thanks to Christ fesus our Lord, who had given him power,
or strengthened him — evSwapdjcravn — namely, to receive
such a commission or charge as had been entrusted to him.
He has respect to the work of an apostle, in relation to the
gospel of Christ's glory, as at once a very arduous and a
very responsible undertaking, which, however honourable,
would have oppressed and crushed him, but for the strength
ening and sustaining grace which he received from above.
This endowment of grace is undoubtedly to be connected
with the whole work of his apostleship ; not merely, as some,
with the performance of miracles, or, as others, with the

I TIMOTHY I. 12. 93
patient endurance of trial and suffering : for, while super
natural power was needed for these, they still formed an
incidental and subsidiary, not the primary, object of the
apostolic calling. The great end for which he received this
calling, as Paul himself elsewhere testifies, was to preach
the unsearchable riches of Christ, and thereby win men to
the love and service of God, and form them into communi
ties of believing Christians. And as this was emphatically
a divine work, in which, if left to himself, he should have
laboured in vain, the same gracious Lord who gave him
the call to the work, gave him also the aid necessary to its
successful prosecution.
With thanks for the- power conferred on him, however,
the apostle couples the acknowledgment of his own deep
unworthiness : he had been counted worthy to be put in
trust with the weightiest charge, and furnished with the
noblest gifts for its execution, though in himself he had
been an offender of the deepest dye. The Lord, he says,
reckoned me faithful, or trustworthy (iricrrdv) ; adding the
proof in a participial clause, appointing me for service — ets
SiaKoviav — for ministerial employ. Such employ necessarily
requires fidelity in the person appointed to discharge it ;
and on this account, no doubt, the apostle chose the
humbler and more general term of service, rather than
apostleship, to designate his office, because viewing it here
with reference to the work he had to do, not to the pre
rogatives given him to exercise. He thus also, for practical
purposes, brought his case down to a level with Timothy's,
or that of any other servant, of Christ. Whatever specific
office they may hold, it is essentially a service they have to
- render ; and the higher the office, the more onerous and
important also the service : so that every one bearing office
in the church of Christ is here admonished, by the example
of the apostle, to regard himself as appointed to a duty of
service, and to see in that a proof of the trust reposed in

94 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
him by the great Head of the church ; therefore also a call
to fidelity in the work given him to do.
Ver. 13. Then comes the contrast between the present
and the past, enhancing in the apostle's esteem the mercy
and loving-kindness he had experienced : though 1 formerly
was {rb irpdrepov ovra, the participle of concession, or limi
tation, Jelf, § 697, c) a blaspfiemer — one, that is to say, who
was wont to speak evil of the name of Jesus, and compel
others to do the same (Acts xxvi.- 11) — a persecutor, and out
rageous. Our English version is here too weak, translating
v/3ptd-Tijv by "injurious;" for the word signifies a doer of
violence and outrage. " The vfipiarys is contumelious ; his
insolence and contempt of others break forth in acts of
wantonness and outrage" (Trench, Syn.). Such, certainly,
was Paul's behaviour toward the Christian party before his
conversion, and such also too commonly was the behaviour
of his countrymen towards him after it (1 Thess. ii. 2, where
the verb v/3piadeis is used with reference to his treatment
at Philippi). But I obtained mercy, the apostie continues :
great as his wickedness and guilt were, he yet became a
subject of divine compassion ; because (he adds) I did it
ignorantly in unbelief: not meaning thereby to lessen the
enormity of his guilt ; for his very ignorance was culpable,
¦ having within his reach the means of correcting it, if he had
been 'seriously minded to arrive at the truth. What he
intends by the statement is, that his outrageous and violent
procedure, however inexcusable in itself, was still not of
such a kind as placed him beyond the pale of mercy ; since
he had not, like the worse part of the blaspheming and
persecuting Pharisees, sinned against his better convictions
(Mark iii. 28-30) ; he had not deliberately set at nought the
counsel of God, and defied Heaven to its face. He stood,
therefore, substantially on a footing with the Jerusalem
sinners who, on and after the day of Pentecost, were charged
by St. Peter with the awful crime of having crucified the

I TIMOTHY I. 14", 15. 95
Lord of glory, yet with the qualifying circumstance of having
done it in ignorance (Acts iii. 17). In both cases alike the
sin was of the deepest dye, only not unpardonable ; it still
lay within the sphere of redeeming grace — but of grace in
its more rare, one might even say, its exceptional exercise.
This the apostle virtually admits in the words that follow.
Ver. 14. But the grace of our Lord superabounded — virep-
irAEovao-Ev — not merely manifested itself in an act of mercy,
and exhibition of undeserved goodness, as in the case of
ordinary sinners, but overflowed, in a manner, its wonted
channels, and like a mighty flood poured its gifts of love
into his bosom. And with the wonderful grace received,
the apostle couples the frame of mind awakened by it : with
faith and love that are in Christ fesus — the fruit, certainly,
of the grace bestowed, yet, as De Wette justly notes, not
' indicated here precisely as the fruit, but rather as the
concomitants of grace — the subjective side of a work of
grace. While he continued a stranger to the grace of
Christ, he was also without faith, in unbelief ; and so far
from being animated by a spirit of love, he pursued a course
of blasphemy, persecution, and outrage. But with grace
came also faith and love, because by grace he was brought
into living fellowship with Christ, the causal source and
nourisher of both. There is a singular pregnancy in the
passage, and also a profound Christian feeling pervading it,
which leads the apostle to find all his springs in Christ, and
in Christ as at once the embodiment of sovereign redeem
ing mercy, and the grand medium of its communication to
the soul. In the strongest possible form he here again
utters the confession, " By the, grace, of God I am what I
am" (1 Cor. xv. 10 ; Eph. iii. 8).
Ver. 15. Now follows a general announcement respecting
this grace, grounded on the apostle's own experience, and
exemplified by it. Faithful is the word, and worthy of all
acceptation, etc. The expression at the commencement,

96 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
introducing the great truth which follows, Faithful is the
word (irt'o-Tos 6 Adyos), is one of those peculiar to the Pastoral
epistles, occurring in these no fewer than five times (besides
here, 1 Tim. iii. 1, iv. 9 ; 2 Tim. ii. 11; Tit. iii. 8), but
occurring nowhere else, — a proof, therefore, that it had
somehow passed into a kind of proverbial utterance with
the apostle in the later period of his ministry, and a proof
also that those epistles belonged to about the same period.
If we have nothing exactly parallel to this in Paufs other
epistles, we have at least what approaches it, in his marked
predilection for particular words and modes of thought
By designating the word he is going to enunciate as faith
ful, he presents it to our view as perfectly reliable, entitled
to implicit credit ; and the additional characteristic, worthy
of all acceptation (that is, of every sort and manner of it,
, irdcrTjs being without the article), commends it to us as
deserving not only of being rested on with confidence, but
of being received with every mark of inward affection and
regard. It should be everywhere hailed by men, and
embraced with the full accord of their soul, because of the
benign aspect it carries towards them, and the blissful
effect it is fitted to produce on their condition and destiny.
The word is, that Christ fesus came into the world to save
sinners — the whole gospel in a sentence — and, indeed, but
a slightly modified form of the original announcement made
to Joseph, " Thou shalt call His name Jesus, for He shall
save His people from their sins" (Matt. i. 21). Only here,
along with the fact of the salvation of sinners as the one
and all, in a manner, of Christ's undertaking, He is repre--
sented as coming into the world to accomplish it, which
implies His pre-existence in a higher condition, and His
descent from that into this lower world for the execution of
the task He had previously undertaken. So also in John
i. 9, xvi. 28.
But the apostle is not satisfied with expressing the

I TIMOTHY I. 1 6. 97
general object of Christ's mission ; he must also indicate
his own specific relation to it, or to the class whose good
it contemplates. And this is the more remarkable part of
the statement, as he places himself in the foremost rank
of sinners : of whom I am chief (or first, eov irpGrds Etpt iyw
— first in the sense of greatest, as at Mark xii. 28, 29).
Commentators have often sought to qualify the strength of
the expression' by confining the reference to converts from
Judaism, and understanding the apostle merely to mean,
that he had gone further in a sinful antagonism to the
claims of Jesus than his believing countrymen generally,
or that he held a leading place among such. But there is
no warrant for any limitation of this sort. It accorded with
the deep practical insight which St. Paul had through the
Spirit obtained into his own case, that he should set his
guilt in the foremost place : to his own eye it bulked more
than all ; as, indeed, for direct and palpable hostility to the
cause of Jesus, it could scarcely be exceeded. It is not
surely for us to extenuate what he has himself so broadly
marked — the less so, as in this very depth and intensity of
feeling respecting his sinfulness we recognise the essential
element of his spiritual greatness, according to our Lord's
declaration, that he who humbles himself most shall be
greatest in the kingdom of heaven (Matt, xviii. 4).
Ver. 16. Howbeit (so the A. V. well, giving full expres
sion to the contrast indicated by the dAAd between the
apostle's behaviour toward Christ, and Christ's procedure
toward him), for this cause I obtained mercy, in order that
in me first Christ fesus might show forth all long-suffering,
for a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him to life
eternal. The former reason assigned by the apostle for bis
obtaining mercy had respect to his personal relation to the
principles of the divine government, as one little entitled
to expect any manifestation of mercy, yet not placed
beyond the sphere of its exercise. But the reason here
G

98 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
adduced points to the economical design of God in select
ing such a sinner to be a vessel of mercy : it was that he
might be a living exemplar or pattern, as well as herald, of
the wonderful grace exhibited in the gospel ; so that from
what had been wrought in him others might take courage,
and repair to Christ for the pardon of sin and life eternal,
— might, as it is put by Bengel, conform themselves to the
pattern, and say to themselves, If thou believest as Paul,
thou shalt be saved as Paul. Such is the general import,
and the particular words and phrases involve no special
difficulty. There is a difference in the reading in one part ;
the received text having i-ijv irdaav fiaKpodvfiiav, while Lach.
and Tisch. prefer rrjv dira'aav fiax. This last is certainly
somewhat better supported, being found in a, A, F, G, while
the other has only D, I, K. But the difference in meaning
is not material. If we adopt diraaav, it merely renders the
entireness or fulness of the long-suffering manifested toward
the apostle more distinctly pronounced : the whole of His
long-suffering, all that He had to show of it. But the other
reading (irao-av) also includes all; for iras, when standing
between the article and the noun, according to the rule,
marks the noun as .an abstract, and indicates that it is
to be taken in its entirety, without respect to individual
members or component parts (Winer, Gr. § 17, 10; Green,
Gr. p. 194). So that ttjv irScrav p.oK. denotes all that can
be comprised in the term long-suffering — this in its totality.
And so Chrysostom explains, though the reading he followed
was that of the received text : " As if he said, In none
more than in me has He need to show long-suffering ; nor
can He find one who has been so much a sinner, needing
all His mercy, all His long-suffering, not a part merely, as
they who have sinned in part." He could not have said
more, if he had read dbrao-av. The word for pattern,
viroTVTTcocris, which is found only here and in 2 Tim. i. 13,
does not materially differ from twos, the term commonly

I TIMOTHY I. 1 6. go
used by Paul (Rom. v. 14; 1 Cor. x. 6, 11, etc.) ; but is of
more active import — expresses not so properly the inani
mate form as the living exemplification, the personified
action of the long-suffering referred to. And being coupled
with the genitive of possession — rcov p.eAAdvnov irio-Teveiv — it
is represented as in some sense belonging to these future
believers — called into existence and set forth for their
special behoof. In St. Paul first — first in the sense of chief,
or foremost exemplification — had the attribute of mercy
been displayed, that they might be the more distinctly
assured of the divine purpose to extend its manifestation to
themselves. And being described as going to believe on
Christ to life eternal, these future believers, who would
take the benefit of the apostle's marvellous experience, have
presented to them at once the high destiny to which they
should be called, and the ground on which their hope of it
must rest — faith in the person and work of Christ.
[The question here naturally suggests itself, how far
Christian ministers should in their preaching disclose
their more marked personal experiences, or should inter
weave references to their spiritual history with their mani
festations of divine truth to their fellow-men. But it were
unwise to lay down any precise rrile in the matter, or
prescribe one method for all. That there may occasionally
be made such personal references, and with advantage to
the hearers, the example of the apostle is itself a sufficient
proof. Not only here, but in several other parts of his
epistles, he brings prominently forward what had befallen
or had been done by himself; and these are universally
felt to be among the most interesting and instructive por
tions of his writings. And so will it ever be with men of
like minds, men of ardent temperaments, vivid imagina
tions, and energetic wills, in whom everything in experience
and behaviour naturally assumes a distinctly personal,
characteristic impress. It will be natural for such persons

IOO THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
to reveal themselves at times in their discourses, whether
by direct reference to the past workings of their own mind,
and God's' dealings with them, or by subjective exhibitions
of Christian truth and duty, raised on the background of
their own experience. When fitly and discreetly done, it
may throw a peculiar charm and glow over the preacher's
discourse. But very great caution is needed in the use of
such an element, lest it should degenerate into egotism, or
become merely a display of individual singularity and
importance. Deep sincerity — the impulse of strong feel
ing — a conviction of its fitness to subserve some spiritual
end, should ever go along with, and condition, any personal
references one may make in public discourse. And if
some men of note have dealt much in them, and by doing
so have lent an attractive power to their mode of address,
such as Luther, Bunyan, Irving, Guthrie ; others, again, of
the very highest mark as public speakers, — for example,
Leighton, R. Hall, Chalmers, — have studiously avoided it :
their individuality has discovered itself only in the dis
tinctive character and spirit of their discourse.]
Ver. 17. Now, to the King of the ages, the incorruptible,
invisible, only God, be honour and glory for ages of ages (or,
for ever and ever). Amen. The language in this doxology
is somewhat peculiar, and has no exact parallel in New
Testament Scripture. In a very few passages is the epithet
King applied to God, as in Matt. v. 35, "the great King;"
1 Tim. vi. 15, "King of kings;" Rev. xv. 3, "King of
nations " (according to the correct reading), but here only
King of the ages. Our translators have softened and gene
ralized the expression, by rendering "the King eternal."
It is better, however, to adhere to the proper import of the
word. Atcov, from dim, dyp,i, to breathe (Horn. II. xv. 252),
means (1) lifetime, life; (2) long period of time, perpe
tuity =Lat. cevum; and in this latter sense various shades
of meaning quite naturally arise according to the con-

I TIMOTHY I. 17. IOI
nection : in particular, {a) past time, from of old, or since
time began (Luke i. 70 ; Acts iii. 21 ; Col. i. 26) ; {b\ the
present epoch of passing time, the age in which one. lives, or
the existing world (Matt. xiii. 22 ; Luke xvi., 8 ; Rom. xii. 2,
etc.) ; {c) the successive stages or epochs of the world's history,
dispensational time (Matt. xxiv. 3 ; Heb. ix. 26 ; 1 Cor.
x. 1 1), — the termination of the aeons or ages being in thi's
case coincident with the end Of the world. But as the in
definite extension of such successive periods may readily
enter into our conceptions of the future as well as of the
past, so there naturally came, {d) by a reduplication of the
word, the idea of eternity — ages of ages, dispensational
epochs of indefinite number = eternity. So here, for
example, at the close of the doxology, eis tovs aioivas t5v
alwvwv, for ever and ever ; and in other passages, the word,
sometimes in the singular, sometimes in the plural, stands
simply for eternity, whether as before or as after the
periods we designate by the general name of time, as in
Eph. iii. n, 21; 1 Pet. i. 25; 2 Pet. iii. 18; Mark iii.
29, xi. 14, etc. There is no difficulty in understanding
the import of the expression as. connected with God ; and
it is best, as we have said, to retain it in its simplicity.
When He is spoken of as King of the ages, He is presented
to our view as supreme Lord and Director of the successive
cycles or stages of development through which this world,
or creation at large, was destined to pass — the Sovereign
Epoch-maker, who arranges everything pertaining to them
beforehand, according to the counsel of His own will, and
controls whatever takes place, so as to subordinate it to
His design. The idea is presented in many other parts of
Scripture, in the Old Testament as well as in the New ;
and in Ps. cxi v. 13, the kingdom of God is in the Septua
gint described as f3aaiXeia irdvrwv rwv alwvwv, a kingdom of
all the ages. In the apocryphal books the expression King
of ages is distinctly applied to God (Ecclus. xxxvi, 17 (22) ;

102 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
Tob. xiii. 6). — The epithets which follow, d<f>Bdprw, dopdrw,
fiovw (the received text has also o-ocpw, but against the best
authorities), are to be coupled with the ®ew which follows,
— the whole specifying and characterizing the Being de
signated as King of the ages ; He is the incorruptible, in
visible, sole God. To Him alone belong honour and glory,
and to Him they belong to all eternity. The same ex
pressions are together applied to God in Rev. iv. 9, 1 1, and
to the glorified Christ in Heb. ii. 9, Rev. v. 13.
As to the reason for introducing here such an ascription
of praise to God, no other can be assigned than the devout
and grateful emotions of the apostle's heart; nor is any
other needed. The train of reflection into which he had
been led, naturally brought the thought of God very pro
minently before him; of God as the free and sovereign
dispenser of the grace which he had received, and which
had changed the whole state of his condition and prospects.
And penetrated with a sense of the infinite greatness and
overruling wisdom, power, and goodness of God as mani
fested in his own singular history, he rises from the particular
to the general, and winds up this touching and personal
interlude in his discourse by a devout acknowledgment
of God as the Lord of the universe, — of all its ages, and the
issues therewith connected, — and glorifying Him as such.
Vers. 18-20. In these verses the apostle again returns
to his proper theme — that, namely, of giving specific coun
sels and directions to Timothy. This charge I commit
to thee, child Timothy. What charge? Referring back
to ver. 3, we find the apostle charging Timothy (iva
irapayyeCXys) respecting those who were acting as teachers
at Ephesus, that they should be urged to avoid teaching
after a certain manner ; and at ver. 5 he had spoken gene
rally of what he held to be the end of the gospel charge
{irapayyeXCa), for all who might assume the office of Chris
tian instructors. Several commentators have consequently

I TIMOTHY I. 18-20. 103
brought the charge mentioned here into direct connection
with those earlier passages, as Theodoret, Mack, and some
others. It is a serious objection, however, to such a view,
that the preceding references to a charge lie so remote from
the one before us ; and the subject, also, as here introduced,
has the appearance of being in itself both special and com
plete. , Most recent commentators, therefore, justly con
ceive that nothing more than perhaps an indirect allusion
can be supposed to exist here to the charges or commands
mentioned previously, and that the more direct and im
mediate object of the present charge is expressed in the i'va
arparevy which follows. The apostle, in short, has passed
from his own peculiar calling, and the trust therewith con
nected, to the inferior yet still very important office and
trust now committed to Timothy, and lays on him the
command to do in regard to it the part of a good soldier
of Christ, that he might wage successfully the conflict with
evil. The more remarkable part of the passage is the
reference it contains to certain prophecies which had been
uttered concerning Timothy, and which the apostle in
troduces as a kind of justification of the command he is
going to lay on his disciple : according to the prophecies that
went before on thee, or that were at an early period pro
nounced over thee. When precisely these prophecies
were uttered, we are nowhere informed ; but the proba
bility is that they belong to the period of Timothy's
special designation to Christian work under the authority
and guidance of the apostle, given then for the purpose of
encouraging the church to make the designation, and dis
posing Timothy to accede to it. His extreme youth, and
possibly also slender frame, might render such intimations
of the Divine mind respecting the future course of Timothy
in a sense necessary at the commencement of his official
connection with St. Paul. And it may be inferred, from the
allusion to them here, that they contained indications both

104 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
of the arduous nature of the work which he was called to
do, and of the divine aid that should be given him to dis
charge it. On this account the apostle speaks of them,
not simply as having been given at a definite period in the
past, but as being still in a manner operative : in order that
in them thou mayest war the good warfare ; in them (ev
airdis), not simply, according to them (Huther), but as
being, so to speak, encompassed by them, and finding in
them whatever thou needest to stimulate and encourage
thee amid the perils and difficulties which thou hast to
encounter. The apostle thus had, in the prophecies in
question, a specific occasion for the charge he was going
to deliver; and the object of both was, that the early
promise made to Timothy of a successful career in the
cause of the gospel might be realized. The image em
ployed to describe Timothy's course of Christian activity —
that of a warfare — was quite familiar to the apostle. In other
passages he uses it of believers generally, Eph. vi. 12; of
himself as an apostle, 2 Cor. x. 3,4; and of Timothy again
in the second epistle, chap. ii. 3.
Ver. 19. Here follows an instruction as to the more
essential qualifications for prevailing in such a spiritual
warfare : having (or holding, exwv) faith and a good con
science; possessing these moral elements as indispensable
prerequisites, or accDmpaniments of the work. Faith fitly
goes first ; for it is this which provides the Christian com
batant with his only valid standing-ground for the conflict,
and supplies him with the weapons which alone can enable
him to repel the assaults of the adversary, and counterwork
his devices. But a good conscience is here faith's necessary
handmaid ; for the contest is in the strictest sense a moral
one, and a depravation of the conscience is a virtual aban
donment of the struggle : it is yielding to the adversary an
entrenchment in the citadel. A single flaw even in the
conscience is fatal to the believer's security, and his hearti-

I TIMOTHY I. 19. 1 65
ness in the work ; nor can it be permitted to exist without
gnawing like a worm at the root of faith itself. The man
who would do battle for the truth of God must be respon
sive in his inmost soul to the claims of divine truth, and
render it clear as day that he identifies himself with its
interests — is ready, in a manner, to live and die in its
behalf. The two, therefore, must go together as insepar
able companions : the good conscience can no more be
dispensed with than the living faith ; and much must ever
depend on the healthful, harmonious, and concurrent
action of the two for the result that is attained in the
Christian warfare.
Sacred history presents too many instances of the dis
astrous effects of holding these qualifications apart — the
faith without a good conscience, as, in Old Testament times,
Balaam, Saul ; in New, Judas, Demas. And here the apostle
points to several in the region of Timothy's labours, though
he only specifies two by name : which some having thrust away
{dirwadfievoi), concerning faith made shipwreck. The relative
(tjv) can only refer to the second of the two qualifications
previously mentioned, the good conscience; and the manner
of dealing with it affirmed of certain parties, can only be
understood of violent overbearing suppression : they reso
lutely stifled its monitions, or drove from them whatever it
suggested in the way of moral suasion to restrain them in
the course they were pursuing. They thus, in the first
instance, proved false to the convictions of their better
nature ; and this, by a natural process of reaction, led them
to make shipwreck of faith itself. For faith, having failed to
influence their practice, turned as a matter of course into a
speculation : their views of divine truth became dim and
wavering ; they began first to undervalue, then to disrelish
what should have been prized as their necessary food, until
at last faith lost its hold altogether of the foundations, and as
an anchorless vessel drifted among the rocks of scepticism.

106 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
A melancholy history, of which no age of the church has
been without its memorable examples !
Ver. 20. Of whom (the apostle adds) is Hymenceus and
Alexander. Both these names occur again in an unfavour
able connection (Hymenaeus in 2 Tim. ii. 17, and Alex
ander in 2 Tim. iv. 14); and it is a question among com
mentators, whether the same persons are in each case
denoted by them. In regard to Hymenaeus, there seems
no proper reason for doubting the identity. For the name
was by no means a common one ; and that it should have
been borne by two different persons, both in the same
locality, and both exhibiting heretical tendencies, so near
the beginning of the church, is against all probability. It
has been alleged against this view (by Mosheim and others),
that the Hymenaeus in the second epistle is spoken of in
milder terms than the one here — in the later reference only
as a dangerous errorist to be shunned, in the earher as one
cast out like " an abominable branch " from the communion
of the faithful. But the different aspects under which the
subject is contemplated in the two places, sufficiently
account for the different sort of representation employed
in each. In the second reference it is his erroneous teach
ing which is brought into prominence, and which is charac
terized as a denying of the doctrine of the resurrection,
and a consequent overthrowing of the faith of those who
listened to it, — in that point of view, surely, a strong enough
statement, since it denounces Hymenaeus as erring in regard
to one of the cardinal doctrines of Christianity, and there
by undermining what he should have striven to establish.
Here, however, it is the diseased moral state of the man him
self, and the disciplinary treatment which it called for, if there
was to be any chance of arresting its progress, and saving
him from perdition. But this representation concerning the
person is no way incompatible with what is afterwards said
respecting the doctrine. Both notices are brief ; they give

I TIMOTHY I. 20. 107
us only the more prominent features ; but the probability is,
from what we otherwise know, that ihe denial doctrinally of
the Hteral resurrection was far from standing alone, — that
it was simply an indication of that pretentious spiritualistic
Gnosticism, which had its worst effect in the moral sophisti
cation it wrought in the heart — distorting men's views of
the divine life, and blunting their consciences as to the
essential distinctions between right and wrong, holiness and
sin. — The Alexander who is here coupled with Hymenaeus
may or may not be the same person who is mentioned in
Second Timothy, designated there as the coppersmith, and
a personal enemy of the apostle, " who did him much harm."
The name was a very common one, and may have belonged
to several persons in the same church or neighbourhood at
the period the apostle wrote. It tells also somewhat against
the identification, that while both Hymenaeus and Alex
ander reappear in the second epistle as the names of false
disciples, they are no longer connected together. Philetus
is there associated with Hymenasus ; and Alexander is
mentioned alone, and apparently as a worker of evil, not at
Ephesus, but in Rome, though it is possible enough he
may have belonged to the region of Asia. Our materials
are too scanty to enable us to draw more definite con
clusions. How had the apostle dealt with such offenders ? Whom
(says he) T delivered over io Satan, that they might be dis
ciplined (or taught by chastisement) not to blaspheme. The
verb iraiSevco, though 'its primary meaning was to educate or
train up, and it is sometimes so used in the New Testament
(as1 in Acts vii. 22), yet usually bears, both in the Sept. and
in the New Testament, the sense of scourging, correcting,
or chastising with a view to reformation' and improvement
(Luke xxiii. 16, 22 ; Heb. xii. 6, 7 ; 1 Cor. xi. 32 ; 2 Cor.
vi. 9, etc.). A severe schooling of some sort is therefore
meant here — a subduing and corrective discipline, having

108 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
for its object the recovery of the persons subjected to it
from their grievous backsliding, and being made to cease •
from blaspheming, that is, misrepresenting and calumni
ating the truth of God. But what is to be understood of
the kind of discipline itself, expressed in the. very solemn
and peculiar phraseology of delivering them over to Satan ?
It might seem as if this, were it really effected, must have
precluded all hope of a better future, and was like con
signing the parties concerned to utter perdition. So
doubtless it would, if, according to the doctrine of Scripture
and the truth of things, Satan were an absolutely inde
pendent as well as hostile power, who had an indefeasible
right to retain whatever was given as a prey into his hand.
But such is by no means the case. Satan is but a creature
and an instrument — one who has a definite sphere to
occupy and a power to exercise, in relation to the purposes
of God's moral government, but still only of a subordinate
and ministerial kind. Thus, in Old Testament times, Job
was for a season left to be bruised and afflicted by Satan ;
only, however, for a season, and in order that he might
through the fiery ordeal be raised to a higher purity and
a more serene bliss. David, also, in a time of carnal
pride and security, was allowed to be tempted by Satan,
so as to be thereby drawn into the vortex of severe retri-
butory judgments, yet with the ultimate design of having
the flesh destroyed and the spirit raised to a nobler ele
vation (i Chron. xxi. i ; Ps. xxx.). In New Testament
Scripture we are met with the numerous demoniacs on
whom our Lord so frequently exercised His healing power ;
cases, indeed, respecting which as a whole we have very
imperfect information, while yet we have no reason to
doubt that in most, if not all of them, the demoniacal agency
was of the nature of a chastisement, and was rendered sub
servient to great moral purposes for the individuals affected
by it (see Matt. xii. 43-45). Still more nearly allied, per-

I TIMOTHY I. 20. 109
haps, to the point in hand, was the giving up of Peter
and his fellow-disciples to Satan for a season, that they
might, for their obstinate blindness and corruption, be
sifted as wheat (Luke xxii. 31, 32). It was doubtless on
the basis of such considerations and' examples that St. Paul
acted here, as previously,, in a somewhat parallel case, at
Corinth (1 Cor. v. 5). In respect to that earlier occasion
he told the Corinthians, since they had failed in their duty
concerning it, that " in the name of the Lord Jesus he had
adjudged the offending person to Satan for the destruction
of the flesh : " he had done it by virtue of his apostolic
function, yet so that the church might bring it home to the
party concerned ; as in this case also the church at Ephesus
would certainly have to indorse and act upon the apostle's
judgment. The infliction in both cases is purposely left
general ; its object rather than its nature is indicated : it was
¦ for the destruction of the flesh. But this might partly be
accomplished by the shame and mortification of a formal
removal from the flock and guardianship of Christ to the
desert World, partly by inward remorse and sorrow on
account of the guilt incurred, by the sense of forlornness and
desolation produced, and possibly also by some outward
tribulations — sickness of body, or calamities of life — as
salutary warnings and preludes of coming wrath. For the
working of such bitter experiences Satan was the proper
instrument — the antinomy, indeed, in his aim .and imme
diate action of the Spirit of God, whose presence ever
makes itself felt in all peace, and joy, and blessing;
yet an antinomy which is capable of being turned by the
benignant will and controlling agency of God into an
ultimate harmony; since the destruction of the flesh
effected by the one class of operations might through the
other become a fit preparation for awakening in the soul
convictions of sin and longings for salvation. So that the
delivering to Satan was in the apostle's intention and desire

1 10 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
only an expedient for accomplishing a spiritual cure. It was
the most solemn form of excommunication, and betokened
that those against whom it was employed were in a most N
perilous condition — trembling on the brink of final impeni
tence, and if capable of being saved at all, saved only as
by fire. The forrri, indeed, was such that it seems to have
been regarded as fit for none but an apostle to use, as if
he alone had the spiritual discernment to perceive when it
should be done, or the authority requisite for doing it with
effect. Hence, however common excommunication was
in the ancient church, the authorities did not presume to
give it this form, not even in the case of the greatest
offenders (see Bingham, Ant. B. xvi. c. 2). At the same
time, there can be no doubt that the apostohc practice in
this respect tended materially to sustain the ancient church
in enforcing that stringent discipline by which she was so
long distinguished, but which was ultimately carried to an
excess that ministered to prevailing errors.

CHAPTER II.

Ver. 1. I exhort then, first of all, that petitions, prayers,
supplications, thanksgivings, be made for all men. The con
nection marked here by the ovv with what precedes cannot be
designated very close, and our then may more fidy be taken
to represent the illative particle than the therefore ofthe Autho
rized Version. But it is absurd to deny, with some German
critics (Schleiermacher, De Wette), that there is any logical
connection whatever. The aposde had immediately before
been charging Timothy and others situated like him to take
heed to fulfil with all good fidehty the gospel charge, so
that they might be able to war a good warfare, and escape
the dangers amid which others had made shipwreck. What

I TIMOTHY II. I. Ill
could be more natural, after this, than to exhort to the
presentation of constant prayers in behalf generally of men,
and especially of kings and rulers, that by the proper
exercise of their authority these might restrain the evils of
the time, and make it possible for God-fearing men to lead
quiet and peaceable lives ? The multiplication of terms
for this intercessory function is somewhat remarkable :
petitions {8eyaeis, the simple expression of want or need),
prayers {irpoaevxds), supplications {ivrevieis, the same as the
preceding, with the subordinate idea of closer dealing,
entreaties, or earnest pleadings). The distinction between
them cannot be very sharply drawn ; for in several passages
certain of them are used where we might rather have ex
pected others, if respect were had to the distinctive shade
of meaning suggested by the etymology (as in chap. iv. 5,
where b/rev^eis is used of ordinary prayer for the divine
blessing, and Eph. vi. 18, where supplications of the most
earnest kind are intended, and yet only the two first of the
words found here are employed). The variety of expres
sion is perhaps chiefly to be regarded as indicating the
large place the subject of intercessory prayer had in the
apostle's mind, and the diverse forms he thought should be
given to it, according to die circumstances in which, re
latively to others, the people of God might be placed.
Hence, thanksgivings were to be added, when the conduct of
the parties in question was such as to favour the cause of
righteousness and truth,— a fit occasion being thereby pre
sented for grateful acknowledgments to God, who had so
inclined their hearts. And when it is said, that first of all
such thanksgivings and supplications should be offered, if
the expression is coupled with the acts of devotion referred
to, it can only mean that they should have a prominent
place in worship, should on no account be overlooked or
treated as of little moment, not that they should actually
have the precedence of all others. But the expression is

112 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
most naturally coupled with the apostle's request on the
subject ; he first of all entreats that this be done ; it is his
foremost advice that people should deal with God in the
matter, as the most effectual safeguard.
Ver. 2. By mentioning all men as the object of their
prayers and thanksgivings, the apostle undoubtedly meant
to teach Christians to cherish wide and generous sym
pathies, and to identify their own happiness and weUbeing
with those of their fellow-men. But he specially associates
the duty with those on whose spirit and behaviour the
peace and good order of society more directly depended
— kings (quite generally, as in the address of our Lord to
His disciples, Matt. x. 18 ; also Rom. xiii. i ; i Pet. ii. 13 ;
hence affording no ground to the supposition of Baur, that
the emperor and his co-regents in the time of the Antonines
were meant by the expression), and all that are in authority
{virepoxfj, strictly eminence, but here, as elsewhere, the emi
nence of social position — a place of authority). Then follows
the more immediate end, as regards the praying persons
themselves : in order that we may pass a quiet and tranquil
life, in all godliness and gravity ; that is, may be allowed
freely to enjoy our privileges, and maintain the pious and
orderly course which becomes us as Christians, without the
molestation, the troubles, and the unseemly shifts which
are the natural consequence of inequitable government and
abused power. The last epithet, gravity, aep.v6ryn, is quite
in its proper place ; for though it has respect to deportment
rather than to Christian principle or duty, it is very closely
allied to this, and is such a respectable and decorous bear
ing as is appropriate to those who live under the felt appre
hension of the great realities of the gospel. The term
honesty in the A. V. is quite unsuitable, in the now received
sense of that word.
Vers. 3, 4. For this — namely, to make intercession to
God in behalf of kings, of rulers generally, and of men of

I TIMOTHY II. 3, 4. 113
all sorts — is good and acceptable before our Saviour God, —
a thing which in His reckoning is good, and is sure of
meeting with His approval : for there seems no need for
confining the before God to the latter epithet alone ; it
^should be connected as well with what is good as what is
acceptable, though. things really and properly good are such
also apart from Him. But by placing both epithets in
connection with God, it is more distinctly implied that they
are to be taken in their fullest import. ('AitoSektos found in
New Testament only here and at chap. vi. 4.) Then follows
the reason why such conduct meets with God's approval as
right and proper : who willeth all men to be saved, and to
come to the full knowledge of the truth — Eiriyvcoo-iv, knowledge
in the fuller sense, knowledge that reaches its end, saving
knowledge ; and the governing verb, it will be observed, is
c9eAei, not the stronger /JovAetoi, which would have expressed
will with an implied purpose or intent (see at ver. 8).
Nothing can be better than the comment of Chrysostom
here : " Imitate God. If He is willing that all men should
be saved, it is meet to pray for all. If He willed that all
should be saved, do thou also will it ; but if thou wiliest,
pray ; for it is the part of such to pray. . . : But if God
wills it, you will say, what need is there for my prayers ?
This is of great benefit both for you and for them : it draws
them to love ; thyself, again, it prevents from being treated
as a wild beast ; and such things are fitted to allure them
to faith." There seems no need for going beyond this
practical aspect of the matter; and either to press the
passage on the one side, with some, to universalism, —as if
1 it bespoke the comprehension of all within God's purpose
of salvation, — or, on the other, to limit it, so as to make,
not strictly all men, but only all sorts of men (with Calvin
and others), the object of the good contemplated, is equally
to strain the natural import of the words. It seems to me
unnatural to understand the all men, twice so distinctly and
H

114 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
emphatically expressed, as indicative of anything but man
kind generally — men not merely without distinction of class
or nation, but men at large, who certainly, as such, are to
be prayed for. As the objects of the church's intercessions,
there can be no difference drawn between one portion and
another ; and we are expressly taught to plead for all,
because it is the will of God that they should be saved
— o-coftjvai : not His will absolutely to save them, as if the
word had been o-uJo-ai ; but that they may be brought
through the knowledge and belief of the truth into the
state of the saved. And the whole character of the gospel
of Christ, with its universal call to repent, its indiscriminate
offers of pardon to the penitent, and urgent entreaties to
lay hold of the hope set before them, is framed on very
purpose to give expression to that will ; for, surely, in
pressing such things on men's acceptance, yea, and holding
them disobedient to His holy will, and liable to aggravated
condemnation, if they should refuse to accept, God cannot
intend to mock them with a mere show and appearance of
some great reality being brought near to them. No ; there
is the manifestation of a benevolent desire that they should
not die in sin, but should come to inherit salvation (as at
Ezek. xxxiii. 1 1), if only they will do it in the way that alone
is consistent with the principles of His moral government
and the- nature of Christ's mediation. This, necessarily, is
implied ; and it is the part of the church, by her faithful
exhibition of the truth in Christ, by her personal strivings
with the souls of men, and earnest prayers in their behalf,
to give practical effect to this message of goodwill from
Heaven to men, and to do it in the spirit of tenderness and
affection which itself breathes.
'Such appears to be the fair and natural interpretation of
the apostle's declaration, and the whole that it properly
calls us to intermeddle with. It is true that all whom God
wills to be thus entreated and prayed for shall not actually

I TIMOTHY II. 5, 6. 115
be saved — not even many who have enjoyed in the highest
degree the means and opportunities of such dealing. And
seeing, as God does, the end from the beginning, knowing
perfectly beforehand whom He has, and whom He has not
destined to salvation, grave questions are ready to arise
as to whether the work of Christ can be really sufficient
to meet the emergency occasioned by the ruin of sin, or
whether God be sincere in seeking through His church the
salvation of all, — questions which touch upon the deep
things of God, and which it is impossible for us, with the
materials we now possess, to answer satisfactorily tp the
speculative reason. Knowing who and what He is with
whom in such things we have to do, we should rest assured
that His procedure will be in truth and uprightness ; and
that the mysteries which meanwhile appear to hang around
it will be solved to the conviction of every reasonable mind,
when the proper time for doing so shall have arrived. But
enough is known for present duty. God has unfolded for
one and all alike the terms of reconciliation : He is willing,
nay desirous, for His own glory's sake, that men should
everywhere embrace them ; and for this end has committed
to His church the ministry of reconciliation, charging it
upon the conscience of her members to strive and pray
that all without exception be brought to the saving know
ledge of the truth. What more can be required for faith
to rest on, and for the intercessions and labours of an
earnest ministry ?
Vers. 5, 6. For there is one God, one Mediator also of God
and men. The connective particle (ydp) presents what is
here stated as an adequate ground, more immediately for
the statement in the preceding verse, that God would have
all men to be saved, and to come to the knowledge of the
truth; but also, more remotely, for the call to prayer in
behalf of all men, that so the benevolent desires of God
toward them may come into effect. For in the mind of

Il6 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
the apostle the two are essentially connected together ; and
what affords a valid reason for the one, provides it also for
the other. What, then, is the reason ? It is, that all stand
related to one and the same God, also to one and the same
Mediator ; for mankind generally there is but one Dispenser
of life and blessing, and one medium through which the
dispensation flows ; and in the invitations and precepts of
the gospel all are put on a footing in regard to them:
there is no respect of persons, or formal preference of some
over others. Substantially the same thought is exhibited
in the Epistles to the Romans (iii. 30) and the Galatians
(iii. 20) ; there, as grounding the universality of the gospel
offer, as here the universality of the goodwill, which the
provisions of the gospel on God's part, and the prayers of
His people on theirs, are ever breathing toward men. The
oneness of the Mediator is followed by a declaration re
specting His person and work : man Christ fesus, who gave
Himself a ransom for all. The want of the article before
dvc9pco7ros is noticeable ; not ihe man as contradistinguished
from some others, but man, one possessing the nature, and
in His work manifesting the attributes, of humanity. Not,
however, as if this were all; for the very fact of Christ's
mediating between God and men implies that He was
Himself something that other men were not: they men,
indeed, but in a state that men should not occupy toward
God (hence requiring a Mediator) ; He, man in the ideal
or proper sense, true image and representative of God, and
as such capable of restoring the relations which had been
disturbed by sin, between Creator and creature, and ren
dering earth, as it was designed»to be, the reflex of heaven.
Man, therefore, is used here much in the same emphatic
manner that Son of man was by Daniel in his« prophetic
vision (vii. 13), and by our Lord Himself in His public
ministry; man as ordained by God to hold the lordship
of this lower world, to hold Jt for God, and therefore to

I TIMOTHY II. 5, 6. 117
establish truth and righteousness through all its borders
(Heb. ii. 6-18). He who should be this is the true Head
as well as pattern of humanity — the New Man, and at the
same time "the Lord from heaven," because only as re
lated to that higher sphere, and having at command powers
essentially divine, could He either be or do what such an
exalted position indispensably requires. So that the use
made of this passage by Unitarians is without any just
foundation. Christ fesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all — d Sovs
eavrov dvn'AvTpov virep irdvrwv ; a participial clause indicating
how especially Christ did . the part of Mediator = Christ
Jesus — He who, as Mediator, gave Himself, etc. The ex
pression plainly involves the idea of substitution, an ex
change of forfeits, one in the room of all, and for their
deliverance. The words are, with a slight variation, an
adoption of our Lord's own, who said that He came to
give His life AvVpov dvn iroAAGv (Matt. xx. 28). F6r that
in both passages it is mainly the death of Christ by which
the ransom was paid for, or in exchange of, the persons
indicated by the many in the one place, and by the all in
the other, can admit of no reasonable doubt. And as the
apostle is here contemplating Christ as the Messiah that
had been promised, and now come for mankind at large,
it is perhaps most natural to understand the language here
with reference to those prophetical passages which repre
sent the Messiah as obtaining from the Father the heritage
of all families or nations of the earth; not the preserved
of Israel alone, nor a few scattered members besides of
other nations, but also the fulness of the Gentiles (Ps. ii. 8,
xxii. 27; Isa. xlix. 6; Luke xxi. 24). So Cocceius, who
remarks : " When it is said that Christ gave a ransom price
for all, it is also signified that Christ of His own right
demands all for His inheritance and possession. This,
therefore, is a sure foundation for our prayers, that those

Il8 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
whom the Father gave for an inheritance to the Son, we
should ask may become the Son's possession; and since
we know that all are given to the Son, we should pray for
all, because we know not at what time God may be going
to give this rich inheritance to the Son, and who may
belong to the inheritance of Christ, who not; yet we do
know, that if we ask all, we shall imitate the love of the
Son." • The testimony — that which is to be testified or set forth —
for its own seasons : a pregnant clause standing in apposi
tion not to the immediately preceding term ransom, but to
the whole participial clause, which declares Christ to have
given Himself a ransom for all. "I understand it to
mean," says Scholfield {Hints for Imp. Version), "that the
great fact of Christ's having given Himself a ransom for all
is that which is to be testified by His servants in His times;
that is, in the times of the gospel: it is to be the great
subject of their preaching." (Kaipois iStois, the dative of
time, the temporal sphere or space within which the action
takes place; Winer, Gr. § 31. 9; Fritzsche on Rom. xii. 1,
note. The own, however, is more appropriately coupled with
the testimony than with Christ : comp. Gal. vi. 9 ; here,
vi. 15 ; Tit. i. 3.) The matter in question being primarily
a fact — the death of Christ — but that fact in its doctrinal
bearing as a ransom for the sins of men, it is here and in
other places presented under the aspect of a testimony. It
was above all other things the subject to which the apostles
had to bear testimony, since it was through Christ's name,
as that of the crucified, atoning Saviour, that they pro
claimed the pardon of sin and eternal life to the penitent.
And its times — the times specially appropriate for the bear
ing of such a testimony, and the witnessing of its results —
are those which follow the great event itself, and reach
onward to the second advent. All was but preparatory
before ; it was the time only for the anticipations of hope

I TIMOTHY II. 7. 119
respecting it, or the longings of spiritual desire. But with
the introduction of the reality, there came also the period
destined for its full and proper exhibition, that through
belief of the testimony its merciful design might be realized.1
Ver. 7. The apostle here introduces his own relation to
this testimony-bearing : Whereunto I was appointed a herald
and an apostle {I speak the truth? I lie not), a teacher of the
Gentiles in faith and truth. This personal asseveration,
which seems at first thought peculiarly strong for the
occasion, especially in an epistle addressed to his bosom
companion and associate Timothy, we must remember, is
brought in as an important part of the evidence which
existed for the universal aspect and bearing of the gospel,
in its character as a remedial scheme for the salvation of
all who were willing to accept it. The position and calling
he had received in the church of Christ had nothing
partial, nothing exclusive about it. More even than any
or all the original delegates of Christ, he was a witness to
the universality of Christ's overtures of mercy, having been
appointed a herald to proclaim everywhere the glad tidings ;
a herald even of the highest rank — an apostle (however
some of a grudging or. contentious spirit might dispute his
authority, he at least will hold fast to it, as a fact written
in the depths of his spiritual consciousness, and will have
Timothy also to assert it) ; and as an apostle, a teacher of
the Gentiles in faith and truth. In this his declaration
respecting himself reaches its proper climax, announcing as
it does his destination to labour among the Gentiles — the
far off, the aliens — as the more special objects of his apos
tolic agency, and signalizing faith and truth as the elements
in which it was to move, the prominent characteristics of
1 See Appendix A.
2 The received text has iv XpurrS, but it is wanting in the best mss.,
A, D, F, G, also It. Yulg. Syr. Cop. versions, and is therefore justly
omitted by Tisch. and others.

120 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
the spirit in which he was to teach, and the subjects he was
to handle. If emphatically faithful and true in the testi
mony he was called to give concerning God, how could he
be otherwise in what he delivered concerning himself?
Self, however, was not an object of concern with him, ex
cept in so far as it bore on the nature of the mission he
was appointed to fulfil, and the gloriously free and world-
embracing character of the interests it sought to promote.
But both were of a piece ; the one was the proper image
and reflex of the other. In principle, we have the same
mode of representation at 2 Cor. i. 18-20. Taking this
view of the passage, I would discard as very needless
questions, whether the expressions faith and truth are to be
taken both objectively, or the former only (with Huther
and Ellicott) objectively, and the latter subjectively. In
an experimental utterance of this kind, in which the internal
and the external necessarily go together, it is hypercritical,
and can serve no good purpose, to draw such distinctions.
Ver. 8. / wish, then (the ovv at once resuming the sub
ject of prayer, with an exhortation to which in a particular
direction this part of the epistle commenced, and pressing
as a conclusion from the views more recently advanced — I
wish, then), that prayer be made in every place by men, lifting
up holy hands, without wrath and doubting. In the verb
f3ovXop,ai the active wish is expressed, as of one who,
having a right to speak in the name of Christ, should in
expressing a wish be regarded as virtually uttering a com
mand. If it had been i&iXw, the apostle would merely
have said he was willing that the thing in question should
be done ; but in using /3ov'Aop,ai he indicates his desire or
wish that such a course should be pursued. (See Donaldson,
Cratylus, § 463, for the clear exhibition and proof of this
distinction.1) In respect to the object of his wish, the
1 Donaldson has gone into the discussion of this point at great length,
refuting an opposite view which had been advanced by Buttmann in his

I TIMOTHY II. 8. 121
point of greatest prominence . undoubtedly is the praying —
hence the irpoaevxeaBai stands first : it is the immediate
object of the desire he was breathing in connection with
the proper place and responsibilities of believers. But as
these are contemplated with reference to the public worship
of God, so a certain degree of prominence is also given to
the men to whom it properly belongs to manage and direct
such worship ; while for women, who are presently after
mentioned, duties of a more retired and quiet kind are
assigned. It seems, however, an awkward way of indicating
this subordinate distinction, which is but allusively intro
duced, to translate with Alford, " that the men pray," which
is formally correct, no doubt, as the article is found in the
original (tovs dvSpas), but gives a sense which to English
readers must appear abrupt and unnatural. Indeed, Alford
himself seems partly conscious of this, since he admits that
the distinction in respect to men cannot be regarded as the
apostle's main object in this verse, and that their relation
to public prayer is taken for granted. If so, the kind of
double end aimed at in the passage is better gained by
such a rendering as we have adopted, giving the act of
prayer the chief prominence, but giving the subject, men,
also a sort of prominent position by throwing it a little
Lexilogus. As regards Biblical usage, the respective meanings of the
two verbs are correctly and succinctly stated by Mr Webster, Syntax
and Synonyms ofthe Greek Testament, p. 197: " /Wa.«,K«i expresses a
wish, intention, purpose, formed after deliberation, and upon consider
ing all the circumstances of the case ; iixa denotes a natural impulse or
desire, the ground of which is generally obvious, or for which it is
unnecessary to assign a reason. Matt. i. 19, ph S'tXav, being reluctant,
as was naturally the case; i^ouXnin, 'was minded,' deliberately pur
posed, intended after careful consideration." He refers to the contrary
view of Buttmann, that poitetrtai indicates mere inclination, passive
desire ; but points to Jas. iv. 4, also to 1 Tim. vi. 9, in both of which
cases he justly says lixsiv would be altogether out of place. On the
contrary, in I Tim. v. 1 1, where the impulse of natural desire is in
question, HXsiv is the proper word, and fidxc/ieu would be unsuitable.

122 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
forward, and thus also rendering the transition easy and
natural from the male to the female section of believers :
that prayer be made in every place, by men lifting up, etc. ;
likewise also that women ... In mentioning every place
in connection with the offering of prayer, the apostle is not
to be regarded, with some, as indicating any contrast with
the temple, the synagogue, or other conspicuous places of
worship, but merely as giving expression to the universal
nature of the duty ; so that wherever the assemblies of
Christian worshippers might meet, there prayer should be
offered. And with the duty he couples a brief description
of the spirit and manner in which it should be done by the
persons who conduct it : lifting up holy hands, without wrath
or doubting {baiovs, a masculine termination joined to the
feminine xe'Pas> as ovpaviov at Luke ii. 13, and d/xotds in
Rev. iv. 3). The lifting up of the hands in their more
formal exercises of devotion appears to have been common
among the nations of antiquity, Jew as well as Gentile
(Gen. xiv. 22 ; Ps. xxviii. 2, Ixiii. 4, cxxxiv. 2 ; Virgil, s£n.
i. 92) ; and from the Jewish it naturally passed into the
Christian assemblies. Here it is referred to without expla
nation, as a thing familiarly known ; so also by the Roman
Clement in his letter to the Corinthians, c. 29, where,
with evident respect to the words of the apostle, he says :
" Let'us come near to Him in holiness of soul {iv bawryn
«//vx>js), raising pure and undefiled hands toward Him."1
The hands so employed might fitly be regarded as bear
ing the petitions of the suppliants heavenwards, and, in
1 In this primary stage the lifting of the hands in public prayer is
spoken of as a mere usage or custom, which was deemed suitable and
appropriate. But by and by, .like other things of a like kind, it was
turned into a piece of sacred pantomime or symbolism, and to make it
more expressive the stretched-out hands and arms were thrown into the
figure of the cross. See quotations to this effect in Bingham, B. xiii.
10, from Tertullian, Minutius, and many others.

I TIMOTHY II. 9, IO. 123
accordance with the action, should themselves possess a
character of holiness ; in other words, should be the hands
of those who are not pursuing courses of iniquity, but are
lovers of what is pure and good. All spiritual excellence
is necessarily implied in this ; yet the apostle adds the
further qualifications, without wrath and doubting: without
wrath, to which especially, in their relation to the heathen,
the early Christians were often under great provocation,
and might consequently be disposed to offer up impreca
tions rather than supplications in regard to them. What,
however, is meant precisely by the other term (SiaAoyio-p.ov)
— whether it is to be understood of disputation in the
ordinary sense, contendings with others, or disputation in
one's own mind, thought contending with thought, doubting
— interpreters are not agreed. As the word may be under
stood either way, we are thrown upon the connection for
something to determine our judgment ; and in this point of
view the second of the two senses indicated seems plainly
the most natural and fitting : for the indispensable condi
tion of acceptable prayer is faith ; and therefore doubting,
which is the mark of a wavering spirit, the conflict between
faith and unbelief, must, so far as it prevails, be a hindrance
to success. Prayer offered without wrath and doubting is
simply prayer animated by a spirit of meek, generous
loving-kindness in respect to those for whom it is pre
sented, and by a spirit of faith or assured confidence in
Him whom we supplicate in their behalf. This is intelli
gible, and perfectly cognate to the subject ; but not so the
reference supposed by some to personal disputations among
the parties concerned in the exercise of devotion. Nothing
had been said or implied which might seem to call for any
particular reference to this.
Vers. 9, 10. Likewise also, that women adorn themselves
in orderly apparel, with shamefastness and discretion. The
passage is obviously elliptical ; and the connection with

124 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
what precedes, indicated by too-avVios {likewise), cannot be
very close. Looking to the apostle's use of it elsewhere
(for example, at Tit. ii. 3, Rom. viii. 26), we must regard it
as intended simply to couple the women with the men in
having equally with them a relation to duty, bound to a
becoming line of conduct in their own particular sphere.
Having expressed his wish in respect to the one class, the
apostle now turns to the other, and wishes {fiovXopai again
understood) that they too, on their part, would adorn
themselves in seemly apparel, or in seemly apparel would
adorn themselves with shamefastness and discretion. The
adorning, from the structure of the sentence, seems more
directly connected with the two latter epithets, pointing to
qualities of mind and behaviour, while the sort of apparel
proper to them is implied as a thing that should certainly
be possessed, only not of itself sufficient without the other,
the adornments of the spirit. That KaTao-ToAij is properly
taken in the sense of apparel, and not, as Ellicott would
understand it, deportment, — including look and manner as
well as dress, — there seems no just reason to doubt. It
points by its etymology (from KaTacrreAAo)) to the letting
down of things about one's person, adjusting or arranging
them, then the apparel as so arranged (see Alford). The
apostle does not further characterize it than that it should
be of a becoming or seemly nature (Kocrp-t'os), as contradis
tinguished from gaudy and extravagant as well as slovenly
attire. And with this he couples the inward feelings, which
should accompany and give adequate expression to this
modest apparel — with shamefastness (not shamefacedness, as
in the Authorized Version, which is a corruption) and dis
cretion. The correct import and rhutual relation of the two
words here employed (aiSuis and aw<ppoavvy) have been,
with his usual discrimination and accuracy, exhibited by
Trench {Syn. § 20), and applied thus to the explication of
our verse : " If ai8<is is that shamefastness or pudency which

I TIMOTHY II. 9, 10. 125
shrinks from overpassing" the limits of womanly reserve
and modesty, as well as from -the dishonour which would
justly attach thereto, aw<f>poavvy is that habitual inner self-
government, with its constant rein on all the passions and
desires, which would hinder the temptation to this from
arising, or at all events from arising in such strength as
should overbear the checks and barriers which aiSoos op
posed to it." We have no English word that exactly
corresponds to the latter of the two terms ; but sober-
mindedness or discretion substantially coincides with it,
though self-control, perhaps, might more closely approach
the original.
In the remaining part of the verse we have a further
delineation, in a negative form, of the modest or seemly
attire which was noticed in the earlier : not in plaitings,
— namely, of the hair, but obviously meaning excessive
refinements in this line, the meretricious plaitings, and
modes of dressing up the hair in nicely adjusted tresses,
which Clement of Alexandria, for example, condemns as
unsuitable to Christians {Paid. iii. 11), condemned also by
St. Peter in very similar language to that employed here
(1 Pet. iii. 3). And gold (in rings, bracelets, etc.), or pearls,
or costly raiment. These are not to be understood as any
further prohibited than they are inconsistent with the
seemly apparel previously recommended ; only, if used at
all, it should manifestly be with moderation, and so as not
to befit the impression that they are displayed as the most
precious personal adornments. For such the truly Chris
tian mind will look in another direction, and lay the chief
stress upon the spiritual and moral qualities, which are
the noblest distinctions of rational beings, the only things
which are of value in the sight of God. This, therefore, is
what the apostle puts in contrast to the worldly equipments
of rich jewellery and costly dress : But, which becomes women
professing godliness, through good works — not (with Theodoret,

126 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
OEcum., Luther, Calvin, Huther, and many others), but in
that which, or according to that which (taking o as = ev rovrw
o, or Kaff o, referring. back to the ev KaTOoroATj Koaplw) becomes
women professing godliness, by means of good works. For this
has against it both an artificial construction, which should
only be resorted to if absolutely necessary, and the coupling
of good works with a godly profession in a way which is
not usual, — as if godliness were a kind of art which Chris
tian women were to show their skill or proficiency in by
their works of faith and love. This cannot be called a
natural style of representation, and it is certainly nowhere
else found in St. Paul's writings. The expression eirayyEAo-
peVais must be taken here in the ordinary sense of profess
ing, — a sense it unquestionably bears again at chap. vi. 21 ;
while the verb is used in Tit. i. 2, with reference to God,
in the cognate sense oi promising, or giving open exhibition
of. By the women in question must be understood those
who make profession of godliness {deoaefSeuxv only used
here, but substantially equivalent to eiW/Jeiav), in the ordi
nary way such profession was made, — by taking up the
Christian name, submitting to Christian teaching and ordi
nances, and mingling in the assemblies of Christian worship
pers. And as making this profession, the apostle would
have them to understand, first, that the kind of dress which
becomes them is of a neat and plain as contradistinguished
from a luxurious or costly one ; and second, that the dis
tinction which women of gay and worldly dispositions seek
to acquire by their splendid ornaments and fine apparel,
they should endeavour to reach through their good works,
— a distinction of a far nobler kind, and the only one that
fitly accords with their calling. Such seems to be the most
natural and appropriate import of the passage, — only, in
connection with the latter point, the apostie varies the
construction, so as the better to suit the change involved
in the subject itself: he does not say with (ev) good works,

I TIMOTHY II. II, 12. 127
as he could say both in regard to the apparel itself, and the
outward ornaments on which vain and worldly-minded
females prided themselves ; but through or by means of (Sid)
good works, since it was not so properly the works them
selves which invested true Christian females with their
distinctive honour or adornment, as rather the reflex opera
tion of these, — the consideration and regard, the "spiritual
halo, as it were, which the performance of such works
threw around those who abounded in them.
Vers. 11, 12. The apostle proceeds now to give prescrip
tions of a more general kind respecting the proper sphere
and behaviour of women. Let a woman learn in silence in
all subjection — spoken primarily and mainly with reference
to the public assemblies of the church, and only an abbre
viated reinforcement of the instruction previously issued to
the church at Corinth (1 Cor. xiv. 34) : " Let your women
keep silence in the churches ; for it is not permitted unto
them to speak, but to be under obedience, as also saith the
law." The all subjection, however, can only be understood
to reach as far as the authoritative teaching is of the right
stamp. Woman does not lose her rational power of thought
and responsibility by abiding in the place assigned her by
the gospel ; and she also has a right to prove all things —
only in a manner suited to her position — -in order that she
may hold fast that which is good, and reject what is other
wise. But to teach (the best authorities place SiSdo-Keiv
first) / permit not a woman — namely, in public : she is not
to act the part of a teacher in the meetings of the faithful ;
nor to lord it over the man, but to be in silence. The verb
avoWetv scarcely means to usurp authority, the sense
ascribed to it in the Authorized Version, but only to exercise
it in an imperious manner. Leo (as quoted by Huther) :
" aidevrelv et aiBevrys apud seriores tantum scriptores ita
occurrit, ut dominii notionem involvat ; melioribus scrip-
toribus est aidevrys idem quod airox^p" Here it is plainly

128 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
the later use that must be adopted ; and what is forbidden
by it to woman is, that she is not to assume the part of
ruling or domineering over man. When she attempts this
she goes out of her proper place, and ventures upon a line
of things which is not compatible either with her natural
constitution or with her distinctive vocation. And in proof
of this, the apostle appeals to the original order and
course of things as marking out the great landmarks for
all time.
Ver. 13. For Adam was first formed {iirXdady taken from
the Sept. version of Gen. ii. 7 ; hcriady is used in the corre
sponding passage at 1 Cor. xi. 9), then Eve ; the precedence
in time implying superiority in place and power. The
relation in this respect is still more strongly marked in the
Epistle to the Corinthians : " For the man is not of the
woman, but the woman of the man ; for also the man was
not made for the sake of the woman, but the woman for
the sake of the man.'' Thus did God in the method of
creation give clear testimony to the headship of man — to
his right, and also his obligation, to hold directly of God,
and stand under law only to Him ; while woman, being
formed for his helpmate and partner, stands under law to
her husband, and is called to act for God in him. And
simply by inverting this relative position and calling — the
helpmate assuming the place of the head or guide, and the
head facilely yielding to her governance — was the happy
constitution of paradise overthrown, and everything in
volved in disorder and evil.
Ver. 14. From- this sinful violation ofthe primeval order,
with its disastrous results, the apostle fetches his second
reason for fixing in the manner he does the social position
of woman : And Adam was not deceived; but the woman,
being altogether deceived f fell into transgression : literally,
1 The best reading is IgajrarafciVst, a stronger form of the verb, in
order to emphasize the deception in Eve's case.

I TIMOTHY II. 14. 129
became in; but the expression yiyveadai iv is always used of
entering or falling into a particular state (Luke xxii. 44 ;
Acts xxii. 17 ; 2 Cor. iii. 7 ; Phil. ii. 7). This explanatory
statement has often been deemed strange, or partially mis
apprehended, from not sufficiently regarding the precise
light in which the matter is contemplated by the apostle,
and the purpose for which it is here brought into considera
tion. As already indicated, the case is referred to as a
grand though mournful example, at the commencement of
the world's history, of the evil sure to arise if in the general
management of affairs woman should quit her proper posi
tion as the handmaid of man, and man should concede to
her the ascendency. She wants, by the very constitution of
nature, the qualities necessary for such a task — in particular,
the equability of temper, the practical shrewdness and dis
cernment, the firm, independent, regulative judgment, which
are required to carry the leaders of important interests above
first impressions and outside appearances,' to resist solicita
tions, and amid subtle entanglements and fierce conflicts
to cleave unswervingly to the right. Her very excellences
in other respects — excellences connected with the finer
sensibilities and stronger impulses of her emotional and
loving nature — tend in a measure to disqualify her here.
With man, on the other hand, in accordance with his
original destination, the balance as between the intellectual
and the emotional, the susceptible and the governing
powers, inclines as a rule in the opposite direction. Hence,
in the great trial to which the parents of the human family
were subjected as the test of their allegiance, it was Adam
who was mainly charged with the responsibility, and who
should have been, in everything relating to it, the prime
agent. But Eve, affecting to play the master, and to decide
the question for herself and her husband, soon gave proof
of her incompetency ; she was overreached by a subtler
intellect than her own, and induced, under specious pre-
1

130 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
texts, to prefer an apparent to the real good. "The
serpent beguiled (or deceived) me, and I did eat" (Gen.
iii. 13), was her confession before the Judge, thereby in
effect acknowledging her weakness and folly in taking her
impressions from such a quarter, and acting independently
of her appointed head. But Adam, says the apostle, was
not deceived, although the representation of Eve may, in
point of fact, have wrought like a deception on his mind.
That, however, was not exactly the point of weakness in his
case, nor is anything said of it in the original account
" The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me," was his
confession to the Lord, " she gave me of the tree, and I
did eat" (Gen. iii. 12). Yes, but God had given her, not
for authority and rule, but for kindly ministrations ; to be a
helpmate by his side, not a directress to control his judg
ment or determine for him the course of life. And in
allowing her to become this, in what touched the very heart
of his calling, whether it might be in the way of deception,
by thev constraint of love, or by threats of evil, it booted
not; anyhow, Adam showed that he had fallen from his
true position, and ceased to rule; as he should have done,
with God. This aspect of the matter, however, it was not
necessary for the apostle's purpose to bring out As his
theme was the place and calling of females in respect to
things of public moment, he contents himself with pointing
tb that part of the transactions connected with the fall
which more directly concerned Eve, and presents it as a
beacon to future generations, in particular to the female
mernbers of Christian congregations, lest, amid the greater
liberty of gospel times, they might be tempted to assume
functions which they were not qualified or called in provi
dence to fill.
Ver. 15. But she shall be saved through the child-bearing,
if they abide in faith, and love, and holiness, with discretion.
It is clear from the structure of the passage, that while Eve

I TIMOTHY II. 15. 131
was formally before the eye of the apostle, it was she as the
representative of her sex, womankind : hence, she shall be,
not she has been saved ; and to render still more plain how
the general was contemplated in the particular, it is added,
if they abide. Viewing womankind as personated in Eve,
the apostle had shown how, through one grievous mistake,
leading to a departure from her proper place and calling,
not a rise, as had been imagined, but a fall, had taken
place, — a fall involving in its consequences her partner,
along with herself, in present ruin, which also, -but forthe
interposition of divine mercy, would have been irremediable.
By reason of this interposition, however, a way of escape
was opened to her, in connection, too, with that part of her
destination which was in an especial manner to bear the
impress of the fatal step which she had taken. She was
still, in pursuance of her original appointment, to give birth
to offspring — to be the mother, indeed, of all living ; but
trouble was henceforth to weigh heavily upon this portion
of her lot : in travail she was to bring forth children ; yet
at the same time in hope, for- it was precisely through the
seed thus to be given her that the lost ground was to be
recovered, that the doom of evil should be reversed, and
the serpent's head, in relation to humanity, should be
bruised. It is this complex destination as to child-bearing
pronounced over woman at the fall — mournful enough in
one respect, but fraught with consolation and hope in
another — to which the apostle here briefly alludes. Salva
tion lay for her through this one channel ; and if it was her
condemnation to have been so directly concerned in the
guilt which required its appointment, and the pains and
• perils through which it must be made good, it should also
be her peculiar honour, even through such a troubled ex
perience, to be the more immediate instrument of accom
plishing for herself and others the destined good. Do we,
then, say that the child-bearing here spoken of has direct

132 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
respect to the birth of Christ, through whom the work of
salvation was really secured ? We are certainly not inclined,
with some commentators (Hammond, for instance), to fix the
meaning down simply and exclusively to that. Undoubtedly
it is the prime and essential thing, — that without which the
woman's child-bearing could have wrought no deliverance,
and the prospect of which was like the hidden germ which
from the first lay enfolded in the promise of a seed of
blessing, — yet not without regard, at the same time, to the
collective seed associated in the divine purpose with the
One. The apostle, in his brief allusion, abstains from
details ; he merely points to the original word, and the
prominent place assigned to woman in connection with its
fulfilment, as indicating her proper glory in relation to the
plan of salvation. Let her be content, he virtually says,
with this, that through her as the mother of a seed, given
by the God of grace and blessing, she herself, as well as
others, are to find salvation. But lest women should
imagine that, by their participation in the simply natural
part of the process, they should attain also to the higher
good in question, he couples certain spiritual qualifications
as indispensable to the result : if they abide in faith, and
love, and holiness, with discretion (or sober-mindedness). In
short, they must fall in here (as Eve should have done in
Paradise, but did not) with the spiritual provisions and
requirements of the plan of God : in faith, implicitly resting
upon God's word of promise ; in love, yielding themselves
heartily to the duties of their special calling, as well as
consenting to live and act within its appointed limits ; in
holiness, wakeful, and striving against occasions of sin ; and
all tempered and controlled by that spirit of meek and
wise discretion which instinctively shrinks from whatever is
unbecoming, heady, or high-minded.
The view now given, it is scarcely necessary to add,
implies that women, as a rule, though admitting of occa-

I TIMOTHY II. 15. 133
sional exceptions, should keep within their proper sphere,
and give themselves to the family and domestic affairs
especially connected with it — which is all that some would
find in the passage ; but it includes also a great deal
more. Alford, who appears to think he had discovered
the only tenable interpretation, represents the reicvoyovia as
that in which the curse finds its operation (an extravagant
statement to begin with, since death was plainly set forth as
for both man and woman the proper embodiment of the
curse), then that she was to be exempted from this curse in
its worst and heaviest effects (of which, however, nothing
is said in the original word), and that, besides, she should
be saved through — that is, passing through the curse of her
child-bearing trials — saved, notwithstanding the danger and
distress connected with these !. Surely a most unnatural
and forced explanation, and ending in a very lame and im
potent conclusion ! The peculiar passage of 1 Cor. iii. 16,
where the apostle speaks of certain parties being saved, yet
so as through fire, which is chiefly leant upon, cannot be
fairly applied here : for fire is there figuratively represented
as the saving element, since it is that which tests every
one ; and the parties in question, who had along with the
sterling gold at bottom many combustible materials about
them, were just saved, and nothing more — escaped, as it
were, only with their lives. There is no proper parallel
between such a style of representation and the one before
us. Ellicott, though very brief, and adhering perhaps some
what too closely to Hammond, comes nearer the point,
and justly lays stress on "the high probability that the
apostle, in speaking of woman's transgression, would not
fail to specify the sustaining prophecy which even preceded
her sentence," also " the satisfactory meaning which the
preposition (Sid) thus bears," " the uncircumscribed refer
ence of the cr<o0Tjo-eTai, and the force of the article [ttjs
reKvoy., the child-bearing, — that, namely, so prominently

134 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
exhibited from the first]." Indeed, it seems only necessary
to present the view which takes all these into account in a
judicious manner, not pressing it too much in one direction
or another, to commend it to general acceptance.

CHAPTER III.

The apostle here continues his special instructions to
Timothy, but directs them to another topic, and one of
still greater moment to the right order and government
of the church ; namely, to the calling and qualifications of
its official representatives and guides. The subject, how
ever, is very briefly handled, and with reference chiefly to
the personal characteristics which ought to distinguish those
who might hold office in the church. Nothing is said
about the original institution of the offices themselves ;
nothing about their distinctive spheres of operation; no
thing even respecting the numbers that should fill them,
relatively to the membership of the particular church with
which they might be associated. It is simply what sort of
persons, how qualified and endowed, in whom the rights
and responsibilities should be invested.
Ver. i. Faithful is the saying, If any one seeketh the office of
pastor (lit. overseership), he desireth a good work. The saying
or word here designated faithful is to be understood of what
follows respecting the episcopal or pastoral office, not, with
Chrysostom, Theophylact, and some moderns; of the state
ment made in the preceding context. In designating the
office itself, the nearest equivalent in our language now to
the original (eiricrKoirijs) is undoubtedly that of pastor. The
term bishop, which originally bore the same import, has ac
quired in modern times a different meaning. Alford adopts
the literal rendering overseership, justly remarking that

I TIMOTHY III. I. 135
" we thus avoid any chance of identifying it with a present
and different office, and take refuge in the meaning of the
word itself, which at the same time bears an important
testimony to the duties of the post." It labours, however,
under the disadvantage of novelty, as a term applied to a
sacred function ; and as pastorate is substantially equiva
lent, involving the same general idea of watchful and re
sponsible oversight (hence the epithet Pastoral applied by
general consent to these Epistles), it is plainly entitled to
the preference. By comparing what is written here with
the passage, in Tit. i. 5-7, it is clear that St. Paul uses the
terms eirio-Koiros and irpea/3vrepos of the same office : for in
Titus the words are interchanged, as of one import ; and here
much the same description is given of the eirid-Koiros which
we find given there of the irpeafivrepos. While, therefore,
there were two designations, there was but one office ; and
the designations were two, because they were derived from
two different quarters. Presbyteros was of Jewish origin,
and was undoubtedly the earlier of the two, having been in
use as a term of office in the synagogue for generations be
fore the Christian era, whence it passed over, with little varia
tion, into the Christian church. The term originally had
doubtless some respect to the age of the persons who were
called to preside over the religious community ; they were
its seniors, its more experienced and venerated members ;
but in course of time the etymological was lost sight of in
the current official meaning, and the presbyters (E'M,
elders), whatever might be their relative age, were simply
' the presiding heads of the synagogal communities in the
first instance, and then of the Christian church. Partaking,
however, as it did so distinctly, of a Jewish impress, it was
natural that, in the churches where the Greek or Gentile
element predominated, a properly Greek word, of equiva
lent import as a designation of office, should come into use.
Such a term was eirio-Koiros, overseer, the specific or official

136 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
designation among the Athenians of those whom they sent
forth to take the oversight of their subject cities (Suidas on
eirio-. ; Dion. Hal. Ant. ii. 76) ; so that, by an easy trans
ference from the civil to the spiritual sphere, the episcopoi of
the church were those who had the pastoral oversight of
the several churches. Quite naturally, therefore, it is the
term employed here, where immediate respect is had to
Ephesus, and such like churches in Asia Minor, which were
largely made up of converted Greeks; but even in such
churches at an earlier stage, when the primary nucleus con
sisted mainly of converts from Judaism, the name presbyters
took precedence of it. So we find this the term employed
in respect to the officers set by St. Paul over the churches
in his first missionary tour through portions of Asia Minor
(Acts xiv. 23) ; and in the infant churches of Crete, which
probably partook as much of the Jewish as the Greek
element, the one term was used along with the other.
The sentiment here expressed, then, is, that one who
seeks {opeyerai, stretches forth towards, longs after) the pas
toral office, desires to be engaged in what is emphatically
a good work. It is not merely a post of honour, or a
position of influence ; not that primarily at least, or in its
more direct aspect, but a work of active service, and one
that from its very nature brings one into living fellowship
with the pure and good. The seeking here intended,
therefore, after such an office, must be of the proper kind,
not the prompting of a carnal ambition, but the aspiration
of a heart which has itself experienced the grace of God,
and which longs to see others coming to participate in the
heavenly gift. Other objects of a subordinate or collateral
kind may not be unlawful, and may justly enough be allowed
a certain share in the motives which draw men to the pas
toral office ; but if the heart is right with God, and takes
anything like a correct estimate of the work of the ministry,
it will be that work itself, considered with respect to its

I TIMOTHY III. 2. 137
own excellent nature, and the blessed fruits that may be
expected to spring from it, which ought more especially
to awaken the desire and determine the choice. Hence
the prominence given in the directions that follow to quali
fications of a spiritual and moral kind, in order to its efficient
discharge ; introduced also by an ovv, therefore, as much as to
say : The work 'being so good, there is of necessity required
in him who would enter on its functions a corresponding
character of goodness.
Ver. 2. A pastor, therefore, ought to be blameless (dveiri-
Xypnrrov, irreproachable), husband of one wife, sober, discreet,
orderly, hospitable, apt to teach. With one exception, all
these qualifications are so easily understood, and so ob
viously becoming in a Christian pastor, that they scarcely
call for any remark. The epithet sober {vy<pdXiov), while
it necessarily includes moderation in the use of intoxicat
ing liquors, freedom from intemperance, has also a wider
meaning, and denotes a wakeful, vigilant habit, opposed
to all kinds of excess. Hospitable, also, though simple
enough in import, denoted what was relatively of greater
moment in apostolic times than it usually is now. For
there were not the same conveniences for travellers in those
times that almost everywhere exist in the present day ; and
the loose, ungodly manners which prevailed in all places of
public resort, rendered it of especial importance that Chris
tian strangers should know where to find a kindly reception
and a proper fellowship. The last of the epithets in the
verse, SiSaKrucds, having the teaching gift, apt or skilled in
teaching, is remarkable as the only one, either here or in the
corresponding passage in Titus, which directly bears on the
discharge of ministerial functions. In Titus it is more fully
expressed : " that he may be able by sound doctrine both
to exhort and to convince the gainsayers." The place given
to the qualification in both passages is a clear proof of the
importance attached by the apostle to the teaching gift in

138 ' THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
relation to the pastoral office. But even this, possessed
too in no ordinary measure, will prove of little avail for
the great practical ends of the ministry, unless it is accom
panied with not only the sobriety which shuns all lawless
excess, but also the discreet and orderly or becoming de
portment which instinctively shrinks from needless occasions
of offence, and indicates a temper and habits under due
management and control. Both for the comfort and the
success of pastoral work, a great deal depends upon the
possession of such qualities. How often do ministers,
otherwise highly endowed, lose well-nigh the fruit of all-
their gifts and labours, by marked failings and imperfections
here! It is not obvious unfaithfulness in duty; not sloth-
fulness of spirit ; not deficiency of life and power in pulpit
ministrations, or anything distinctly criminal in behaviour :
in these and other respects a man may stand- clear from any
charge of blame or palpable shortcoming, and yet, by ever
recurring exhibitions of ungoverned temper, or specific acts
of indiscretion, may as thoroughly defeat the ends of his
high calling as if he were living in a course of worldliness
and indifference. There is but one safeguard against the
evil — the possession of what may be called sanctified com
mon sense ; and for this the godly pastor should earnestly
strive and pray, under the conviction that for him, not open
transgression merely, but imprudence also, indiscretion, is
sin, since it throws a stumbling-block in the way of his
usefulness, and in a manner robs him of his talents and
opportunities. One part, however, of the apostle's description has given
rise to difference of opinion, and calls for more considera
tion. It is that in which he says the pastor ought to be
husband of one wife. Does this mean that he must never
have been more than once married ? Or simply, that he
must not stand related to more than one living woman as
his wife ? On this point interpreters have been from early

I TIMOTHY III. 2. 139
times, and still are, divided; though, if one were to have
respect merely to the words themselves employed by the
apostle, there might seem no reason, and even no propriety,
in looking beyond an existing relationship. For it is of
what the individual pastor is or has, at any particular
period during his pasflorate, that the apostle is speaking,
not of this along with what he may have previously had or
been. If he should, after having been deprived of a wife
by death, become married to another, he still is the man of
but one wife ; for the previous relationship no longer exists,
it was dissolved by death — dissolved absolutely and for
ever, since in the life to come the flesh and blood relations
of this life are unknown. So that re-marriage cannot with
justice be said to constitute him more than the husband of
one wife. And, as justly remarked by Harless {Christian
Ethics, § 52), since the not being husband of one wife is
mentioned as a reproach, and a reproach placed on the
same line with gluttony and covetousness and the like, the
immediate context should alone have guarded us from
understanding by the expression "husband of one wife,"
one that had only once been married. But so many in
cidental considerations have been imported into the dis
cussion of the subject, and so much can be said that is
plausible on the other side, that the full examination of it
must be reserved for separate treatment.*
The qualification, however, if applied only, as I believe
it should be, to an existing relationship, must be taken
chiefly in a restrictive meaning, not as prescribing what
must invariably be found. From the prominence given to
it, indeed, and the stress presently afterwards laid upon the
pastor's proper management of his family, we may certainly
infer that the pastoral relation was viewed by the apostle as
one that would usually be filled by married persons — and
should be so. Still, the language employed cannot justly be
1 See Appendix B.

14° THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
understood as implying more than that the pastor must not
have more than one wife, not that he must absolutely and in
every case have a wife. This last is the view taken ofthe pre
scription by the Greek Church, which ordains to the oversight
of parishes only those who have been once married, and yet,
with a kind of stupid inconsistency, the result of ascetic in
fluences early begun and still continued, excludes all married
persons from the higher offices of the church : monkish coeli-
bates, themselves without pastoral experience, ruling over
and controlling a married clergy ! Bengel's note on the pre
scription is : " The apostle does not exclude ccelibates from
the sacred office, while yet he presupposes that the head of
a family would be somewhat fitter for the office ; and of
two candidates, if other things were equal, that he who has
a wife and a well-ordered family should be preferred to a
bachelor, who has less of testimony in his behalf from the
circumstances of actual life." In some remarks contained
in his Life by Burk, he carries the matter rather further, — a
little, indeed, too far, — but presenting, at the same time,
some excellent remarks on the general subject : " The
married state is usually that in which we can best surmount
hardships, and attain the happy end of hfe, with many
refreshments by the way. He, therefore, who has no par
ticular calling or occasion forbidding his entrance into this
condition, ought to marry. God often teaches us more by
our domestic experiences, family illnesses, deaths of chil
dren, and the like, than we can learn by any independent
speculations, however spiritual these may seem. It is in
the married life that I have had my most serious afflictions,
but with them my strongest consolations. Therefore I
consider it more than a mere permission that a pastor
should be ' the husband of one wife,' — to me it seems all
but a matter of necessity. And yet so serious a concern is
marriage, that if we consider all its bearings on time and
eternity, we cannot wonder that some anxious persons are

I TIMOTHY III. 3. 141
never able to resolve upon it; or that, having a special
delight in spiritual things, they should be the more dis
inclined to become instruments of perpetuating our sinful
race : nevertheless, marriage is an ordinance of the good
and benevolent Creator" (p. 386).
Ver. 3. The apostle proceeds with the enumeration of
qualities that ought to meet in the pastor : p.y irdpoivov,
which the Authorized Version renders, " not given to much
wine," but it is rather not a brawler, or of vinous temperament,
not given to such impetuous and violent behaviour as is
wont to be exhibited by persons under their cups. Hence
it is followed by fiy rrXyKryv, not a striker, which is in the
same line, pointing to the natural outbursts of the kind
of temper indicated in the preceding epithet. (The p.y
alaxpoKepSy, which follows in the received text, has no sup
port but from some of the later, the cursive mss.) Then
in two other epithets we have the converse of those negative
qualities : but mild (eVieiktj, the equitable, beseeming, as
opposed to what is intemperate or boisterous), peaceable,
averse to fighting (dp-axov). A quite different characteristic
follows, which has no immediate connection with those just
given, and is therefore not to be viewed as dependent on
the but (dAAd) a little before : not a lover of money, or
avaricious. This points to another very important quality
in a minister of the gospel. Few things, indeed, are more
certainly fatal to the position he ought to occupy in men's
regard, and the spiritual ends he should aim at accomplish
ing, than a perceptible fondness for worldly treasure. He
must be known to love his work for its own sake, not for
the incidental earthly benefits that may or may not come
in its train. What has been said of genius and wisdom of
every kind, may yet more emphatically be said of the spirit
that should actuate the true minister of the gospel. " It
must learn that its kingdom is not of this world. It must
learn to know this, and to be content that this should be

142 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
so ; to be content with the thought of a kingdom in a
higher, less transitory region.' Then, peradventure, may
the saying be fulfilled with regard to it, that he who is
ready to lose his life shall save it" .(Hare). Striving to
awaken generous thoughts' and lofty aspirations in the
minds of others, the pastor may come in a measure to reap
material benefits from the operation of these; but if his
own soul is grovelling in the dust, and the love of worldly
pelf holds him captive, both himself and his mission are
sure to be despised.
Ver. 4. The proper pastor is further described as ruling
well his own house— his own (tSiov) as contradistinguished
from God's, the relatively little, and more easily managed ;
having children in subjection with all gravity, or decency of
deportment ; having, in short, a well-ordered and properly
trained household. And the special reason follows, in
troduced by the adversative particle Se, which no more in
such a connection than any other can be strictly rendered
for (Winer, Gr. § 53, 2, b), since it introduces parentheti
cally a statement which forms an antithesis to the one
immediately preceding, yet an antithesis which at the same
time constitutes a reason : But if one knows not how to rule
his own house, how shall he take charge of the church of
God? — if within the narrower sphere, and with all the
advantage which a parent's position and influence naturally
secure for him, he should prove deficient in the proper
governing authority, how certainly may he be expected to
fail in the efficient management and control of things per
taining to the church of God! The future here (einp.e-
ATjcreTat), as frequently elsewhere, especially in interrogative
sentences, involves the idea of possibility (Winer, Gr. xl. 6) ;
and so Chrysostom expressly puts it : " He, then, who does
not rightly administer these [smaller] things, how shall he be
able (ircos SwTjcreTai) to administer the affairs of the church ? "
. Ver. 6. A further qualification: not a novice, or recent

I TIMOTHY III. 6. 143
convert (ved<pvTov, literally, newly planted). Of course such
a qualification must be understood relatively— in some a
less, in others a longer period of probation being required,
according to circumstances. In quite recently planted
churches, such as those of Crete mentioned in Titus, it
would not be possible to obtain persons for the presby
terate who had been long established in the Christian faith,
though even there also differences in this respect would be
found to exist. But in Ephesus, and various other churches
in that locality, where for probably not less than twelve or
fifteen years there had been Christian communities, there
was ample room for the prescription in question ; hence it
has a place here, while quite naturally it is not found in
the instructions given to Titus. And as at Ephesus there
were not only numerous adversaries outside the church, but
adherents of error also beginning to ply their wiles within,
it was of the more importance that those invested with the
oversight of the community should be persons of some
experience in the divine life — men whose intelligence and
solidity of character had been already proved, lest,, amicj,
the fermenting of false opinions and the craft of designing
hypocrites, they might be betrayed into evil. The specific
ground assigned by the apostle is : lest, being carried with
conceit, he should fall into the condemnation of the devil. The
Authorized Version for rvcpwdels has " lifted up with pride,"
but this scarcely hits the exact shade of meaning. The
verb (from tvc/>os, smoke, mist, cloud) denotes not simply
the self-elating spirit which would raise one as to the clouds,
but also the senseless, stupid character of such a spirit ; its
confusing, mystifying tendency acting like a lure to the
emotions, and a cloud to the reason. What the apostle
feared was, that the too sudden elevation to office might-
carry the individual off his feet, as it were, and render him
an easy prey to the arts of plausible and designing men.
The very probable result he expresses by a reference to

144 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
the fall of the great adversary, as if this in such a case
would be repeated afresh; for there can be little doubt
that the condemnation spoken of— judgment in the sense
of condemnation — is the genitive of object : the judgment
passed upon the devil. The supposed neophyte, through
his inexperience and undue elation of spirit, first falls into
the sin of the old aspiring apostate, and then shares in his
condemnation, passing from the sphere of a minister of
light into the doomed condition of an instrument of dark
ness. The lesson, with its attendant warning, is for all
times. It tells the church, that as there are temptations
and perils peculiar to the ministerial office, so men should
not be in haste to enter it, nor should others seek to push
them prematurely forward. At the same time, the matter
is wisely left in a certain indefiniteness ; no precise age or
specific term of probation is fixed in Scripture.
Ver. 7. But he must also have a good testimony from those
that are without. Here, too, we have something that is not
only additional, and to be connected with the preceding by
a moreover, but this coupled with a sort of counter element,
and fitly introduced by the adversative Se: the person
chosen to the pastorate must not be a neophyte, lest he
prove unequal to the difficulties and dangers connected
with the office ; but, more than that, he must be well re
ported of by those who stand without the pale of the
religious community, as well as known to be of approved
Christian worth by those who are within. The one cannot
be dispensed with, though he should have the other. The
expression those without (oi e£wdev or e£<o, often used, as
at 1 Cor. v. 12, 19 ; Col. iv. 5 ; 1 Thess. iv. 12) is a natural
mode of designating such as, in regard to the church of
God, are extra fores, not of the household of faith. Directly,
persons of this description have no right to interfere with
the appointment of a Christian pastor; but it is of im
portance that they have nothing to object — that the person

I TIMOTHY III. 7. 145
raised to such an office be in good repute even among
them, so that no occasion may be given them by his
appointment to think lightly of the Christian church, or to
encourage them in the hope of marring the success of his
ministry. Where the minister of the gospel does not enjoy
the esteem of the world, it becomes comparatively easy for
the instruments of the wicked one to stir up prejudices
against him, and involve him in trouble. This seems to
be what is meant in the reason assigned by the apostle for
the requirement — lest he fall into reproach and the snare of
the devil. It is disputed whether only snare here should be
coupled with the devil, or reproach also should be included.
The question is scarcely worth raising. The devil, as the
general head and representative of all evil agencies, may
well enough be associated with any mischief or disaster be
falling a servant of God — reproach as well as anything else.
But in the usual style of Scripture, it is with crafty wiles
and moral embroilments that his agericy is more commonly
connected', rather than outward obloquy or shame ; and the
related passage in 2 Tim. ii. 26, where snare alone is men
tioned, still further favours this view. The most natural
explanation, then, of the apostle's fear regarding the ap
pointment of pastors who were not in good repute with
the world, is that they would in such a case be exposed to
the taunts of ungodly men, disparaged as unworthy of their
position, and, conscious of this, would probably be tempted
to do things which would entangle them in Satan's net of
unseemly wranglings or dangerous relationships. No one
who has much experience in life can be at a loss for ex
amples of this nature.
Thus ends the apostle's list of qualifications, which he
desired to see meeting in every one who might be placed
in the responsible position ,of an overseer of Christ's flock.
They are, as already stated, predominantly moral, and con
sist of attributes of character rather than of gifts and en-
K

146 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
dowments of mind. The latter also to some extent are
included, in so far especially as they might be required to
form clear perceptions of truth and duty, to distinguish
between things that differ, and in difficult or perplexing
circumstances to discern the right, and know how to main
tain and vindicate it. Yet, withal, it is the characteristics
which go to constitute the living, practical Christian, which
together make the man of God, that in this delineation of
pastoral equipments are alone brought prominently into
view. And whatever else the church may, in the changeful
circumstances of her position and history, find it necessary
to add to the number, in order to render her responsible
heads fit for the varied work and service to which they are
called, the grand moral characteristics here specified must
still be regarded as the primary and more essential elements
in the qualifications of a true spiritual overseer.
Vers. 8, 9. In like manner that the deacons be grave. — The
likeness indicated here has respect to the qualifications
being substantially of the same kind as those connected
with the higher office of the pastorate : .it is necessary
that the deacons, too, have a measure of such character
istics. Two things specially call for notice in this transition
to the deacons. One is, that the apostle plainly knew
nothing of an intermediate class of officers between those
he had designated episcopoi, and those he now calls deacons.
Chrysostom's reason for the omission — namely, of the pres
byters as a distinct order — can satisfy no unbiassed inter
preter. He thinks it was done because " there is no great
difference between them and bishops ; for presbyters also
have received the right of teaching and the presidency of
the church ; and the things which he had said of the bishops
are applicable also to the presbyters. For in ordination
alone are they superior, and in this only do they appear to
surpass the presbyters." Jerome, on the corresponding
passage in Titus, gives the . only tenable explanation :

I TIMOTHY III. 8, 9. 147
" Presbyter, therefore, is the same with him who is bishop ;
and before that through the prompting of the devil am
bitious strivings entered into religion, and it was said
among the people, ' I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and
I of Christ,' churches were governedi by the common coun
cil of presbyters," etc. The other thing to be noticed is,
that while deacons are named here as a class, of officers
familiarly known, requiring no description as to their dis
tinctive place and duties, no mention is made of them in
the Epistle to Titus. Had the inverse order been adopted,
the matter would have been inexplicable ; but as it is,
the difference may justly be regarded as an evidence of
genuineness and of mutual independence. It naturally
arose out of the diverse position and circumstances of the
churches in the regions respectively of Crete and Ephesus.
Crete, where Titus had been left to complete the arrange
ments originated by the apostle, appears to have been but
recently visited by the gospel, and in ecclesiastical matters
everything was as, yet in comparative infancy. In Christian
communities so small, the simplest possible organization
would be sufficient ; in most cases, indeed, all that was
practicable. A beginning must be made, as elsewhere
(Acts xiv. 23), with a few respectable elders in each. At
Ephesus, however, and in the larger towns of Asia Minor,
the churches had already grown into large communities,
and inferior as well as superior officers were required (as
previously in the church at Jerusalem) for the proper dis
tribution and management of its affairs. The distinct place,
therefore, assigned to deacons here is perfectly in keeping
with the historical circumstances of the time. It is the
only occasion on which they are formally discoursed of
in St. Paul's writings; but in epistles of considerably
earlier date, they are incidentally noticed as an existing
order, more generally in Rom. xii. 7, 1 Cor. xii: 28 ;
and more specifically in Phil. i. 1, also Rom. xvi. 1,

148 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
where Phoebe is designated a deaconess of the church at
Cenchreae. It is not necessary to dwell at any length on the several
qualifications mentioned by the apostle ; they are for the
most part such as were needed to beget in the members
of the church a feeling of respect and confidence towards
them. They must be grave, of serious deportment, as op
posed to unbecoming levity ; not double-tongued (SiAdyovs),
prevaricating in their speech, and so giving rise to mis
understandings and differences ; not addicted to much wine;
not lovers of base gain {alaxpoKepSeis), the base qualifying the
gain, as a thing which becomes base when it is taken as the
leading aim and object of persons filling a sacred office
(comp. Tit. i. n; 1 Pet. v. 2), — "greedy of filthy lucre,"
A. V, "greedy of base gain," Ellicott, seem both rather
too strong ; holding (exovtos, having or possessing) the mys
tery of the faith in a pure conscience. Faith might here be
taken either objectively — what the parties apprehended and
believed; or subjectively— the apprehensive and believing
principle itself, — but more naturally the former : and what
is meant by the mystery of it is the once secret or hidden
nature of the things about which the distinctively gospel
faith is conversant, now brought to light by the revelation
of Jesus Christ. Reuss (in his Histoire de la Theol. Chrk-
tienne, vol. ii. p. 88) has given a good explanation of this
peculiar phraseology. After referring to the partial revela
tions made through the prophets, he says : " The plan of
God could not be understood so long as the manifestation
of Him who was to accomplish it had yet to be made good.
It continued to be a mystery — a matter concealed, not com
prehended, and only ceased to be such by the fact of the
definitive revelation (diroKdAvi/ns) of Christ (Rom. xvi. 26 ;
1 Cor. ii. 7 ; Gal. iii. 23 ; Eph. iii. 3, etc.). We ought to
draw attention to the difference which subsists between the
notion of fivarypiov with Paul, and that of a mystery in the

T TIMOTHY III. IO, II. 149
scholastic sense; that is, of an incomprehensible dogma.
In all the passages just referred to, as in some others, Paul
opposes to mystery the revelation which puts an end to it ;
whereas in the scholastic sense it is with the revelation that
the mystery commences. The apostle qualifies the plan of
God's salvation sometimes as the mystery of God (Col. ii. 2 ;
1 Cor. iv. 1, ii. 1), with reference to its Author, and more
completely as the mystery of the will of God (Eph. i. 9) ;
sometimes as the mystery of Christ (Eph. iii. 4 ; Col. iv. 3),
with respect to its Mediator or executor : besides, as the
mystery of faith (1 Tim. iii. 9), or of godliness (iii. 16), with
respect to its practical condition ; in fine, as the mystery of
the gospel (Eph. vi. 19), inasmuch as it is the object of
apostolic preaching."
Ver. 10. But these also, or, And these too, let them first be
proved — Kai ovtoi Se : not enough that they seem to have all
the qualifications previously mentioned, but let this further
precaution be taken, let them be first proved ; then let them
serve as deacons, if (namely, after being proved) they are
without blame — 6'vtes dveyKXyroi, being without charge of
blame, the period of probation having passed, and no ac
cusation preferred against them.
Ver. n. There is a difference of opinion among com
mentators how this verse should be understood : whether of
women in the sense of wives — the wives of the deacons men
tioned immediately before ; or of women holding much the
same relative position in the church as deacons — women
called to do active service for the community. Our trans
lators have adopted the former view, rendering, " Even so
must their wives be grave," — the wives, namely, of the
deacons ; and in this they have the support of such men as
Bengel, Beza (who, however, would extend the reference
to bishops as well as deacons, against the connection), the
modern Greek commentator Coray, Conybeare, also Huther,
who conceives the wives of deacons to be here mentioned,

150 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
because in certain parts of their office, especially in mini
stering to the poor and the sick, their wives would naturally
co-operate with them, and often do a considerable part of
the work. Whence, quite naturally, the wives of deacons
might be noticed with a view to their proper qualifications,
while nothing was said of the wives of the bishops or
pastors, because the latter could not participate in the
official service of their husbands. All this may fairly be
alleged in favour of that interpretation, and also the circum
stance that, as the apostle returns in the next verse to the
deacons, it would seem upon the whole more natural, that
what he inserts about women in the middle of his instruc
tions regarding deacons should refer to such women > as
were in a manner part of themselves, than to others occu
pying a quite separate position. On the other hand, the
mode of expression employed in introducing the women,
•yvvatKas dio-avnos, apparently marking a transition to another
class (as at ver. 8, ii. 9 ; Tit. ii. 3, 6) ; also the absence of
either the article (rds) or the pronoun (avrcov) to connect
the women with the men spoken of before ; and further,
the mention only of such qualifications in respect to the
women as might fit them for confidential employment in
deacon-work, while nothing is said of those more direcdy
bearing on domestic duties ; — these considerations seem
very much to favour the view adopted already by Chrysos
tom, — adopted as too obvious to require any explanation
(yvvaiKas StaKovovs <pyai), — and followed by Theophylact,
Grotius, De Wette, Ellicott, Alford, etc. : that not deacons'
wives, but female deacons, are meant. It still is somewhat
strange, however, that the general term women {yvvaiKas)
is employed, and not the specific deaconesses {rds Siokovovs),
which would have excluded all uncertainty as to the mean
ing. Possibly the matter was so put as intentionally to
include women of both classes ; at once wives to the
deacons who occasionally shared with their husbands in

I TIMOTHY III. 12, 13. 151
diaconal ministrations, and women who were themselves
charged by the church with such ministrations. Anyhow,
it ought to be understood of women who, in the one
character or the other, were actively engaged in the kind
of work which was proper to deacons. And considering
the greater separation which then existed between the sexes,
and the extreme jealousy which guarded the approaches
to female society,- it was in a manner indispensable that
women, with some sort of delegated authority, should often
be entrusted with various kinds of diaconal service. For
those so entrusted, the following simple requisites are men
tioned : that they he grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in
all things ; the same substantially as those required of the
deacons, only delivered with more brevity.
Ver. 1 2. The apostle, returning again to the deacons
for the purpose of supplementing what he had previously
said, adds concerning them : Let the deacons be husbands of
one wife, ruling well their children and their own houses ; the
same qualifications precisely which had been required, of
the higher officers in respect' to family and domestic rela
tions. See at ver. 4, and Appendix B.
Ver. 13. Here follows a reason for exacting such quali
fications of deacons, as requisite for the safe and efficient
discharge of the trust committed to them; the ydp, for,
coupling this to the whole of the preceding instructions on
the subject : for those who have done the work of a deacon
well obtain for themselves a good degree, and much boldness in
the faith which is in Christ fesus [iv iriarei ttj ev X. 'Itjo-ov,
lit. in faith, that which is in Christ Jesus : fide, eaque in
Ch. J. collocati — Fritzsche on Rom. iii. 25). There is a
certain indefiniteness in the apostle's language here, which
has given occasion to a considerable variety in the interpreta
tions that have been adopted. The step or degree (J3adfi6v)
mentioned has by some been understood of ecclesiastical
advancement — the higher office of the pastorate ; by others,

152 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
of the consideration and honour awarded by the members
of the church to such as have faithfully acquitted them
selves of any sacred trust devolved on them ; by others,
again, of a subjective elevation — the rise made in faith
and the several graces of a Christian life, as the result of
continuous and active employment in the divine service; by
others, still again, of the place of honour and distinction
that will accrue in the great day of final reckoning to those
who have served the Lord diligently in His church on earth
— their own measure of fidelity and love here shall be meted
back to them by the great householder — " a measure full
and running over." It is this last reference which is now
most commonly adopted by the better class of commenta
tors, and is undoubtedly the one that should mainly be
pressed, although I see no reason why at least the two
immediately preceding it should not also be included.
There can be no doubt that the faithful discharge of the
duties of the diaconal office would tend to secure for the
individuals giving it a growth in the attainments and virtues
of a Christian life, — grace properly used leading to larger en
dowments of grace ; and, as a matter of course, they would
at the close of their service occupy a higher place in the
esteem and confidence of their brethren than they could
possibly do at the commencement. But such things, how
ever true and good, are still inadequate; they fall greatly
short of what we may justly conceive the apostle to have
had mainly in view, and can only be regarded as among
the incidental and temporary grounds of encouragement,
which may be looked for by the true servant of the Lord :
the degree by way of eminence, the grand stage of honour
and enlargement which lies before him, is the recompense
of glory which shall be conferred on him at that day by the
exalted Redeemer. It is surely but natural to suppose that
the apostle, when pointing to only one ground of encourage
ment for fidelity in diaconal work, wishing to fix the eye

I TIMOTHY III. 14, 15. 153
on a specific prospect of future advancement, would shoot
beyond the earthly sphere, and make special account of
that which in its worth immensely overshadows all. It
also accords best with what immediately follows, — namely,
great boldness in the faith which is in Christ Jesus, as con
scious, from what is granted to him by the Master Himself,
that he does really stand in the faith, and cannot need to
be ashamed. It may be added, as a still further confir
mation of this view, that the word designating the diaconal
service (SiaKovijo-avTes) is in the indefinite past, and appears
to contemplate the work as a finished totality. No doubt
this might be done in respect to an immediate past, as con
trasted with a future still in this life, to which it formed the
introduction (so that the use of the aorist cannot of itself,
with Alford, be held to be conclusive evidence of a regard
simply to the day of judgment). Still, it may most fitly be
taken to ' contemplate the diaconate as a thing lying alto
gether in the past, with the one great future of the day of
recompense before it. It is scarcely necessary to add that
the doctrine of rewards implied in this view of the passage
is in perfect accordance with what is stated on the subject
in other parts of Scripture; in our Lord's parables, for
instance, of the pounds; the talents, and the judgment day,
Matt, xxv., Luke xix. 11-27; and m the apostle's own
writings, as at Rom. ii. 6-10, 2 Cor. iv. 10, 2 Tim. iv.
7, 8. But see at chap. vi. 19.
Ver. 14. These things T write to thee, hoping to come to
thee shortly : rdxiov, literally, more quickly — sooner, that is,
than I at one time thought, or than would seem to call for
more detailed communications.
Ver. 15. But if I should tarry, [the things have been
written] in order that thou mayest know how thou oughtest
to conduct thyself in Gods house, which indeed is the church
of the living God, the pillar and basement of ihe truth. The
expression rendered, how thou oughtest to conduct thyself (Sei

154 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
dvaarpe<peaBai), has sometimes been taken in a more general
sense : how men ought to conduct themselves, such as have
to do generally with the management of God's house (so, for
example, Huther). It might, no doubt, be understood in
this manner ; but it seems better to retain the special refer
ence to Timothy : for, while many of the things written in
the preceding portions of the epistle had respect to the
conduct which men generally, especially men holding office
in the Christian church, ought to maintain, their more
immediate object was to instruct Timothy how he should
himself act in the delicate and responsible position he was
for the time called to fulfil at Ephesus. But even on the
understanding that the special reference's to Timothy, such
a rendering as this might fitly enough be given : how one
ought to conduct oneself; but the other is simpler, and is
to be preferred.
God's house, which indeed is the church of the living God —
oikco ®eov, tjtis iarrlv iKKkyaia ®. £Gvtos ; the latter clause
epexegetical of the former, defining more exactly what is
meant by God's house. The indefinite relative 77ns is in
such a connection stronger than the simple relative, being
employed " to introduce an especial attribute belonging to
the nature of the object, its real and peculiar property,
or differentia" (Jelf, Gr. § 816, 7 ; Ellicott on Gal. iv. 24) :
the house of God, namely that which is — or, which indeed
is— the church of the living God. There was a necessity
for this definition, as in former times the expression "house
of God " had been much associated with the material fabric
of the temple, which was, in a sense that nothing of like
sort could be in the gospel dispensation, the habitation
or dwelling-place of Deity (2 Chron. v. 14; Isa. lvi. 7;
Matt. xxi. 13). But even in Old Testament times, the
more enlightened believers understood that the temple,
with its sacred furniture and services, was an emblem of
God's fellowship with His people, who therefore were then,

I TIMOTHY III. 15. 155
as now, the only proper habitation of God on earth : hence
such passages as Num. xii. 7, Isa. Ixvi. 2 ; and those in
which habitual communion with God is identified with
dwelling in His house, Ps. xxiii. 6, xxvii. 4 ; or having God
Himself for a sanctuary and dwelling-place, Ps. xc. 1, Ezek.
xi. 16. There was a mutual indwelling — they in God, and
God in them. But, in accordance with the spiritual cha
racter of the new dispensation, this truth is brought out
more distinctly now, and that, too, in earlier parts of
Scripture than in the passage before us. Thus, in Eph.
ii. 20-22, the church, as composed of believing Jews and
Gentiles, is represented as a glorious building, raised on
Christ as the foundation : an holy temple in the Lord, or
habitation of God through the Spirit. A quite similar re
presentation is given in 1 Pet. ii. 5, iv. 17, and again in
Heb. iii. 6, where, with reference to Christ as a Son in His
own house, it is added : " Whose house are we, if we hold
fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto
the end." In these passages, the house, temple, or habitation
of God is plainly associated with individuals, the individuals
addressed by the apostle, coritemplated as in living union
with Christ ; and in the strict sense it can only be predi
cated of such that they are God's house ; for in their case
alone is there the real link that connects the human with
the divine — the spiritual habitation with the glorious inha
bitant. It is the church as the ecclesia of God, His elect,
whom He has called out of the world and gathered into His
fold, that He may sustain and keep them unto life eternal.
But here, as in many other passages, the apostle does not
use the word in this absolute sense ; he uses it of the out
standing, organized communities of believers, viewed as the
concrete realization, in this or that particular locality, of the
spiritual or ideal body. This is what every one of such
communities is called to be, though in reality it might be
so but in -part. He holds it, as it were, to its idea : if it

156 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
was worthy of the name, it was God's house, a living com
munity of saints pervaded by the presence of the living
God ; and hence, the pillar and basement ofthe truth (otvAos
Kai i8paiwp.a ttjs dXydeias) : for, as so connected with God,
it necessarily holds and bears up in the world, that with
which His name and glory are peculiarly identified — the
truth as it is in Jesus.
Some have sought to connect these last words, not with
what precedes, but with what follows — with the mystery of
godliness (so Episcopius, Mosheim, Bengel, Rosenmiiller,
and others, chiefly rationalistic expositors of more recent
times). This, however, is against all probability, and is
rejected by the great body of interpreters. It would form
a most abrupt and artificial commencement were the terms
pillar and basement made to begin a fresh sentence : " Pillar
and basement of the truth, and confessedly great is the
mystery of godliness ! " Not only so, but to couple such
specific terms first with a quite general epithet, great, and
then with an object, mystery of godliness, which does not
properly suit them (for with what propriety could a mystery
be called a pillar ?), would only be justifiable if it were
impossible to find a more appropriate connection. But so
far is that from being the case, that to regard them as a
description of the church in her destination to maintain and
exhibit before the world the testimony of divine truth com
mitted to her keeping, is in itself a perfectly natural repre
sentation, and in accordance with what we elsewhere read
of the calling of the church. Was it not the special calling
of Christ Himself to bear witness to the truth, and by doing
so to become the Light of the world ? But in this Christ
was only in a pre-eminent degree what in a measure His
people, individually and collectively, should also be found.
They should be, and they are, while stedfast to their pro
fession, a basement whereon the truth may securely rest

I TIMOTHY III. 15. 157
amid all the fluctuations of the world, and a pillar to bear
it aloft, that all may know and consider it.
There has been a disinclination in certain quarters to
acquiesce in this mode of interpretation, because of its
supposed tendency to play into the hands of the Church
of Rome. It is, no doubt, one of the passages on which
Rome seeks to ground her claim to universal homage as
the one church of Christ ; but it is no more suitable to her
purpose than the promise to St. Peter in Matt. xvi. 18 ; only
by arbitrary distinctions and vain assumptions can either
the one passage or the other be made to favour her preten
sions. Here, in particular, where the church is set forth as
the pillar and basement of the truth, it is a test we have to
deal with, as well as a claim to consider. For the truth is
not of the church's making, but of God's revealing : she has
it, not as of her own, but from above ; and has it not to
alter or modify at her own will, but to keep as a sacred
treasure for the glory of God- and the good of men. And
if she should anyhow corrupt or lose hold of this truth, she
so far ceases to be the house of God ; for she now does
that part to the devil's lie, which ought to have been done
exclusively for the sure word of God. Nor is it too much
to suppose such a thing possible with a considerable portion
of the professing church. It was so, we know, with by
much the most pretentious section of the Jewish community
before the time of Christ; and the apostle has elsewhere
informed us, that in the Christian church also there was to
be a great apostasy, a mystery of iniquity working under the
cloak of a Christian profession, in consequence of which
many should be given up to believe a lie (2 Thess. ii. 3-1 1).
Rightly understood, therefore, this passage determines no
thing for Rome, or for any church which rests its claim to apos-
tolicity on historical descent. The grand test is, does she
hold by the truth of God ? Is she in her belief and practice
a- witness for this ? Or does she gainsay and pervert it ?

158 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
It is rather strange that Chrysostom, while he applies the
'description to the church, inverts the order of the relation
it indicates between the truth and the church : the church
of the New Testament, he says, " is that which possesses in
itself the faith and preaching, for the truth is both the pillar
and the basement of the church (tj ydp dXydeia ian rrjs
EKKArjcrtas Kai cttvAos Kai ISpaicopa)." Theodoret is better,
for he expressly calls the company of the faithful who com
pose the church the pillar and basement of the truth : " for
they continue stayed and settled upon the rock, and by
active operations (Sid tcov irpayp.drwv) preach the truth of
the doctrines." Not a few of the Fathers, however (see in
Suicer at o-tvAos), referred the passage to Timothy, misled
by other passages in which the designation of pillars is
applied to persons occupying prominent positions in the
church : so also, in recent times, Conybeare, and Stanley
{Apostolic Age, p. 121). According to this view, the whole
sentence would run thus : " That thou mightest know how
thou oughtest to conduct thyself in the house of God, [so
as to be therein] a pillar and basement of the truth." No
grammatical objection can be made to this construction ;
only, for so specific a meaning the sentence is too indefi
nitely expressed. We should certainly have expected, as
urged by Alford, the personal pronoun after Sei (Sei o-e),
and also the article with o-tvAos, so as to make : how thou
oughtest to conduct thyself, who art the pillar, etc. Besides,
while the term pillar might fitly enough be applied to
Timothy, as it is to other individuals (Gal. ii. 9 ; Rev. iii.
12), the other term, basement, is not elsewhere so applied,
nor was it strictly applicable to such a person as Timothy, —
an evangelist appointed for a short period to execute a
definite commission for the churches in and around Ephesus.
It were to say more of him, indeed, than is said of Peter
and the other apostles, who are simply represented as
foundation-stones of the visible church. For in this case

I TIMOTHY III. 15. 159
the church presents itself as an organized institution, rising
up to view in the world, and obtaining an outstanding
existence, through the faith and labours of the apostles,
who therefore stand to it in the relation of founders. But
the truth itself, to which that church owes its distinctive
character, and which it is called to preserve and manifest,
cannot justly be said to have any individual basement, save
in Him who is the very truth in everlasting and embodied
fulness. It is quite improbable that the apostle should
have designated his " child Timothy " by what is so pecu
liarly characteristic only of Christ: As to Stanley's objec
tion to the other and more common interpretation, that " it
, is against the whole tenor of the passage to describe the
same object first as a building, and then as a part of that
building," this arises from the complex nature of the object
represented, as requiring to be contemplated sometimes in
a collective, sometimes in an individual aspect ; and the
same sort of interchange between the one and the other
occurs in other passages, as at 1 Pet. ii. 4, 5, where be
lievers are at once regarded as living stones of the spiritual
house, then the house itself, and again as a holy priesthood
offering up sacrifices within it.
We hold, then, that the description here given with
reference to the truth is to be understood of the church —
of the church primarily in the higher sense, the church of
the redeemed, and of particular communities only in so far
as they possess the more essential characteristics of the
other. The church in that respect is God's instrument of
working. He does not (to use the words of Calvin), "per
sonally descend from heaven to us, nor does He daily send
angels for the purpose of promulgating the truth ; but He
uses the ministry of pastors, to whom for this very end He
has granted ordination. To express myself more strongly :
Is not the church the mother of all saints ? — regenerating
them by the, word of God, rearing and training them

l6o THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
throughout their whole life, establishing and carrying them
onward, even to their proper maturity ? And for the same
reason also she is designated a pillar of the truth, since
the office of imparting spiritual instruction which God has
committed to her is the sole provision for preserving the
truth, so that it do not perish from the minds of men.
Therefore this eulogium is to be referred to the ministry
of the Word, which, being taken away, would leave the
word of God to fall, — not as if it were in itself infirm, and
needed to be borne up on the shoulders of men, as the
Papists impiously talk ; but on this account only, because
if the doctrine of the gospel were not continually sounded
forth, if there were no godly ministers who by their preach
ing kept the truth from falling into oblivion, lies, errors,
impostures, superstitions, and all forms of corruption, would
forthwith usurp the kingdom."
It were wrong to quit the subject without noticing, how
ever briefly, the elevated view which the passage under
consideration presents of every church that properly de
serves the name : " The house of the living God ! The pillar
and basement of the truth ! " When one really takes in
this sublime conception of the church of God, how little
can anything of a merely adventitious or carnal nature add
to its greatness ! Let it be admitted that the friendly co
operation or temporal support of worldly powers might,
within certain limits, enable her more promptly and suc
cessfully to work out the ends of her appointment ; yet to
raise her to a nobler position and enhance her real glory,
this is not theirs to give. The palace differs from other
dwellings in the land, and ranks proudly above them all ;
not, it may be, on account of its finer structure and more
beautiful surroundings, but simply as being the seat and
habitation of royalty. And such precisely is the distinguish
ing characteristic of the church of Christ, wherever situated,
and whatever its external accompaniments : it is the palace

I TIMOTHY III. 1 6. l6l
of the Great King, where He is ever graciously present, and
dispenses life and blessing to the members of His spiritual
household. How careful, therefore, should these members
be to maintain its proper character ! How careful, espe
cially, to stand in the truth, which'' alone makes the chureh
what it is as a region of light and blessing !
Three things are essentially' necessary to this. i. That
those who bear rule in the church possess only ministerial,
not absolute authority — serve while they rule. 2. That
God's word be taken as their one grand directory of faith
and practice in God's house. God's word must reign para
mount : it is the statute book of the kingdom. 3. And then,
lastly, the pervading character of all pertaining to it must
be holiness ; for holiness is the sum of God's moral perfec
tions, " therefore holiness becometh His house for ever."
Ver. 16. The more immediate reason, obviously, which
led the apostle to bring so pro'minently out the spiritual
and elevated idea he had just presented of the church of
Christ, was to impress upon the mind of Timothy the
gravity and importance of the charge devolved on him,
and the imperative duty of all who are called to fill in it
offices of trust, acting in harmony with its sacred charac
ter ; especially handling with a profound seriousness the
testimony lodged with it concerning truth. For " how
dreadful must be their condemnation, if by any fault Of
theirs that truth, which is the image of the1 divine glory,
the light of the world, and the salvation of men, should go
down ! This condemnation may well, indeed, strike terror
into ministers, not so as to dispirit them, but to quicken
them to greater vigilance " (Calvin). And with the view of
still further deepening this impression, the apostle goes on
now to exhibit the glorious reality, about which both the
church herself and the truth committed to her keeping, is
chiefly conversant : And confessedly great is the mystery of
godliness: who was manifested in the flesh, was justified in
L

1 62 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
the Spirit, appeared to angels, was preached among the Gen
tiles, was believed on in the world, was received up in, glory.
The controversy so long waged about the correct text in
this passage, whether after the mystery of godliness we
should read ©eos, or os, or d, may now be regarded as vir
tually settled in favour of ds.1 It is, indeed, when closely
considered, the fittest, indicating Him who in His person and
work is the disclosing of that mystery, respecting the divine
life in man, which had hitherto been hid in God. " This
mystery of the life of God in man (as Alford well remarks)
is, in fact, the unfolding of Christ to and in him; the key-text
to our passage being Col. i. 27, where God is said to have
made known ' what is the wealth of the glory rov p-varypiou
rovrov iv rois edveaiv, os ecttiv Xpicrrds ev vp.iv, tj EAiris T77S
So£tjs.' This was the thought in St. Paul's mind, that the
great revelation of the religious life is Christ. And in
accordance with his practice in these epistles, — written, as
I believe, far on his course, and after the figures and results
of deep spiritual thoughts had been long familiar to him, —
he at once, without explanation or apology, as beforetime
1 The greatest critical authorities are agreed in this, Lachmann,
Tischendorf, Tregelles ; ,also the more careful and exact commentators,
Huther, Alford, Ellicott. It has decidedly the strongest support from
ancient authorities — A (such, at least, seems the most probable view
of its primary reading, the strokes converting oc into 6c, being ap
parently from a later hand ; see Ellicott's testimony in his note, also
Alford's to the same effect), C, F, G, N ; while for Ssis there are only
two uncials, I, K, at first hand, though most of tlie later MSS. have this
reading, and it is that also of Chrysostom, Theod., Euthalius, Damasc.j
Theophyl., and CEcum. One uncial MS., D, has 0 at first hand; and
both the Latin versions, and nearly all the Latin Fathers, have the cor
responding quod. But this, as Ellicott notes, was only a Latinizing
variation of is ; and as the Coptic, Sahidic, Gothic, as well as Syriac
versions all represent is, and the ancient Latin versions and Fathers at
least a relative, is must undoubtedly be regarded as the more probable
reading. Internal considerations also favour it, as will be seen in the
exposition.

I TIMOTHY III. 1 6. 163
in Col. i. 27, or expression of the Xptords justifying the
change of gender in the relative, joins the deep and
latent thought with the superficial and obvious one, and
without saying that the mystery is in fact Christ, passes
from the mystery to the person of Christ, as being one
and the same. Then, thus passing, he is naturally led to
a summary of those particulars wherein Christ has been
revealed as a ground for the godliness of His church. And
the idea of jivaryplov being prominent before him, he selects
especially those events in and by which Christ was mani
fested -forth— came forth from that secrecy in which He had
beforetime been hidden in the counsels of God, and shone
out to men and angels as the Lord of life and glory."
I have no doubt this is the correct explanation ; it
quite naturally accounts for the substitution of ds for the
Xpio-Tos. There are not wanting even more abrupt and
striking substitutions of a like kind in Scripture. Thus,
. Ps. Ixxxvii. begins with, " His foundation is in the holy
mountains." Whose foundation? The Psalmist's mind
being full of his subject, he does not expressly name this,
but proceeds at once to declare what he knew and thought
concerning it. So also 3 John 7, speaking of the be
lieving strangers, represents them as (according to the
proper text) "having for the name gone forth." What
name ? This it was needless further to particularize. The
os here should therefore be taken simply as the relative,
the proper antecedent being omitted, but easily supplied.
Ellicott does well in rejecting other modes of explanation ;
such as considering it at once as demonstrative and relative,
" He who," or making it equivalent to ecce est qui. But I
see no reason for supposing, with him, Huther, and others,
that the passage introduced by the relative is part of an
ancient hymn or confession adopted by the apostle. The
natural supposition, I agree with Alford in thinking, would
appear rather to lie the other way. It was more likely that

164 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
such a passage — a passage so singularly, profound and
pregnant in meaning — should have been first penned by the
apostle, and then possibly passed into some kind of hymnal
or liturgical use (though of this we have no certain infor
mation), than that, from haying been so used, it should have
been caught up by the apostle, and woven into his dis
course. Its parallelistic structure is no argument against
this ; for in other parts of the apostle's writings we find him,
in his fervent utterances, falling into the same kind of paral
lelism —Rom. viii. 38, 39, xi. 33-36; 1 Cor. xv. 55-57.
The substitution of ds for ®eds as the proper reading,
by no means destroys the bearing of the passage on the
divinity of Christ; for this is clearly implied in what
follows — is, indeed, the ground-element of the whole series
of declarations. There had been no proper mystery in
the matter, unless the divine here mingled with the human.
The first announcement alone may be held to be con
clusive on the subject : was manifested in the flesh; for who
would have dreamt of speaking thus of a simple man ? It
plainly implies that the person spoken of was something
before, something so much greater and higher than man,
-that it was like the disclosure of a great secret when He
manifested Himself in mortal flesh. Jt is the fact of the
incarnation merely which is here mentioned ; but this con
templated as embracing not simply the birth, but die whole
of our Lord's earthly existence and sojourn. The nearest
parallel passages are John i. 14, 1 John i. 1. The next
expression is not quite so patent in meaning : was justified
in spirit {iSiKaiwdy iv irvevfian). For the question naturally
presents itself — What spirit? Is it the Holy Spirit? Or,
the spirit in Christ's person, viewed as a kind of antithesis
to His flesh ? According as the one or the other view of
this is adopted, a corresponding difference will arise in the
sense we necessarily put on the justifying. But as the whole
discourse here is of Christ Himself, in His personal pro-

I TIMOTHY III. 16. 165
perties and marvellous history, the most natural light in
which to view spirit must be to understand it of Christ's
spiritual nature, the seat of His divine life ; and, as such,
the counterpart of the flesh mentioned in the immediately
preceding clause, which together made up His appearance
arid life among men. It is of that, also, we can best under
stand the justifying, which must be taken here, as elsewhere
in St. Paul's writings, in the sense of judged or approved
as righteous. Christ was thus justified in spirit, because in
His career on earth, from first to last, He fulfilled all right
eousness, and once and again was proclaimed to be the
Father's beloved Son, in whom He was well pleased.
There is, when so explained, both a contrast and a corre
spondence in the two predicates : manifested in flesh, jus
tified in spirit ; — flesh and spirit natural opposites, but the
manifesting in the one corresponding to the justifying in
the other ; that indicating His real humanity, this His true
holiness ; on the one side actual manhood, on the other
spiritual perfection.
There is the same sort of contrast and correspondence in
the two succeeding pairs. And it is this, too much over
looked by commentators, which most readily helps us to
the right exhibition of the meaning. Appeared — {w<pBy,
rather appeared than was seen ; it is made Himself seen, for
the verb is commonly used in the sense of self-exhibition,
Acts vii. 26, xxvi. 16, etc.) — appeared to angels, was preached
among the Gentiles : angels and Gentiles, again natural op
posites — the one the blessed occupants of a higher sphere,
the other the more corrupt and debased inhabitants of this
lower world. To the former, therefore, He appears as He
is ; they observe His progress, bring occasional supply to
His wants, herald His resurrection, attend Him as guardian
hosts to heaven, thereafter minister and serve before Him :
to the latter, the Gentiles, He cannot thus render Himself
manifest and familiar ; but, what in a sense was better, He

1 66 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
is preached among them for their salvation, so that through
Him they may be raised out of their prostrate condition,
and become allied to nobler spirits, even to " the innumer
able company of angels and the church of the first-born,
whose names are written in heaven." Finally, Believed on
in the world, received up in glory : the world and glory,
how far asunder, and in a sense antagonistic ! — the one
above, the other beneath ; the one suggesting thoughts
only of celestial brightness and purity, the other replete
with numberless forms and appearances of evil — the region
of sin, disease, and death. In this, therefore, Christ, as the
perfected Redeemer, was incapable of residing, yet is spiri
tually present and believed on to the temporal and eternal
good of His people ; while Himself, as the fit inhabitant of
a better region, received up in glory — the glory which He
had with the Father before the world was. Thus not merely
at the commencement, but throughout the series, there is
the evolution of a mystery ; an exhibition of contrasts, yet
at the same time a preservation of what is fit and becoming
in the several relations ; a carrying out of what, in its diver
sified bearings, the scheme of God indispensably required.
But I can see no advantage to the meaning, or even suit
ableness, in endeavouring, with Alford, to make the clauses
consecutive — each as it follows taking up the history where
the immediately preceding one had left it. It is impossible
to work out a natural exposition on this plan ; some of the
expressions must have a measure of constraint or violence
put upon them.

CHAPTER IV.

Ver. i. But the Spirit speaks expressly, eta The descrip
tion given toward the close of the preceding chapter of the
church as the pillar and basement of divine truth, and of

I TIMOTHY IV. I. 167
the grand mystery which finds its evolution in connection
with the interests and hopes of the church, might well have
seemed to bespeak for her future condition a secure and
continuous prosperity. There was, however, a shady side
to the picture ; and it was right that Timothy, and those
who might follow after in the ministry of the word, should
have timely warning of it. Here, therefore, the apostle
proceeds to give some leading characteristics of this darker
future, indicating by the connecting particle (the adversa
tive Se') that the things he was going to utter should form
an unhappy contrast to what had been already said : To Se
IIvEvpa otjtcos Aeyei. By the Spirit is undoubtedly to be
understood the Holy Spirit, the immediate source of all
prophetic insight into the coming dispensations of Provi
dence, and the history of the church. And when this Spirit
is affirmed to have spoken expressly {pryrws, used in this
sense by Polybius, iii. 23. 5, and some later Greek writers;
see in Wetstein) as to the sad declensions that were in
prospect, respect is obviously had to the explicit, unam
biguous character of the announcements. If it is asked,
however, when or by whom the announcements were
made, no very definite reply can be given. There may
have been, and very probably were, intimations of the
coming evil given to the apostle himself, of which no record
exists beyond the brief outline contained in the passage
before us. But if there were such, we may naturally sup
pose they would be in the same line with those which have
been recorded — further, and probably more specific, de
velopments of the features indicated in them. Even in
Old Testament Scripture there are not wanting prophetic
glimpses which seem to point in this direction ; in particular
what is said in Daniel, chap. vii. 25, viii. 23-25, of a dark,
subtle, and corrupt power which was destined apparently to
'arise and work with disastrous energy in Messiah's kingdom,
after this kingdom should have been formally set up. More

1 68 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
certainly, however, may be taken into account some of our
Lord's announcements respecting the future of His church,
such as J:he parable of the tares and the wheat, and the
mention of false Christs and false prophets, who should
deceive many, in His discourse of the last days (Matt.
xxiv. 1 1 ss.). More especially still may be included Paul's
own statements in one of his earliest epistles concerning a
great apostasy which was to take place in the Christian
church (2 Thess. ii.) ; also what he said in his address to
the elders of Ephesus about persons going to arise within
the church who should do the part of wolves to the flock,
teaching perverse things (Acts xx. 29, 30) ; and still again,
the pointed reference he made in his Epistle to the Colos
sians to the depravations of Christian doctrine and worship,
which he descried as already beginning to take shape,
through the combined influence of ascetic and ritualistic
tendencies (chap. ii.). These were all prior in point of
time to the passage now under consideration, and were of
a kindred nature to it, though none of them speak so ex
pressly of the corruptions now more particularly in the eye
of the apostle as he does in this warning to Timothy. We
may therefore justly infer, that the explicitness of the Spirit's
utterances here given through the apostle really form an
advance on the revelations hitherto communicated to the
church in this particular line, one required by the circum
stances of the time.
The express utterances of the Spirit were to the effect
that in after times some shall depart from the faith. As to
the period indicated, the expression of the apostle is some
what indefinite ; for the ev varepois Kaipois may be under
stood of any age or time subsequent to the apostle's own :
it was merely the times which, in respect to the persons
who then lived, lay somewhere in the future. The expres
sion in 2 Tim. iii. 1, the last days, and St. John's, the last
hour, or season {iaxdry wpa, 1 John ii. 18), appear of them-

I TIMOTHY IV. I. 169
selves to point to a yet more remote future — to what was
contemplated as a closing period. But, from the habit of
Jewish writers to view Messiah's times generally as the
later times of the world's history, we cannot, perhaps, draw
very sharply the distinction between these forms of expres
sion and the one used in the passage before us. By this
the apostle plainly means to denote, in a somewhat general
way, the later age of the world ; not absolutely its very
last or closing period, but stretching, perhaps, over exten
sive tracks of time. The evil, indeed, was already germi
nating ; and it was to grow into what the apostle calls a
departure or apostasy from the faith— faith taken objec
tively, as often elsewhere (Acts vi. 7 ; Jude 3, etc.), for the
truths or doctrines embraced by faith. Men were going to
corrupt the simplicity of these by mixing with them errors
and traditions of their own. Then follow indications of the
erring course.
Giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons.
The seducing spirits here referred to evidently stand in
contrast to the Spirit mentioned immediately before — that
Spirit who is to the church of Christ the source of all truth
and holiness. Instead of following His guidarice, the parties
in question were to give way to spirits of error, seducing
spirits {irvevp,aaiv irXdvois), and teachings of demons — that
is, teachings which drew their inspiration from demoniacal
agencies. For there can be no doubt that the genitive here
(Saip,oviW) is the genitive of the. subject (Winer, § 30), and
not, as Mede laboured with great earnestness and industry
to show, that ofthe object — teachings or doctrines concern
ing demons — demonolatry. Ample proof, indeed, exists,
and was produced by Mede ( Works, p. 623), of the exten
sive prevalence of demonolatry in apostolic times outside
the Christian church, and of the footing it ere long got
within the church, under the forms of saint and martyr
worship, exorcisms, incantations, and superstitious wrest-

170 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
lings with particular representatives of the demon world.
But there is no evidence of that specific form of corruption
being here in the eye of the apostle. The particular kinds
of evil mentioned by him have no proper affinity with it ;
they belong to the sphere of ordinary life, and were such as
spring from a false but aspiring asceticism, aiming at higher
degrees of mortification and self-denial than consisted with
the principles of the gospel. To represent teaching of this
sort as the offspring of corrupt and misleading spirits — the
spirits that rule in the darkness of this world, and strive to
keep it in alienation from the life of God — was not to dis
sociate it from the efforts of a human instrumentality (it is
presently, indeed, connected therewith), but to stamp the
instrumentality as essentially evil, working under the in
fluence, and for the interest, of the adversary of souls.
Some have supposed the instrumental agents themselves to
be designated seductive spirits and demoniacal teachers ;
but this is contrary to the usage of Scripture, and also to
the connection here. It is the unseen prime movers of the
mischief in the spirit-world, not the instruments employed
by 'them, that are so characterized by the apostle.
Ver. 2. 'Jiv viroKpiaei ij/evSoXoywv — not, as in the Autho
rized Version, " speaking lies in hypocrisy," which would
take <//evSoAdyu)v as in apposition with the 8aip.oviwv of the
preceding clause, and so would identify the demons with
the instrumental agents — but in hypocrisy of speakers of lies :
a prepositional clause, defining the manner in which the
giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons
was to make way, consequently describing the spirit and
character of the human agents. The false teaching in
question being, as to its origin, from the father of lies, the
parties who were to be chiefly instrumental in insinuating
its poison into the church were to be the fit representatives
and agents of such a cause ; not sincere, straightforward,
truth-loving men, but persons living in hypocrisy as their

I TIMOTHY IV. 2. 171
natural element, speaking lies as their proper vocation, —
men, in short, of subtle and sophistical minds, who had no
relish for the pure gospel, and assumed the profession of a
regard to it only that they might the more advantageously
propagate their transcendental views and practices. Such
appears to be the natural import and bearing of the clause ;
it brings prominently out that dangerous characteristic in
the immediate instruments of the false teaching referred to,
by means of which the spirit of evil that wrought 'in them
was to acquire ascendency in the church.
The moral condition of these corrupt teachers is further
described as that of persons who have had their conscience
scarred (KeKavcpnjpiao-p.eVcov,1 cauterized), that is, branded as
with a KavTTjp, a marking instrument of hot iron. The
application of such an instrument to any part of the human
body certainly has a hardening effect — renders the part so
branded comparatively insensible to the touch. And this
is the figurative meaning not unfrequently attached to the
expression here ; as in our common version, " seared as
with a hot iron ; " so, too, Theodoret, who founds his ex
planation on the physical fact, that " the part cauterized is
deadened, and deprived of its former sensibility." But this
is probably laying too much stress on an incidental effect of
the action, while the action itself affords both a more direct
and a quite appropriate sense. Understanding it so, the
persons in the eye of the apostle are represented as corrupt
at the core ; their conscience so far from bearing the im
press of moral purity — blurred and spotted, as it were, with
the foul prints of former iniquities, and consequently in
capable of relishing, or responding aright to, the holy doc
trines of the gospel. There is a point, as well as severe
emphasis, in the language : their own conscience {ryv iSidv
1 This is the form of the word given in s, A, C, and being the rarer
form, is preferred by Tisch.; the greater number of MSS. and the re
ceived text have xtxa.vrvipiuirp.ivwv.

172 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
avveiSyaiv) is affirmed to be in this corrupt state; and if
themselves such in their inner being, how unfit to assume
the part of teachers to others ! how utterly incapabk of
leading them on to the heights of real purity and bliss !
They professed to be guides of this description, to go even
beyond the requirements of the gospel in their zeal for a
self-denying and mortified life. But their zeal in this direc
tion could not possibly spring from an unfeigned love of
the pure and good ; carnal self was really the mainspring
of their aspirations, though clothing itself in the appearance
of an angel of light.
Ver. 3. Here the apostle descends to particulars, indi
cating in one or two leading points the directions this false
pietism was going to assume : forbidding to marry, [bidding1]
to abstain from meats (or kinds of food) which God made for
being received with thanksgiving by the faithful, and those who
have the full knowledge of the truth. The prohibition of mar
riage, and of the use of certain kinds of food, by which more
especially animal food must be understood, was • among the
commoner forms of that ascetic tendency which had already
taken root in the East, and, the apostle foresaw, was pre
sently going to win for itself a place within the pale of the
Christian church. The Therapeutae of Egypt, and the
Essenes in the south of Palestine, were examples of the
tendency in question ; since not only at the gospel era,
but for generations before it, they had in considerable num
bers been systematically carrying out their ascetic principles
in the manner indicated by the apostie. They confined
themselves to the simplest diet, altogether abstaining from
flesh and wine ; and, without absolutely forbidding marriage,
they still practically condemned and eschewed it, as incon
sistent with the higher degrees of excellence in the spiritual
life. If the prevalence of the Gnostic spirit had led to such
1 Construction by zeugma, requiring xiXtuivrxv to be supplied to
make out the sense (Winer, § 66, 1, e).

, I TIMOTHY IV. 3. 173
ascetic developments even under Judaism (for that the
parties in question were mainly, if not quite exclusively
Jews, admits of no doubt), it was to be expected that the
immense impulse given to spiritual thought and contem
plation by the great facts of Christianity, would yet more
become to many the occasion of aspiring after perfection by
the same mistaken course. How far this tendency made
way in the church before the rise of the more formally
developed Gnostic systems, we have not the means of
definitely ascertaining ; but shortly, after the commence
ment of the second century, and as the result of Gnostic
teaching (more especially under Saturninus, Marcion,
Tatian), parties assuming the Christian name, but known by
the distinctive appellation of Encratites or Purists, openly"
preached against marriage, and insisted on abstinence from
animal food; thereby (as Irenaeus says/i. 28) "indirectly
accusing God, who, made male and female for the propa
gation of mankind, and proving themselves ungrateful to
Him who made all things."1 It is plain, therefore, that
these early heresiarchs erred on the very points specified
by the apostle; and as some of them — in particular, Mar
cion and Tatian — had been reared in the bosom of the
church, and afterwards separated themselves from it by
thus departing from the faith, it was a perfectly legitimate
application of the passage to turn it, as many of the Fathers
did, against their extreme positions. Yet not a few of
those Fathers themselves -fell in a measure under the same
misguiding influence. For they so extolled virginity, as
virtually to disparage the married state : the one was with
them the ideally perfect, the other the relatively defective
and impure form of the Christian life ; and it was only by
abstinence from marriage, and by frequent fastings, always
attended by the disuse of animal food, and by other ascetic
exercises, that it was thought possible to become pattern
1 See Dissertation on chap. iii. 2, App. B.

174 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
saints, or to be religious in the stricter sense. But if it be
wrong to forbid marriage as unholy, and proscribe the use
of food which God has ordained for man's use ; if this be
virtually to impeach the wisdom of the Creator, and to
impute a character of evil to the bounties of His provi
dence, then assuredly to turn those kinds of abstinence
into a ground of pre-eminent virtue, and assign to the
persons who practised them a place of surpassing honour,
was in a most real sense to depart from the faith of the
gospel, since it assumed another rule and standard of worth
than what is propounded there. It had, as the apostle else
where said, " a show of humihty, and neglecting of the body,
not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh" (Col. ii. 23);
but was not the less calculated to feed the pride and self-
sufficiency of nature, and mar the healthfulness and sim
plicity of a genuine faith.
Scripture, indeed, does not dehy that a person may
occasionally abstain from certain meats or from marriage,
with advantage to his own spiritual life or the good of the
kingdom of God (Matt vi. 16, 17, xvii. 21, xix. 12;
1 Cor. vii. 32-37). But in such cases the alternative is
not put as between a relatively pure and perfect state by
the one course, and an impure or defective one by the
other ; but the one is presented merely as affording oppor
tunities or helps for prosecuting more freely and unreserv
edly the work of faith than can well be done- in the other.
If temporary fasting should dispose and enable one to fight
more successfully against the lusts of the flesh, or if by
abstaining from marriage one could, in particular spheres
of labour, or in certain conjunctures of the church's history,
more effectually serve the interests of the gospel than other
wise, then the higher principles of that gospel, the nobler
ends of a Christian calling, will undoubtedly justify the
restraint or the sacrifice. But to do this is only to subor
dinate a less to a greater good : it creates no factitious

I TIMOTHY IV. 3. 175
distinctions in respect to the allowable or forbidden, holy
or unholy, in the ordinary relationships and circumstances
of life ; and calls for a rejection of the natural good in these
.only when it may be conducive as means to a definite
spiritual end. This is an entirely different thing from that
morbid and mawkish asceticism, which, in attempting to
soar above the divinely appointed order and constitution of
things, imputes a character of evil to what is in itself good,
and hence withdraws men from those social environments
which, as a rule, are necessary to the well-being of society,
and to the full-orbed completeness of the Christian cha
racter. _
When the apostle speaks, in the latter part of this verse,
of the common articles of food as having been made by
God, — for being received with thanksgiving by the faithful,
and those who have the full knowledge of the truth {rois iriarois
Kal iireyvwKoaiv rrjv dXy&eiav), — the most natural meaning
seems to be : received thus by such persons as well as
others : their faith and knowledge in the things of God had
no way interfered with their relation to the common bounties
of God's providence, and ought to be coupled with a thank
ful, not with a fearful or doubting, spirit. The expressions
might, with Ellicott and "others, be taken in the sense of
the dative of interest — " for the faithful," etc. ; but it is
more fitting to regard them as ablatives (the ablative of the
agent, considered as the instrument whereby anything is
done; Jelf, § 611). For it could not but appear somewhat
strange, to say that God made the several kinds of food
specifically for the possessors of true knowledge and faith
in Christ. The teaching of Scripture on the subject rather
is, that being natural gifts, they are made for the use of men
simply as possessing the properties of human nature ; and
all that needs to be said of those who rise to a higher
position in the 'divine kingdom is, that, as recipients of God's
grace, and heirs of His eternal glory, nothing is withdrawn

176 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
from them as to the original appointments of God in things
pertaining to men's physical and social well-being. On the
contrary, these now also rise into the religious sphere ; they
become associated with the work of grace in the experience
of believers, and have a place — though only an inferior
place — among the things which may be called theirs (1 Cor.
iii. 21). This, indeed, is distinctly indicated in what follows.
Ver. 4. Because everything made by God (this is better
than every creature of God, as creature seems to point too
definitely to animated being, while by Kriap-a creation in all
its parts is meant, whatever has received its being from the
Creator, though the apostle's usual term for this is ktio-is,
Rom. i. 25, viii. 39, Col. i. 15) is good. It necessarily is
such as His workmanship, and was so pronounced by God
Himself at the moment of creation. The rejection of any
thing so made and destined for man's use, as in itself evil,
involves a Manichaean element. Therefore the apostle
adds, and nothing to be rejected, being received with thanks
giving — that is, on the supposition of its being so received,
but a supposition, as a matter of course, verified in the case
of all true believers. What was in itself pure, might (as
noted by De Wette) become impure by being received in
an ungodly frame of mind. And the apostle means to say,
that when the frame of mind is one of thankfulness, then in
the manner also of their reception the things are pure and
good. The reason follows in ver. 5 : for it is sanctified through
God's word and prayer — God's word to man warranting him
to use the creation gift, and man's word to God acknow
ledging the gift, and asking His blessing on it. So I under
stand the import of the expression ; and I cannot see the
propriety of identifying (with De Wette, Wiesinger, Ellicott,
Alford) the word of God with the prayer or thanksgiving —
so that this should be no further contemplated than as it
embodies the word of God. There appears no reason why

I TIMOTHY IV. 5. 177
the word of God should be taken in so exclusive a sense.
It is more natural to regard it as the original utterance of
God's mind regarding the productions which are adapted to
man's use and comfort — recognised, indeed, but not neces
sarily embraced in our address to God. The apostle had
plainly, in the preceding verse, referred to the divine testi
mony recorded in tbe history of creation respecting the
goodness of all that God had created and made, coupled
also with the express and authoritative permission granted to
man there, and still more fully at Gen. ix. 3, 4, freely to use
whatever was fit for food in the vegetable and animal king
doms. The word of God in those passages for ever sancti
fied all for man's use ; and if man on his part, taking God's
word for his warrant, gratefully acknowledges God's hand
in the gifts bestowed, and entreats His blessing on them,
the sanctification is complete both ways — objectively by the
word of God, subjectively by prayer ; by the word for all
men (if they will but wisely appropriate it), by prayer for
the believer. On ivrev£is, see at chap. ii. 1.
The manner in which the apostle couples the destination
of created things for man's use with the spirit of believing
prayer and thanksgiving — as if the two must go together to
constitute a proper title or warrant to the good — is certainly
very striking. It is ',' as if those that wanted faith and
saving knowledge " (to use the exposition of Bishop Sander
son) " did but usurp the bread they eat. And indeed it is
certain that the wicked have no right to the creatures of
God in such ample sort as the godly have. A kind of right
they have — and we may not deny it to them — given by
God's unchangeable ordinance at the creation, which being
a branch of that part of God's image in man which was of
natural and not of supernatural grace, might be and was
foully defaced by sin ; but was not, neither could be, wholly
lost. A right, then, they have, but such a right as, reaching
barely to the use, cannot afford unto the user true comfort
M

178 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
or sound peace of conscience in such use of the creatures ;
for though nothing be in and of itself unclean, yet to them
that are unclean every creature is unclean and polluted;
because it is not thus sanctified by the word [and by prayer].
And the very true cause of all this is the impurity of their
hearts by reason of unbelief" {Sermon V. ad Populum).
Ver. 6. By submitting these things to the brethren, thou
shalt be a good servant of Christ fesus, nourishing thyself up
in the words of the faith, and of the good instruction which
thou hast diligently followed. Chrysostom draws attention
to the mildness expressed in the governing word here
(viroBefievos) : " not ordaining, nor commanding, did he say
it, but as one giving counsel let him present these things,"
with the collateral idea, perhaps, of imparting also suitable
advice respecting them. The rendering of the Authorized
Version, " putting them in mind," is not absolutely wrong,
but too readily suggests the notion of a rehearsing or bring
ing back what had already been more or less under the
consideration of the brethren. This is not imphed in the
apostle's expression : it simply denotes a presentation of
the things in question to the minds of the disciples, with
the view of conveying suitable impressions respecting them.
And his doing so would be a proof of Timothy's acquitting
himself as a good servant of Christ — a proof that he was
not unmindful of his proper work, but nourishing himself
up (the present participle denoting continuous action) in
the words of faith ; that is, in the faith considered as em
bodied in the words of Scripture ; and of the good instruc
tion — that, namely, derived from the divinely commissioned
servants of Christ, which he had diligently followed. His
own faithful teaching after the manner enjoined by the
apostle was to be the evidence how far he had profited by
the peculiar advantages he had himself enjoyed. The
" whereunto thou hast attained " of the English version
points more than the original word {irapaKoXovByKas) to the

I TIMOTHY IV. 7. 179
result which should have grown out of the course of instruc
tion pursued by Timothy ; it is the close and persevering
manner in which he had followed that course which alone
is indicated. But such following could not, in his case, be
without its proper fruit.
Ver. 7. But (expressive of a contrast to the things just
mentioned and proper to be done) the prof ane and old wives'
fables avoid — irapatrov, turn aside from, shun. He gives no
further description of them, nor indicates why he reckoned
them profane, and such as were hatched in the brains of
old wives, rather than of some other classes that might be
thought of. But the use of the article seems to imply that
he referred to things familiarly known, or perhaps to things
noticed near the beginning of the epistle (i. 4), under the
name of " fables and endless genealogies." We can scarcely
doubt, indeed, that the fables spoken of were the same in
both passages, especially as in the earlier passage they are
represented as being at the time so much in vogue, that
Timothy required to be on his guard against them. They
were, as formerly noted, chiefly Jewish fables, but not im
probably mixed with certain things also of Gentile origin,
or such as were at least in spirit more allied to heathen
than to properly Jewish teaching. The epithets profane
and anile (old-wifish) designate them as in their character
or tendency ' frivolous, foolish, and even ungodly ; hence
quite undeserving of the time and labour which some appear
to have bestowed upon them.
And rather exercise thyself unto godliness. The Se' may
fitly enough be rendered by and rather, marking at once a
connection and a contrast with the preceding ; so that the
rather should be printed as part of the proper text. The
verb (yvpvafe) pointing to the athletic exercises so common
in ancient times, especially among the Greeks, implies that
the eiaefieia, the work of practical piety or godliness, re
quires, when properly cultivated, the full bent and strenuous

180 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
application . of the mind. It was that Timothy might be
able to give this to what was really worthy of it, and could
not be adequately promoted without it, that the apostle
urged him to discard the senseless and disputatious fables
which were likely to solicit his attention. It is needless to
say that there are many things still, different indeed in form,
but essentially alike in nature and tendency, which are ever
apt to draw off the regard, especially of the youthful pastor,
from what ought to be his main business. The spirit of
Paul himself — the spirit of concentrated, earnest striving in
the work of the Lord — is the right one, and that which
alone can achieve great results : " This one thing I do."
Ver. 8. The reason follows : for bodily exercise is profitable
unto little, but godliness is profitable unto all things. Com-
rnentators have long been, and still are, divided as to what
should be understood by the bodily exercise {awfiariKy
¦pjpjvaaia) : whether of such exercise as pertains to the health
and vigour of the bodily frame, more particularly the gym
nastics ofthe athlete; or ofthe ascetic discipline spoken of
before in connection with the banning of marriage and
abstinence from certain kinds of food — bodily restraints,
but with a view to spiritual results. In this latter sense it
was taken by Ambrose, many Catholic interpreters, also by
Calvin, Grotius, latterly by Wiesinger and Ellicott. Two
considerations especially are urged in support of it (for
example by Ellicott) : first, that the connection seems to
demand that the contrast should lie between external ob
servances and inward holiness ; and second, that ascetic
practices formed a very distinctive feature of that current
Jewish theosophy which is specially alluded to in this part
of the epistle. The considerations, however, are by no
means decisive ; and, indeed, the latter seems rather to
point in the opposite direction : for, just because the ascetic
practices in question had obtained such a place in the
prevalent false religionism of the time, and were threatening

I TIMOTHY IV.'8. l8l
to usurp a yet larger one in the future, we might expect
the apostle to be chary of meting to them even the smallest
commendation. He had already characterized things of
this description as doctrines of demons, propagated by
hypocrisy, and inimical to the true faith of the gospel ; and
could he now consistently turn round, and say that they
Were not altogether worthless — that they did bring a little
profit ? The tendency of his preceding statements was to
separate between ascetic notions of excellence and those
of genuine Christianity — to show that the one is rather the
subtle counterfeit than the proper exhibition and develop
ment of the other. Besides, bodily exercise is not the
natural or fitting expression for such things, at least in the
incipient stage, at which the apostle appears to be contem
plating them. It might suit well enough for the more
advanced stages — pilgrimages, flagellations, laborious vigils,
or the constrained positions of pillar saints ; but not for the
disuse of certain kinds of food, or abstinence from marriage
as a relatively impure condition of life. This is too nega
tive and quiescent a species of asceticism to be. appropriately
designated a corporeal gymnastics. The literal sense of
the expression, therefore, seems plainly entitled to the
preference, which also has the support of the three ancient
Greek expositors, Chrysostom, Theodoret, and Theophy
lact, and among the moderns, besides many others, of Ben
gel, De Wette, Huther, and Alford. The athletic mode of
expression which had just been employed by the apostle to
characterize the earnest application that should be made to
a life of godliness (yvp,va£e), called up to his mind the gym
nastic training which consumed so much time and energy
among the ancient Greeks ; and he takes occasion from the
allusion to commend that higher kind of energetic striving
which became the spiritual athletes of the gospel. The one
had a measure of good attending it ; it was profitable within
a certain limited sphere, since it contributed to the health-

1 82 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
fulness and agility of the bodily frame, and brought its
successful cultivator a present recompense of honour or
reward. But the sincere and strenuous cultivation of vital
godliness rises immensely above this ; it carries in its train
the highest good of which man is capable, and that not
merely for a few fleeting seasons of time, but throughout the
ages of eternity. For such is the explanation the apostle
himself gives in the words that follow of the all things unto
which godliness is profitable.
Having promise of the life that now is, and of that which
is to come. By life is evidently meant one's proper being
and well-being, whatever goes to make up a well-conditioned
and happy state of existence. Life in this higher sense is
inseparably connected with godliness. The possession of
it was originally suspended on the actual and unfailing
exercise of godliness; and now, since the original title to
the possession has been forfeited by sin, the promise of
regaining what has been lost, though it cannot indeed be
meritoriously secured by any amount of personal goodness,
yet neither can it be realized otherwise than in connection
with this ; for only as men become estabhshed in the love
and practice of goodness, do they become qualified for the
possession and enjoyment of life. Interest in Christ goes
first, then likeness to Christ ; and as this grows, their meet
ness also increases for an inheritance in His blessedness
and glory. A stimulating thought surely for the people of
Christ generally, but especially for such as devote them
selves to active work in His spiritual vineyard ! It is work
emphatically which is twice blessed : they reap even while
they are sowing; lay up treasures for themselves while they
are spending for the good of others ; do best for themselves
when they do most for God.
Ver. 9. Faithful is the zvord, and worthy of all acceptation.
This form of expression, peculiar to the Pastoral epistles,
has already occurred in another connection, chap. i. 15.

I TIMOTHY IV. IO. 183
Here it is applied to the promise of life n'ow and hereafter,
as connected with the earnest pursuit of holiness, which the
apostle not only sets forth, but commends as entitled to
implicit confidence, and worthy of cordial acceptance. He
proceeds also to confirm what he thus says of it by a refer
ence to his own aim in the work of the ministry, and that
of his fellow-labourers in the gospel.
Ver. 10. For to this {els rovro, with a view to it, in order
that we may in our own case realize the good contained in
the promise) ive toil {Koiriwp.ev, which is somewhat stronger
than epyd£op.ev, labour) and strive {dywvi^op-eda),1 because we
have hoped upon the living God, who is the Saviour of all
men, especially of those who believe. This statement being
presented as a reason or ground of procedure in .respect to
the promise of life mentioned immediately before, clearly
enough shows in what sense the apostle understood the
life; for, so far from aiming at mere animal existence or
corporeal satisfaction and repose, as if this were the sum-
mum bonum of life, he and his fellow-labourers readily
parted with the things pertaining to that lower sphere,
cheerfully encountered hardships, and persevered in a
great life-conflict, that they might become partakers of life
in that higher and nobler sense which the grace of God in
Christ had rendered it possible for them to attain. They
felt, in short, that their grand interest, alike for time and
eternity, lay in the service and blessing of God ; and with
out disparaging anything naturally pleasant or advantageous
which the course of divine providence might place within
1 This is undoubtedly the best supported reading, being that of
», A, C, F, G, K, while the mitiXfiiuia of the received text is found
in only three uncials at first hand, D, L, P, though it has the support
of the Vulg., Greek, Syr., Cop., Arm., and Ethiop. versions. The
unanimity of the versions is certainly entitled to weight, yet is scarcely
sufficient to counterbalance the evidence of so many of the most im
portant mss. The omission of the first xxi has the support of all the
versions, and that also of K, A, C, D, P.

184 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
their reach, or shunning as unclean what God had given
to be used, they still showed that they were prepared to
undergo any sacrifice of 1 fleshly ease or worldly honour
that might be required by their devotion to the cause of
Christ, assured that thereby they gained more than they
lost — that they advanced their interest in what alone is of
supreme and imperishable moment. The ground of this
assurance is made to rest in God : it was because they had
hoped upon the living God (the eVi, with the dative, in
dicative of the solid basis they had obtained for their
expectations), that they could so confidently reckon on an
endless heritage of peaceful and blessed life, and so will
ingly submit to all privations and toils that might meet
them in the pursuit of it ; for He who is Himself the hving
One, having the very fountain of life in perpetual freshness
and inexhaustible sufficiency, is in this case the surety and
the promiser. Such a hope, therefore, must be one that
shall not make ashamed.
In this direction also points the further description given
of God : who is the Saviour of all men, especially of those who
believe. The term Saviour {awryp) represents Him as the
deliverer and preserver of life ; but in what sense, or to
what effects, must be inferred from the connection. As
the living God, He may be said to be the Saviour of all
men, since by His watchful and beneficent providence they
are constantly delivered from destruction and preserved in
being. Actually He is not more to all men, although more
in manifestations of goodwill and acts tending toward sal
vation, since He sets before men generally, and often even
presses on their acceptance, the benefits of a work of re
conciliation, which, from its essential nature, is perfectly
sufficient to meet the necessities of all, and recover them to
life and blessing. As it is in the character of a Saviour-
God that He does this, there seems no valid reason why
it should not be comprised in the sense we put upon the

I TIMOTHY IV. II. 185
apostle's language. Yet, as the language indicates rather
what God actually is to men, what they actually receive
from Him, than what He reveals Himself as ready and
willing to give them, we are led by the natural and uncon
strained import ofthe words to think mainly ofthe relation in
which God stands to men indiscriminately as the Author and
Preserver of their present life. And from this as the less,
the apostle rises to the greater. From what God is and does
in behalf of such as are dependent on Him for the common
bounties of providence, he proceeds to indicate what God
is and does besides, in respect to those who are related to
Him as His redeemed in Christ — -the Saviour, especially of
those who believe: in them the character of God as Saviour
reaches its proper culmination. Put in the form of an argu
ment, the idea might be thus expressed : If in that character
God does so much for sinful and unbelieving men, how
much may He not be justly expected to do for His own
chosen people, who are partakers of His grace,, and have
trusted in His word ! In their case there is nothing to
hinder the outgoings of His loving-kindness, or to restrain
the riches of His beneficence, but everything rather to
encourage them to expect all from His hand. Expressing
the Father's mind towards them in this respect, our Lord
said, " I have come that they might have life, and that they
might have it more abundantly '' (John x. 10).
Ver. n. From the beginning of this new section to the
end of the chapter, we have a series of practical exhortations
to Timothy respecting his personal bearing and character :
Charge these things, and teach; the things, namely, which had
been mentioned in the immediately preceding verses, and
which concerned the whole church of Christ — involving
serious dangers to be guarded against, and lines of duty
to be resolutely pursued. On Timothy's part, therefore,
there were both charges to be given respecting them, and
principles as to truth and error to be taught.

1 86 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
Ver. 12. Let no one despise thy youth. This is, doubtless,
the proper rendering, although the position of the pronoun
is somewhat peculiar, crov ttjs vedryros Karacppoveiro ; but it
again occurs in ver. 15, where also the governing substan
tive follows. The sense plainly is, " Let no one despise
thee on account of thy youth," as Chrysostom expressly
puts it. The youth of Timothy, as mentioned in the In
troduction, must be understood relatively : though a person
in the full vigour of manhood, he still was young for such
a charge as had been devolved on him — much younger,
in all probability, than some on whom he had to exercise
disciplinary treatment ; and if the apostle himself, who was
not only considerably older than Timothy, but invested also
with higher official dignity, found it difficult at times to
maintain his authority in the face of the aspiring and dis
putatious spirits that sought to have pre-eminence in the
church, we can easily understand how persons of that de
scription would be ready to take advantage of Timothy's
comparative youth. The natural disposition of Timothy, also,
formed rather for helping and obeying than commanding,
could scarcely fail to aggravate the danger ; so that against
this, as a weak point in his position, he was fitly called
by the apostle to guard. Respect for the sacred interests
entrusted to him, required that he should be manly and firm.
But become thou a pattern of the believers in word, in be
haviour, in love,1 in faith, in purity. A sort of counter
active to the danger indicated in the preceding clause ; as
rriuch as to say, If thou wouldst properly retain thy place,
and overcome the disadvantage connected with thy youth,
take heed that thou be such an exemplar of Christian ex
cellence and worth, that all true believers will be disposed
to esteem and love thee. The specific points, though not
mentioned in any logical order, comprise all the leading
1 The h «ni/iMTi after this in the received text is wanting in the best
authorities.

I TIMOTHY IV. 13. 187
characteristics that should distinguish a Christian minister :
in word, — careful of what he might say, whether in the
assemblies of the faithful or in his private intercourse with
individuals, — in behaviour equally careful as to what he
might do in the general course and tenor of his life ; in love,
in faith, — showing that, with the form, he also knew and
exercised the two grand motive powers of a Christian life ;
finally, in purity (dyvet'a), — such in his bearing toward the
female portion of society, as to prevent even the suspicion
from entering that he was otherwise than scrupulously
observant of the rules of chastity. It is of incalculable
importance for the youthful minister that ha establish for
himself a character in these respects ; a palpable failure in
any one of them will be fatal to his success.
Ver. 13. Till I come (the present, epxop,ai, probably to
express the purpose of an early return to Ephesus), give
attention to the reading, the exhortation, the teaching. The
definiteness indicated respecting these things by the use of
the article, seems to point to them as well known : stated
employments connected with ministerial agency. The
reading, therefore, will most naturally be taken for that
kind of reading which formed part of the public service
of the church, — namely, the reading of Scripture, chiefly as
yet, if not entirely, Old Testament Scripture. Chrysostom
appears to have thought of Scripture, and nothing else, as
indicated by the expression (irpdaexe ry dvayvwaei, rfj rwv
deiwv ypatpwv) ; and so, undoubtedly, the expression is used
at Acts xiii. 15, also 2 Cor. iii. 14, with reference to the
regular reading of the Old Testament Scriptures in the
Jewish synagogues. The exhortation and the teaching are
understood by Chrysostom, the former of social or mutual
interchange of sentiments with a view to edification, the
other of public discourse. We should rather, perhaps,
suppose the apostle to be referring throughout td the
service of the sanctuary; so that he shall here be advis-

1 88 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
ing Timothy in regard to the things which belonged to
his ministrations in public, as he had previously counselled
him regarding his more strictly personal character and
deportment. But to try to distinguish exactly between
the exhortation and the teaching is superfluous, except
that, from the import ofthe terms, the one maybe supposed
to have had respect more especially to practice, and the
other to instruction.
Ver. 14. Neglect not the gift (the charism) that is in thee,
which was given thee through (or by means of) prophecy,
with laying on of the hands of the presbytery. There can be
no reasonable doubt that this is the correct rendering, and
that the attempts which have at various times been made
to give another sense to the preposition (Sid) than that of
expressing the medium or instrumental cause, have entirely
failed. Prophecy and imposition of hands by the presbytery
are represented as the concurrent means through which the
gift in question came to Timothy : prophecy the first and
highest — hence having the preposition of the instrument
coupled with it ; imposition of hands by the presbytery the
secondary or subordinate — hence presented as an accom
paniment of the other. But what is to be understood by
the gift itself, which thus came to Timothy's possession ?
The word xctptcrpa, which occurs altogether fourteen times in
the writings of St. Paul, but nowhere else in the New Testa
ment, except in 1 Pet. iv. 10, always means an endowment
or gift of grace, bestowed by the Holy Spirit for some
special ministration or official service. Timothy had in
tender youth been destined to peculiar evangelistic work
under the direction and oversight of St. Paul, and he had
received from above a measure of grace proportioned to
his calling and responsibilities. This qualifying grace had
somehow been indicated through the spirit of prophecy as
a gift destined for him, authoritatively certified to be await
ing him — therefore in a sense conferred through that ; and

I TIMOTHY IV. 14. 189
then, acting on this divine certification or assurance, the
presbytery gave him the imposition of hands, — an act which
always formed " an appropriation of the gift of the Spirit in
prayer through the instrumentality of others for a definite
object" (Wiesinger). The prophecy, therefore, is to be
viewed as the distinct enunciation of God's will in respect
to Timothy's qualifications — his spiritual as well as natural
qualifications for the evangelistic office ; and the formal
designation of him by the presbytery was the church's re
sponse to the declared mind of God, and appropriate action
to carry it into effect. The presbytery is to be taken in the
natural and obvious sense, for the body of presbyters or
elders in the particular place where Timothy was set apart
to the work of the Lord. It means bishops here, says
Chrysostom, since only such could ordain by imposition of
hands : true in one sense, but not certainly in that meant
by Chrysostom ; that is, not as denoting the presence and
co-operation of officers of a higher grade than presbyters.
The language of the apostle, neither here nor elsewhere,
furnishes any warrant for such a supposition. Bengel's
explanation is still more arbitrary ; he would couple irpo-
<pTjT£ias with irpeafivrepiov, and throw the intervening words
into a parenthesis — thus : " which was given thee through
the prophecy of the- presbytery, with the laying on of
hands." And the hands laid on he would understand to
be those of the apostle's, on the supposed ground that
imposition of hands was the act of one person, and that
a person of higher dignity than he on whom the act was
performed. Such, however, was not the case at Antioch,
when Paul and Barnabas were by imposition of hands
designated to special ministerial work (Acts xiii. 1) ; nor
have we any reason to think it was necessarily or even
ordinarily so, except when the gift conferred had respect
to the exhibition of miraculous agency. The conferring of
this gift by imposition of hands belonged exclusively to an

190 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
apostle. But in appointments to ministerial employ it was
otherwise ; and when, in another place (2 Tim. i. 6), the
apostle speaks of this same gift having come to Timothy
through the laying on of his hands, this no way prejudices
the supposition of a more general concurrence in the act.
The part taken by the apostle in the matter could not but
be the most assuring circumstance to Timothy of an ex
ternal kind, and a very special consideration prompting
him to the exercise of the gift ; but it did not preclude the
official action of the presbytery, nor render this unimportant
in its own place.
Ver. 15. Be mindful of these things (jieXera, found only
here and at Acts iv. 25, but signifying to care for, attend to,
or be mindful of) : let them have their proper place in the
regard and application of thy soul. Be in the?n ; have your
very life, as it were, in such things. On which Bengel
remarks : " He who is in them will be less in worldly com
panies, in other kinds of pursuits, in collecting books, shells,
coins, in which many pastors unconsciously spend a great
part of their life." In order that thy progress may be manifest
to all: implying, first, that a perceptible advance in the
things which constitute a faithful and effective ministry is
what may justly be expected even in the most qualified
servant of God ; and then, that the way to effect this is by
a sincere and devoted application to the work itself. Here
also it is the hand of the diligent which maketh rich —
though only, of course, when the hand is the instrument of
an earnest and willing mind.
Ver. 16. Give heed to thyself, and to the teaching : not pre
cisely doctrine, though doubtless including what is under
stood by that, but the whole matter of teaching in relation
to Christianity ; hence, in the first place, making due pre
paration for the work of public discourse, and then, when
actually employed in it, seeing that it be of the right sort,
that it embrace the great principles of truth and duty as

I TIMOTHY V.

I9I

urifolded in the gospel, and press these iri the proper
manner and spirit. Continue in them ; that is, in the various
parts of evangelistic and pastoral duty enjoined in the pre
ceding sentences : let there be, not a fitful, but a steady
and persevering application to them. Then follows the
twofold blessed result : for by so doing thou shalt save both
thyself and them that hear thee. , The direct' object of the
ministry of the gospel is the salvation of those who come
within the circle of its operations ; but along with this the
apostle happily combines another, the saving of one's own
soul. Nothing is so well fitted for bringing us safely to
heaven as engaging in gopd earnest to be instruments in
God's hand of bringing others thither. For, as an old and,
in the best sense, spiritual writer has excellently noted on
the words, " the work of Christianity is woven in with the
right discharge of the office of the ministry. Many ministers
can say, that if they had not been ministers they had in all
appearance lost their souls. The subject of the minister's
work is the same with that of a Christian's ; and above all
men should he be careful of his heart and intentions, that
all be pure and spiritual. No man is under so strict a
necessity of dependence on the influence and assistance, of
the Holy Ghost, both for gifts and grace. And are not all
these great helps to one's own salvation?" (Sermon by
Robert Traill.)

CHAPTER V.

From matters relating to the strictly personal state and
behaviour of Timothy, the apostle now proceeds to give a
series of directions in respect to the proper method of deal
ing with persons differently situated as to age and position
in life. Reprimand not an elderly person, but exhort him as a

192 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
brother. That the term irpeaBvrepw here has respect simply
to 'the relative age, not to the official standing, of individuals,
seems plain from the connection ; younger men being pre
sently mentioned as another class, and afterwards females,
first of a more advanced, and then of a younger period of
life. This view was taken by Chrysostom, and is now
generally followed, although the other was once the more
common, and is that also expressed in the Authorized Ver
sion. A man full of years should not, the apostle says, be
sharply rebuked, or reprimanded ; for such undoubtedly is
the force of the verb (E7ri7rArjcrcra>) : it is originally to strike,
to beat, and when used of words spoken to any one, indi
cates reproof of the severer kind — chiding in a rough or
acrimonious manner. There was a special propriety in the
observance of such a direction by Timothy, being himself
still comparatively young, and having consequently to take
heed lest his bearing toward his seniors should in any way
prejudice his calling (iv. 12). But the exhortation is doubt
less to be applied generally ; it virtually prescribes a rule
of procedure for all Christian pastors. They should, even
when called to administer reproof to aged offenders, bear
in mind that a measure of respect is due to them on account
of their age, and in a tender, subdued tone perform the duty
imposed on them. Nor should something of this spirit be
wanting in respect also to others ; for as the elderly were
to be exhorted as fathers, so, the apostle adds, should the
younger men as brothers, that is, with kindness and affec
tion, though not unmingled, perhaps, at times with severity ;
for while the exhorting, as the nearer verb, must be chiefly
thought of, we are not altogether to lose sight of the repri
manding, which undoubtedly indicates that there might be
room at least for earnest and faithful admonition — exhorting
of such a nature as bespoke cause for censure or regret.
Ver. 2. Elderly women as mothers, the younger as sisters
with all purity, — the same advice tendered in respect

I TIMOTHY V. 3. 193
to the female members of the Christian community as had
just been given regarding the male, with a marked quali
fication as to the moral danger incident to work among this
portion of the flock : in all purity — so as even to avoid the
appearance of anything unbecoming or improper. A most
necessary caution for all times !
Ver. 3. Honour widows that are widows indeed. It is
questioned whether the honouring here enjoined is to be
understood in the general sense of showing deference and
respect to one, or in the more specific sense of ministering
support, relieving and raising one's condition : a very need
less question, as appears to me. The general, and what is
also the usual import ofthe expression, is perfectly sufficient.
The widows who are such in reality, — those, riamely, who
are in a truly widowed and forlorn condition, and have a
state of.mind and behaviour suited to their circumstances,
- — are the proper subjects of respectful and considerate
treatment ; but the particular direction this should take,
the substantial acts in which it should manifest itself, will
naturally be determined by the circumstances in which the
individuals are placed :• if destitute in a pecuniary respect,
then of course chiefly in furnishing them with the means of
material comfort ; but if otherwise, with suitable manifesta
tions of sympathy and regard. Ministrations of the former
kind are afterwards specifically noticed (ver. 8) ; but it by
no means follows from this (as is supposed by De Wette,
Wiesinger, Alford, Ellicott, etc.), that such alone were here
in the eye of the apostle : for neither might these be always
the chief, nor in any case, indeed, could they be the
only marks of honourable treatment which a Christian
community should give to persons in that state of be
reavement. It seems best, therefore, to take the brief
exhortation at the outset as indicating generally the kind
of behaviour that should be exhibited toward them; and
to see in the directions which follow detailed instruct
N

194 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
tions as to the proper mode of applying it to particular
cases. Ver. 4. If, however, any widow has children or grand
children (sKyova, offspring; but remoter than children, reicva
tckvcov, Hesych. — grandchildren, which was once also the
meaning of our nephews), let them first learn to show piety
at home (or toward their own house), and requite their
parents : irpdyovois, forbears, a Scottish term, exactly corre
sponds ; and so formally does progenitors in English, only
this is now commonly used of relatives in the direct line
further off than those meant by the apostle. Is is best,
therefore, to retain parents, but understanding by it grand
parents as well. A widow in the circumstances here sup
posed occupies a position considerably different from the
widow indeed of the preceding verse, having persons resid
ing with her to whom, as her own children, or her children's
children, she is entitled to look for every becoming mark
of honour and affection. It primarily belonged to these
to do what in them lay to relieve the wants and cheer the
loneliness of her widowhood ; and for the most part, if that
were properly done, no special oversight of the matter
would need to be taken by the authorities of the church.
Such appears to be by much the most natural interpretation
of the passage ; so that the children and grandchildren are
regarded as the subjects ofthe learning: "let them learn,"
not the any widow (as most of the ancient, and some also
of the modern commentators take it, considering the tis
Xijpa as equivalent to XVP0-'')- Were this latter construction
adopted, the showing piety and rendering requitals (dp.ot/3ds
diroSiSdvat) would necessarily lose their proper force. Filial
piety and filial requitals are perfectly natural ; for they
correspond to the honour due from children to parents,
are but different modes, of expressing this ; but understood
of parents with reference to the conduct they should ex
hibit toward their children, if they can be made at all to

I TIMOTHY V. 5. 195
bear such a sense, they are certainly not the forms of ex
pression one would have looked for. What chiefly, perhaps,
led to the interpretation in question, is a feeling that if
widows were not the subject of the verb, there would fail
to what goes before the proper' apodosis ; since there it is
what pertains to the widows that is made prominent, while
here it is what pertains to the children. In reality, how
ever, there is no ground for such a feeling ; for the instruc
tion given is not directly addressed to the parties mentioned,
but to Timothy. It is he who is charged to see to it, that
matters were rightly ordered in the households of believing
widows, and especially that the young should be taught to
manifest respect and gratitude toward the mother that bore
them, and watched over their infant years: The expression,
to show piety (evcre/Jeiv) to such, points back to the fifth
commandment, in which the honouring of parents is placed
in immediate connection with the reverence and homage
due to God, and the things which most nearly concern His
glory : that in youthful bosoms is the germ of fealty to God,
and so its becoming exercise is reckoned a department of
piety. To do this first, therefore, toward their own house,
as having a prior claim even in comparison of what is due
to the church or house of God, and to do it in the way of
substantial ministrations of relief, which in such a case are
but returns for similar ministrations formerly received (Matt.
xv. 4-6), is acceptable, before God; He regards it in a manner
as done to Himself, and sees in it the earnest of future
worth. The homes in which such reverential feelings are
cherished, and such acts of lovingkindness are reciprocated,
are the best nurseries of the church — churches themselves,
indeed, in embryo, because the homes of Christian tender
ness, holy affection, self-denying love, and fruitfulness in
well-doing. Ver. 5. Turning, then, from such widows and their
families to those whom he wished more particularly to press

196 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
on the notice of Timothy and the officers of the church, the
apostle .says : But she who is a widow indeed (a widow in
the full and proper sense), and desolate, has set her hope on
God, and abides in supplications and prayers night and day :
she has lost, in a manner, all she had on earth, and now
she seeks all from above. The Anna who is mentioned at
the threshold of gospel history may be taken as one of the
better types of the class, since it is written of her that " she
departed not from the temple, but served God with fastings
and prayers night and day." It is not to be supposed, of
course, that in every case of this description the entire life
was to be devoted to prayer and other religious exercises ;
for this would commonly be impossible, and even where
possible would not be the most profitable course. To pre
serve the healthfulness of its tone, and its capacity for efficient
service, the mind requires variety of employment; and in
all ordinary cases, the discharge of relative duties amid the
affairs and occupations of life not only may, but should, be
ever interchanging with acts of piety. Hence, it will be
observed, the temporal expressions are in the genitive (wktos
Kat Tjpepas), indicative ofthe when rather than the how long ;
not throughout night and day, but by night as well as by day
— a steady and regular habit of devotion. The supplications
and prayers (Seijo-eo-iv, irpoo-evxats) are not to be sharply
distinguished from each other.
Ver. 6. But she that lives deliciously (or wantonly ; airara
Xwaa occurs only again in Jas. v. 5), is dead while she lives :
the reverse of the. true widow, who was represented as com
paratively dead to the 'world, and alive to God, this person
appears to have a relish only for the world and its pleasures,
and to be dead to what is of God. The description sub
stantially coincides with that given of the church of Sardis
in Rev. iii. 1, " Thou hast a name that thou livest, and art
dead." Only here the living has respect not so much to a
profession of godliness as to the world's idea of life — an

I. TIMOTHY V. 7, 8. 197
unreserved surrender to present objects and entertainments.
Such life in the lower sphere involves death in the higher.
And though the apostle does not expressly state it, yet it is
plainly implied in what he says, that widows living after
such a fashion were to be regarded as cut off from the
sympathy and oversight extended to true Christian widows.
Ver. 7. And these things enjoin, in order that they may be
without reproach — namely, the parties referred to in the pre
ceding statements — widows more particularly, but along
with them also the families which belonged to some of
them. They are consequently supposed to be connected
with the Christian community, and to be ready to listen to
sound instruction. In the next verse, however, a class of
characters is noticed that are expressly declared to be un
worthy of the Christian name.
Ver. 8. But if any one provides not for his own (that is,
his near relatives), and especially for those of his own house,
he has denied the faith, and is worse than an unbeliever.
Special respect is probably had in this strong declaration
to a class of relatives previously mentioned — the children
and grandchildren of widows ; but there is no reason for
confining it to such. The declaration itself is quite general,
and comprehends other cases as well. It asserts in the
most emphatic manner the obligations springing out of
family relationships, as grounded in the constitution of
nature, and, so far from being annulled or relaxed by the
gospel, only thereby rendered the more sacred and impera
tively binding. The parent who refuses (if he is able) to
support his children while from youth or infirmity they are
dependent on his care and help, or the children who refuse
to minister to the sustenance and comfort of aged parents,
both alike act an unfeeling and unnatural part : they are
not true to the moral instincts of their own nature, and fall
beneath the standard which has been recognised and acted
on by the better class of heathens. For one, therefore,

198 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
bearing the Christian name to disregard such claims, is
utterly inexcusable ; it is not simply dishonouring to Christ,
it is to bring reproach on our common humanity.
Vers. 9, 10. Very few parts of this epistle have given rise
to greater diversity of opinion than the instruction contained
in these verses ; and from the scantiness of our information
respecting the domestic economy of the churches in the
earliest times, it may*be difficult to present a view of the
passage which shall appear free from all appearance of
strangeness or uncertainty. It is the more important, how
ever, that we adhere strictly to the natural meaning of the
words, and refrain from attempting, as has. too often been
done, to impose on them a sense derived from what be
longed, or is supposed to have belonged, to a much later
period. Let a widow be enrolled — so the verb KaTaAeyeiv
properly signifies : put on the list or register. The question
is, what list? and for what specific purpose were names
inserted in it ? Was the list simply a catalogue of those who
were formally recognised as widows of the church, and, as
such, were held entitled to special oversight and support ?
Or was it as widows qualified and admitted to a kind of
official position and service in the church ?
These questions have been differently answered ; and not
a few, judging chiefly from the specifications afterwards
given by the apostle as to age and character, have supposed
that the list in question was composed of persons desig
nated to a place of honour and responsibility — either that
of deaconesses, or of trusted female ministrants, who were
charged with much the same kind of oversight in respect to
children and the members of their own sex, that was exer
cised by the elders over other portions of the community.
This view has been held in its stronger form by the oppo
nents of the genuineness of the epistle (Schleiermacher, De
Wette, Baur, etc.), who would find here a class of female
ecclesiastics of whom some partial and obscure notices

I TIMOTHY V. 9, IO. 199
occur in the third and fourth centuries,1 but a class (the
writers conceive) of too artificial a nature and too much
associated with ascetic notions of excellence to have had a
place in the apostolic church. There are others who reject
the idea in this form, yet so far adopt it, that they regard
the widows spoken of by the apostle as even in his time
formed into a kind of distinct order, with the view of per
forming certain ministrations for the good of the church ;
so, for example, Mosheim, Wieseler, Conybeare and How
son, Huther, Alford, Ellicott. We may take as a specimen
of this mode of representation the note of Conybeare and
Howson, one of the most temperate of its kind : " We
suppose that the list here mentioned was that of all the
widows who were officially recognised as supported by the
church ; but was not confined to such persons, but included
also richer widows, who were willing to devote themselves
to the offices assigned to the proper widows. ' It has been
argued that we cannot suppose that needy widows who did
not satisfy the conditions of ver. 9 would be excluded from
the benefit of the fund ; nor need we suppose this. But
since all could scarcely be supported, certain conditions
were prescribed which must be satisfied before any one
could be considered as officially entitled to a place on
the list. From the class of widows thus formed the
'Tertullian, de Vel. Virg. c. 9 : " Ad quam sedem [viduarum] prseter
annos LX. non tantum univiraj, i.e. nuptas aliquando, eliguntur, sed
et matres et quidem educatores filiorum." Laodic. Concil. can. xi. :
" Mulieres quae apud Grsecos presby terse appellantur, apud nos autem
viduae seniores, univirae, et matriculariae nominantur, in ecclesia tanquam
ordinatos constitui non debere." Epiphanius, adv. Hcer. L. iii. c. 79,
§ 4 : Huparnpyiriov Vi, an a%pt o'laxovio'o'ajv ra ixxX^ffixtfrixov iftibiriSn
<rayf&x, x^pas ri wvQft.aZ.t, xat vai/ruv ra$ iti ypaoripas vrparfiurioxs, —
spoken, however, simply of deaconesses, some of whom were some
times called widows, whether they really were such or not. Chrysostom,
vol. iii. p. 273, Paris, ed. Gaume, speaks of there being anciently bands
of widows, xnpZt %°p°U as latterly of virgins ; but he says nothing of
consecration to office, or official work in the church.

200 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
subsequent order of widows {rdyp.a XVP^>V) would naturally
result." It is guardedly put, and yet in one leading point it
seems to go beyond what there is any distinct warrant for in
¦ the passage itself; namely, in its speaking of "the offices
assigned to the proper widows." Of such offices the text
makes no .mention ; and the existence of them can only be
regarded as matter of more or less probable presumption
and inference, from the conditions attached to the recep
tion of individuals into the widow list. Yet a conclusion
drawn from such premises must obviously be very uncer
tain, especially if the requisite characteristics be only such as
respectable elderly females in a Christian community might
be expected generally to possess. For, in that case, why
might they not have been prescribed as a necessary safe
guard against the abuse of the church's benefactions? — a
security that those whom it sought to embrace and cherish
as its peculiar charge from the Lord, were really worthy of
the honour? And nothing more than this apparently is
either indicated in the apostle's language, or needed to
explicate its meaning. It is certain, first of all, that here,
and in all he says respecting widows, such as he calls
widows indeed, it is simply what the church is called to do
for them, not anything it might exact of them, that he brings
formally into notice : they are contemplated throughout as
the fitting objects or recipients of a special kind of bene
ficent treatment from the religious community. It is cer
tain, also, that from the commencement of the church, and
pre-eminently in that mother church which in such things
gave the tone and impulse to the other churches, widows
merely as such were brought prominently into view ; and
that not only was adequate provision made for the relief of
their necessities, but a special class of officers also appointed
to see that the provision was properly administered : so far
from being required to do anything like deacon work, they

I TIMOTHY V. 9, IO. 201
were themselves the subjects in whose behalf such work
was called into operation. Further, it is undoubted that
all the earlier commentators understood the apostle's de
scription of widows merely as the almswomen of the church
(Chrysostom, Jerome, Theodoret, OEc, and Theophylact):
the conditions specified for enrolment were viewed by them
' merely as the traits of character which qualified those who
possessed them for being the accredited pensioners of the
church's bounty. And in a matter of this sort, which
touches upon the general sense and usage of the church,
the concurrent testimony of those ancient expositors is
entitled to the greatest weight, and is far more than suffi
cient, to counterbalance some obscure allusions or stray
usages appearing in particular localities. Finally, the age
at which the enrolment of widows was to be made — not
under sixty, a period of life in such a district as Asia
Minor relatively much higher than in our cooler and
healthier climate — confirms the supposition that,- as a
rule, no active labour was expected of them. They were
already of the aged and infirm class; and if they were
expected to serve the interests of the church, it must have
been chiefly by the more contemplative and quiet exercises
of piety — "by supplications and prayers night and day."
These were, no doubt, important services, and are the only
ones in the least hinted at by the apostle ; but they were
such as belonged to the private sphere of the Christian life,
and required no ecclesiastical consecration or official stand
ing to authorize and sanction them.1 In short, from the
whole tenor of the apostle's description, viewed in con-
1 Such, also, was the view taken by Neander : " Since Paul only
distinguished them (i.e. the widows in question) as persons supported
by the church, without mentioning any active service as devolving on
them ; since he represents them as persons who, as suited their age
and condition, were removed from all occupation, with earthly concerns,
and dedicated their few remaining days to devotion and prayer ; and
since, on the contrary, the office of deaconess certainly involved much

202 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
nection with what is known of the circumstances of the
time, there seems no reason for supposing any other class
of persons to have been meant under the designation of
enrolled widows, than those commonly known by the name
of widows ; yet only such of that class as from their ad
vanced age and approved character were deemed worthy
of the church's affectionate care and support. After the
lapse of some centuries, notices occur of a particular dress,
and a separate place in the church, being assigned to such
widows ; but Scripture and the earlier church records know
nothing of this, nor of any specific work of a diaconal or
presbyteral kind, having been by the church generally
required of them. Younger widows, we have good grounds
for believing, were not unfrequently accepted to the office
of deaconess ; but there is no proper evidence whatever
to show that such widows as those here mentioned by the
apostle were invested with any sort of office, or were called
to do anything but such pious and free-will service as their
own hearts might prompt, and their limited opportunities
might enable them to perform.1
In regard now to the particular qualifications indicated
by the apostle for the widows who were to be put on the
list, it is to be borne in mind that, while the persons pos
sessing them were alone to have the full recognition and
enjoyment of what was due to the church's almswomen,
there is nothing in his instructions to warrant the sup
position that widows who in some respects fell short of
them might not be admitted to occasional relief, and receive
all proper ministrations of kindness. Such, for example, as
active employment, we have no ground whatever for finding in this
passage deaconesses, or females out of whose number deaconesses were
chosen." — Planting of Christian Church, B. iii. c. 5.
1 In this I state merely the general result, and consider it unnecessary
to examine the few passages in detail which are relied on by those who
hold another view, but which are far too vague and general for their
purpose.

I TIMOTHY V. 9, IO. 203
were comparatively young — far from having reached the
age of sixty — might for a time require very great sympathy
and liberal support ; but it would have been a misfortune,
rather than a benefit for them, if an apostolic injunction
had been issued, giving them something like an abiding
claim on the church's beneficence, and entitling them
henceforth to rank among its objects of charity. That
would have only served to paralyze personal exertion, and
relax the ties of family relationships. The regular widow
hst — the list of such as were really desolate, infirm, and
helpless — was wisely associated with a comparatively ad
vanced age. — As to the construction, the yeyowTa should
undoubtedly be connected with what precedes : who is, or
has become, not less than sixty years old; comp. Luke ii. 42.
Our translators, after Jerome, Luther, Calvin, etc., joined
it with what follows.
Wife of one man. The proper determination of the term
widow, as here used by the apostle, may be said to carry
along with - it a corresponding explanation also of this
expression — to establish for it a freer, in opposition to the
more stringent, sense sometimes put on it. For nearly
all the arguments and authorities which are adduced in
favour of its being understood of absolute monogamy,
proceed on the supposition that the class of persons referred
to were not simply widows of advanced age, but of eccle
siastical rank, invested with a measure of sacerdotal dignity,
and hence called to a somewhat peculiar sanctity. We have
already seen that this notion rests on no solid ground, that
the persons in question were merely the desolate and help
less widows whom God's providence had thrown on the
bounty of the faithful — the aged almswomen of the church.
And of such persons, surely the whole that could justly be
required, either by the dictates of reason or by the great
principles of Scripture on the subject of marriage, was that
they should be chargeable with no indecency in their married

204 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
life, and never stood related to but one living husband.
This much was necessary to their occupying the position
of exemplary widows ; but one cannot say more, whether
the matter is viewed with respect to the law of God or to
the known usages of society. The correct sense, therefore,
I believe to be that given by Theodoret :1 "It is hence
manifest that he (the apostle) does not reject second
marriages, but ordains that they live chastely in matri
mony; for, having before established the lawfulness of a
second marriage, he did not prohibit her that had entered
into a second marriage from enjoying her bodily nurture —
he, namely, who clearly exhibits what is good for all." And
Chrysostom, though, frorii a misapprehension as to the
position and duties of those designated widows, he sup
posed the expression before us intended to exclude second
marriages of any kind, yet did so only on the ground of
affording leisure for increased spiritual activity:2 "Why, I
ask, does he not permit second marriages to be contracted ?
Is it because he disapproved of the thing ? By no means.
For to do that was the part of heretics ; but that the widow
might be able to devote herself to spiritual things, and be
occupied with virtue : for it is not impurity, but want of
leisure, which marriage brings along with it"
It is needless to go into any detailed proof on the sub
ject; for what is said here in respect to widows is but
another aspect of the same question which has already been
discussed at some length in respect to ministers at chap.
iii. 2, and much of the proof which was advanced there is
1 Koj* hrtvhv SSJXaii, ais ov rv\v ttyafiiav ixf&aXXlt, aXXa ro ffeafpovais •»
yafiw (Ztovv vofiohru. ov yap avu rov ^ivrspov yaf&ov vofzohrriffas ffatftartxris
aoroXauffat Hpairttas IxojXvos rhv oevripots bfjuXrtffacitv ya.fj.ots, is ys ro aya.
Sov vronTv vrpos vravrus ttayaptvu ffatyus.
2 Aix, ri yap, SiVfi ft,ot, isuripois ov% ofitXvffat ya.fi.6is vporplv&t ; "Apa
xariyvat rov rtpaypoaros ; Ovoapus' rovro yotp aipinxvv' aXX' aTntr%oX7Jo'0ai
{iovXoptevos Xoivrov avrhv iv rets vrvtufx.artKo7s, xa) *rpos rtlv apsrnv /itra-
ra\affQat' ov yap axa6apfftas, aXXa tZ<r%oXias o yapcos.

I TIMOTHY V. 9, 10. 205
d fortiori applicable here. A considerable show of proof
for the opposite view can no doubt be produced, and has
been produced, in particular by Vitringa (Synag. Vet. L.
iii. P. i. c. 4), and others who have followed in the same
line. But the passages chiefly relied on are greatly more
numerous than cogent. One large class of them — the
one most directly bearing on the point — originated in the
heretical asceticism of the second century, and owes its
ecclesiastical form and prevalence mainly to the vigorous
Montanism of Tertullian. All passages of that class should
be put entirely aside. Then the rest, being those which
celebrate the superior merit of women who were univira,
and as such were alone deemed fit for performing certain
rites in the Cerealia, — passages chiefly relating to earlier
Roman feeling and usage, — have respect to an essentially
different sphere from that which concerns the constitution
and government ofthe church of Christ. They relate partly
to the conscious worth, sometimes proud self-assertion, of
Roman matrons, grounding itself on the strength and con
stancy of attachment to a loved and honoured spouse, and
partly to the conviction of special honour and felicity be
longing to such as had enjoyed an unbroken conjugal
relationship. As more peculiarly favoured by the gods,
ceremonies performed by these were naturally supposed to
be more acceptably and auspiciously done than by others.
But for the time and region in connection with which the
apostle here wrote, — for the class of persons in respect to
whom he wrote, and the interests he had more immediately
in view, — for all this there is no proof that can justly be
said to bear upon the point at issue ; none, that is, tending
to show that second marriages by women were per se, and
apart from anything illegal and indecent in the mode of
contracting them, deemed sp questionable in their, relation
to female honour and virtue, as to debar the persons who
contracted them from a title, in their old age, to the respect,

206 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
and sympathy, and beneficence of the better portion of
society. In the absence of all proof of this description,
and on the great principle set forth by the apostle himself
here and in other parts of his writings, we hold that the
specification, wife of one man, should be taken as expressive
simply of a chaste and faithful spouse — one true to her
marriage vow while the person to whom it was made lived,
whether that vow might be taken once merely, or again.
The other qualifications are : well reported of in respect to
good works, if she brought up children, if she entertained
strangers, if she washed the feet of saints, if she relieved the
distressed, if she followed after every good work. The things
mentioned call for no particular explanation or defence ;
they are the prominent characteristics of an exemplary
Christian matron, partly under the distinctive forms suited
to those ancient times, but in spirit apphcable to all times.
The verbs are all in the indefinite past — implying if at any
time a widow has so acted — if her past conduct has been
of such a kind ! The bringing up of children must refer to
the members of her own family, and, of course, could only
be intended as a qualification in the cases where such a
family existed — not excluding those who might in all other
respects have maintained the most blameless deportment,
but wanted the opportunity of proving themselves to be
good nurses and trainers of children. Viewed generally,
the things required of those who in old age and dependent
circumstances were to receive the esteem and support of
the church, were such as gave evidence of a faithful, kindly,
maternal disposition amid the ordinary duties of domestic hfe.
Ver. ii. But younger widows decline — namely, to put on
the list of widows entitled to special guardianship and sus
tenance on the part of the church. The reason follows :
for when they shall become wanton 1 against Christ they desire
1 The future, xaratrrpnviarouatv, seems the better reading, being that
of a, C, D, K, L.

I TIMOTHY V. 12. 207
to marry. The compound verb KaTaarpyvida is found only
here, but in Rev. xviii. 9 we have the simple verb arpyvidw,
which occurs also in the later Greek comedy, and in the
sense of wantoning, or living deliciously ; so that Karaarp.
is to wanton against, to surrender oneself to a carnal and
luxurious course of life,. as antagonistic to the claims and
calling of Christ. Though the apostle represents this as a
general thing to be expected in the case of young widows,
if they should be admitted to a place on the regular widow
list, it is clear he can only be understood to mean that it is
what would not be unlikely to happen ; and even a few
cases happening of a palpable drawing back into a vain,
worldly, pleasure-seeking course of life, after being formally
received among the desolate, world-renouncing, heart-stricken
widows of the church, could not but bring great reproach
and scandal upon the religion of the gospel. If any should
actually fall into such a backsliding course, it would be at
least a mitigation of the evil that the church had not for
mally numbered them among its orphaned household. As
to the marrying, however, or desiring to marry again, which
is givpn by the apostle as the evidence of a wanton disposi
tion, it must plainly not be isolated, but viewed in connec
tion with the circumstances. They might have re-married,
as he presently states, without incurring any blame, yea,
with his own approval and advice. But as contemplated
by him, the re-marrying was the fruit of a growing insensi
bility to spiritual things, the result of a light, frivolous,
sensual tone of mind, fretting under the yoke of Christ, and
seeking to break loose from the restraints imposed by it
upon the heart and conduct. So that nothing less than an
utter shipwreck of the spiritual life was supposed to be in
volved in the new and backward direction taken by the
parties in question.
Ver. 12. Hence the severe judgment pronounced on
their case : having condemnation, because they made void their

208 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
first faith — not broke their vow or promise to the church
to remain in perpetual widowhood, and which, if it had
been referred to, could at most have been designated their
former, not their first faith ; but their simple faith in Christ
and consecration to His service when they first assumed
the Christian name, and were admitted by baptism into the
church. Bengel : Prima fides, primi temporis fides, quam
initio- habebant, priusquam viduis adscribebantur. So also
Calvin, who, with reference to the other view, justly remarks,
it affords too tame a sense, and asks, why the apostle should
in that case have said first faith ? He therefore holds that
the charge is of a much heavier kind — namely, " that they
had fallen away from the faith of their baptism, and from
Christianity. For so is it wont to be the case, that they
who once overstep the bounds of modesty prostitute them
selves to all manner of shamelessness." The greater part
of modern commentators follow Tertullian, Chrysostom, and
others of the ancients, whose ascetic tendencies naturally
led them to see here the breach of a promise of widowhood,
coupled with active service to the church. But of such a
promise and of such service nothing whatever (as we have
seen) is said by the apostle, and indeed it belongs to a
much later period. If the placing of the persons in question
on the church's list of widows proceeded on a sort of tacit
understanding or purpose that they would continue in
widowhood, it is the whole that can fairly be supposed.
And to represent a simple departure from such an under
standing or purpose as of itself inferring a renunciation of
their Christian faith, and an incurring of divine condemna
tion, had been a- severity which it seems impossible to
reconcile with the genius of the gospel, or with the liberty
conceded and sanctioned by the apostle himself. It is not,
therefore, we conclude, the simple question of adherence
to a state of widowhood, or of departure from it, but such
a course of defection from the decorum and purity becom-

I TIMOTHY V. 13. 209
ing the gospel of Christ as argued a virtual abandonment
of the faith. 1
Ver. 13. Other proofs are here given of their tendency
in that direction, and such as would naturally grow by the
comparative ease in which they might be enabled to live
in consequence of the pecuniary support ministered to
them by the church. Moreover, they learn also to be idle,
going about from house to house. The connection seems
plainly to require that the expression in the first clause,
dpyai puavddvovaiv, should be taken in the sense here
ascribed to it ; for it immediately follows, and not only to
be idle, but tattlers also, etc., clearly implying that idleness
had been predicated of them in what went before. The
construction is certainly peculiar, but is merely, after all, as
well stated by Winer {Gr. § 45), " an abbreviated mode
of expression, such as we sometimes find elsewhere with an
adjective (Plato, Euthyd. 276, b, oi dp.adeis apa ao<pol p,avddv-
ovaiv, and frequently StSdcnceiv Tivd aocpov), which does not,
like the participle, include the notion of time and mood.
This exposition," he adds, " which is adopted by Beza,
Piscator, and others, and has recently been approved by
Huther, is supported by the fact that dpyai is taken up
again in the following clause as the principal word." He
therefore justly discards the interpretation which had been
given by some previous expositors, coupling the verh pav-
0dVovo-iv with the participle following, irepiepxdp,evoi, and
rendering, they learn to go about idle. But this is not really
the sense that would be gained by so construing the pas
sage, as pjxvddveiv, when followed by a participle having
reference to the subject, signifies, not to learn, but to per
ceive, understand, or remark (see also Jelf, Gr. § 683). The
apostle justly regarded it as a great evil, and the proof of
a frivolous, unsanctified, worldly spirit, that young widows
should fall into idle, gossiping habits, and unwise in the
church to place them in circumstances which would tempt
0

2IO THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
them into such ways. The later expressions in the verse
merely point to the different forms which the evil in the
case supposed naturally assumes : <pXvapoi, loose talkers,
babbling out whatever might come into their minds ; irepi-
cpyoi, busybodies, intermeddling with affairs which did not
properly concern them; AaAovcrat rd p,y Seovra, speaking
things which they ought not, which were not befitting, or,
as it may be explained, carrying about reports and sayings
from one family tor another, and so giving rise to serious
misunderstandings, jealousies, and strife. The plain remedy
for all this, the most effective check against it, would
manifestly be to throw those younger widows as much as
possible on their own resources, and encourage them to
take any fitting opportunity that might present itself of
obtaining a settlement in life, and having households of
their own to occupy them. And this is precisely what the
apostle advises in the next verse.
Ver. 14. I wish, therefore, that the younger [widows] — this
is certainly what must be supplied, widows alone being the
subject of discourse, not generally women — marry, bear'
children, manage the house, give no occasion for reproach to
the adversary. The therefore indicates the connection with
what precedes : Since the case is such, so great a tendency
among the younger widows to turn from the chastened,
spiritual course which becomes them, and betake to the
improprieties just mentioned, I give as my deliberate mind
(for such is the force of f3ovXop.ai) that they should marry,
etc. In their position as widows, especially if widows
alimented by the church, they were exposed to tempta
tions which usually they were unable to resist ; let them
therefore get, if they can, into circumstances which will with
draw them from the temptations, and afford scope for the
exercise of the ordinary domestic virtues. And when it is
said, as a further reason for this, that occasion of reproach
would be cut off from the adversary, by the adversary must

I TIMOTHY V. 15, 16. 211
plainly be understood, not any particular individual either
in this world or the world of spirits (Chrys., also Huther,
the devil), but collectively such as stood arrayed against the
cause of the gospel, and were ready to catch hold of any
thing in the life of Christians which might be turned into
a weapon of assault. The closely parallel passage of Tit.
ii. 8, though differing in the mode of expression, confirms
this view : " that he that is of the contrary part may be
ashamed, having no evil thing to say of you." Here also
the hostile party are personified as one.
Ver. 15. For already some have turned away after Satan;
taking him, as it were, for their leader and guide, though in
what precise way, or to what extent, is not stated. But it
can easily be gathered from the preceding representation.
Some of those who were the subject of discourse — namely,
the younger class of widows whose names were on the list
of the church's almswomen — had already given evidence of
the wanton, idle, and troublesome behaviour complained of,
so that they had become more like Satan's followers than
Christ's. Therefore the apostle would have them regarded
as beacons, warning the church not to continue the over-
indulgent treatment it had begun to exhibit toward such.
This argues nothing as to the time of the composition of the
epistle ; for a very few cases of the kind referred to, and
such as might well enough have occurred within a com
paratively limited period, would have been quite sufficient
to justify the reference, and the advice grounded on it.
Ver. 16. If any woman that believes hath widows, let sup
port be given to them,1 and let not the. church be burdened, that
1 There are two variations here from the received text. The first and
most important is the simple ¦jrtarn (instead of trieris % vitrr4), the read
ing of s,' A, C, F, G, P, also the Vulg. as represented by the Cod.
Amiat. (si qua fidelis), Cop., Arm., and some of the Fathers. The other
reading is found only in D, K, L of the older mss., and was doubtless
introduced as a correction, because it seemed strange that a charge of

212 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
it may relieve those who are widows indeed. A return is here
made to the principle of private beneficence with respect to
young or widowed relatives, and that for the purpose of
extending it somewhat beyond the line indicated in vers.
4 and 8. In these earlier verses the children and widows
spoken of were relatives of the nearer kind ; they belonged
to the believer's household, and had consequently the
strongest claim on the means and resources of the house.
But now a wider circle is embraced. There might be
widows, the apostle suggests, who were not constituent
members of a believer's family, such as a sister, or step
daughter, or niece ; and in cases of that description, the
home resources (if adequate) should, according to the
apostle, be charged with the maintenance of the bereaved,
so as to allow the benefactions of the church to be applied
to the support of those who were widows in the stronger
sense, destitute in themselves, and without the sympathy
of any near Christian relative to fall back upon. The
direction is founded on the great principle everywhere
recognised in the gospel, that the grace of salvation comes,
not to supplant, but to sanctify and elevate, the relations
of nature, and the affections these are fitted to call forth ;
so that its influence should be manifested in honouring to
the full the claims of kindred, and rendering obedience to
them more prompt, and generous, and noble. That only
a believing woman is mentioned as possibly having widows
to whom such private kindness and support should, be ex
tended, is merely to be regarded as defining more closely
the class of cases referred to — cases in which a widow might
be conveniently taken charge of by a Christian female, and
the kind given here should be connected with believing females only,
and not also with men. But the whole section treats of female obliga
tions ; and the oversight of widows in a household properly belonged
to the female head of each. The other change is Wapxti<rSu, instead of
Wapxitru, the reading of K, A, F, G.

I TIMOTHY V. 17. 213
made part of the household. A very limited class, usually ;
and the charge is put somewhat generally : Let support be
given them, without saying how. She must interest herself
in obtaining it
Ver. 17. Let tlie elders who govern (or preside) well, be
counted worthy of double honour, especially those who labour
in word and teaching. That elders alone are mentioned
in connection with the government or presidency of the
churches, is again a clear proof that they were the only
spiritual overseers known to the apostle. But whether the
passage is available to prove that there was in the apostle's
days a formal distinction among those who bore the com
mon name of presbyter — as that some were set apart to the
work of both teaching and ruling, and others to that simply
of ruling — is certainly not expressly said, and has often been
disputed, as well by Presbyterian and Independent writers
as by Roman Catholics and Episcopalians. Vitringa has
discussed the matter at considerable length in his work on
the Synagogue (L. ii. c. 3) ; and though on other grounds
favourable to the existence of a body of ruling elders in
congregations, and deeming them capable of doing much
good service, he yet holds this passage to be incapable of
rendering support to such a view, and especially on three
grounds : — 1. That the term presbyters is everywhere used
by Paul and by the other sacred writers in reference to the
stated, ordinary, and perpetual pastors of the church. 2.
That the qualifying epithet also, irpoearwres, is always
applied to the same class of officers, and to these only.
3. That the Tip.7j required to be given them has respect,
if not exclusively, yet mainly, to the support due to them
on account of their official ministrations, — a support proper
only to those who were known to be engaged in the dis
charge of clerical functions. These are substantially the
grounds on which the same view is maintained still, with
the additional consideration of a historical kind frequently

2 14 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
introduced, that ecclesiastical antiquity is silent respecting
a class of presbyters whose duty was to rule merely, as con
tradistinguished from both ruling and teaching. Here we
have to look at it simply in an exegetical point of view ;
and in this respect, the closing portion of the note of
Ellicott gives, so far, what must be regarded as the fair and
natural import of the apostle's language : " The conclud
ing words, ev X6yw Kal SiSacrKaAia, certainly seem to imply
two kinds of ruling presbyters — those who preached and
taught, and those who did not; and though it has been
plausibly urged that the differentia lies in Koiriwvres, and
that the apostle does not so much distinguish between the
functions as the execution of them (see especially Thorn-
dike, Prim. Gov. ix. 7), it yet seems more natural to suppose
the existence, in the large community at Ephesus, of a
clerical college of governing elders, some of whom might
have the xapio-pa of teaching more eminently than others."
But it must in fairness be added, that this teaching quali
fication ' appears here rather as a separable adjunct than
an essential attribute of the presbyteral function, — a gift
which, in so far as possessed and faithfully exercised, would
materially contribute to the efficiency of the office, and
entitle him who so held it to special honour, yet not so
as to disqualify those who wanted it from discharging, and
even discharging with credit, its primary duties. Seeing
it was a spiritual community which was here under con
sideration, a certain didactic power must be understood
to have belonged to every one who could righdy take part
in the government of its members ; for it belonged to his
office that he should at least be able to discern between
carnal and spiritual in the characters of men, be capable of
testing their knowledge in divine things, and by private
fellowship and friendly admonition, if not otherwise, sub
serve the interests of truth and righteousness among them.
So much must be supposed inseparable from the office of

I TIMOTHY V. 17. 215
presbyter, as held by every qualified person ; but the gift
of teaching in the more distinctive sense, or, in modern
phrase, of preaching the gospel with intelligence to the
edification of others, is not represented as indispensable.
A man might as a presbyter govern, and even govern well,
without it. And, indeed, as Lightfoot remarks {Com. on
Philip, p.- 192), having respect to the actual state of things
in most of the early churches, "government was probably the
first conception of the office," — hence also in this passage
governing is the distinctive epithet coupled with presby
ters; yet he justby adds, "that the work of teaching must
have fallen to the presbyters from the very first, and have
assumed greater prominence as time went on." This was
a species of development which, in the natural course of
things, could not but take place, as the visits became
rarer of the first heralds of the gospel, as the more special
charismata of the Spirit also began to be withdrawn, and
the churches themselves grew in their membership, and
naturally called for greater fulness and variety in public
ministrations of word and ordinance. The teaching
function would naturally, in such circumstances, come
more and more into requisition ; and the presbyters who
more peculiarly possessed it would alsb, as a matter of
course, rise into greater prominence, and in process of
time come to be regarded as alone properly entitled to
the name of presbyter. Yet the process was very slow
and gradual, as in the Ignatian epistles, with all the ex
travagance that otherwise characterizes them, the president
of the presbyterate (bishop, as he is there termed) appears
to have taken upon himself nearly all the more distinctive
parts of public worship ; and so late even as Cyprian's time,
presbyters and presbyter-teachers were still spoken of as
sometimes distinct — indicating, apparently,, that persons
might possess the one function without also possessing the
other (Ep. 23, Oxford Ed. 29).

2l6 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
On the whole, therefore, we seem warranted to draw
from the passage the following conclusions : That while it
furnishes no ¦ ground for maintaining that any formal dis
tinctions were made between one member and another of
the presbyteral body as to ruling and teaching, the function
of government was originally the more prominent element
in their collective calling ; that the discharge of this function,
from its very nature, involved a certain capacity for con
veying spiritual instruction, though it might often be only
in a private and conversational manner; that, however,
the gift of ministering publicly in the exhibition of gospel
truth became gradually more important for the interests
of religion, and necessarily distinguished, according to the
degree in which it was possessed and exercised, one pres
byter from another ; so that the respect and honour due to
all for their office sake, more especially gathered around
those who, besides being faithful in governing, also proved
successful in instructing and edifying the members of the
flock. As to the mode of expression to be given to this higher
estimate of that class of elders, indicated here by double
honour, SutAtjs ti/j-tjs, there can be no doubt, from what
follows in the next verse, that it includes pecuniary remu
neration; but "that ti/xtj here designates only such re
muneration, or precisely a definite salary, is what cannot
be made out, either from the expression or from the con
nection. TipTj is consideration, honour, here certainly
used with a particular respect to remuneration as the
special mode of expressing it" (Huther). Consequently
the epithet double is not to be taken in the strict sense, as
if the presbyters in question were to have awarded to them
exactly twice as much as the others, or, as some would
take it, twice as much as the widows mentioned in ver. 3 ;
for this would imply that the term honour must be limited
to the definite sense oi pay or salary, which it does not

I TIMOTHY V. 1 8. 217
properly bear. Hence, also, the supposed allusion (by
Hammond, for example) to the double portion of the first
born, indicating that " the bishop who dischargeth his duty
or prefecture well, should be looked upon in all respects as
one that hath the primogeniture of maintenance as well
as dignity," falls of itself to the ground. Double is but
a specific mode, common in all languages, of expressing
much or greater in comparison with something else (hence
Theodoret explains by irAeiovos) ; and this emphatic at
tribution of honour, expressing itself in substantial gifts
and marks . of respect, was to be given to those who de
voted themselves most to the ministry of the word, — in
proof, as Milton puts it, that " laborious teaching is the
most honourable prelaty that one minister can have above
another in the gospel."
Ver. 18. For the Scripture saith, — the for implying that
the passage to be quoted supports the sentiment just ex
pressed, — Thou shalt not muzzle an ox while treading out,
namely, the corn ; or, as it might be expressed, Thou shalt
not muzzle an ox when threshing. But the form of expres
sion points to the peculiar mode of threshing in the East,
by driving oxen over heaps of, corn lying on the barn-floor,
and either by their feet, or by means of a hurdle drawn
after them, bruising the mass so as to separate the grain
from the straw and chaff. It was a clumsy and imperfect
style of operation, but the prevalent one in Bible lands
and times. The passage respecting it is taken from Deut.
xxv. 4, and is one of a series of directions enjoining kind
and considerate behaviour. It is the only one that has
immediate respect to the lower animals' ; all the rest bear
on the conduct that should be maintained toward one's
fellow-creatures, and especially toward those who might be
in the unhappy position of bondmen ; so that we can
scarcely suppose this somewhat exceptional instruction
could have been designed for the exclusive benefit of oxen.

2l8 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
We may rather suppose it was intended, by carrying the
injunction to cultivate a tender and beneficent disposition
so low, to make it all the more sure that such a disposition
should be exercised toward brethren of one's own flesh,
most especially toward those who were laying themselves
out in self-denying labours for the public good. It is
therefore a perfectly legitimate application which is made
of the passage here, and in i Cor. ix. 9, to the labourers
in the Christian ministry. Such an application is in entire
accordance with its spirit and aim, and can hardly be
termed, in the ordinary sense of the word, typical. It is
merely to carry the kind and considerate treatment which
it sought to foster and call forth into a related but higher
sphere — to claim for the divinely-commissioned labourers
in God's spiritual harvest something akin to what a provi
sion in the law had required of men toward the inferior
animals that helped them in the harvest-field of nature.
One claim, in a manner, and yet another ; for the higher
species of labourers here, and the unspeakably nobler
service rendered by them, obviously gave an immensely
greater strength to the obligation. If that was fitting, then
how much more this !
The apostle, however, enforces his exhortation by another
saying — one relating to the service of rational creatures :
And the labourer is worthy of his hire. Is this also to be
reckoned a scriptural quotation ? or is it referred to simply
as a maxim of ordinary life ? The former opinion has the
sanction of several commentators, and latterly it has been
advocated by Baur and those of his school as one of then-
arguments for transferring the authorship of the epistie to
a period subsequent to the apostolic age, — a period when
New Testament Scripture had come to be formally quoted,
as previously was done with the writings of the Old Testa
ment. It is a kind of argument in which the wish is fatiier
to the thought. There is no reason for supposing that the

I TIMOTHY V. 1 8. 219
apostle meant his reference to Scripture to extend further
than the peculiar passage selected from Deuteronomy.
What follows is a common proverb, which did not require
to be backed by inspired authority, and which in a similar
way is employed by our Lord in an address to His disciples
(Matt. x. 10; Luke x. 7). It is perfectly possible, and
indeed altogether probable, that St. Paul was cognisant of
the use which had been made of it by our Lord : for both
in his First Epistle to the Corinthians (chap, vii.), and in
his address to the elders of Ephesus, he expressly alludes to
specific utterances of Christ — in the latter case, indeed, to
one that has found no record in any of the Gospels (Acts
xx. 35) ; and it is not to be imagined that the apostle
should have remained ignorant to the close of his life of so
important- a part of our Lord's instructions as the great
missionary address in which this passage occurs. But that
affords no ground for supposing that he, or any other person
in his name, meant the maxim under consideration to be
regarded as a formal quotation from it : the object in view
was best served by adducing a proverbial saying, which the
common sense of rnankind — their sense of what is just
and right — has made current in respect to those who have
laboured for their interest, that the labourer is worthy of
his hire. If so in the commonest relations and employ
ments of life, how should it be otherwise in that special
field of labour which is occupied by the faithful minister,
and which involves much that is peculiarly trying to flesh
and blood ? But this prudential maxim, it should be added,
is introduced, "like the legal prescription before it, merely
for the sake of the general principle embodied in it ; and
to argue from it, as some do, that only pecuniary remunera
tion or salary was all that the apostle had in his eye in the
honour due to teaching presbyters, is to press the matter
too far, and to make a use of the one saying that cannot
properly be made of the other.

220 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
Ver. 19. Against an elder (that is, manifestly, one in the
presbyteral office) receive not an accusation, except it be (Iktos
ei p-tj, a double negative to strengthen the proviso) upon two
or three witnesses, — namely, upon their united testimony
as the ground of formal proceedings. According to the
ancient Jewish law (Deut. xvii. 6, xix. 5), the testimony of
two was required to substantiate a charge against any one,
whatever might be his position in society ; and various
reasons have been suggested why only in the case of a
presbyter adherence to the common rule should have been
pressed. It will certainly not do to say, with Bengel, that
the apostle is here speaking only of receiving an accusation,
not of accrediting the charge ; for he obviously means re
ceiving it in the sense of making account of it. But the
special mission of Timothy must be borne in mind. He
had to make inquiries into matters which must often have
been of a delicate and somewhat indefinite kind. Occa
sionally he might be tempted to go upon information which
was partial and defective ; and he should therefore be the
more careful to insist upon sufficient evidence, especially
when one in the position of an elder was concerned ; other
wise he might entangle the church in worse evils than those
he sought to remedy. But this, of course, implied that in
all ordinary circumstances the same method should be
generally followed; and attention was specially called to
the case of presbyters only because a certain deference was
due to their position, and the consequences would naturally
be of a graver kind should any false step be taken. The
sense of iiri adopted by Winer (§ 48, 8, c), also preferred
by Huther, coram, in the presence of, — as if the meaning
were, that Timothy should only decide on an accusation
against an elder when he had two or three others beside
him, — is grammatically unnecessary (see Ellicott ; also Jelf,
Gr. § 584), and would give an unnatural turn to the in
struction conveyed respecting the cases in question.

I TIMOTHY V. 20. 221
Ver. 20. Those that sin rebuke before all, in order that the
rest also may have fear. The participle being employed to
designate the offending parties,, tovs dp,apTavovTas, implies
more than an occasional act of transgression ; it denotes
persons who are given to sinning, or are known as sinners.
Such Timothy is instructed to rebuke openly, before all (for
there can be no doubt that the evcoiriov irdvrwv is intended
to qualify the rebuking). He was to adopt so severe a
method in order to vindicate the cause of righteousness in
the community, and to strike fear into others, that they
might be deterred from pursuing like devious courses.
Hence the case of such is to be distinguished from that
of those who may have been overtaken in a fault, and who
should, as elsewhere advised, be tenderly dealt with (Gal.
vi. i) ; and in the original instructions given by our Lord
respecting grounds of offence among the members of His
community, it was clearly implied that a quiet settlement of
matters which involved a certain amount of moral blame
may and often should be effected, sometimes without the
intervention of any church action, and sometimes again by
means of it (Matt, xviii. 15). From the very nature of
things, it must always be matter for thoughtful consideration
how rebuke should be administered so as best to secure the
ends of discipline. Not merely the particular kinds of sin
to be dealt with, but the state of society also at the time,
must be carefully taken into account, though still there are
great landmarks to be stedfastly maintained ; and a faithful
church must leave no room to doubt that " she cannot bear
them that are evil." Some would understand the class of
persons described as sinning, and in consequence deserving
of rebuke, only of the elders mentioned in the preceding
verse. But this is arbitrary, as in the words themselves
there is no proper ground for the limitation ; and the one
verse does not appear to be any way dependent on the
other.

222 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
¦"^ Ver. 21. I solemnly charge thee before God and Christ
fesus1 and the elect angels, that thou keep these things with
out prejudging, doing nothing by partiality. The rendering
of 8iap.aprvpop.ai by adjure, as is done by Alford, seems
rather too strong ; judging from the general use of it by
the apostle, a solemn charge or asseveration is what appears
to be meant by it (i Thess. iv. 6 ; 2 Tim. ii. 14, iv. 1). For
the purpose of enforcing upon the attention of Timothy,
and impressing deeply upon his conscience, the directions
which had been given respecting the right ordering of
things in the house of God, the apostle now brings his
disciple face to face, as it were, with the Redeeming God
and Saviour, together with the holy angels in the sanctuary
above, and charges him before these glorious witnesses to
carry out his instructions, and do all in the sincere, earnest,
conscientious manner which became a true servant of
Christ. That the angels meant are holy angels, admits
of no doubt ; but why they should here — here and nowhere
else — be designated elect, is not so easily determined. By
some (for example Mosheim, Conybeare) it has been under
stood to denote angels of a more select class — the guardian
angels of Timothy and the church of Ephesus, or such
angels as were wont to be employed in fulfilling special
embassies to men — an altogether fanciful notion. By much
the greater number of interpreters take the epithet in the
sense oigood or holy, so as to make it comprehensive of all
who are not fallen or apostate angels ; and so, apparendy,
we must hold in substance, though still without losing the
more distinctive import of the term elect, which imphes,
indeed, their holiness, but presents them rather as the
select objects of God's love (Huther), and perhaps also as
His more peculiar instruments of working. As regards the
1 This is undoubtedly the correct reading, being that of s, A, D, F,
Ital., Vulg., Cop., ,/Eth., etc., while the received text, Kvpiov '1*. X.,
has quite inferior support.

I TIMOTHY V. 22. 223
nearer circle of His intelligent and willing agents, they are
His chosen ones ; and as such they are here brought into
consideration, along with God the Father and Jesus Christ,
with the view of stimulating the mind of Timothy to the
conscientious discharge of his duty, and carrying him above
all the sinister motives and inferior considerations which
might tend to create an improper bias in his mind, and
dispose him to act from respect of persons. A realizing
sense of the glorious beings who were looking down upon
him from the world of spirits, would be the most effectual
safeguard against such a weak compliance.
Ver. 22. Lay hands on no one hastily : with what design?
Was it for ordination to ecclesiastical offices? or absolution
from scandalous offences ? The latter view has found not
a few supporters both in former and present times; it is
advocated at great length by Hammond, who adduces
quotations from the Fathers to show how common the
practice was, on receiving offenders back into church com
munion, to grant them absolution by the imposition of the
bishop's hands ; so, too, De Wette, Wiesinger, Ellicott.
But the evidence is of too late a kind : it altogether fails
for the apostolic age, or even the generations immediately
subsequent to it. Nor, when the practice had come in,
were the better patristic commentators influenced by it in
their interpretation of the passage : Chrysostom, Theodoret,
Theophylact, all understand the apostle to refer to im
position of hands as connected with ordinations. Thus,
Theodoret briefly notes, as if there were no proper room
for difference of opinion : " For one ought first to inquire
into the life of hirii on whom hands are to be laid (or who
is ordained), and so to invoke on him the grace of the
Spirit'' Besides, as a man's own writings are our safest
guide to a correct understanding of his expressions, we
have two other passages in these Pastoral epistles which
make mention of the laying on of hands (chap. iv. 14;

224 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
2 Tim. i. 7), and they both refer to the matter of ordination.
In both, indeed, Timothy himself was the subject, having
been by imposition of hands set apart to special service in
the gospel, and entitled to look for corresponding endow
ments of the Spirit to qualify him for it. With these
examples before us, it would obviously be quite arbitrary
here to suppose the apostle starting off to matters of an
entirely different kind, without the slightest intimation that
he was now using the expression in another sense than he
elsewhere employed it. It is true he had just been speak
ing of offences, and of the importance of dealing with them
in an impartial and faithful manner. But it was in perfect
keeping with this, that an exhortation should be given
Timothy to beware of making rash appointments to the
ministerial office — to take pains beforehand to ascertain
the godly life of the persons who should receive the ap
pointment, lest he should be found stamping with his
formal approval, and raising to the government of the
church, men who were themselves, perhaps, of doubtful
character, or amenable to discipline. Hence it is added :
neither participate in other men's sins. He would virtually
have done so, if he was remiss in his appointments to the
higher offices in the church, and did not carefully dis
tinguish between the worthy and the unworthy. And
further : keep thyself pure. The emphasis is on thyself,
which is hence placed first in the original. Not only
beware, by hasty ordinations or otherwise, of coming into
improper alliance with the sins of others, but see that thine
own conduct is free from any marked blemishes, and that
no one may have occasion to take up against thee the
taunt, " Physician, heal thyself." The epithet pure (dyvds),
therefore, should be taken in its general sense of blameless,
or holy (2 Cor. vii. 1 1 ; Phil. iv. 8 ; 1 John iii. 3), not in
the specific sense of chaste, to which there is nothing in
the context to limit it. At the same time, there can be

I TIMOTHY V. 23. 225
no doubt that impurity of this description, or even any
approach to it, would of all things be the most fatal to
Timothy's character and usefulness.
Ver. 23. No longer drink water — that is, water ex
clusively — but use a little wine for thy stomach's sake, and
thy frequent ailments. The direction here given is in itself
plain enough. For some reason not specified, but pro
bably from a desire to testify against prevailing excess by
the strictest example of moderation, Timothy had become
what is now called a total abstainer : he drunk only water ;
and the apostle counsels him to relax to some extent in this
practice ; and instead of restricting himself to water as a
beverage, to use a little wine, on the special ground that
this might be (medicinally) beneficial to his stomach, and
a corrective to his frequent ailments. This has appeared
to many too low a ground, considered by itself, for a
direction carrying with it apostolic authority, and occurring
in the midst of others bearing on pastoral duty. It has
consequently been regarded by some, and still is by Elli
cott, as having a moral rather than a dietary aim — as a
kind of qualification or counterpoise to the charge imme
diately preceding : Keep thyself pure, but do not therefore
deem it necessary to refrain from using a little wine, as thy
health may occasionally require, or think of going into
ascetic rigour regarding it. Undoubtedly the passage quite
naturally admits Of being applied against abstinence from
wine on ascetic principles, since it shows that the materials
of food and drink are to be primarily considered with
reference to the sustenance and health of the body, and
that there is no merit in abstinence from their moderate
use per se: in so far as they may be temporarily or habitu
ally disallowed by any one, it should be only on grounds
of fitness and expediency, whether derived from the physical
or the moral aspect of things. But that is all. To say that
the direction was occasioned by the actual appearance of
p ¦

226 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
the ascetic tendency in the church, and with the design of
checking its progress, is a quite gratuitous assertion, and
has the natural cast and impress of the direction against it ;
although, when that tendency did discover itself, and even
led some to object to the use of wine in the Lord's Supper,
this passage was most justly appealed to as a proof to the
contrary. But when we find the apostle himself assigning
a reason for the particular advice he tendered to Timothy,
why should any other be sought for ? Was it unbefitting
one ambassador of Christ to charge another, amid the toils
and troubles of his work, to pay some regard to his bodily
health, and to take such food and nourishment as was
deemed best for the purpose? No one surely will be
disposed to allege that — especially since our Lord Him
self did not think it beneath Him, in one of His last
discourses with His disciples, to give them instructions of
a quite cognate nature : He charged them, with a view to
their bodily protection and support, to take with them
scrip as well as purse, and a sword and garments (Luke
xxii. 36) ; in other words, to neglect no proper precautions
for their outward safety and well-being. This instruction
to Timothy bears the same general character. He had a
great, and in many respects irksome, work to do, with the
disadvantage of a delicate and often ailing frame ; and if
care were not taken to place it under proper dietary treat
ment, he would inevitably become more or less incapacitated
for duty : there might especially ensue that sort of nervous
debility and depression, which more almost than anything
besides, unhinges the firm resolve of the soul, and disposes
it to shrink from the less pleasing parts of pastoral duty.
The principle involved,, then, in this prudential advice to
Timothy, is in its most natural and obvious sense capable
ofthe fullest vindication ; it is, indeed, of practical moment
for all times ; the laborious pastor or evangelist, if he is
wise, will never neglect it : for his work's sake, as well as

I TIMOTHY V. 23. 227
for his personal comfort and advantage, he will endeavour
to keep his bodily frame in a sound and healthful con
dition. And as regards the specific means recommended
for this end, the taking of a little wine, the apostle is to be
contemplated merely in the light of a friend, exhorting to
the use of what was then understood to belong to the
proper regimen for such infirmities as Timothy was labour
ing under. Granting even that wine might not, in the
present advanced state of medical science, be found the
best specific for his peculiar ailments, that would argue
nothing against the propriety of the prescription as coming
from the pen of an apostle. He necessarily wrote from the
point of view common to him and his contemporaries,
having regard to what was then believed to be best ; and
possibly, if we knew more fully the circumstances of the
case, it might even still be deemed such : no one, at least,
can certainly affirm it to have been otherwise. On every
account, therefore, we ought to take the advice tendered
by the apostle in its simplest and most obvious import. So
considered, it has its value (as already stated in the Intro
duction) in an apologetic respect, incidentally witnessing
to the apostolic authorship of the epistle ; its value, also, as
an indication of the regard that should be had, even by the
most distinguished of God's servants, to the proper regimen
and health of the body ; and finally, its value as a testi
mony to the lawfulness of such kinds of food as are adapted
to the weal of the body, subject only to considerations of
propriety, as contradistinguished from the restrictive pro
hibitions of a false asceticism.
But if, in dealing with a matter of this kind, we may in
one respect take into consideration the change of times, so
should we also in another. " How few are there now-a-
days," Calvin justly asks, " for whom it might be necessary
to interdict water ! how many who have to be urged to the
restricted use of wine ! Moreover, we see here how need-

228 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
ful it is for us, even when we desire to act rightly, to seek
from the Lord a spirit of prudence, that we may keep the
moderation which He would have' us to observe ! A
general rule is laid down, that we should maintain such
temperance in meat and drink as may be conducive to our
personal health, not for the purpose of prolonging life, but
that so long as we continue in life we may be serviceable
to God and our neighbours." He then refers to the Car
thusians, who carry their asceticism so far, that they would
rather die than taste a bit of flesh ; and adds : " But if the
temperate and abstemious are enjoined not to injure their
health by too great reserve, no slight punishment awaits
the intemperate, who by surfeiting and drunkenness impair
their energy. Such persons are not to be admonished, but
rather, as brute animals, to be driven from their pabulum."
Ver. 24. The sins of some men are manifest — 7rpd8rjAoi, the
irpo having respect to place rather than to time, manifest
before or in the sight of men — going before to judgment;
with some, again, they follow after. The connection of this
passage with the preceding cannot be regarded as very
close. That it has respect to persons seeking ordination
seems to me improbable. It may most fitly be viewed as
a supplementary remark that on reflection presented itself
to the apostle in respect to the sins of men, which had
been the subject of discourse a little previously. Thoughts
more directly personal to Timothy, yet growing out of that
subject, had meanwhile been introduced by the apostie ;
and now he reverts to the subject itself, for the purpose of
drawing a distinction between one class of sins and another.
Some are so notorious, whether from their own nature or
from the manner of their committal, that no doubt or un
certainty can prevail respecting them : they are unmistake
able violations of the law of God, and, as jt were, herald
the doers of them to judgment, crying (like the blood of
Abel) for vengeance. By judgment, therefore, I would

I TIMOTHY V. 25. 229
understand chiefly God's, though not excluding man's. It
is not said how Timothy should deal with persons guilty
of such offences; but the conclusion was obvious. What
so manifestly defied the authority and provoked the con
demnation of Heaven, must meet with an uncompromising
opposition on the part of Christian pastors, and call forth
merited rebuke. But besides these, there are sins of a less
heinous and more covert kind, which seem rather to follow
after than to go before the person who commits them, yet
so follow as inevitably some time to let the mournful secret
out. But as this may not be immediately, all needful pre
cautions should be taken that the real state of things should
be ascertained.
Ver. 25. In like manner also, the works that are good are
manifest, and those that are otherwise cannot be hid. The Ta
before KaAd is evidently designed to give prominence to the
quality of the actions as good ; and this is best brought but
in the English idiom by rendering, not the good works, but
the works that are good. It is a general proposition, .and is
not to be limited to the some men immediately preceding,
whose bad deeds done in secret ultimately come to light.
Deeds fully deserving the name of good have a kind of
self-evidencing character ; they speak in a manner for them
selves ; and those which are of a different description, even
though for a time, or under certain aspects, they may
appear otherwise, will by and by be discovered in their
true character. They cannot be hid — that is, when the
searching light of God's judgment is let in upon them ;
but the saying is strictly applicable only to that, and so
confirms the view taken of the judgment in the preceding
verse. But Christian men, of course, and especially Christian
rulers, should, as far as they are called to act in such
matters, be at pains to have the truth brought to light.

230 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.

CHAPTER VI.
Ver. 1. Whoever are under the yoke as bond-servants, let
them reckon their own masters worthy of all honour. The
rendering in the Authorized Version, " as many servants as
are under the yoke," gives not an incorrect impression of
the meaning to an English reader ; but it does so merely
from the ambiguity of the term servants, which may or may
not mean bondmen: But in the Greek SovAot there is no
such ambiguity ; its proper meaning was slave (having its
root in Seio, I bind — hence bondman), and, as ordinarily
used, the SovAoi were those under yoke.1 The general
description properly goes first — as many as, or whosoever
1 It must be noted, however, that while the meaning here and in
many other passages is plain enough, the usage of the New Testament
in regard to "iovXos is of some latitude. The usage, indeed, is derived
from the Sept., in which the Hebrew "jay is sometimes rendered by
iovXos, even in the case of persons whose service was entirely free (as
David's towards Saul, I Sam. xix. 4, xxvi. 18, xxix. 3, etc.). It is,
moreover, applied there to the relation and service" of God's more
peculiar instruments of working, very often by David to himself with
reference to God, to whom he felt bound to render the fiillest obedience
(2 Sam. vii. 21 ; Ps. xix. II, xxvii. 9, and often elsewhere). This natu
rally led to a more extended and honourable use of the word by the
New Testament writers than is found with classical. It is applied there
to true Christians generally (Rom. vi. 16 ; 1 Pet. ii. 16 ; Rev. ii. 20,
vii. 3, etc. ) ; to apostles, prophets, and ministers of the New Testament
church (Matt. xx. 27, xxiv. 45 ; Luke ii. 29 ; Acts iv. 29 ; Gal. i. 10 ;
2 Tim. ii. 24, etc.) ; to Moses, the highest authority in the old dispen
sation (Rev. xv. 3) ; and even to Christ, the highest in the new (Phil.
ii. 7). In all such cases, the rendering slave, or bondman, would convey
an entirely false impression ; for while there is implied in the relation a
binding or constraining element, it is that of willing, devoted love — not
of legal or outward compulsion. In some cases, also, when the relation
is simply human, the term "SovXos denotes plainly the higher class of
dependants — stewards or overseers (as in Matt, xviii. 23 sq., xxi. 34,
xxv. 14 sq. ), not bondmen of any sort.

I TIMOTHY VI. 2. 231
are under the yoke ; and then S0BA01 specifies the particular
kind of yoke — under the yoke as bondmen. The tendency
and purport of the exhortation manifestly is, to caution this
part of the Christian community to beware of abusing their
liberty in the gospel, of imagining that their spiritual calling
and privileges entitled them to spurn the outward restraints
under which they lay, and disregard the duties of their
station. They were rather, on this very account, to behave
toward their masters with becoming regard and submission,
lest otherwise, as Chrysostom puts it, " if the master should
see them carrying themselves loftily because of their faith,
he should blaspheme, as if the doctrine were the ground
of their insubordination ; whereas, if he should see them
obedient, he may the more readily believe, and attend to the
things that are spoken." Hence the special reason given
by the apostle for the dutiful behaviour of the Christian
bondmen is, that the name of God and His doctrine (or the
teaching, namely, of the gospel) may not be blasphemed.
Ver. 2. But supposing the masters themselves had em
braced the gospel, and master and slave stood on the
common footing of brethren in Christ, were those under
the yoke still to be held bound to esteem and honour the
masters who so held them ? Should not the old relations
in such a case rather give way? Practically, no doubt,
they would in a great measure do so. But formally it was
not the slave's part to demand this, or to act as if, by reason
of his church-fellowship with his master, he could claim civil
freedom as his right ; for this had been to turn the gospel
into a political charter, and give rise to the greatest con
fusion. The change in that direction must be wrought for
the slave, not asserted by him, and could only be brought
about by the gradual diffusion of right views respecting
men's relation to God, and, growing out of this, their
relation one to another. Meanwhile, the most effectual
way to secure a partial amelioration, and ultimately a

232 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
general abolition, of the evil, was by the Christian slaves
themselves bearing their burden and doing their part with
Christian meekness and generosity, as the apostle here
exhorts : But such as have believing masters, let them not
despise them, because they are brethren — as if the spiritual
equality had effaced the civil distinction/ but the rather serve
them, because they who receive the benefit are faithful and
beloved. Some (for example, Wetstein) would understand
these latter epithets of the slaves, which grammatically
might be considered tenable ; but the connection is against
it, as the object of the apostle manifestly is to present
motives which should induce Christian slaves to continue
stedfastly in a course of well-doing ; and here, in particular,
from the position and character of the masters. They were
faithful and beloved; and whatever benefit might accrue
from the conscientious and diligent labour of the bondmen,
these had the satisfaction of knowing it was reaped by
persons who were worthy to receive it. The verb dvri-
Xap,fidvw, elsewhere used in the sense of laying hold of,
with a view to helping or aiding (Luke i. 54 ; Acts xx. 35),
must here mean to lay hold of in the sense of sharing in,
or obtaining the participation of the accruing good, — a sense
of the word not unknown in other writers. These things
teach and exhort — those, namely, which had respect to the
behaviour of bondmen.1
Ver. 3. If any one teacheth other doctrine, and does not
assent to sound words, those [namely] of our Lord fesus
Christ, and the instruction that is according to godliness.
This description of the false teacher incidentally arose out
of the charge in the immediately preceding clause, to teach
and exhort after the manner enjoined by the apostie. The
wordeTepoSiSao-KoAeTv has already occurred — chap. i. 3 ; and
both there and here means to teach otherwise, or differ-
, 1 For further remarks on the New Testament treatment of slavery,
see Appendix C.

I TIMOTHY VI. 4, 5. 233
ently, that is, as compared with a proper kind of teaching,
expressed or understood. This latter sort of teaching has
here again, as at chap. i. 10, the epithet sound or wholesome
attached to it, and is explicitly connected with the prophetic
agency of Christ — the sound words of our Lord fesus Christ ;
not necessarily meaning those which were directly spoken
by Him, but such as bear upon them the stamp of His
authority ; along with His own, therefore, those also of His
divinely commissioned apostles and evangelists. The teach
ing which emanated from this source was emphatically of a
healthful character, being at once clear in its enunciations
and practical in its aim, disposing the soul to grapple with
the great interests of its being, and creating in it a distaste
for idle speculations and questions that cannot profit.
Hence it is said of such Christian teaching, that it is
according to godliness; that is, in accordance with the
nature and interests of godliness. Hence, also, it augured
ill for any persons wishing to be regarded as teachers in
the church, that they should refuse to come into proper ¦
accord with it. Upoaepxeadai is the word employed ; L it
means primarily, to come near to, to approach, then to
coincide with, to assent to; thus used also by Philo, de
Gigant., p-ijSevi irpoaepxeaBai yvwfiy twv elpyfievwv ; Migr.
Abr., irpoaeXBovres apery.
Vers. 4, 5. Here follows the result, in a didactic point of
view, of the person who so turns aside from the right course
of instruction : he is carried with conceit (or besotted with
pride ; see at chap. iii. 6), knowing nothing (that is, having
no right sense or apprehension of anything), doting (yoawv,
as in a distempered and sickly condition, the opposite of a
1 Tisch., in his eighth edition, follows the single authority of the
Sinaitic in adopting here the easier reading *poo-ix,irai, instead of
wporipxirat, which has the support of A, D, F, G, K, L, P, the Goth.,
Syr., Sah., Cop., Ethiop. versions. The received text seems clearly
entitled to the preference.

234 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
state adapted to receive the wholesome food of the gospel)
about questions and word-fightings : things of little or no mo
ment in themselves, but hurtful from the pugnacious spirit
which they served to engender and exercise. For thence,
as the apostle states, come envy, strife, blasphemies, evil sur-
misings, settled feuds : Siairaparpifiai, the correct reading,1 in
which the Sid, as usual, intensifies the meaning of the com
pound term, giving it the sense of continued enmities, or
conflicts of a more lasting kind (Winer, Gr. § 16, b ; Elli
cott). And these settled feuds are further characterized as
pertaining to men corrupted in their mind {rbv vovv used, as
often in New Testament Scripture, of the whole inner man,
with respect to moral as well as intellectual qualities), and
destitute of the truth, who suppose that godliness is gain; not
as our translators have put it, "that gain is godliness,"
which the position of the article before evcre/j'eiav alone
renders grammatically untenable, and also against the
general feelings of mankind; for no one scarcely would
think of identifying gain absolutely with godliness. But there
have never been wanting those who suppose godliness to
be gain, consider it as a lucrative concern, and profess it
only in so far as they find it serviceable to their worldly
interests. We have the same sentiment expressed, and
with reference to the same class of corrupt teachers, in
Tit. i. n, where they are said to "teach things which they
ought not, for the sake of base gain." How the selfish
end aimed at by such was actually accomplished, we are
not distinctly informed. We may certainly infer it to have
been carried on altogether apart from the constituted order
and worship of the church — by privately humouring the
capricious tastes and unregulated fancies of certain indi
viduals of a semi-religious, speculative cast. Setting them
selves forth as men of profound lore, teachers of curious
1 It is that of jj, A, D, F, L; the ¦rapaSiarpifiai of tlie received text
has no uncial support whatever.

I TIMOTHY VI. 6. 235
and far-fetched knowledge about sacred things, they drove
a trade which found dupes enough to make it by no means
unremun era ting. It is well known that, both before and
subsequent to the gospel era, many of the more depraved
and covetous Jews resorted to even baser methods than
these, cunningly working upon the fears of the superstitious
by plying the arts of magic and soothsaying, in the face of
the most express prohibitions and threatenings of the law
of Moses. One need not, therefore, be surprised to learn
that others with somewhat less, at least, of open disregard
of the authorities they professed to reverence, yet with the
same low desire for worldly gain, should have sought to
gratify the religious idlers and speculatists of the time by
pretended disclosures of the unseen world, and dogmatical
assertions on matters that were at best learned frivolities.
They might not inaptly be designated the spiritualists and
rappists of early times, and, in some cases perhaps stood
in a similar relation to the Christian church that persons of
that description do now. They were real, though not
always the professed, antagonists of its sound doctrine and
holy aims.1
Ver. 6. But godliness with contentment is great gain : the
true, in contrast to the fancied or false. It is the mark of
a base disposition to cultivate godliness for the sake merely
of the temporal gain it may yield ; but there is, at the same
time, a real and most important temporal gain connected
with it (for it is plainly of gain in this sense alone that the
apostle here speaks), orily it must be godliness of the right
stamp : hence godliness with contentment ; that is, godli
ness cultivated for its own sake, not as a stepping-stone to
wealth or worldly consideration, and so bringing its own
dowry of good along with it, making the soul " satisfied from
'l The addition in the received text, dpitrraro avo rZv rotovruv, from
such withdraw thyself, is wanting in the best authorities, s, A, D, F,
and most of the versions ; only two uncials have it, K, L.

236 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
itself." A thought not materially different is expressed by
the apostle in Gal. vi. 4 : " Let every man prove his own
work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone."
For to prove one's own work is but a fuller mode of express
ing what is meant by true godliness; and the rejoicing
that follows — rejoicing in oneself alone — is nothing else
than the sweet content and peace of soul which comes
from the possession of a conscience purged from dead
works, and enabled to relish the communion and service
of God.
Ver. 7. A reason is here given for the preceding state
ment, that the real good for man lies in what he is as a
rational and moral being, not in the outward means and
possessions he may gather into his lot : for we brought no
thing into the world, because neither are we able to take any
thing out of it. Such seems_ to be the correct reading. The
received text has SijAov before on with mss. K, L ; but the
best authorities, a, A, F, G, want it, and it was in all pro
bability inserted to soften the apparent hardness or difficulty
of the connection between the two clauses, and render the
import more perspicuous. Taking the passage as it stands
in the best supported form, the apostle not merely says that
we both enter and leave the world in a state of destitution
as to worldly goods, but that the one is ordered with a
certain respect to the other : we brought nothing with us
of earthly treasure when we were ushered into life here,
because neither could we take aught with us when we leave
it ; thus having a lesson embodied in our very birth, in
order that we might keep in view the solemn exemplifica
tion it was to find at the hour of death. If we do so, we
shall live in the habitual recollection that all we can ac
cumulate of the things of earth during our sojourn in it,
is adventitious merely — of the nature of a temporary ap
pendage — and not, therefore, for a moment to be compared
with the state of the soul itself in reference to God and

I TIMOTHY VI. 8, 9. 237
righteousness. Here, and here alone, lie the essential
elements of our well-being.
Ver. 8. But (Se, contrasting the avaricious desires of
some with what we actually need) if we have food and rai
ment, with these we shall be satisfied, or have sufficient ;
dpKeaByaop.eBa, fut. pass., we shall be sufficed, have all that
we really need. Many, after Luther, among others our
translators, have taken it in an imperative sense, which the
future sometimes undoubtedly bears (Winer Gr. § 43. 5).
But here it is best to retain the original form, as the apostle
is indicating what, on the condition supposed, should be
regarded as a fact. The two words employed in the con
ditional clause — SiaTpo<pds and aKeirdafiara — occur only here
in the New Testament ; and though the latter has some
times been taken in the more general sense of covering, so
as to include our dwellings as well as our clothes, yet the
other is the more natural, as the apostle is speaking simply
of what is proper to the individual man — to his proper life
and being. In this sense it is taken by the ancient ex
positors, and is found also in Josephus ( Wars, ii. 8. 5) and
other writers (see in Robinson's Lex.). If one, therefore,
has these two essentials for the bodily life, more may be
dispensed with ; nature has the little it can do with ; what
ever besides is given may be thankfully received and found
available to usefulness and comfort — only, not necessary.
Ver. 9. But they who aim at being rich (the opposite class
of characters to the preceding, having their hearts set upon
the superfluities of life, large possessions), such persons get
into a perilous, and what usually becomes a downward and
ruinous course : first, they fall into temptation — that is, are
in danger of betaking to means of compassing their end
which are not consistent with integrity of character ; not
only into temptation, but also a snare — their haste to be
rich involving them in entanglements through which they
find it impossible to work their way with a good conscience ;

238 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
then, as riches increase, the carnal desires and appetites to
which these minister grow, they fall into many foolish and
hurtful lusts, indulge in pleasures and gratifications which
are in themselves unreasonable, and in their effects deterio
rate the moral well-being of the soul. And. these, again,
have their downward and deepening tendency — they are
such as (ainves) sink men into destruction and perdition.
Truly a tristis gradatio, as Bengel remarks ; and one that in
all ages, and within the pale also of the professing church,
has ever-recurring exemplifications. We see it constantly
proceeding before our eyes ; nor can anything effectually
arrest it but that grace of God which brings salvation, and
carries the affections of the soul upwards to the things
which are not seen and eternal.
Ver. 10. For a root of all evils is the love of money — or
simply, root of all evils. Putting it in the latter way, the
exact counterpart of the original, which also gives promi
nence to the term root, as the apostle undoubtedly meant,
we might evade the question whether, if an article were
employed, it should be the definite or the indefinite. It is
certainly more in accordance with English idiom in such a
passage to use an article ; and if one is used, then I think,
with Middleton, Huther, Conybeare, and Ellicott, against
Alford, that the indefinite is the fittest — a root of all evils is,
etc., or the love of money is a root of all evils. No doubt
the definite article might also be employed, as Alford con
tends, for the purpose simply of emphasizing root, desig
nating avarice as such a vicious passion, that if it stood
alone, all manner of evils might spring out of it. But, on
the other hand, the expression so put is ambiguous ; for it
may also mean that it is the one thing which is so prolific
of evil — there is no other of which the same could be pre
dicated : and that is not the case ; for it might be said of
ambition, and some other passions as well. The question
is not, therefore, as Alford seems to consider, whether one

I TIMOTHY VI. II. 239
might not. here, as in other cases, use the definite article in
English, where there is none in the Greek, in order to bring
out the proper emphasis : one may well enough do so, as
in the passage referred to by him (1 Cor. xi. 3), where, as
there is but properly one thing of the kind to be thought
of, it can occasion no ambiguity. But where the reverse is
the case, as in the present' instance, it is better to avoid it
by employing the indefinite article, even though it should
be with a partial sacrifice of the emphasis. The sentiment
is, that there is no kind of evil to which the love of money
may not lead men, when it once fairly takes hold of them.
And the apostle further characterizes the affection by saying,
which some, reaching after, have wandered away from the
faith, and pierced themselves through with many pangs. There
is a certain looseness in the structure of the passage, since
avarice, or the love of money (cpiXapyvpia), being itself an
affection of the mind, a lust, one cannot strictly be said to
reach or long after it. The passion is obviously identified
by the apostle with its object — money as a thing loved and
sought after; and some, he says, reaching forth in their
desires after this, made a twofold shipwreck : first, of their
Christian principles, departing from the faith ; and second,
of their happiness, piercing themselves through (irepieireipav,
transfixed) with many pangs. What precisely these were
we are left to infer ; but' the expression seems to point to
inward rather than to outward troubles — to sorrows of heart,
the pungent rebukes of conscience, which came upon the
individuals referred to when they saw, and had time to
reflect on, the shameful course they had pursued.
Ver. n. But thou, O man of God, flee these things;
different in character and aims, let your course be also
different. The designation man of God was in ancient
times in frequent use for prophet, because standing in a
peculiarly close relation to God, acting as His represen
tative and spokesman to the people ; and it is but natural

240 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
to suppose that, with some reference to that ancient usage,
the designation is here applied to Timothy, — reminding him
by the very term, that in the special, semi-apostolic agency
now entrusted to him, he in effect stood on the relatively
elevated position of a prophet, and should take heed to
conduct himself accordingly. It might, no doubt, with
many commentators, be understood in a more general
sense, with reference simply to Timothy's state and calling
as a believer. But the whole passage evidently has respect
to Timothy's destination as a public witness and servant of
the Lord ; and the distinctive epithet, both in itself and in
its usage, best accords with that idea. It is "again similarly
used in 2 Tim. iii. 17 ; and these are the only two passages
where it occurs in New Testament Scripture. The things
Timothy is exhorted to flee are plainly those mentioned in
the immediately preceding context — the love of money, and
all the hurtful lusts, and corrupt as well as foolish and
unbecoming practices to which it gives rise. But with this
negative exhortation the apostle couples a positive : and
follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meek
ness of spirit {irpaviradeiav, the reading of k, A, F, somewhat
stronger than the received irpaoryra). " As Christian virtues
to which Timothy must apply himself, Paul names six, of
which each pair stand in a close relation to one another :
the two most general ideas go first — righteousness and
godliness ; then follow faith and love as the fundamental
principles of the Christian life ; and finally, patience and
meekness of spirit, which denote the conduct proper to a
Christian amid the enmity and opposition of the world to
Christ's gospel " (Huther).
Ver. 12. Maintain the good contest of the faith — literally,
contend the good contest ; but this does not quite accord
with English usage ; and I deem it better to depart a little
from the precise form of the original, than to use an unsuit
able combination of words, or convey a wrong impression.

I TIMOTHY VI. 12. 241
This last is what is done by fight the fight of the Authorized
Version, and strive the strife of Ellicott and Alford. Neither
strife nor fight suggests to an English ear the kind of struggle
here indicated under a form qf expression that bears respect
to the ancient games. These games were simply strenuous
contests for the mastery in trials of strength and skill ; and
it is of importance to retain the term contest, though we can
scarcely couple it with the cognate verb. The contest,
however, is characterized as good, to distinguish this spiritual
contest from the carnal and ambitious wrestlings on the
arena. And it is further characterized as that of the faith
— meaning thereby the specific exercise of faith in the
person and work of Christ. The adherents of this faith
were like men contending for the mastery against the powers
of evil working everywhere in the world around them ; they
must therefore quit themselves like men, in order to succeed
in the conflict. Then the connection is indicated between
the contest and the prize : lay hold of eternal life, which, as
Winer notes {Gr. § 43, 2), must mean, Do it in and through
the contest ; for the ¦ laying hold of eternal life is not repre
sented as the result of the contest (though it might have
been so), but as itself the substance of the contest : one
must grasp the reality, in a measure now, in order to
maintain the struggle aright, and reach the life in its full
and final heritage of blessing.1
Having mentioned eternal life, the apostle now drops the
figure, and brings the great reality into connection with the
Christian calling : unto which thou wert called, and didst
confess the good confession before many witnesses. The period
referred to is undoubtedly that of his formally embracing
the faith of Christ's gospel. Timothy was then called to
1 The change of tense, too, is significant, the first imperative in the
present, aymiZ,ov, the second in the aorist, imXa/iov — the former having
respect to an action already commenced and to be continued, the latter
to an action which is in a manner done at once (see Winer, § 43, 3).
Q

242 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
receive the gift of eternal life (Rom. vi. 23 ; 1 Pet v. 10) ;
and then also made confession of his belief in the truth in
Christ, though the precise moment of his doing so in pubhc
before many witnesses, as it is here put, might be either at
his baptism or his ordination to the work of the ministry.
These are the occasions that naturally present themselves
to one's mind in connection with such a statement, and it
is needless to think of any other.
Ver. 13. The mention of that confession or witness-
bearing which had been made by Timothy seems to have
suggested to the apostle's mind another and still higher act
of the same kind, which he interweaves in a solemn appeal
and charge to Timothy : / charge thee before God, who pre-
serveth alive1 all things, and Christ fesus, who before Potdius
Pilate witnessed the good confession. The object of this
appeal, and of the specific characters under which God and
Christ are here presented, is obviously to strengthen the
exhortation which follows, and brace the mind of Timothy
to its faithful discharge. God is represented as the pre
server of all, and consequently as able to minister protection
and support to those who were ready to obey His will, and
hazard all for His glory. Then, as the highest example of
One who did thus show that He made account of nothing in
comparison of the fealty he owed to the claims of truth and
righteousness, the apostle points to the fearless and uncom
promising testimony given by Christ before Pontius Pilate.
(Etirl admits of being taken in the sense either of under, with
the Vulgate, Gothic, English versions, De Wette, Ellicott,
etc., or before, as the Syriac, Chrysostom, Huther, Alford,
etc. ; but the latter seems the more natural sense, as it is
only in connection with the closing scenes of our Lord's
1 The correct text appears to be ^uoymvvros, the reading of A, D, F, G,
not Z.ao'Totovvros, which is the received text, and is the reading of s, K, L ;
and the meaning of X,uoy. in the sense of preserving alive is confirmed
by the only other passages where it occurs, Luke xvii. 33, Acts vii. 19.

I TIMOTHY VI. 14. 243
life, and especially with the testimony He then bore to His
own person and kingdom, and so shortly after sealed with
His blood, that the evangelical record brings Him into con
tact with Pontius Pilate.) And in regard to the testimony
itself, there is, I think, room for the distinction drawn
between it and Timothy's in the preceding verse, indicated
by Bengel : testari confessionem, erat Domini ; confiteri
cohfessionem, Timothei. The one was of a fundamental
or primary character, the other responsive and secondary.
Christ bore witness to the truth respecting Himself and
His kingdom, as in the closest manner identified with it,
and being it; and His confession, as Bengel justly says,
" animates all other confessions "—Timothy's among the
rest — gave birth to them, indeed. But we may still say,
with Huther, that the confession which the disciple of
Christ is called to make, and which is declared to have
been made by Timothy, is as to its nature nothing else than
that which was testified by Christ ; and hence it is in each
case " the good confession " — a specific and formal utter
ance in respect to the essentials of the Christian faith —
differing, it may be, and doubtless often does, in words, but
coinciding in the substance of the doctrines confessed.
Some commentators appear to broaden the difference be
tween the confessions beyond what the language necessarily
implies, or even properly admits of.
Ver. 14. Here follows the thing charged upon Timothy :
that thou keep the commandment spotless and unrebukeable
until the appearance of our Lord fesus Christ. Various
shades of meaning have been put upon the commandment
{ryv ivToXyv) which Timothy was enjoined to observe or
keep. As there is nothing of a special kind mentioned in
the preceding context to which it can fitly be referred, it is
most naturally understood of the moral obligation generally,
the injunction or rule implied in the very nature of the
gospel to adhere to the great principles of truth and

244 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
righteousness, or to give the gospel as to what it teaches
and requires a practical and embodied form. This prac
tical imperative of the gospel (if we may so speak) the
apostle calls Timothy to keep spotless and unrebukeable,
— a somewhat peculiar form of exhortation, certainly, as
these epithets are strictly applicable to persons only, though
there are not wanting instances of a more extended appli
cation in other writers (as in Philo, de Opifi, y dveiriXyirros
rexvy ; Plato, Phil. 43, dveiriXyrrrOTepov rb Xeyofievov). Con
sidered by itself, of course, a thing inherently good cannot
become subject to any real tarnish or defilement : it must
ever remain what its own essential nature makes it ; and of
nothing involving moral obligation may this more properly
be said than in respect to the ethical bearing of the gospel.
But contemplated from a popular point of view, a reproach
or charge is naturally conceived to be brought on a scheme
of doctrine or duty when its acknowledged representatives
give an exhibition of it which palpably offends against
men's notions of the pure and good ; or, in the case of the
gospel, is contrary to its real character. And this is plainly
what is meant here : it is that Timothy might be careful so
to bear himself in the ministry of the gospel, and the inter
course of daily life, as to prevent God's word and service
from suffering reproach through his failures ; and though
the expressions used by the apostle have immediate respect
to the commandment itself, not to the observance of
Timothy, yet practically it -is all one with saying, as Chry
sostom puts it, that Timothy should beware of contracting
any stain in respect, to his doctrine or manner of life. And
this till the appearance (the epiphany) of our Lord fesus
Christ- — the second .advent, which was certainly contem
plated by the eye of faith as near, yet not so as to be
confidently expected at any definite period, or within
the limits of that generation. This is rendered clear
by the statements of Paul in one of his earliest epistles

I TIMOTHY VI. 15, 1 6. 245
(2 Thess. ii. 1-12), and also in a measure by what follows
here. .
Vers. 15, 16. These verses begin with a more particular
description of the expected appearance of Christ in its
relation to God, and then run out into a doxology, cele
brating the incomparable greatness and glory of God. This
Baur and others would regard as a protest against the semi-
polytheism or dualism of the Gnostics — an entirely fanciful
and unnatural view. The object seems rather to have been
to fortify the mind of Timothy to a consistent and persever
ing adherence to the Christian faith and life amid the scorn
or opposition of worldly powers of the stamp of Pontius
Pilate, by placing distinctly before him the sole supremacy,
the peerless eminence, and infinite sufficiency of Him who
has decreed the future manifestation in glory of Christ, as
He had done that of His past humiliation. This affords a
reason perfectly cognate to many others introduced by the
apostle in this epistle (chap. i. 18, 19, ii. 5-7, iii. 15, 16,
v. 21, etc.), and in proper keeping with the connection.
Which (namely, appearance) in His own seasons He shall
show, [who is] the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings
and Lord of lords, who only has immortality, dwelling in light
that is unapproachable, whom no man hath seen nor can see :
to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen. In regard
to what is said at the outset about the appearing of Christ,
that it is to take place in God's- own seasons, there is plainly
indicated a certain indefiniteness, as in regard to a matter
which belongs to the secret things of God, not therefore to
be pronounced upon by the superficiality and littleness of
human foresight (Bengel : brevitaterri temporis non valde
coarctuans). The words remind us — perhaps were pur-'
posely designed to remind us — of the address given by our
Lord before His ascension .to the disciples on this very
subject : " It is not for you to know the times or the
seasons, which the Father hath put in His own power"

246 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
(Acts i. 6), — the seasons, namely, which concern the greater
movements of Christ's kingdom, and especially, as here, His
advent in glory. Nay, our Lord Himself had previously
told them, that as regards the precise period when He
should' come to manifest Himself in the glory of that king
dom, even He did not know it in His humiliation (Mark
xiii. 32), doubtless because He did not wish to know it ;
the knowledge would have been unsuited to that transient
and provisional state of things. God is here designated the
blessed, as at chap. i. n — the antithesis of everything that
can be called sorrow or vexation ; also the only Potentate
(pdvos Swdo-TTjs) — alone in the universe possessed of inde
pendent right, absolute sovereignty. The epithet King of
kings and Lord of lords is, with a slight variation in the
form, directly applied to Christ in Rev. xvii. 14, xix. 16 ;
for in this, as in all divine prerogatives, " all that the Father
hath is His." But it is plainly God the Father that is
here the subject of discourse, as some parts of the descrip
tion are not properly applicable to Christ as the God-man.
When it is said of God that He only has immortality, the
meaning plainly is, He alone has it of Himself — it is in
Him as its fountainhead. John v. 26, which declares the
Father to have life in Himself — life in the full and absolute
sense — is substantially parallel. Further, He is represented
as dwelling in an atmosphere of light — light that from its
excessive splendour and intense brilliancy is incapable of
being approached or looked upon by the eye of man : com
pare John i. 18; 1 John i. 5; Ps. civ. 2. The whole of
this sublime representation concludes, and is most appro
priately wound up, with an ascription of honour and power
to God, as alone entitled to receive the homage and adora
tion of His intelligent creatures.
Ver. 1 7. The apostle here again reverts to the subject of
riches, but now under a different aspect, with reference
not to those who made wealth their idol, and were ready

I TIMOTHY VI. 17. 247
to sacrifice principle and character for its attainment, but
to such as, having acquired riches, still retain their Chris
tianity, and are willing to use what they possess in accord
ance with the truth of God and their own best interests.
Charge them that are rich in this world not to be high-minded,
nor to set their hopes on the uncertainty of riches, but on God,
who ministers to us all things richly for enjoyment. The in
struction to give such a charge obviously implies, that there
already were persons in the church at Ephesus to whom
the epithet rich might not improperly be applied. But
that, as every one knows, is a relative term, and in one
country or one stage of social progress might include
persons whom none almost would think of associating
with it in another. It is absurd, therefore, to find an
argument against the early existence of the epistle — as is
done by Schleiermacher and others — in the mention of
rich persons in the church at Ephesus ; and, indeed, the
disturbance occasioned there many years before the real
date, of the epistle by Demetrius and his craftsmen, was
alone a proof that even then the movement from the old
worship in favour of Christianity must have embraced
individuals in various grades of society ; not a few that
were well-to-do in the world, as well as those who were
comparatively poor. The persons who might be deemed
relatively rich were to be exhorted not to be high-minded,
nor to have their hopes set on the uncertainty of riches —
yXiriKevai iirl irXovrov dSyXoryn, a very striking expression.
The verb is in the perfect ; and being used in connection
with a charge to the persons in question, it must mean
that they ought not to have done so in the past, nor con
tinue to do so now — not so to hope in such' an object
as if it were a settled and abiding habit of mind. Then,
instead of putting riches as the object of the hope, the
apostle rather indicates the quality in riches which rendered
it peculiarly unsuitable for such a purpose. It is a rhetorical

248 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
rather than a strictly grammatical construction ; for the
term for riches is undoubtedly the principal substantive,
and the natural construction would have been to put it
in the dative, and couple it with an adjective, expressive
ofthe uncertain element adhering to them — irAovra t<3
dSTjAo). But the mode of expression in the text is not
arbjtrary ; as Winer remarks (Gr. § 34, 3, a), " it is chosen
for the purpose of giving more prominence to the main
idea, which, if expressed by means of an adjective, would
be thrown more into the background : hence it belongs to
rhetoric, not to grammar." To trust in riches, the apostle
would have it understood, is virtually to make uncertainty
one's confidence, since both their continuance with us,
and our possession of them, may at any moment come to a
termination. The contrast to such an insecure foundation
is God, the eternal, the all-sufficient, who ministers richly
to His people's necessities and just desires, and who, as
a source of enjoyment to those who trust in Him, can never
fail. Ver. 18. Here we have in one or two particulars the
positive aspect of rich men's duties : that tliey do good
(dyadoepyeiv), that they be rich in excellent deeds (iv dpyots
koAois, deeds inherently noble and praiseworthy), free in
distributing, ready to communicate (or, as Alford puts it,
free-givers, ready-contributors), not merely imparting of their
substance to the relief of the needy and the promotion
of good objects, but doing it with a frank generosity and
a liberal hand. To act thus is nobly to realize the steward
ship of wealth, and, according to the word of our Lord,
to make to oneself friends of what, taken merely by itself,
is the mammon of unrighteousness (Luke xvi. 9).
Ver. 19. The description is here wound up by a word
which very strikingly exhibits the connection between such
a course of action on earth and its issues in eternity:
treasuring up {dirodyaavpifrvres, off from what would other-

I TIMOTHY VI. 19. 249
wise be lost, and so uf) for themselves a good foundation
for the future, in order that they may lay hold of what is life
indeed.1 Two important practical points are here forcibly
presented. The first is, the doctrine of a future recom
pense, the proper employment of one's means in charitable
and pious uses, and consequently the doing of good deeds
generally, being said to constitute a treasure for the world
to come ; a treasure which is not an uncertainty, like
riches when contemplated by themselves and sought for
their own sake, but a. foundation {dep.eXiov), or well-grounded
basis of hope, for the great future. The doctrine could
scarcely be more unequivocally put, and is the more re
markable as coming from him who was emphatically the
preacher of grace : he saw no incompatibility between a
free salvation, the gift of sovereign grace to the sinful, and
the placing of those who have become partakers of grace
under the law of recompense. And in the teaching of
our Lord Himself, the same two doctrines are equally
marked characteristics (comp., for example, in Matt. v. 3-10,
the first four beatitudes with the second four; or the two
parables, Luke xvi. 1-12, Matt, xviii. 23-35). The link
of connection between the two is, that the grace which
brings salvation as a divine gift, becomes from its very
nature1 to those who receive it their great talent, wherewith
they must do service to God, and hereafter be dealt with
according as they have themselves done. But is not such
a prominent exhibition of the doctrine of reward at variance
with the disinterested nature of true excellence ? It might
be so, if isolated from other parts of the Christian system,
but not when taken in its proper connection. " For the
' Such' seems to be the correct reading, rns ovrus Z,ems, S, A, D, F,
Ital., Vulg., Syr., Cop. versions, and most of the Fathers ; while the
received text, rns aimiov Z,oms, is the reading of only two uncials, K, L,
with little collateral support. This is also the reading which might
naturally suggest itself as an explanation

250 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
truth is, that the Christian's love of virtue does not arise
from a previous desire of the reward ; but his desire of the
reward arises from a previous love of virtue. The first and
immediate effect of his conversion is to inspire him with
the genuine love of virtue and religion ; and his desire
of the reward is a secondary and subordinate effect, a
consequence of the love of virtue previously formed in
him. For of the nature of the reward it promises, what
does the gospel discover to us more than this, that it shall
be great and endless, and adapted to the intellectual endow
ments and moral qualities of the human soul in a state of
high improvement ? ' It doth not yet appear what we shall
be ; but we know that when He shall appear we shall be
like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.' " x This resem
blance is even represented in Scripture as the most essential
element both of the Christian state here and of the heavenly
state hereafter ; and therefore not the actions simply which
appear in the life, but the motives also and principles from
which those actions proceed, must go together in any just
expectation that is formed of future recompense. Bene
ficent deeds and good deeds generally are valuable most
of all on this account, that they are the indications and
fruits of a regenerated nature ; and such a nature, so proved
and exercised, will at last "as by its own elasticity spring
to heaven," while that which is in an opposite condition
shall not less certainly " descend by its own dead weight
to kindred darkness" (A. Butler).2
1 Horsley's 2d Sermon on Phil. iii. 15.
2 A well-known passage in Newman's discourses puts the matter
happily, as regards the present relation of goodness to the beneficial
consequences that spring from it:— "All virtue and goodness tend to
make men powerful in this world ; but they who aim at the power have
not the virtue. Again : Virtue is its own reward, and brings with it
the truest and highest pleasures ; but they who cultivate it for the
pleasure-sake are selfish, not religious, and will never gain the plea
sure, because they can never have the virtue. "

I TIMOTHY VI. 19.' 251
The other point here presented is the emphasis laid on
life in the higher sense — life that really may be called
such : . rich Christians are exhorted to deal with their
earthly means in the manner prescribed, in order that
they may lay hold of this. Simply as rich men, they were
in danger of suffering it to escape from them ; certain to
fail of it, if they set their hearts on worldly lucre, and the
enjoyments to which it ministers. What is meant by such
life ? It is nothing else than that participation of a divine
nature already referred to, which has its beginning here in
all spiritual excellence and fruitful working, but will reach
its consummation when that which is in part shall be done
away, and the perfect shall have come. In this passage,
it may be added, St. Paul approaches more nearly to St.
John's mode of representation concerning the Life (£cotj)
than anywhere else — Life, without any thing 'further; Life in
the reality being viewed as the one and all of a blessed
condition. To exhibit this life as having its fountainhead
in the Father, and coming to men as His gift in Christ, is
the common teaching of both, and indeed of all the New
Testament writers; to St. John only it is peculiar to represent
Him, through whom the gift comes, as the Life (John i. 4,
xi. 25, xiv. '6, etc.). " In the Father, things are shut up and
hidden which manifest themselves in the Son ; therefore
all things which the Son has belong to the Father : but
in the Son the properties of the Father are revealed to
men, in order that His name may be celebrated with
praise. Life thus lying concealed with the Father in the
beginning was manifested to men in the Son; so that
when the Father is manifested, the Son is to be seen"
(Olshausen, Opuscula, p. 193). In regard to men, life in
this higher sense is predicated only of such as -have,
through the action of the Holy Spirit on their souls, been
brought to participate of that which is in Christ. The
merely natural man (i//vxikos) is dead, even while as an in-

252 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
habitant of the world he lives ; " it is the Spirit that quick-
eneth." And this quickening energy entering into the soul,
and linking it through faith in Christ to the proper heritage
of life, the body also, by reason of its connection with the
soul, must share in the glorious possession ; and when both
soul and body reach thus their destined perfection, there
shall be the full enjoyment of what is here called the life
indeed — life in its completeness of purity and blessing.
Vers. 20-22. The conclusion, containing another very
earnest charge to fidelity : O Timothy, keep the deposit {ryv
irapadyKyv, used again in 2 Tim. i. 12, 14, and each time with
the same verb). What deposit ? Neither here nor in the
other two passages in which the word is employed, first with
reference to Paul, and then with reference to Timothy,
is any further description given of it : the apostle himself
commits to Christ's keeping what he calls a deposit ; and
Timothy had committed to him a deposit to keep, which
is simply characterized as good. So far, however, the con
nection here throws some light upon the subject; forthe
deposit is plainly represented as what, if faithfully kept,
would preserve Timothy from the false teachings of the
Gnostic school, which were already beginning to make them
selves heard : turning away from the profane babblings and
oppositions of knowledge (the gnosis) falsely so called, which
some professing, erred concerning the faith. So that remain
ing stedfast in the one, he should avoid the dangers of the
other. And what could possibly avail for such a purpose,
but the sound faith or doctrine of the gospel ? This is
what the apostle himself, in various passages, sets against
the false tendency in question, as the only true antidote ;
for example, at chap. i. 3, n, 18, iv. 6, vi. 3, eta So
Chrysostom, who identifies the deposit with faith, on the
ground that "where faith is not, there is no knowledge;
when anything is produced of one's own thoughts, it is not
knowledge : " in other words, the errors to be guarded

I TIMOTHY VI. 20-22. 253
against are the teachings of man; the safeguard against
them is what is received by faith from the teaching of God.
Tertullian also not only explains it in the same way, but
argues against the abuse made of the passage by the
Gnostic teachers, to support their assertion that the apostles
taught certain things secretly and to a few, which they
withheld from others. "What (says he) is this deposit,
so secret, that it may be reckoned another sort of doc
trine ? " And referring to the charge given in chap. i. 18,
vi. 13, of this epistle, as probably pointing to the same
thing, he proceeds : " From what is written in the preced-
dng and subsequent context, it will be perceived that there
is no allusion in the form of expression to any secret
doctrine, but rather that he is warned against admitting
any other doctrine than that which he had heard from
himself (viz. Paul), and that openly — Before many witnesses,
says he (2 Tim. ii. 2). If by those many witnesses they
are unwilling to understand the church, it is of no moment;
since nothing could be secret which was set forth in the
presence of many witnesses" (de Pmscrip. Hceret. c. 25).
The modern advocates, therefore, of a secret traditional
doctrine handed down from Patristic testimony, follow
not the Fathers, but the Gnostics, in their use of this
passage; and in the interpretation they put on it, they
always assume two things which are absolutely incapable
of proof, — first, that Timothy's deposit embraced some
thing of importance not in Scripture; and second, that
Patristic tradition is an infallible informant as to what
that deposit was (see Goode's Pule of Faith, ii. p. 78).
Even Vincentius Lirinensis, in a long . passage regarding
the deposit in his Commonitorium, expressly designates it,
like Tertullian, as no more of private teaching, than of
private invention : " Quid est depositum ? . . . rem, non
ingenii sed doctrinse, non usurpationis private sed publicae
traditionis ; " — nothing else, in short, than the great facts

254 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
and principles which constituted the burden of apostolic
teaching. The profane babblings and oppositions of the falsely
named knowledge have already been referred to, both in
the Introduction to the epistles and at chap. i. 6, 19, 20.
What is meant is that peculiar kind of religious specula
tion which originated in the East, but gradually spread
westward to Asia Minor, Greece, and Egypt, and which
bears the general name of Gnosticism, because of the
predominant account it made of gnosis, or knowledge. It
was this, however, still only in an incipient form, not as
ultimately developed into the regularly constructed systems,
which appeared one after another in the second and third
centuries, and which, though courting alliance with Chris
tianity, were always denounced as essentially antichristian
by the Fathers. It was this in spirit and character, even
in its earlier and more sporadic existence, in which it
assumed a variety of phases and manifestations ; so that
it cannot be either very particularly characterized or identi
fied with any single locality and individual, but was the
native fruit of the spirit of the age, animated and influenced
by the circumstances of the time (see Reuss, Theol. Chre-
tienne, vol. ii. p. 641). But being in its very nature of a
presumptuous and pragmatical tendency, whenever yielded
to, it was sure to lead men away from the simple and
earnest faith of the gospel.
The grace (namely, of God) be with you!1 or simply,
Grace be with you : thee, and those with thee.
(For the subscription, see close of Introduction.)
1 The best authorities have ip.£v, g, A, F, G, P, which at 2 Tim.
iv. 22 is the reading also of the received text.

THE
EPISTLE OF PAUL TO TITUS.

The precise period of St. Paul's visit to Crete for the
purpose of preaching the gospel and organizing Christians,
as already stated in the Introduction, is not certainly
known. But from the great similarity between certain parts
of this epistle and the First Epistle to Timothy, the proba
bility is, that the visit took place some time during the later
operations of the apostle in Asia Minor and Greece, and that
consequently this epistle to Titus, who had been left behind
to complete the work begun by the apostle, must have
proceeded from his pen at ho great interval from the time
when he indited the first to Timothy. The Second Epistle
to Timothy belongs to a period considerably later, and
presents us with the last record we have of the' apostle's
thoughts and experiences. In a consecutive exposition,
therefore, the Epistle to Titus fitly takes precedence of the
Second to Timothy.

CHAPTER I.

Ver. i. Paul, a servant of God, also an apostle of fesus
Christ, for the faith of God's elect, and full knowledge of the
truth that is according to godliness ; 2. in hope of eternal life,,
which God, that cannot fie, promised before eternal times; 3. but

256 the pastoral epistles.
in its own seasons manifested His word in preaching, which was
entrusted to me, according to the commandment of our Saviour
God ; 4. to Titus, [my] true son in respect to the common
faith: Grace and peace from God our Father, and Christ fesus
our Saviour.
St. Paul's mode of designating himself here does not
exactly coincide with his form of expression in any other
epistle. Elsewhere he calls himself a servant, or bondman
of Christ (Rom. i. 1 ; Gal. i. 10 ; Phil. i. 1 ; Col. iv. 12), but
here only of God : a noteworthy variation, not on its own
account, but as a mark of genuineness; for it is impossible
to conceive what motive could have induced any imitator to
depart in such a manner from the apostle's usual phrase
ology. The Se coupling his calling as an apostle of Christ
with his relation to God as a servant, cannot be taken in
an adversative sense, for there is really no opposition ; but
it is used, as not unfrequently, " to subjoin something
new, different, and distinct from what precedes, though not
strictly opposed to it " (Winer, Gr. § 53, 7). The render
ing of Ellicott, and further, while giving the proper shade
of meaning, seems somewhat too formal, broadening more
than is natural in a brief introductory description, the
difference between God's servant and Christ's apostle.
But what is to be understood by this apostolical calling
being Kard irianv e/cAeKTcov Oeov ? If one were to render,
with the A. V, after the Ital., Vulg., and many modern com
mentators, " according to the faith of God's elect," it is
difficult to understand why this should have presented itself
to the apostle's mind as anyhow the measure or rule of his
apostleship. It appears, indeed, so understood, to invert
the proper order of things ; for there can be no doubt that
he received his apostleship with a view to promote or bring
into exercise the faith of God's elect, and in connection
therewith the knowledge of the truth, and not inversely.
The preposition, therefore, must here (with Winer, Gr.

TITUS I. 2. 257
§ 49, d. c, and many of the best commentators, — Theodoret,
ware iriorevcrai ttjs eKAoyijs d£iovs, — Huther, Ellicott, Alford,
etc.) be taken in the sense of destination for or to — as, in
classical Greek, kot' dnplav Aeyco means, I speak for dis
honour — with a view thereto (Her. ii. 152; Thuc. v. 7,
vi. 31). The apostle indicates the faith of God's elect and
the special knowledge of divine truth, on which it is
grounded, as that with respect to which he had been made
an apostle, and toward which, therefore, all he did in this
character must be mainly directed. For the elect's sake,
he elsewhere tells us (2 Tim. ii. 10), he endured all things,
and for their sake too he held his commission as a divinely
authorized teacher of the gospel, that God's purpose con
cerning them might reach its end. As the elect, or genuine
people of God, not only have a knowledge, but a special
or peculiar knowledge of the truth, so the word used is
iiriyvwaiv — knowledge intensified, or in the fuller sense (see
at 1 Tim. ii. 4). And it is said to be Kar eiae/3eiav — know
ledge that has respect to, or tends in the direction of, godli
ness. So that the sense of the preposition here is much the
same as in the preceding clause. True Christian or saving
knowledge is thus sharply distinguished from all that is of a
merely speculative kind, or is without any moral aim;
this throughout bears on the cultivation and exercise of
holy principle. And the fact is of importance for the
preachers of the gospel now, as well as for the apostle
then ; their preaching is not what it should be, except and
in so far as it aims at the same practical result.
Ver. 2. In hope of eternal life — eir' eAiriSt, on this as
the basis. But to what did it form the basis ? Was it St.
Paul's office as an apostle, or that which it ministered to —
namely, the faith and knowledge of God's elect ? Mani
festly, this latter is the more natural reference. That faith
and knowledge were doubtless great things in themselves,
but they stood connected with something that might be
r

258 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
called greater still ; they rested on a background of promise
and hope, which, in a manner, stretched from eternity to
eternity, having God's primeval promise for its origin, and
a participation in His everlasting life for its end. - What an
elevated thought ! And how peculiarly fitted, both to en
hance the spiritual attainments which carried with them
the realization of such a hope, and to exalt the ministry
which was appointed to bring them, instrumentally, within
the reach of men ! The expression irpd xpovmv alwviwv can
scarcely be rendered otherwise than before eternal times,
though being connected with a promise, not with a purpose
simply or decree, of God, it must be understood of eternity
in the looser sense ; that is, of a period indefinitely remote
before the ordinary historical epochs of the world. So
Calvin, substantially, and in this expressly differing from
Augustine and Jerome, who would carry the matter up
beyond all temporal epochs, and lose themselves in the
thought of ages strictly eternal. "Here, however (says
Calvin), because the discourse is of a promise, it does not
comprise all ages, so as to lead us beyond the creation of
the world ; but it teaches that many ages had elapsed from
the time that the promise of salvation was given."' Or, as
he again puts it, that the promise "in the long order of
ages is very ancient, because it began presentiy after the
foundation of the world." In short, it might be said to date
from beyond the ages, which to man's view seem to stretch
into a kind of interminable past. The characteristic of
God as in His nature the antithesis of all that is false or
deceptive — df evSrj's — incapable of lying, is designed to in
spire confidence in the word of promise : though given so
long beforehand, it is fresh and living still, having its root
in the unchangeable, ever-faithful Jehovah.
Ver. 3. The structure of the sentence here has a some
what irregular appearance ; but it is better to leave it so,
and give a natural interpretation of the words as they stand,

TITUS I. 3, 4. 259
than, for the sake of a formal correctness to put a strain
upon .the meaning. It would have seemed to us, perhaps,
the most orderly and consecutive way of, speaking to say,
" the eternal life which Crpd promised before eternal times,
but in ,its own seasons manifested .thrpughthe word;"
and, it is much in this way that Beza (quam promiserat
Deus ante tempora seculorum, manifestam autem fecit
praestitutis temporibus suis, [videlicet] sermonem ilium
suum) and others , hav.e explained the passage ; while some
again, including Calvin, by the word' understand Christ
Himself : from primeval time ¦ God had promised eternal
life, but since the gospel era He manifested His Word.
Such explanations are manifestly of too artificial a cast.
But taking the expression His word in its ordinary sense,
and as thej object of the manifesting \ which distinguishes the
gospel from all preceding times, we are to regard theapostie
as here introducing an independent sentence — contrasting
the manifestation now, in its own seasons (see at 1 Tim.
ii. 6), with the period of promise preceding, but not pre
cisely of the eternal life, which was the subject of the
promise — for it still is in great part, future — and, therefore,
instead of saying which, or which life He manifested, he says,
manifested His wprd, in which everything pertaining to the
nature pf the life, and the means of attaining it, is brought
clearly, to light. (See, for other instances, Winer, § 63, 1.)
By the, addition in preaching coupled with the word, the
preaching with which Paul was , entrusted, it is plainly inti
mated that tiiej word meant is the gospel, — the word em- '
phatically, as declaring God's mind, not by dark intimations
merely, or distant promises, but in great facts and blessed
assurances as tq the present and eternal gpod of His people.
In regard to the expression, according to the commandment of
our Saviour \ Gofi, see at 1 Tim. i. 1, where it also occurs
with only a slight variation in the order of the last words.
Ver. 4. In the address itself to Titus there is nothing

260 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
calling for much remark. He is called, like Timothy, a
true child, and that according, or rather in respect, to the
common faith. He may have been, and very probably was,
a convert of the apostle's ; but that is nowhere distinctly
stated, nor does the language here necessarily imply it (see
at Tim. i. 2). The designation child is indicative partly of
endearment, and partly of comparative youth, in relation to
the apostle. The received text has grace, mercy, peace, as at
1 Tim. i. 2, 2 Tim. ii. 2, with A, K, L, Philox., Theodoret ;
but the reading grace and peace, the same that is found in
all the other epistles of St. Paul, except the two to Timothy,
has the support of X, C, D, F, Ital., Vulg., Syr., Pesh., Copt,
Chrysos., etc. The latter must therefore be regarded as the
preferable reading, and is now generally followed. The
other was probably adopted to assimilate the text to the
other two Pastoral epistles.
Ver. 5. For this cause I left thee behind in Crete, that thou
shouldst further set in order the things which are wanting —
general indication of the work which had been assigned to
Titus in Crete, which the apostle, for want -of time to do it
himself, left him behind (dire'Aiirov) 1 to carry forward. In
the verb eViSiopfluScrrjs, the iirl " does not serve the purpose
of strengthening = omni cura corrigere, but expresses the
idea of addition : still further bring into order" (Huther).
Matters had been so far put in a right condition by Paul
himself; what further remained to be done was left to the
charge of Titus. The kind of rectification meant can only
be learned from what follows ; 'but the first, and apparently
the most prominent point, concerned the official organization
of the churches : and mightest appoint elders in every city, as
I directed thee. This was virtually to say that each church
or Christian community was to have its governing body of
elders ; for in the very infancy of the Christian cause in
1 The best supported reading being that at first hand of s, A, C, D, F, I,
— the received has xariXfxov.

TITUS i. 6-8. 261
Crete, it is not to be imagined that each town could have
more than one such community. Even that, in most cases,
must have been comparatively small. Not only was the
appointment of elders to each several congregation to be
made, but it was to be done in accordance with the instruc
tions which had been given by the apostle — the main part
of which are doubtless embodied in the description, which
immediately follows, of the qualifications to be sought in
the persons who were to receive the appointment.
Ver. 6. If any one is blameless — that is, such an one only
as is blameless — husband of one wife, having faithful children,
not accused of profligacy (lit. not in accusation of it, in a
position that such accusation could be brought), or unruly.
The qualifications have already been considered at 1 Tim.
iii. 2 sq.
Vers. 7, 8. For a pastor must be blameless — Set etvai, ought
to be so, should not be a pastor unless .he is blameless —
as Gods steward: showing at once the original identity of
elder and episcopos, by the substitution here of the one name
for the other, and the weighty reason why he should be of
irreproachable character, since by the very nature of his
office he has to manage the things of God (Luke xii. 42 ;
1 Tim. iii. 15). The statement of Pearson, quoted here
with approbation by Ellicott, that " Episcopal government
was under the apostles, from the apostles, in the apostles,"
is peculiarly out of place in connection with this passage,
which speaks, only of a constitution by presbyters settled
over each church, and these presbyters, each and all, bear
ing the name of bishop — pastor, or overseer of the flock.
But see at 1 Tim. iii. 1, 10; also the Essay of Lightfoot,
appended to his commentary on Philippians, on The Chris
tian Ministry.
Not self-willed, not soon angry .(irascible, bpyiXov), not a
brawler, not a striker, not greedy of gain ; ver. 8, but hospit
able, a lover of good, discreet, righteous, holy, temperate. Again,

262 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
very much the same qualifications as were associated with
the pastoral office in the First Epistle to Timothy. They
indicate one possessed of that prudence and self-control,
that uprightness of character, that kind, generous, disin
terested, gracious disposition, which were fitted to command
the respect, and secure the confidence and affection of a
Christian community, — one altogether such as might serve
for a pattern to the flock over whom he was appointed to
preside, and guide their affairs with discretion.
Ver. 9. Then follows at the close what more especially
pertained to the teaching function of his office : holding fast
the faithful word according to the leaching, in order that he
may be able with the sound doctrine both to exhort and io
convince (or reprove) the gainsayers. There can be no
reasonable doubt as to the faithful word which the true
Christian pastor is to hold fast : the expression is often
used in these epistles (1 Tim. i. 15, iii. 1, iv. 9; 2 Tim.
ii. 11, iii. 8), and always means the word which is entitled
to our confidence, the word which is in itself the proper
ground of trust and hope— God's word. The only question
is, in what sense or respect is it said to be according to the
teaching ? Does this mean, what the person has been taught,
or what he himself teaches ? Of itself the expression might
be .taken either, way, and has been so taken by commenta
tors, though both the more natural, and the more generally
received view, is that which understands it of the teaching
imparted by the apostles, and which constituted by way of
eminence the teaching — the church's normal instruction
and rule in spiritual things. The Authorized Version gives
unambiguous expression to this, by rendering " the faithful
word as he hath been taught," putting, however, the other
view on the margin ("in his teaching"). It was natural
that the apostle, when he was going to refer to a sort of
teaching that was unsound and perilous, should riot only
point attention to that which was of another character, and

TITUS I. 9. 263
might fitly serve as a corrective, but should also give some
hint of its nature — should indicate the source whence it
came, and the authority on which it rested. This is what
he does, briefly yet not uncertainly, in the expression :
"the faithful word according to the teaching;" that,
namely, which is recognised as true and authoritative in
the apostolic church. Hence, as standing on this solid
foundation, and having such choice materials to handle,
he should be able by his own sound doctrine both to ex
hort and tb convince the gainsayers. But as the pastor is
supposed here to accomplish the end, in question by his
own sound doctrine or teaching, this confirms the view
taken of the preceding statement — that the teaching there
spoken of was what he had previously received, and by
which he was qualified for giving forth a teaching that
should be at once sound and effective. This teaching is
presented under a twofold aspect — one having respect to
those within, and the other tb those without the Christian
community. It was the first part of the duty of the over
seers of such a community to exhort, that is, to instruct and
edify its own members ; arid only secondarily, and as occa
sion required, to resist and expose the false teaching of
those who assailed the Christian faith, if so be they might
be able to convince them of their errors. So that the
qualification here associated with the true Christian pastor
corresponds to the aptness to teach' mentioned" in 1 Tini.
iii. 2 ; only here it is more specifically described, and
its importance indicated with reference as well to the
hostile as to the friendly elements, amid which the church
in Crete was placed. Having there very pragmatical and
troublesome ' disputants to deal with, much " necessarily
depended ,on the men who stood at the helm of affairs
being possessed both of enlightened views and strong con
victions ; as they might otherwise, even with the best
motives and intentions, misrepresent and embarrass the

264 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
cause of the gospel. But both duties had to be dis
charged ; therefore, " he is the true bishop who holds the
right faith, and who properly uses his knowledge to edify
the people, and check the wantonness of the adversaries "
(Calvin). Vers. 10, 11. The apostle now, taking occasion from the
last clause in the preceding verse, proceeds to discourse of
the peculiar character of the adversaries whom the infant
church in Crete had to contend against: For there are
many unruly vain talkers and deceivers, especially they of the
circumcision. It would appear, from various incidental
notices, that many Jews had settled in Crete ; but it is sad
to learn that the most noted for troublesome wranglings
and practices of deceit were of that class. Perhaps it is
not meant that they were absolutely the worst in Crete, but
the worst only of those with whom the Christian church
came into contact ; for, the most depraved portions of the
people would as yet be but little touched by the apostolic
movements around them. I should, however, hesitate to
say that " those of the circumcision " were (as many ex
positors hold) not simply Jews, but rather Jewish Christians.
They must have been, one would suppose, more or less
favourably disposed toward the Christian cause ; but as yet
scarcely won over to its side. It is by no means probable,
considering what Jewish converts had everywhere to en
counter, that at so early a period -after the introduction of
Christianity into the island of Crete there should have been
great numbers of the more reprobate class of Jews, who
were ready to brave the risk, and, for any considerations
likely to be appreciated by them, should have actually
pressed into the Christian fold. Some better evidence
would be required for this than the present passage affords.
For the characters here described are introduced simply as
a specific portion of the opponents or gainsayers mentioned
in ver. 9, and the most insidious and pestilent section of

TITUS I. 12. 265
them. The more probable supposition regarding them is,
that they did, indeed, somehow place themselves alongside
the Christian communities, — feigned, perhaps, a measure of
sympathy and goodwill toward them, but mainly for the
purpose of insinuating their objections to the truth of the
gospel, ventilating their own frivolous and fanciful conceits,
and prosecuting with advantage their selfish aims. Their
whole spirit and conduct, as depicted by the apostle, ran
counter to a genuine, or even credible, profession of Chris
tianity : instead of children of peace, they were sowers of
strife and discord ; sedulous pliers of the arts of seduction,
not lovers of truth and righteousness; and so intent on
worldly pelf, that for the sake of base gain they subverted whole
houses, teaching things which they ought not. As it was by
word of mouth that they sought to compass their ungodly
ends — by teaching things which they ought not — the sub
verting ascribed to them must be taken in a spiritual sense :
they perverted the views, overthrew the faith — and that of
whole houses or families (comp. 2 Tim. ii. 18). The precise
form of representation differs from what we find in 1 Tim. i.
4 sq.; but the relation in which the respective parties stood
to the law on the one side, and to the gospel on the other,
appears to have been much the same ; and so, in both
places alike, the apostle charges- his evangelists to see that
an uncompromising opposition be given to them : there, they
were to be testified against and shunned ; here, where the
evil apparently was more rampant, their mouths must be
stopt — they must be reduced to silence.
Ver. 1 2. The apostle now passes on to the Cretans gene
rally. They had in a measure been referred to already;
for while persons of the Jewish race had been more par
ticularly noticed, it was only as forming the most trouble
some and dangerous class of adversaries to the cause of
Christ in Crete. But the Cretans at large were noted for
characteristics akin to those charged upon the Jews ; and

266 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
he brings in proof an unimpeachable witness : One of them
has said — their own prophet — The Cretans are always liars,
evil beasts, idle bellies (KpTjVes del tj/evarai, koko. dypia, yaarepes
dpyai). This passage, which is a regular hexameter line,
has been ascribed by some to Callimachus,' a Cyrensean,
but improperly ; the better informed of the Fathers (Jerome,
Chrysostom, Epiphanius) associate the words with Epimen
ides, who was a native of Phsestus or CnOsSus, in Crete, and
who had the name and repute of a prophet (Diog. Laertius ;¦
Cicero, de Div. i. 18 ; Plato also calls him Beios dvyp,
Legg. i. 642). He lived about 600 years before Christ.
It, was a dreadful testimony for him to bear against his
countrymen, when he charged them with being addicted to
falsehood, ferocity (kokcY dypia, wild, fierce hke beasts), and
gluttony (yacrrepes dpyai, lit. idle bellies, but used of persons
given to luxurious living, and through that growing into a
corpulent habit of body). The first characteristic was so
notorious, that it was the Subject of frequent remark ; the
very expression here used of it is also found in a hymn to
Zeus by Callimachus ; and Hesychius in his Lex. explains
Kpyrit,eiv by the synonymous words, xf/evSeaBai and diraTov:
to play the Cretan, was just to lie and deceive. (See in Wet
stein an immense array of quotations on all the expressions,
and on the first with special reference to the Cretans.)
The description, of course, is to be understood as applying
only in the general to the Cretan' population, while admit
ting, doubtless; of many individual exceptions. But being
so general, as to have become a kind of byword and re
proach to the island, it was to be expected that the noxious
qualities would not be long in making their appearance in
the, Christian church ; on the side especially of these quali
ties danger was to be looked for to the cause of a pure
and healthful Christianity.
Ver. 13. Hence in this verse the apostle calls for sharp
reproofs against the prevailing evils : This testimony is true;

' TITUS I. 14. 267
wherefore reprove theni sharply, thai they may be sound in
the faith. "It were wrong to infer from such words, though
it is sometimes done, that the members of the - church
generally in Crete' had already given way to the common
vices, or had not abandoned them when they assumed the
Christian profession ; just as in regard to v the early church
at Corinth, the outbreak of 'licentious tendencies in one or
two individuals by no means argued a general corruption.
But happening where licentious 'practices so fearfully
. abounded, even a very partial appearance of the evil was
sufficient to awaken apprehensions, and called for instant
repression.' It would naturally be the same in Crete in
regard to the corrupt tendencies which had obtained such
wide and continued prevalence there ; and the purport of
the exhortation given to Titus on the subject, Was simply
that he should maintain a firm protest against practices of
such a nature, and in so far as they appeared among the
members ofthe Christian church, subject the doers of them
to admonition and rebuke. And when' the apostle presents
it as the object of such dealing, that the offending parties
become sound or healthy in the faith, he as much as says,
that faith, when in a state of health, fulness, and vigour,
cannot ally itself fo such corrupt practices as were prevalent
in "Crete: such practices betoken either the total absence of
faith, or faith in a very feeble arid sickiy condition.
Ver. 14.' Further, and with the view especially of Secur
ing real soundness ' of faith, the apostle would have them
exhorted not to give heed to fewish fables and' command
ments of men, who" turn away from the truth. The sahie
exhortation substantially was given at 1 Tim. i. 4 and
iv. 3. The lying arid deceptive tendency which had ob
tained such prevalence ' in Crete seems to have begotten
a fondness for those fables, arid have led also to the iritro-
. duction or pressing of merely human commandments', as if
they" were divine. " These" probably related very much to

268 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
distinctions in food and punctilios of outward observance,
and from their nature necessarily indisposed both teachers
and taught toward the truth of God. In such a case de
ceivers and deceived could only present different shades of
what was essentially the same radical error.
Ver. 15. To tfie pure all things are pure: a great coun
ter principle set over against that on which those Jewish
semi-Gnostic sciolists were trading to the perversion of
their own and other people's consciences. Judaism in
part, and Gnostic asceticism still more, associated moral
good and evil with certain outward distinctions : " Touch
not or take not this, and you are holy; touch or take it, and
you are defiled." No, the apostle virtually replies, these
are but superficial distinctions ; and even when they were
to some extent of God, it was only as temporary and pro
visional arrangements — supplying for a season the lack of
clearer light. All things which lie outside a man, — the
things of whatever kind which he can use as articles of
food, or turn into instruments of service, — these are in
theriiselves indifferent ; there is no power of intelligent and
voluntary choice in them, and therefore no element of
sanctity or corruption : this can only be where moral
qualities reside, in the region of thought, desire, will ; let
there be but purity there, and then those external things
assume a corresponding character, because they receive an
impress and a direction from the spirit of him who uses
them. It is but a fresh enunciation of the truth long before
uttered by our Lord, and laid by Him as an axe to the
root of the mistaken ceremonialism of the Pharisees. He
told them that washed or unwashed hands, clean or un
clean in food, had of themselves nothing to do with
religious or moral purity : that for this everything depended
on the state of the heart, from which proceed, as to good or
evil, the issues of life (Matt. xv. 11-20; Mark vii. 14-16).
It is obvious, from the mere statement of this principle,

TITUS I. 1 6. 269
that in the all things spoken of as pure to the pure, errors
of doctrine and corrupt practices cannot be included, for
these cpme from an impure source : they are what they are
in spirit and character, as the soul is which gave them
birth ; they are not of God; but of the evil one. It is also
obvious that the converse of the statefnent must hold
equally good with the statement itself; as, indeed, the
apostle expressly affirms : but to them that are defiled and
unbelieving is nothing pure. Surely a solemn thought for
persons of this class, who are not wholly steeled against
conviction! They have within a fountain of pollution,
which spreads itself over and infects everything about them.
Their food and drink, their possessions, their employments,
their comforts, their actions— all are in the reckoning of
God tainted with impurity, because they are putting away
from them that which alone has for the soul regenerating
and cleansing efficacy. The apostle, however, carries it
even further; he brings out the evil more distinctly on
its positive side : but both their mind and conscience are
defiled. In saying this, he no doubt indicates the reason
why nothing external is pure to them : but he does not
give it formally as a reason ; he rather advances it as an
additional disclosure of their defilement, showing how it
embraces both the intellectual and moral parts of their
nature, and lays alike the powers of thought and the work
ings of conscience under bias to evil.
Ver. 16. The description is wound up by a fearful an
nouncement of their morally shipwrecked and hopeless
condition : they confess that they know God, but in works
deny [Him], being abominable and disobedient, and unto
every good work reprobate. The description, it must be
borne in mind, relates to those who have come within
the sphere of religious truth, who have had their minds
instructed in its principles and obligations, and have withal
not formally renounced the profession of godliness which

270 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
they naturally involve; but who have all along, frpm sinis
ter motives, withstood the_ truth in their hearts, have talked
big and done little; nay, have become adepts in evading
the, plainest calls of duty, and, following courses at variance
with the great principles of morality and religion. Of perr
sons who have pursued such a career it may justly be said,
that the , very foundations of their moral being are out of
course ; and according to God's ordinary methods of deal
ing, there is no hope of recovering them to truth and
righteousness. By calling them reprobate va. regard to every
good work— dSoKip,oi— the apostle means , that they are
of no worth or account in that respect : when the question
is about a good work, such persons may be rejected as
having no proper affinity to it.

CHAPTER II.

Ver. 1. In contrast to the false teachers mentioned in
the preceding verses, and the .pernicious, results of their
teaching, the apostle, now urges, and, with . reference to all
ranks and classes in the church, the, sound practical teach
ing of the gospel. But speak thou . the_ things which become
the sound instruction of the gospel: ... sound, or wholesome,
because it does.not run out upon fables and frivolous pre
scriptions of human invention, but bears throughout with
practical energy upon the duties of everyday life. Chris
tianity is primarily, indeed, a doctrine, but only that it may
be in the true sense a life; and the two can never be kept
apart from each other in the public teaching of the church
without imminent peril to both.
Ver. 2. In accordance with the rule, that after verbs of
saying, thinking, scad such like, the infinitive sometimes ex
presses, not what, according to the speaker's assertion, is,
but what ought to be (since those verbs involve the notion

• . . TITUS II. 3. 271
of advising, requiring, or commanding, Winer, Gr. § 44,
3, b), we haye now in a series of accusations, with the in
finitive the substance of the general order to speak the things
becoming sound doctrine. The more advanced believers are
taken first: that the aged men (irpecr/JvYas, not irpeafivrepovs,
which might have been understood only of persons in office :
the word is found again at Philem. 9, and Luke i. 18) be
sober {vycpaXiovs, .1 Tim. iii. 2), grave, discreet (1 Tim. iii. 2,
8), sound (healthy) in their faith, their love, their patience., It
seems quite necessary to take these three latter terms in the
subjective sense: love and patience must certainly be so
taken, and this seems to fix down the meaning in like manner
of the first. The article, therefore, prefixed to each of the
terms, points to. the individuals supposed to be addressed :
the faith, etc., — namely, of those- individuals = their faith, etc.
The exhortation is, that they should not only, possess those
Christian graces, but have them in a healthy condition, so
that the exercise of them might be free, , natural, regular,
and consistent— such every way as might be expected from
.persons living under a felt apprehension ofthe great realities
of salvation. _ The various , things mentioned in the exhor
tation are peculiarly appropriate for. persons in advanced
life ; they are the qualities in which it behoves them in an
eminent degree to adorn the Christian faith.
, , Ver. 3. In like manner the aged women, that they demean
themselves as becomes holiness (lit. that in demeanour they
be holy, beseeming, iv Karaaryp-an lepoirpeireis). , The ex
pression KaTaor. is of comprehensive . import, and has
respect to everything in appearance and bearing which
is , indicative of the state of feeling within ; and the design
of the exhortation is> . as Jerome explains, that " their
very walk and motion, their , countenance, speech,, silence,
may present a certain dignity, of holy propriety." We get
the exact idea when, assuming them to be possessed, of a
devout and reverent frame of mind, their entire manner

. 272 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
and deportment are in suitable keeping therewith, the ap
propriate aspect and clothing of a mind rightly attempered
toward things sacred and divine. The passage i Tim.
ii. io is nearly parallel, only that the exhortation there
has a more specific reference to becoming fitness and
modesty of dress. Not slanderers — pit) 8ia/36Xovs — given to
do the work of him who is emphatically the accuser of
the brethren. Old women, who usually have little to do,
and with the garrulity, are not unfrequently visited with
the querulousness, of advanced age, have special need
to be warned against this tendency ; it is a fine exhibi
tion of Christian love and contentment when they can
rise above it, even though there may be many things in their
circumstances which are fitted to nourish it. Not enslaved
to much wine — p,y oivw iroXXw SeSovAcop-evois — a very moderate
demand in this respect certainly, but probably indicating
by that very moderation, that a slavish addictedness to
the evil was not uncommon among the female popula
tion of Crete, and that even a rational freedom from
such slavery would be no small or unimportant testimony
to the power of the gospel. Both of these exhortations
are in substance pressed, though in different terms, at
i Tim. iii. 8, ii, the first on females, the second on
deacons. Teachers of what is good, not, of course, in
public, but by private converse, and personal example
in their proper sphere.
Vers. 4, 5. The apostle goes on to specify what more
especially should be taught by the elderly female members
of the church to the younger sisterhood, not intending
thereby to supersede instructions of the same sort by the
pastors of the church (comp. 1 Tim. v. 2), but coming
in aid of them, and giving them a point and application
which could scarcely be done in public. That they school J
1 The reading tuippoviZ,ovtfi, present indicative (after Iva), instead of the
regular and grammatical o-w<ppovi%uo-t, is plainly the best supported, being

TITUS II. 4, 5. , 273
the young women to be lovers of their husbands, lovers of their
children; ver. 5, discreet, chaste, workers at, home, good, sub
mitting themselves to their own husbands, that the word of
God may not be blasphemed. The verb aw<ppovit,eiv, which
rules all that follows, does not precisely correspond to
the Authorized Version's teach to be sober, or the Vulgate's
prudentiam doceant, otherwise there would plainly have
been no propriety in the term aw<ppovas being afterwards
included among the special characteristics., The word,
though originally signifying to make discreet or prudent,
came often to be used in the more general sense of school
ing, or admonishing, with a view to the possession of certain
things ; and the reason, probably, why the apostle here
used it, instead of some word expressive simply of teaching
or instructing, was, that on account of the youth of the
parties in question, he contemplated the necessity of a
kind of authoritative disciplinary treatment from the older
to the younger Christian females. The teaching recom
mended was to be of the more severe and urgent kind.
(Hence the distinction made by means of this and another
verb in Dio Cassius, p. lv. 560 : Sei tovs p-ev Aoyois vovBereiv,
rovs Se direiAais crco<ppovi£eiv.) In the epithets themselves,
which mark the different characteristics that were to be the
objects of the schooling, there is no proper difficulty ; they
are all such as especially became young women who were
disposed to bring their Christianity to bear on the regu
lation of their conduct in daily life, and through this reflect
honour on their Saviour. In regard to one of them, there
found in ss, A, F, G, H, P ; while for the other there are C, D, E,
K, L. Two other almost undoubted instances of the same usage with
"va in St. Paul's writings occur in Gal. iv. 7> l Cor. iv. 6 ; also in
John xvii. 3. Various modes of explanation have been ¦ offered ; but
perhaps the most probable is, that it is the adoption in a few cases of a
faulty construction, which is known to have become somewhat common
in later Greek (Winer, Gr. xli. b. 1).
S

274 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
is a difference of reading : instead of oUovpovs, keepers at
home, a number of the best mss. (x, A, C,.D, E, F, G)
have okovpyovs, which means, workers at home, active
housewives— undoubtedly a good sense ; and the reading
is preferred by Lachmann, Tisch., and Alford. Having
such support, I hesitate to reject it, though the ancient
versions, I tal., Vulg., Syriac, also Chrys., follow the other
reading ; while Theophyl. and GEcum. join the term oocovpovs
to the dyaBds, so as to make good housekeepers, economical
housewives. This conjunction of epithets, apparently inde
pendent, is not to be justified ; and the latter expression
(dyadds) must be regarded as indicative of goodness gene
rally, not with reference simply to household manage
ment = kindly, benignant. The last characteristic, submit
ting themselves to their own husbands, naturally winds up
the description as by a sort of climax ; for a heady and
high-minded behaviour here would inevitably spoil the
effect of all other qualities ; it were utterly inconsistent
with a proper conjugal bearing ; and so with it as the
immediate antecedent, is coupled the great end (negatively
expressed) to be aimed at : that the word of God may not
be blasphemed. In a measure, however, this must be carried
back over the whole description ; for in any one respect
a behaviour contrary to that recommended would more
or less have the effect of bringing reproach on God's
word. Ver. 6. The younger men, in like manner, exhort to be
sober-minded — aw<ppoveiv, to accustom themselves to that
becoming, prudent self-restraint, which is not inaptly ex
pressed by being sober-minded — see at i Tim. ii. 9— a
habit of mind which, when really formed, saves the young
from many a vicious indulgence and foolish extravagance.
Ver. 7. Not only teach and exhort so, but — having
respect to Titus, as himself comparatively a young man — •
showing thyself (the o-eavrdv used with the middle voice,

TITUS II. 8.

275

though it might have been dispensed with, for the sake of
greater distinctness and emphasis ; see Winer, Gr. § 38, 6,
who points to a similar instance, with the same verb, in
Xen. Cyr. viii. I, 39, irapdSeiypM. ToidvSe eavrov irapeixero)
in all things a pattern of good works — {rvirov used here only
with the genitive of the thing) — in your teaching [showing]
incorruption, gravity.1 The latter of these two expressions
must plainly be referred to the manner, not to the matter,
of the teaching ; and this renders it natural that we should
also regard the other in the same light — should understand
it subjectively of the teacher, not of what was taught by
him. This is confirmed also by the circumstance, that the
verse which follows has respect to the substance or matter
of the teaching. By requiring Titus to show a spirit of
incorruption,. as well as gravity, in his teaching, the apostle
appears to have meant, that in his very mode of communi
cating divine truth, he should give unmistakeable evidence
of a mind freed from all corrupt tendencies and prurient
imaginations-r-a mind in full accord with the sublime
realities and holy aims of the gospel of Christ.
Ver. 8. And now comes the character of the instruction
itself : sound discourse that cannot be condemned, in order that
he who is ofthe contrary part may be ashamed, having no evil
thing to say of us? The same peculiar aspect is here given
to true evangelical teaching, which is of such frequent oc
currence in these Pastoral epistles ; it was to be sound
(vyiTj), or healthy, as opposed to everything fitted to nourish
a sickly and distempered pietism. Being such, it could not,
of course, be condemned by any competent judge ; and,
what was more, those who had the will would find they
1 The correct text here evidently is xtpSopiav, otpovimra. L and certain
cursives insert aipiapo-iav after the two ; and instead of dtpfopiav, aStaiph-
plav is the reading of L and some others.
2 dpiSv is the reading of s, C, D, E, F, G, K, L, Ital., Vulg., Syr.,
by much the best supported.

276 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
lacked any proper ground to speak reproachfully against
the doctrine taught, and for shame sake might be reduced
to silence. Although the party contemplated as ready to
assume a hostile position is spoken of in the singular, " he
who is of the contrary part," yet this is plainly but an indi
vidualizing mode of representing a class, and both the
connection and the form of expression employed forbid us
to suppose any other than human adversaries, heathen or
Jewish, to have been in view. May have nothing bad or
foul to say — p,y8Lv, having reference to the subjective con
dition of the adversary : however desirous, he could get hold
of no ground of blame.
Ver. 9. The slave portion of the Christian community
naturally presents itself for separate counsel : Bondmen
[exhort, supplied from ver. 7] te be in subjection to their
own masters, in all things to be well-pleasing (viz. to their
masters ; so that, written in full, it would be evapeorovs eivai
SecnroTais ; — the rendering of the Authorized Version, " to
please them well in all things," gives the correct sense) ;
not gainsaying (or contradicting ; Vulg. contradicentes ; the
" answering again " of the Authorized Version is too weak) ;
not purloining (voo-cpifopevovs, setting apart for oneself, self-
appropriating ; comp. Acts v. 2, 3), but showing all good
fidelity (irScrav irianv dyadrjv, good faith of every sort, a
thoroughly trustworthy spirit) ; in order that in all things
they may adorn the doctrine of our Saviour God. Here,
again, as at ver. 5, also at ver. 8, the high spiritual aim of
the gospel, in what it teaches of doctrine and exacts of
obedience, comes prominently out. The glory of God's
name and character among men is involved in it. And it
is noticeable that the strongest expression given to this, in
connection with the different classes of believers, is precisely
here where the lowest in social position are concerned :
previously it was that God's word might not be blasphemed,
or that nothing morally bad might be found in those who

TITUS II. H-14. 277
appeared as His peculiar representatives ; but now it is that
the conduct of the poor bondmen who avowed themselves
believers might adorn the doctrine which is of God. " God
thinks it meet" (to use the words of Calvin) "to receive an
ornament from bondmen, whose condition was so mean and
wretched that they were scarcely reckoned among men.
For servants are not meant as such are now in use, but
slaves, who were bought with money, and were possessed
as oxen or horses. But if their life (he justly adds) is an
ornament of the Christian name, all the more should they
who are in honour see to it that they do not mar it by
their base behaviour."
Vers. n-14. Taking occasion from what he had just said
of the connection between the conduct of Christians and
the doctrine they professed to have received, and the con
nection of both with the glory of God, the apostle proceeds
in these verses to ground the whole of his exhortations re
specting the behaviour of Christians in the essentially moral
nature and design of the grace of God as now manifested
in the gospel : For the grace of God, having salvation for all
men, was manifested, disciplining us, etc. Two grammatical
points call for remark here. One is whether the all men
(irao-iv dvB.) should be connected with the verb {iire<f>dvy) or
with the adjective (o-cottjpios). Our translators expressed
the former construction in the text (" hath appeared unto
all men "), but placed the other on the margin (" bringeth
salvation to all men"). The earlier English versions fol
lowed the other mode (Tyndale, Cov., Cran., Genev.) ; and
that is the construction which is now generally approved
by scholars, and which, certainly, from the position of the
words, is the most natural. The import of the verb, also,
is complete without the " all men," since manifestation, or
shining forth, involves of itself the idea of an unrestricted
exhibition. The other point has respect to the exact re
lation and bearing of the adjectival clause, awrypcos iracriv

278 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
dvBp., which might be taken as a distinct predicate : " the
grace of God was manifested as bringing salvation." But
this, as Ellicott remarks, " would subjoin a secondary refer
ence that would mar the simplicity of the context, iraiSevovcra
clearly involving the principal thought." The clause, there
fore, must be held to be merely explanatory, defining more
exactly the nature of the subject before speaking of its
practical operation and results among men ; it is the grace
of God in its saving design and properties toward men —
" that grace of God (as Bishop Beveridge puts it) whereby
alone it is possible for mankind to be saved," which also, it
may be added, presents and offers salvation to all, and in
that sense brings it. The article is not used in connection
with iracriv, so that " the notion of all is merely general,
neither signifying expressly the whole class, nor all the parts
of a class " (Jelf, Gr. § 454, 1). In a word, the salvation-
bringing grace of God is without respect of persons ; it is
unfolded to men indiscriminately, or to sinners of every
name, simply as such. The apostle says of this grace, it
was manifested (iirecpdvy) — not simply " appeared," but shone
forth, came openly to view ; referring doubtless to what had
taken place in Christ, yet not merely, as some would under
stand it, to the Epiphany, or the incarnation of Deity in
His person, but to everything connected with His appear
ance and work among men. It was this in its totahty
which brought, as it were, to the light of noon-day that
grace which had previously remained comparatively hid in
the bosom of God : now, emphatically, the darkness was
past, the clear light shone (John ii. 8; comp. also John
i. 18, Matt. xi. 27).
Ver. 12. In this verse we have the main point presented
to us of the apostle's testimony respecting God's grace —
the particular aspect under which he here presses it on
our regard ; and this, it must be remembered, takes quite
naturally its hue from the preceding context, in which the

titus il. 12-14. L 279
Christian life, in its habitual resistance to sin and diligent
practising of all moral excellencies, was the great theme.
Hence, the saving grace of God comes into consideration
as the paedagogic or moulding power, by means of which
our naturally wayward and corrupt souls are formed to that
higher scheme of life : disciplining us to the end that, denying
ungodliness and worldly lusts, we might live soberly, justly,
and godlily in this present world. We have no word that
exactly corresponds to the iratSevovo-a of the apostle. With
classical writers it bore the sense simply of instructing or
educating ; in which sense, as elsewhere noted (1 Tim. i. 20),
the word occurs, once at least, in the New Testament (Acts
vii. 22). But a deeper meaning came to be infused into the
verb and the cognate noun (iratSeta) by the more profound
and earnest spirit of the gospel ; for, as Trench well remarks,
the sacred writers " felt and understood that all effectual
instruction for the sinful children of men includes and im
plies chastening, or, as we are accustomed to say, out of a
sense of the same truth, correction." The expression here,
therefore, bears respect to the native tendency of the human
heart, as requiring to be chastened and subdued, that it
may be delivered from its inherent superfluity of naughti
ness, and formed to the pure, upright, and^ benignant
character which becomes the gospel of Christ. And this
corrective influence, or internal discipline, is what the grace
of God in Christ Jesus comes to effect; but does so, of
course, according to its proper nature, less by imposing any
conscious restraint, than by infusing and nourishing the
desires which breathe after conformity to the will of God.
Herein lies the difference between the law and the gospel ;
yet their common end, the moral aim of the disciplining in
question, "is expressed first in the negative, then in the posi
tive form : in the former respect it shows itself in a denial
of ungodliness and worldly (KocrpiKas, only occurring once
again in New Testament Scripture, Heb. ix. 1) lusts ; that

280 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
is, in a disrelishing and avoiding of those things which tend
to dishonour God, and pamper desires and appetites which
are of a merely terrene nature. It is impossible, of course,
in such things to draw on every side a sharp boundary line
between what is allowable and forbidden, for the one will
often seem, in actual life, to approach very near to the
other ; while still, in every real child of grace, and the more
always that grace is living and active in his experience,
there will never fail to be such a shrinking from the corrup
tions, and such a reserve even in regard to the common
pleasures of the world, as to render his course easily dis
tinguishable from that of those whose " portion is in this
life." We have the same thought as to the renunciation of
worldly lusts expressed, and somewhat more strongly, in
i John ii. 15-17.
A positive, however, must go along with this negative ;
for an active following after the good is the necessary coun
terpart and complement to a renunciation of the evil ; and
this the apostle describes as a life marked by three pro
minent characteristics : that we might live soberly, justly,
and godlily, in this present world. We may not say, perhaps,
that in these words the apostle intended to mark a three
fold distinction of moral duty ; but commentators have not
unnaturally observed, that they do in fact admit of special
application to oneself, one's neighbour, and God. Soberly
expresses the self-command and restraint which the Chris
tian should always exercise over his thoughts and actions ;
justly, the integrity that should regulate all his dealings
towards his fellow-men ; while godlily or piously indicates
the state of mind and conduct he should maintain in his
relation toward God. And all these are given as distinctive
features of the life he should lead, he should be ever living
(for the aorist tfjawp.ev sums it up into one ideal whole), in
this present world, notwithstanding that there is so much
in it to tempt to a contrary course. Through grace the

TITUS II. 12-14. 281
believer must triumph over all ; as the apostle says of him
self elsewhere, " I can do all things through Christ strength
ening me" (Phil. iv. 13).
Ver. 13. Looking for the blessed hope and manifestation of
the glory of the great God and our Saviour fesus Christ.
This statement, expressing the attitude of believers with
reference to the future, can scarcely be regarded as included
in the disciplinary action of the grace of God as now re
vealed in Christ; it comes in rather as an appendage or
fitting sequel to the other, and for the purpose of showing
how the past manifestation of the grace of God in Christ,
when it works its proper effect upon the heart of the be
liever, naturally leads on to the expectation of another
manifestation — a manifestation in glory. Such an expecta
tion will doubtless help the disciplinary process, by bringing
to bear on the higher principles and desires of the soul the
potent influence of an elevating hope ; but it does not itself
possess a disciplinary character. When believers are said
to look for the hope, it is clear that hope is, if not alto
gether, yet mainly, viewed in an objective light — identified
with the object hoped for; yet, being said to be looked for,
there is here also an exercise of hope in the same direction.
There is the same apparent anomaly in what St. Paul says
of the Jews respecting the resurrection at Acts xxiv. 5 :
" Having hope toward God, which [hope] they also them
selves look for " {rrpoaSexbvrai, the same word as here), " that
there shall be a resurrection : " a hope possessed, and at the
same time looked forward to as still in the future (see also
Gal. v. 5, Col. i. 5). The apostle seems to have been in
the habit of contemplating the hope of coming glory so
much in connection with its actual realization, that it some
times presented itself to his mind as a kind of substantive
thing, standing outside the believer, although still the be
liever's existing position was conceived of by him as one
of hope; and at other times he represents him as being

282 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
peculiarly influenced by the power of hope (see Rom.
viii. 24, Col. i. 27, Tit. i. 2). The hope, considered with
respect to its realization, is here called blessed, because of
the happy results with which it shall be associated in the
experience of all to whom it properly belongs. But the
hope itself is more closely defined by what follows — the
manifestation of the glory : so, certainly, should eirupdveiav
rrjs 86iys be rendered, not by hendyadis, as in the Autho
rized Version, " glorious appearing," for the manifestation
of the glory as a thing to come stands here in a kind of
antithesis to the manifestation of the grace which has
already taken place. But the chief difficulty in connection
with this latter portion of ver. 13 lies in determining
whether the manifestation of glory spoken of is to be con
nected both, with God and with Christ, or simply with
Christ as at once God and Saviour. If the latter view were
adopted, then the proper way to avoid all ambiguity would
be to render, with Ellicott and many others, " the manifes
tation of the glory of our great God and Saviour Jesus
Christ;" while, if with the Vulgate, Syr., and all the
English translations, except the Genevan, we render, "of
the glory of the great God and of our Saviour Jesus Christ,"
we naturally think of God and Christ as distinguished from
each other. A decision has been sought in favour of the
former view, by Middleton and many others, on the gram
matical principle, that the article tov, standing simply
before p,ey. ©eov, and omitted before o-coT^pos, covers the two
expressions as attributives of one and the same person.
On the ground of this principle, Middleton says: "It is
impossible to understand ©eov and o-ioTTjpos otherwise than
of one person." Had two been meant, the article must
have been repeated before o-coTrjpos. Ellicott, however,
frankly admits that "it is very doubtful whether the
interpretation of the passage can be fully settled on this
principle." And Winer, while he allows that "crcorijpos

TITUS II. 12-14. 283
yjiwv may be regarded as a second predicate, jointly
depending on the article tov," still holds to the other
interpretation, and considers "the article to have been
omitted before o-coTrjpos, because this word is defined by
the ' genitive 7jp.£v, and because the apposition precedes
the proper name : of the great God and of our Saviour fesus
Christ" (Gr. § xix. 5). Alford is of the same opinion, and
thinks that awryp was one of those words which gradually
dropt the article and became a quasi proper name — referring
in proof to 1 Tim. ii. 1, iv. 10 — the article here also being
the less needed on account of the pronoun ijp-cov. Both
writers, however, as also Huther, De Wette, and several
others, confess themselves to be chiefly influenced by a
regard to St. Paul's usual style of representation, especially
in the Pastoral epistles, in which the relation of God to
salvation is not identified with, but distinguished from
Christ's: 1 Tim. i. 1, ii. 3-5; Tit. iii. 4-6; also Jude 24.
There is, undoubtedly, something in this consideration ;
and it can scarcely be maintained that there is any quite
parallel passage in St. Paul's writings, if he should here be
held to have designated Jesus Christ at once "the great
God and our Saviour."
On the other hand,] there are especially two considera
tions which must be allowed to have considerable weight
in the opposite direction. One is, that the notion expressed
by iirnpaveia is in New Testament Scripture specially ap
plied to the Son, not to the Father (2 Tim. i. 10 ; 2 Thess.
ii. 8 ; 1 Tim. vi. 14 ; 2 Tim. iv. 1, 8) ; the nearest approach
to it in connection with the Father is at Matt. xvi. 27,
where it is said that Christ shall appear in the glory of His
Father, though still the appearing or manifestation itself is
Christ's. The other consideration is, that nearly all the
Fathers — Greek, as well as'Latin — who refer to this passage,
understood it simply of Christ. Thus Chrysostom, after
quoting the words, says : " Where are they who speak of

284 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
the Son as less than the Father ? Of the great God, he
says, and Saviour. When he couples great with God, he
does not say great in respect to what, but great absolutely,
since tliere is nothing great after Him." So Jerome:
"Where is the serpent Arius? Where the snake Euno-
mius ? Jesus Christ, the Saviour, is called the great God.
Not as the first-begotten of every creature, not as the Word
or Wisdom of God, is He so called, but as Jesus Christ —
names which belong to Him as having assumed humanity."
Quotations to the same effect have been produced from
Clemens Alex., Hippolytus, Basil, Gregory Nys., Epipha
nius, Aug. (see Waterland, Works, ii. p. 135). This striking
unanimity as to such being indisputably the meaning of the
passage, must be held conclusive to this extent, that the
application of the epithets " great God " and " our Saviour "
to Jesus Christ, appeared to persons conversant with the
Greek as a living tongue, not only a competent, but by
much the most natural interpretation. So that no one who
takes this view can be charged with doing violence to the
passage, considered by itself. The only question that seems
open is, whether the other view, which distinguishes be
tween God and Christ, is not in somewhat better accord
with the usual language of the apostle. In a doctrinal
point of view, it is of little moment which interpretation
is adopted ; for, while I see no reason for saying, with
Alford, that this latter interpretation " even more strikingly
asserts Christ's equality in glory with the Father," than
that which directly ascribes to Him the designation of the
great God, it is inconceivable that the name of Christ as
Saviour should be associated equally with the Father in
that manifestation of glory which is the culminating hope
of the church, unless He had been essentially divine —
unless, indeed, the peculiar glory of the Father had been
that also of the Son. I am disposed, with Calvin, rather to
press this aspect of the matter, as being, on the whole, the

TITUS II. 12-14. 2^5
more sure and satisfactory. Feeling some doubt whether
the epithets should be applied solely ' to Christ, or dis
junctively to the Father and the Son, and having referred
to the mode in which the orthodox Fathers sought to con
fute the Arians from the passage, Calvin characteristically
adds : " More briefly and certainly may the Arians be re
futed thus, since Paul, when speaking of the revelation of
the glory of the great God; presently conjoined Christ, so
that we might know that that revelation of glory was to be
made in His person ; as if he said, when Christ shall have
appeared, then shall be disclosed to us the magnitude of
the divine glory."
Ver. 14. In this verse we have an expansion of the term
Saviour applied to Christ, so presented as to bring out
a fresh exhibition of the grand moral aim contemplated
in the grace of the gospel : Who gave Himself for us —
Himself, eWrdv, as contradistinguished from any inferior
gift, and that for us, virep yp,S>v, not exactly in our room
or stead (which oVti yp.wv would have expressed), but in
our behalf. It was altogether in our interest that the
great self-sacrificing deed was done ; and in what respect
is immediately stated : in order that He might redeem —
Xvrpwayrai, by the paying of a ransom free — us from all
iniquity, and purify to Himself a peculiar people, zealous of
good works. It is what may be called the redemptive,
not the atoning or propitiatory aspect of Christ's work,
which is here brought into view, though the two are
very closely interconnected, and the one now under con
sideration presupposes and is founded upon the other ;¦
for it is only by virtue of the reconciliation with God,
effected through the propitiatory death of Christ, that
there is attained by the sinner such a participation in the
life of Christ, and such renewing and strengthening aid
from the Spirit of grace, as may enable him to break the
bonds of his spiritual captivity, and rise into the pure

286 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
and glorious liberty of God's children. Having through
His obedience unto death paid the costly ransom through
which this happy change is accomplished, Christ is there
fore said to have redeemed from iniquity those who share
in His salvation, and purified them to Himself as a peculiar
people — Aadv irepiovaiov, a people over and above, occupy
ing a position separate and peculiar, like one's peculium or
special treasure. The expression, as used here, is taken
from Ex. xix. 5, Deut. vii. 6, xiv. 2, where the Sept. gives
it as the equivalent of the Heb. segullah ('"^P), treasure, or
peculiar possession. In meaning, it substantially coincides
with the Aadv eis irepnroiyaiv of 1 Pet ii. 9, a people for
doing about, preparing, and fashioning for one's special
use, hence peculiar (otKetov, Theodoret). Jerome, with sub
stantial correctness, and on the ground of those Old Testa
ment passages having explained the phrase, adds : " Rightly,
therefore, Christ Jesus, our Great God and Saviour, re
deemed us by His blood, in order that He might make
a Christian people peculiar to Himself, who should then
indeed be peculiar, if they proved to be zealous of good
works." So that while the direct subject of the passage
is sanctification, this is here, as in New Testament Scrip
ture generally, made to spring out of that which is primarily
the ground of our justification and peace with God.
Ver. 15. These things speak, and exhort, and reprove with
all authority. A short retrospective utterance, for the
purpose of impressing upon the mind of Titus the im
portance of the things which had just been declared
respecting the salvation of God in Christ, and of his
bringing them to bear in every possible way upon the
understandings and hearts of the people. They were,
therefore, first to be spoken, or taught in plain and in
telligible language ; then they were to be made the sub
ject of exhortation, that is, pressed as matters of obligation
upon the conscience; and finally, when these failed to

TITUS III. I. 287
secure the requisite attention and compliance, reproof
was to be added — and this with ^11 authority, p-eTa irdays
hrirayys — with every sort of imperative earnestness, as of
one speaking under authority, having a right to enjoin
as well as to teach and exhort. The word iirirayy is
used only by Paul, and always in much the same sense —
an authoritative order or command (Rom. xvi. 26 ; 1 Cor.
vii. 6 ; 1 Tim. i. 1 ; Tit. i. 3). Let no man despise tliee ;
that is, maintain your place as a delegated ambassador
and servant of Christ, and act in such a manner that
others shall see your determination to secure what in this
respect is due to your office. Admonitions of this kind,
given more than once to Timothy (comp. 1 Tim. iv. 11, 12,
v. 21, vi. 13, 14, 2 Tim. iv. 1, 2), seem to imply that
his weak point lay here,, and that he required to be stimu
lated to the display of firmness and resolution in standing
to the rights and duties of his office.

CHAPTER III.

Ver. 1. Passing from the more direct and spiritual
obligations of the gospel, the apostle proceeds now to
indicate the proper bearing of Christians toward the con
stituted authorities. It is not improbable, though it can
not be held certain, that he may have been led to give
such prominence to this, from a known tendency on the
part of the Cretans to insubordination and turmoil. Be
fore their subjugation to Rome, which was accomplished
by Metellus, B.C. 67, they had the reputation of being
somewhat quarrelsome and seditious (Polybius, vi. 46 :
crrdcrecri Kai cpdvois Kai iroAepois ifupvXiois dvaarpecpop.evoys) ;
the different tribes and free cities displaying a good deal
of jealousy in regard to their respective rights, and a readi
ness to take up arms in vindication of them. The Jews

288 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
also, who are known to have existed in considerable
numbers throughout Crete, were everywhere beginning to
show signs of insubordination towards the Roman yoke
about the closing period of St. Paul's labours, and the
storm was already gathering among them, which, in a few
years more, was to burst forth with terrible fury. In such
circumstances, it can readily be supposed that there might
have been special, as well as general, reasons for the
apostle here pressing the duties of civil obedience : Put them
in mind to submit themselves to magistrates, to authorities1
to obey rulers, to be ready to every good work. There is a
striking redundancy in the terms indicative of the kind
of obedience required, as if to exclude all possibility of
evasion : the civic rulers are designated dpxat and i^ovaiai,
as in Luke xii. n, intended, doubtless, to include all classes
of governing powers, but without meaning, apparently, to
denote by the one a lower, and by the other a higher grade.
And, besides being required to' submit themselves to these,
the people were also to be enjoined ireiBapxeiv, a term
which of itself comprehends the entire circle of obedience :
it may be taken either generally, to be obedient, or more
specifically, to obey rulers ; in the former it occurs at Acts
v. 29, 32; but here, considering the connection, the kind
of obedience as to persons in authority may perhaps be
indicated. That the being ready to every good work should
follow on such precepts respecting civil subjection, was
probably suggested by the thought of the magistrate's
office having for its professed object the repression of
evil, and the encouragement of well-doing (Rom. xiii. 3) ;
so that the possession of a mind ready for every good work
would in ordinary circumstances render civic obedience
comparatively easy, would make the yoke in a manner
unfelt Of course, the requirement had then, as it has still,
1 The m! of the received text between ipxaTs and i^ovriais is wanting
in s, A, C, D, F, G, and should therefore be omitted.

TITUS III. 2, 3. 289
its limitations: the duties of rulers and ruled are reciprocal;
and absolute unrestricted authority on the one side is no
more to be contemplated than unqualified submission on
the other, for neither is in accordance with the essential
principles of truth and rectitude. Obedience to external
authority can be due only in so far as that authority has
a right to command; when it oversteps this, and issues
injunctions which reach beyond its proper line of things,
the higher principles of obligation come in : " We must
obey God rather, than men ; " " Be not partaker in other
men's sins."
Ver. 2. A quiet, inoffensive demeanour in the more
private relations of life is now inculcated : to revile no man,
to be not contentious, forbearing, showing all meekness unto all
men. The first verb, f3Xaa<pyp,eiv, imports more than to
speak evil in the ordinary sense ; it is to act the part of a
reviler or slanderer ; and when used of conduct from one
man toward another, always betokens the exercise of a very
bitter and malignant spirit. Titus was to charge the Chris
tians of Crete to give no exhibition toward any one of such
a spirit, nor to show a quarrelsome disposition, but, on the
contrary, to cultivate a mild, placable, and gentle temper.
Ver. 3. As a reason for the manifestation of this mild
and benignant spirit toward others, even degraded and
ignorant heathen, the. apostle refers to their own similar
state in the past, and the marvellously kind and compas
sionate treatment they had, notwithstanding, experienced
from their heavenly Father : For we also (we, namely, who
are now Christians) were once foolish (or void of understand
ing ; see Gal. iii. 1, Eph. iv. 18), disobedient, going astray,
serving diverse lusts and pleasures] living in malice and envy,
hateful, and hating one another. It is a dark picture of the
natural state of men, and must be understood in the general,
as more or less applicable to all who are left to the workings
of corrupt nature, especially when that nature has developed
T

290 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
itself amid the manifold temptations and pernicious ex
amples of heathenism, but not without a measure of exem
plification also even in such as, like St. Paul himself, have
been brought up amid the decencies of a religious profes
sion, so long as the heart has remained a stranger to the
renewing grace of God. If, therefore, we may justly enough
say that Paul was not thinking of himself primarily here, —
was thinking rather of those in whom, up to the period of
their conversion to the faith of Christ, the propensities and.
dispositions of nature had taken their free course, — there is
no reason, on "the other hand, for supposirig that the apostle
could have dreamt of excepting himself, as if he had not
been conscious of possessing the same elements of character
in his natural state. Elsewhere he has expressly affirmed
as much of men universally, including himself (Rom. i. 18
sq., ii., iii. 9-20, vii., etc.) ; and it can scarcely be charac
terized otherwise than as absurd in Schrader to speak of the
writer here forgetting the representation given of the apostle
at 2 Tim. i. 3 as a man who from his forefathers had served
Cod with a pure conscience. For in our passage, in so far
as he contemplates himself, it is as lying in the corruption
and following the tendencies of nature ; while in the other
he thinks only of what he was from the time that the sense
of religion had been awakened in him, and he entered in
telligently into the faith and spirit of his believing ancestry.
The particular expressions are all simple enough. It may
be doubted whether irAavcop-evoi should be taken in the
neuter or the passive sense — going astray, or led astray, de
ceived. It occurs in both senses in New Testament Scripture :
comp. Matt. xxii. 29, Mark xii. 27, Gal. vi. 7, with John
vii. 47, 1 Cor. vi. 9, 2 Tim. iii. 13 ; but here, where the
whole tenor of' the passage has respect to evil in its more
active manifestations, the neuter sense seems to be the more
suitable. So the Vulg. errantes ; also the Syriac, Ellicott,
Huther, and others. The term here used for pleasures —

TITUS III. 4. 291
pleasures, namely, of a grovelling or sinful kind — TjSovats, is
not elsewhere found in St. Paul's writings, but occurs in
other books, Luke viii. 14; Jas. iv. 1, 3 ; 2 Pet. ii. 13 ; and
the idea of doing service or being in bondage to such things
is employed more than once by our apostle, Rom. vi. 6, 16,
xvi. 18. It cannot therefore with any justice be called an
un-Pauline form of expression. Living, spending life (Sid-
yovres, sc. /3idv), in malice and envy, expresses only what is
implied of men in their natural state at Eph. iv. 31, Col.
iii. 8. The term arvyyToi is found only here, but is of the
same import as fiiayroi (Hesych.) : it indicates the posses
sion of qualities which are fitted to awaken the dislike of
others — selfishness in some one or other of its aspects ; and
in proportion as this existed there could not fail to be
exhibitions of the remaining quality, hating one another.
Comp. Gal. v. 15. In regard to all the qualities, the degrees
of strength and forms of manifestation might be infinitely
diversified ; but of this the apostle says nothing.
Ver. 4. But when the kindness and the love toward man of
our Saviour God was manifested : it might almost be put
kindness and philanthropy, for our philanthropy is but the
English form of the original, and bears much the same
sense. The Vulg. has humanitas. In New Testament
Scripture it occurs again only in Acts xxviii. 2, where it is
employed to characterize the humane and kindly behaviour
of the people of Malta. In reply to De Wette's remark on
the word, that " it is an unusual mode of expressing the
idea of x»pts," Huther properly states that " the reason why
Paul here uses this word is given in ver. 2, where he exhorts
believers to show meekness (irpavrys) toward all men ;
Xpyarorys corresponds [nearly at least] to meekness, and
with reference to the ' all men ' <ptXavBpwiria is added by
the apostle. The goodness and man-ward love of God, in
which our salvation is grounded, should impel us to the
exercise of meekness and gentleness toward all men." In

292 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
John iii. 16, the pregnant expression, " God so loved the
world," corresponds to the tpiXavBpwiria here ; and in this
passage as well as in the other, the love to man which is
celebrated as appearing in the procedure of God is strictly
associated with redemption ; it is the love of our Saviour
God (see at chap. ii. 11, 1 Tim. i. 1). That it must here
also be understood of God the Father, seems plain from the
mention afterwards of Christ as the instrumental agent —
" through Jesus Christ."
Ver. 5. Here the apostle carefully guards the divine
benignity and loving-kindness with respect to the freeness
of its actings : not of works — works in righteousness — which
we did1 but according to His mercy He saved us. The act of
God, though expressed only at the close, covers the whole
of the passage : He saved us, not on one ground, but on
another. Not of works — that is, out of them (e£) as the
formal or meritorious cause. And then the works are more
exactly defined as rwv iv SiKaioavvy — those, namely, done
in righteousness as the state or sphere in which we moved,
or, with Winer {Gr. § 48. 3, e), in the spirit of a righteous
person ; and to make the meaning plain in English, we
require either to repeat works, or to insert some such word
as done or wrought. Bengel rightly states that " the nega
tive belongs to the whole announcement : We had not been
in righteousness ; we had not done works in righteousness ;
we did not possess works through which we could be saved."
The works of righteousness, in respect to which salvation is
denied, are contemplated as past with reference to God's
1 There is a diversity of reading here : the received text has Zv iorom-
o-ap.iv — the «i by attraction for a, as very commonly in the New Testa
ment — with E, K, L, and many later MSS. ; but the reading of 8, A1, C1, D1,
F,is a i*omo-., which is adopted by Tisch., Lachm., Huther, Alford, who
regard the other as a correction of the scribes in accordance with the
law of attraction. It may have been so ; but apart from that, this is the
reading of our best MSS., and on that ground should be adhered to.

TITUS III. 5. 293
saving act : they were non-existent when that act came into
effect, consequently had no influence in calling it forth ; it
proceeded entirely irrespective of them. And then, in con
trast to this negation as to things on our part — works that
we had not done — there is introduced the real ground of
action — God's own mercy. The connection is expressed
by KaTa, which in such a case denotes the occasion or
reason, and is much the same as " in consequence of," " by
reason of" (see Winer, Gr. § 49. d. b, and similar examples
in Acts iii. 17, 1 Pet. i. 3, Phil. ii. 3). So that the well-
spring of. salvation is here represented as lying in the kind
and loving propensions of God toward men, and these
coming forth in the character of provisions and overtures of
mercy in behalf of the undeserving, the sinful (comp. Luke
i. 72, 78 ; Rom. ix. 23 ; Eph. ii. 4). As the apostle, how
ever, is speaking of the actual experience of salvation, the
mercy of God is contemplated mainly in connection with
the application of the provisions of grace to individual
souls. For, as well noted by Wiesinger, " it is only the
part which God performs in our salvation that is held up to
view ; and so it did not admit of that being mentioned
which is required on the part of man, as the subjective
instrument or condition of his entrance on salvation.
Hence it is not said, Sid ttjs Trio-Tews (as in other passages) ;
for the apostle's aim here is not to describe the new state of
the man, but to point to the act and saving agency of God
in regard to the individual, by which the new state is brought
about, and which shows, more than anything else, that this
new state does not rest on man's merit or his own doing."
Then follows an indication of the means through which
the divine mercy realizes itself in experience : through the
laver of regeneration, and [through] renewing of the Holy
Ghost. Such appears to be the proper rendering of the
text. The word Aovrpdv, which in New Testament Scrip
ture occurs only here and in Eph. v. 26, has been very

294 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
variously understood. Washing is the sense adopted by
Wycliffe and the Authorized Version ; but Tyndale, Cran
mer, and the Geneva have fountain ; the Rheims, after the
Vulgate (lavacrum), has laver. This last is the only ascer
tained sense of the word : taken literally, it signifies not
the act of washing, but the vessel or bath in which the
act was performed. And the only question is, how the
expression, when coupled here with regeneration, is to be
explained. Some have taken it in an altogether figurative
sense, as emblematically representing the spiritual change ;
some, again, of the Holy Spirit, or of the word — the one as
the efficient, the other as the instrumental, cause of regene
ration. But these cannot be termed quite natural expla
nations ; and neither here nor at Eph. v. 26 do they seem
to have once occurred to the ancient interpreters. They
all apply the expression to the baptismal ordinance : thus
Theodoret, by the complex phrase AovTpdv iraAiyyevecrias,
understands to awrypiov f3dimap.a, saving baptism ; Greg.
Naz., " We call baptism Aovrpdv, as being an ablution " —
cbs eKirAvo-iv (see further in Suicer, Thes., under the words
AovTpdv and iraAiy.). "I do not doubt (says Calvin) but
that he at least alludes to baptism ; nay, I readily admit
that the. passage is to be explained of baptism, not because
salvation is included in the outward symbol of water, but
because baptism seals to us the salvation procured by Christ.
. . . But the apostles are wont to deduce an argument
from the sacraments to prove the reality sealed therein ;
since that beginning ought to convince pious minds that
God does not mock us with empty figures, but by His own
power inwardly accomplishes what He exhibits by an ex
ternal sign. That man will righdy hold the proper use and
virtue of the sacraments, who shall thus connect the sign
and the thing signified, so as neither to make the sign
empty or inefficacious, nor yet, with the view of extolling
it, detract from the Holy Spirit what is His own." When

TITUS III. .5. 295
interpreted thus, the passage yields no countenance to a
ritualistic, and superstitious use ofthe ordinanse, such, as
became common with the Fathers, when they regarded the
very waters of baptism as being, when rightly administered,
impregnated with the power of the Spirit — trans-elemented,
as it was called — so as by a kind of sacred magic , to pro
duce the spiritual result.1 It is simply as an ordinance of
God — an ordinance that has specially connected with it
the promise of God's Holy Spirit — that the apostle here
speaks of it ; implying that, if entered into with the same
sincerity on man's part that it is appointed on God's,
the promise will assuredly be made good; while to the
hypocritical and unbelieving it may not less certainly
prove, in common with other divine ordinances, alto
gether fruitless. If, therefore, we say that the natural
import of St. Paul's words here obliges us to hold that he
speaks of baptism, it is of baptism, we must remember (to
use the words of Ellicott), " on the supposition that it was
no mere observance, but that it was a sacrament, in which
all that was inward properly and completely accompanied
all that was outward. He thus could say, in the fullest
1 It was a source of inextricable confusion in the Patristic theology,
and the occasion of much practical error and superstition, that the
Fathers identified, in the unqualified manner they did, the ordinance
of baptism with regeneration. Mr. Mozley's endeavour to justify them
in so doing (in his Primitive Doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration),
though containing much valuable matter, cannot be regarded as satis
factory ; for their usual style of representation was clearly fitted to
mislead, and in Augustine particularly was inconsistent with his doc
trine of grace. But occasionally they could distinguish well enough.
Augustine, for example, speaks of the possibility of the laver of regene
ration being unaccompanied with the grace of regeneration (Enar. in
Ps. lxxvii.), and of conversion of heart being sometimes where there is
not baptism, and of baptism being where conversion of heart is not (De
Bap. iv. 25). So Jerome speaks of persons who do not receive baptism
with a full faith, and says of them that "they have received the water,
but have not received the Spirit" (Com. in Ezek. xvi. 4, 5).

296 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
sense of the words, that it was a laver of regeneration, as he
had also said (Gal. iii. 27) that as many as were baptized
into Christ had put on Christ — entered into vital union with
Him." The most exact parallel, however, is 1 Pet. iii. 21,
where, with reference to the salvation wrought for Noah
through the deluge and the ark, the apostle says that
" baptism now also saves us; " but then baptism of what
sort? Not that (he presently adds) which is simply out-'
ward, and which could avail only to the purifying of the
flesh, but that which carries with it "the answer (or in
terrogation) of a good conscience toward God through the
resurrection of Jesus Christ" It was baptism of such a
kind as involved an earnest and conscientious deahng
with God in respect to salvation, and an appropriation of
the new life brought in for believers by the death and
resurrection of Christ.
In our passage, what is- said of baptism is further guarded
and defined by what follows respecting the work of the
Spirit : through the laver of regeneration, and renewing of the
Holy Ghost {ko.1 dvaKaivwaews Tlv. dyiov). So far as gram
matical construction is concerned, avaKatvcoo-eors might be
made dependent either on Xovrpov or on Sid : it might be
rendered either " through the laver of regeneration and
of the- Holy Ghost's renewing," or " through the laver of
regeneration, and through renewing of the Holy Ghost.''
With the view of securing the latter rendering, several
mss. insert a second Sid (D, E, F, G) ; Jerome also
expresses it, per renovationem, though the Vulgate has
renovationis : hence connecting renovation as well as re
generation with laver. By renovation, however, as used in
New Testament Scripture, is meant a progressive change
to the better — a growing advancement in the divine life,
of which the Holy Spirit, indeed, is the efficient agent, but
in which also there is a concurrent action of the regenerated
soul. The grace that works in it is not converting, but

TITUS III. 6. 297
co-operating and strengthening grace. And while baptism
is the seal of the new birth, and gives assurance of the
Spirit for all redemption blessings, it is never formally re
presented as the seal of spiritual progress, nor could it with
propriety be so. For it has respect to our introduction
into a new- state, but not to any future and successive
advances thereafter to be made in it. The ordinance of
the Supper, in a sacramental point of view, stands related
to this, not baptism. There are therefore two things
marked here — first baptism (as the laver of regeneration),
and then the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which is but
another name for progressive sanctification. And as the
apostle, in predicating salvation, or an experimental ac
quaintance with the saving mercy of God in Christ, speaks
only of such as have partaken alike of baptism and of the
Spirit's renewal — partaken not of one of these merely, but
of both — it is a departure from the precedent of apostolic
teaching to use language indicative of a saved condition,
where one only ofthe two can be said to have come into
play. If people will speak of baptismal regeneration, let
them take care, as Alford has justly cautioned, to bear in
mind what baptism in such a case should be understood to
mean : " not the mere ecclesiastical act — not the mere fact
of reception by that act among God's professing people ;
but that, completed by the divine act, manifested by the
- operation of the Holy Ghost in the heart and through the
life." Precisely similar language, it may be added, is often
used regarding the word which is here applied to baptism :
it, too, is coupled with regeneration, or a saving change
(John i. 12, 13; 1 Cor. i. 18, 21; Rom. x. 9; Jas. i. 18;
1 Pet. i. 23 ; 1 John v. 1) ; but then it is always on the
understanding, expressed or implied, that the word has
been received into the heart, and produced through divine
grace its proper effect.
Ver. 6. Having named the Holy Spirit as the efficient

298 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
author of the renovation accomplished in believers, the
apostle goes on to indicate, in further proof of the loving
kindness and mercy of God in the matter of our salvation,
the copiousness of the gift; it is bestowed, not with a
grudging, but with a free and benignant hand : which He
poured out (ov e^eev, the ov by attraction with the preced
ing HvevpaTos dyiov, not in any way dependent on Aoirrpov)
on us richly through fesus Christ our Saviour. The form of
expression is derived from the language of Old Testament
prophecy (Joel ii. 28 ; Zech. xii. 10), adopted by the aposties
at the commencement of the New Testament church (Acts
ii. 17, 33, x. 45) — language proceeding on the similitude of
the Spirit's grace to quickening and refreshing streams of
water. As such He is represented, not simply as given,
but as poured out, — nay, poured out richly, in order to
convey some idea of the plenteous beneficence of the gift.
This rich bestowal is peculiar to New Testament times;
and here, as elsewhere, it is expressly connected with the
mediation of Christ, who as Saviour has opened the way
for it, and Himself sends forth the Spirit as the fruit of His
work on earth, and the token of its acceptance with the
Father (John xiv. 16, 26, xvi. 7 ; Luke xxiv. 49 ; Gal. iv.
6 ; Eph. iv. 7-1 1). So that the whole Trinity appears here
as concurring in the blessed work of our salvation : we
are saved by God the Father, through the ministration of
His life-giving ordinances, rendered such by the presence
and agency of the Holy Spirit ; and this, again, proceeds
on the ground of what was done for us by Christ as our
Saviour, and what He still does in mediating between us
and the Father respecting the bestowal of the Spirit. Such
a style of representation could never have been used unless
Father, Son, and Spirit had been co-ordinate agents in the
work of salvation. And as regards the more specific topic
in this verse — the rich outpouring of the Spirit — there can be
no doubt that, as the apostle is speaking more immediately of

TITUS III. 7. 299
the salvation of individuals, it must be primarily understood
with reference to thi's, though still of this only as a part of
that general effusion of the Spirit's grace which commenced
on the day of Pentecost. The individual, in such a case,
cannot be viewed apart from the general; and it is needless
here to distinguish minutely between the two.
Ver. 7. In this verse we have the important practical
design of the salvation-work described in the three pre
ceding verses : in order that, being justified by His grace, we
might become heirs according to the hope of eternal life. The
expression by His grace {ry xdpm iKeivov) must be connected
with God the Father, since it is He always who is repre
sented as conferring the grace which justifies the ungodly.
Concurrently, however, with the Father's procedure in re
spect to justification, there is an indispensable action of the „
Holy Spirit, uniting the sinner to Christ, and so establishing
a vital bond between the guilty and the righteous. For,
however gratuitous the act of justification is as bestowed
on its objects, not only without any good deeds on their
part, but in spite of many bad deeds, there is nothing
arbitrary in it. It proceeds upon such a connection between
the soul and Christ as secures for it a participation in His
infinite worth and sufficiency, so that God is just even when
He justifies the ungodly (Rom. iii. 26). When it is said,
further, that this justification is effected that we might be
come K.Xypov6p,oi Kar' eAiriSa £cotjs aicoviov, the explanation
may run, either heirs in -respect to hope of eternal life —
heirs of that life, yet meanwhile having it only in hope ; or
heirs in conformity with the hope of eternal life — of all that
such a hope entitles to. Grammatically, the one explana
tion is as admissible as the other. But I think,with Alford,
against Huther and Ellicott, that considering the expression
used by the apostle at the commencement of this epistle, iir
eAiriSi t,wrjs alwviov, it is more natural here to couple hope
directly with eternal life, and regard the heirship spoken of as

300 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
comprehending all that is conformable to, or is embraced in,
the hope of eternal life. But the difference between the
two modes of exposition is of a philological rather than a
doctrinal kind : in substance the meaning is much the same
either way ; and to the popular apprehension, it will matter
extremely little whether we say of the justified that he is
heir of eternal life, as to hope, or that he is heir of whatever
the hope of eternal life warrants him to look for. Niceties
of this description in the interpretation of Scripture, if they
may be noticed, should certainly not be dwelt upon.
A few practical advices to Titus now close the hortatory
part of the epistle, followed up by some personal notices
and salutations.
Ver. 8. Faithful is this saying (that, namely, contained in
the immediately preceding verses respecting God's method
of procedure in respect to salvation; for the form of expres
sion, see at i Tim. i. 5) ; and concerning these things I would
have thee strenuously affirm (8ia/3e/3aiovcr0ai, make assevera
tion ; see at 1 Tim. i. 7), to ihe end that they who have
believed God be careful to practise good works — irpoiaraaBai,
set forward, practise such works. The governing verb <ppov-
Ti£eiv, which is sometimes, though rarely, as here, followed
by an infinitive, nowhere again occurs in Scripture ; but it
denotes the application of earnest and continued thought, a
careful striving of soul in this direction, that the behef in
the doctrines of the gospel should be substantiated by a
steady performance of its commanded duties. These things
— namely, the things involved in this practical teaching
and concern — are good and profitable to men : in themselves
good (KaAd), and in their tendency and results profitable
(u><f>eXifia) to others.
Ver. 9. In contrast to such sound teaching, he again
warns against that frivolous and disputative sort of teaching
which he had previously characterized (i. 10-14) : but
foolish questionings, and genealogies, and strifes, and conten-

TITUS III. 10. ' 301
tions about the law, avoid — irepdaraao, keep out of the way
of, turn from them. And on this account, for they are un
profitable and vain — utterly wanting in the practical element
which so remarkably characterizes the true doctrine of the
gospel. Ver. 10. A heretical man, after one and a second admonition,
shun. The word aipeTucds only in part corresponds to our
term heretical; perhaps schismatical or factious would more
nearly approach to it. It denoted one who set himself to
make a aipeo-is or party, separate from the community of
the faithful. In the history of the Acts the designation is
applied to the sectional divisions among the Jews — the sects
(as the word is rendered) of the Pharisees and the. Saddu
cees (chap. v. 17, xv. 5). On one occasion Paul applies it
to himself, and his former co-religionists, in a good sense ;
he spoke of it as a thing creditable to them that they
formed "the strictest sect of their religion" (chap. xxvi. 5).
This, however, might be called an exceptional use ; for,
shortly before, Paul himself confesses that, in a way which
his countrymen called heresy (alpeaiv), he worshipped God,
and was stigmatized by his accusers as a ringleader of the
Nazarene heresy or sect (chap. xxiv. 5, 14). Also in St.
Paul's own writings the expression is similarly used — Gal. v.
' 20, 1 Cor. xi. 19 ; the latter of which passages especially
throws light on the import of the word in the apostolic
church. In the preceding verse he had mentioned with
grief that he heard there were schisms or divisions among
them; and then he adds, "for there must be also alpeaeis
among you, that they who are approved may be made mani
fest among you." It is clear that the persons who taught
the atpecreis were just those who caused the schismatical
divisions — formed some kind of separate interest by unduly
elevating a human mode of teaching, or teaching what was
in itself at variance with the principles of the gospel. I
conclude, therefore, with Campbell {Preliminary Disserta-

302 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
tions on the Gospels, ix. 4), that the heretical man of our text
" must mean one who is the founder of a sect, or at least
has the disposition to create sects in the community, and
may properly be called a factious man. The admonition
here given to Titus is the same, though differently ex
pressed, with what Paul had given to the Romans when he
said, ' Mark them which cause divisions, and avoid them ' "
(chap. xvi. 7).1 A person of this conceited, opinionative
stamp Titus is counselled not summarily to cast off, but
to deal with him as an offender against the peace and
good order of the church — to give him one and even a
second admonition ; and then, if these failed to reclaim him
from his waywardness, to shun him as an evil-doer. The
apostle does not carry the matter further ; he does not ad
vise formal excommunication, the course he had himself
adopted in the case of others (1 Tim. i. 20) ; but the kind
of shunning or avoiding enjoined was a virtual excommuni
cation, as it plainly involved a resolution not to recognise
him as a Christian brother so long as he pursued his divisive
and factious course. And the reason given in the next verse
for the action recommended confirms this view.
Ver. n. Knowing that such an one is perverted, and sin
neth, being self-condemned. The language throughout is very
strong : first he is perverted — the rendering of Tyndale,
Cranmer, and Gen., and upon the whole better than the
Authorized Version, subverted: the compound verb hcrpeirw
signifying to turn out of, — namely, the ' proper way or
course ; and when used, as here, in the passive of one who,
notwithstanding even a second admonition, persists in fol
lowing his self-willed line of action, " denotes a complete
inward corruption and perverseness of character" (Ellicott).
1 The dissertation on this point is in general good, but carries to an
extreme the idea of false doctrine having nothing to do with heresy in
the gospel age. False or erroneous teaching must certainly have been
an element.

TITUS III. 12.

3°3

Then, he sinneth — apxuprdvei, lives in sin, or errs knowingly
and deliberately, because he cleaves to his own way, after
having been expostulated with about its erroneousness by
an authorized messenger of God. And so, finally, he is
said to be self-condemned : not as if he formally pronounced
judgment against himself, or was conscious of acting a part
which he consciously knew to be wrong, but because his
conduct was such as of itself to betray a desert of condem
nation. The meaning is much the same as that expressed
of similar characters at i Tim. iv. 2 — both alike spoken of
persons whose inward sense or conscience has got into
a state which is palpably at variance with the mind of
God, as made known through His authorized represen
tatives. Ver. 12. When I shall send Artemas to thee, or Tychicus,
make haste to come to me at Nicopolis. Artemas is nowhere
else mentioned ; but Tychicus is described at Col. iv. 7 as
" a beloved brother, and a faithful minister and fellOw-ser-
vant in the Lord ; " and very nearly the same expressions
are employed respecting him at Eph. vi. 21. He was an
Asiatic (Acts xx. 4), but we want materials for a closer de
termination. The Nicopolis at which St. Paul intended to
pass the winter is uncertain. Three towns of that name
are well lcnown to have existed at the time, within the
sphere of the apostle's labours : one in Cilicia, another in
Thrace, and a third in Epirus. Each of these has been
fixed on by different commentators as the one probably
meant in the passage before us ; but it is impossible to
adduce anything of a decisive nature in favour of either.
If the epistle was written from Macedonia or some part of
Greece, then it would likely be Nicopolis in Epirus, which
was by much the more important of the two in that quarter ;
but if from some place in Asia Minor, then Nicopolis in
Cilicia should rather be understood. But whichever it
might be, when the apostle states his intention to spend

304 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
the winter there (eKeT), it is clear he was not at Nicopolis
when he wrote the epistle.
Ver. 13. Zealously forward on their journey Zenas the
lawyer, and Apollos, that nothing may be wanting to them.
The crirovSatcos irpdirep.i//ov evidently means that Titus should
hasten the departure of the brethren mentioned, and do it,
as the context shows, by furnishing them with things need
ful for their journey. This is the only passage in which
the name of Zenas occurs; nor is it certain whether the
designation lawyer is to be taken in the Jewish sense (one
who had been skilled in Hebrew law, and from former
times still retained the name), or with reference to the study
and practice of law in a civil sense. The majority of com
mentators prefer the former view. But the mention of
Apollos here along with Zenas, as one whom Paul wished
to have beside him, so near the close of his earthly labours,
is a clear proof of the good understanding which subsisted
between these two eminent servants of God, and how httle
ground there is for the serious differences in respect to their
doctrinal teaching which have sometimes been aUeged by
modern rationalists. As Apollos commenced preaching
when still but imperfectly taught in the gospel, and then
received fuller instruction from some of Paul's most inti
mate friends (Acts xviii. 26), the probabihty is, that 'what
ever divergence might appear was confined to the earlier
part of his labours : and even of that we know next to
nothing. Ver. 14. The task of supplying Zenas and ApoUos with
things requisite for their journey, seems to have suggested
to the apostle the thought that the brethren generally in
Crete should be admonished to lend their help and co
operation in matters of that description. But (though I
ask you to take this in hand, it is not you alone I mean,
but) let ours also (the brethren generally) learn to practise
good deeds for necessary uses, — namely,' for such strictly

TITUS III. 15. 305
proper and important ends as supplying the wants of
Christ's servants when going on their Master's work ; and
this, in order that they may not be unfruitful — may not spend
life unsuitably to their profession.
Ver. 15. The conclusion is brief and simple: All that
are with me (that is, probably, such as were labouring with
him in the ministry of the gospel) salute thee; salute those
thai love us in the faith; the grace (namely, of God) be with
you all. No other epistle of the apostle's ends quite simi
larly. The mode of salutation may be said to be Pauline in
spirit ; but in form it differs too much from those found in
the other epistles, to have been at all likely to occur to any
one but the apostle himself. But including, as it did, all
who loved the apostle in the faith, it implies that the epistle
was to be made known to the churches in Crete.

THE
SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY.

This is admitted, by all who hold the authenticity of the
Pastoral epistles, to be the last -writing. we have from the
pen of the apostle. He had himself evidently despaired, at
the time he wrote, of getting deliverance from the hand of
his persecutors, or even of having his martyrdom long de
layed. An early termination of his course by an unjust and
violent death appeared now to be inevitable ; and the brief
epistle in which he gave expression to his last utterances of
faith and hope, is altogether worthy of the occasion. The
probable date has been already discussed in the Intro
duction. A measure of uncertainty must always hang
around it; but a variety of -convergent circumstances seems
to point to the year a.d. 68 as the most likely period.

CHAPTER I.

Ver. i-. Paul, an apostle of Christ fesus by the will of
God, according to the promise of life which is in Christ fesus.
The descriptive designation which Paul here employs re
specting himself is so far peculiar, that it does not precisely
accord with any other found at the commencement of his
epistles, while still there is nothing in it which is not also

2 TIMOTHY I. 2. 307
found in some of them. That he was an apostle by, or
through, God's will, is very frequently expressed — 1 Cor.
i. 1 ; 2 Cor. i. 1 ; Eph. i. 1 ; Col. i. 1 : in the First to Timothy
it was by God's appointment, which occurs only there. In
connecting his apostleship here, and so frequently, with
God's will, he sought to place it above, not merely any
choice or desert of his own, but also every kind of elective
agency that was simply human, and to bring it into im
mediate connection with the. mind and purposes of the
Supreme. To show this more distinctly, he adds : accord
ing to the promise of life which is in Christ fesus. This
promise of life, or, as it is expressed in Tit. i. 2, "hope of
eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before eter
nal times," is presented as the primary ground out of which
the specific acts and arrangements of God proceeded in
reference to the work of salvation in the world, and among
others, Paul's own calling to the apostleship, which formed
an important link of connection between the promise and
its actual realization among men. The life meant, of course,
is life in the higher sense, comprehensive of all the blessing
and glory, both in this world and the next, which flow from
an interest in the redemption of Christ. It is therefore
not life simply, but that life which is in Christ Jesus (see
at 1 Tim. vi. 1 9). Timothy is thus again reminded, at the
outset, that the character in which Paul now wrote to him,
and consequently the counsels and admonitions which in
that character he might express, bore on them a divine
impress : they stood in near proximity to the eternal purpose
and will of the Father.
Ver. 2. To Timothy, [my] beloved child. I cannot but
regard it as a very frivolous question, to ask here, with
some commentators, why the apostle should have addressed
Timothy as his beloved {dyairyrw), and not, as in the first
epistle, his true (yvyaiw) child ? and whether his doing so
did not bespeak a somewhat diminished confidence now

308 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
in respect to Timothy ? (Mack, Alford.) Why should an
apostle, any more than another person, be expected, if he
has once employed a particular epithet on an endeared
friend, to confine himself ever afterwards to the same ?
For anything we know, it might be the very reason why
Paul did not use true here, that he was conscious of
having used it in the former epistle ; for love itself, when
fervent, instinctively shrinks from formal repetitions. And
did not Timothy now need to be greeted with an endearing
rather than a confidential epithet, separated as he was un
willingly, and at such a crisis, from his spiritual father?
The tears shed by the youthful disciple at that separation,.
which were still fresh in the remembrance of the apostle's
heart (ver. 4), would alone prompt the latter to select a
term that would be expressive of tenderness and affection.
If there are certain things in the epistle (as Alford alleges)
which seem to indicate a " somewhat saddened reminding,
rather than one of rising hope and confidence," toward
Timothy, the designation of beloved child, so appropriate
in the circumstances, is assuredly not one of them ; and
the attempt to turn it to such account belongs to fancy,
not to exposition. Grace, mercy, peace from God the Father,
and Christ fesus our Lord. The same form of salutation as
at 1 Tim. i. 2, which see, with reference especially to the
inclusipn of mercy, a peculiarity of these two epistles.
Vers. 3-5. I give thanks io God, whom I serve from my
forefathers in a pure conscience. The form of expression at
the commencement, x°i"-v ^X") occurs only once again
in St. Paul's acknowledged epistles — 1 Tim. i. 12 ; else
where it is eixapiarw (see there). In mentioning God
as entitled, on a certain account, to receive and actually
receiving thanks from him, the apostle couples a statement
as to his own present and past relation to Him : the God
he now served was also the God of his forefathers, and
the service was done in a pure conscience toward Him,

2 TIMOTHY I. 3-5. 309
as theirs also . had been. By forefathers (xpoydvtov) may
be understood either the nearer or more remote ancestry,
but most naturally the former ; as also at 1 Tim. v. 4,
where the same word is used of grand-parents, the parent
age just a step further off than the immediately preceding
— Scottice, forbears. The apostle's service or worship
(Xarpevw) formally, indeed, differed from that of his fore
fathers, inasmuch as it was all offered in the name of the
Lord Jesus Christ ; but then, holding this Jesus to be the
Messiah promised to the fathers, and ever looked for by
them, there was both the same God, and essentially the
¦same worship, with him and with them. The one faith
which he and they alike professed was only more de
veloped now, and the worship adapted to the fresh stage
that had been reached ; and he would have Timothy to
bear this perpetually in mind, not only because he also
stood in the same relation to a pious Jewish ancestry
(presently to be noticed, vers. 5, 6), but also because the
apostle's approaching condemnation and death as the
abettor of a new religion was sure to expose Timothy
to opposition and danger on the same ground. It was
meet, therefore, that he should know well here the founda
tions of his faith, and hold firmly by them. Substantially,
the same assertions respecting his worship, and the manner
in which he discharged it, were made by St. Paul in Acts
xxiii. 1, xxiv. 14-16. Andsthat what he says here is no
way inconsistent with the admissions he makes respecting
his native depravity, see at Tit iii. 4.
But for what precisely does the apostle give thanks
to God ? That it is mainly for what he believed to be in
Timothy, — the unfeigned faith which he had, in some
sense, as a heritage from his ancestors, but which he per
sonally and stedfastly continued to hold, — there can be
no reasonable doubt. But this is not formally introduced
till ver. 5, and there is an involved construction of two

310 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
or three clauses going before, commencing with the particle
cos, which presents some difficulty, and has been variously
explicated by commentators. Some, as Chrysostom, Luther,
Authorized Version, take <bs in the sense of that (which
it never properly means), and so make the apostle's
remembrance of Timothy in his prayers the direct object
of his thanksgivings, — this being only supplemented after
wards by a reference to Timothy's sincere faith. That,
however, appears unnatural ; and so also are the renderings
of <I>s by when, as often as (Calvin, Conybeare, " when
ever I remember thee "), because, quod, quoniam (Common
Vulg., Chrys., Leo), or even by as, which is adopted by
Winer, De Wette, Huther, Ellicott. For though, by this
latter method, as indeed also by the others, we get the
substantial import of the passage, yet not in the precise
form in which it seems to have been presented by the
apostle : he would be made to tell Timothy, that since
he did constantly in fact remember him in his prayers,
he could, while he did so, bring into consideration his un
feigned faith. It seems best, most in accordance with
the order and connection of the several clauses, to take
d>s in the ordinary sense of how, quam (which is the
rendering also of the Vulg. in the Codex Amiat. : quam
sine intermissione habeam tui memoriam), and thereby bring
the prayerful remembrance of Timothy into a somewhat
closer relation to the thanksgivings than if it were merely
parenthetical. Thus : T give thanks to God . . . how unceas
ing remembrance I have of thee in my prayers night and day,
longing to see thee, mindful of thy tears, thai I may be filled
with joy, recollecting the unfeigned faith [that is] in thee, which
dwelt first, etc. Reading the passage thus, in what seems
the most natural and simple manner, the apostle must be
regarded as including the perpetual mention of Timothy
in prayer as a ground of thanksgiving ;* but then it is not
so properly the mention or remembrance itself, as the way

2 TIMOTHY 1. 3-5. 311
in which he found himself abje to do it, that he is thank
ful for-, it was that he had, and still continued to have,
such an image upon his mind of Timothy's affection to
himself and his faith in God, that he could unceasingly
bring him into remembrance before God for an interest
in the divine favour and blessing, being assured that in so
doing he might look for acceptance with Heaven. There
is nothing strange in such a line of thought ; but it obvi
ously proceeds upon the conviction of Timothy's spiritual
state and character being such as to awaken only grateful
feelings and recollections ; and it does seem strange that
any one should think of discovering, in so friendly and
glowing a representation, indications of spiritual declen
sion on the part of the much-loved evangelist This is
what Alford does, but on the slenderest possible grounds.
The epithet of unceasing, which the apostle couples with
his mention of Timothy in his prayers, must, as its pro
minent position indicates (<os dSidAeiirTov e^co ttjv fiveiav),
be emphasized : it was an unceasing reminiscence in ever
recurring acts of devotion, because the tender and agree
able impressions on his mind respecting Timothy pressed
him continually into the foreground of his thoughts and
desires, when drawing near to God. Something of this
the apostle ascribes to the working of natural affection —
longing to see thee^ imirodwv, "participle dependent on
?x<o pvet'av, expressing the feeling that existed previously to,
or contemporaneous with, that action, and connected with
the final cause, iva irXypwdw " (Ellicott) — the full experi
ence of joy. The apostle's longing, he goes on to state,
was much increased by the remembrance of Timothy's
tears — the tears, doubtless, which he shed at parting with
his beloved father in Christ, and shed afresh, we can
well suppose, as the perils deepened around the apostle's
condition. He could not, therefore, but wish to have this
dear companion again at his side, in order that their

312 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
common sadness might be turned into joy ; nor can we
doubt that the ordering of events, so as to accomplish
this natural desire, was one of the things which he sought
from God, when making such frequent mention of the
object of his affectionate regard. But such considerations
and desires, however proper in themselves, and suitable
for expression in prayer to God, would have failed in
their end, nor would they have found any record here,
unless they had been associated with another — from the
first the more essential element in the apostle's estimate
of Timothy's condition as a subject of thanksgiving and
prayer — namely, the recognition he could make of his
unfeigned faith. The expression is a little peculiar, viro
fivyaiv XajSwvj literally, taking reminiscence, or simply re
collecting ; as Atj0tjv Aa/3<ov, in 2 Pet. i. 9, is unquestionably
forgetting, and dpxyv Aa/3. AaAeicrflai, took beginning = began
to be spoken. This recollecting of Timothy's faith is not
to be connected with the apostle's longing to see him,
but is to be referred back to his thanksgivings and con
stant remembrance of Timothy in prayer; such recollec
tion gave him confidence in naming Timothy to God, and
filled him with gratitude. And in designating the faith
unfeigned, he clearly ascribes to it the most essential attri
bute of goodness ; it was a genuine principle, the opposite
pf a hypocritical or wavering profession. That the pos
session of this faith was also an abiding characteristic of
Timothy — a thing of the present as well as of the past —
is plainly implied in the unceasing mention made of him
by the apostle to God as a man of faith.
The faith in question is further characterized as that
which also (rjns, quce et, Vulg., that sort of faith which) dwelt
first in thy grandmother Lois ; meaning, not first absolutely
in this ancestral line, but first in that portion of it with
which the apostle and Timothy had personal acquaintance
— the first so far as they could take cognizance of it • 

2 TIMOTHY I. 6. 313
and thy mother Eunice; and not only so, but I am persuaded
(ireireiap-ai, have been and still am persuaded) that in thee
also (viz. evotKet, dwells). That there is a want of entire
confidence expressed here, as Alford, after some earlier
commentators, thinks, has no proper foundation. Paul-
simply expresses his persuasion that Timothy had the
same unfeigned faith which belonged to his godly parent
age on the female side ; and we have no more reason to
imagine that this connection with the past implies suspi
cion in regard to Timothy's stedfastness, than the apostle's
declaration a little before respecting himself, that he served
God from, or after the example and spirit of, his forefathers,
bespoke some failing in his own piety.
Ver. 6. For which cause — namely, because I have full
confidence that such is your spiritual condition (Theophy
lact, Stdn oTSa ere avvirOKpirov exovra irianv ; Theod. , Tavra
irepi crov ireireiafievos irapaKaXw). Cocceius justly compares
1 John ii. 21, "I have not written unto you because ye
know not the truth, but because ye know it," and adds :
" Each apostle guards against the supposition that his writ
ing or excitation should seem to insinuate either ignorance
or unbelief of the truth ; .and, on the contrary, shows that
the knowledge and faith of the truth dwelling in them was
the cause of writing them and stirring them up. Such
incitement would certainly have been in vain with persons
ignorant of the truth, or not exercising faith in it." In
accordance with this is the mild form of the exhortation
that follows : T remind thee {dvapiipvyaKw, admonish is too
strong) to stir up (dvatjwirvpeiv, lit. to kindle up, the subject
being viewed under the image of a fire) the gift of God
which is in thee through the laying on of my hands. That
the verb here used (dvafcoir.) does not necessarily imply any
previous decay or slumbering — that it means to kindle up,
as well as re-kindle, the force of dva being up, or upwards
(Ellicott) — is put beyond doubt by the examples given in

314 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
Wetstein. (The synonyms given by Hesych. are dveyeTpai,
dvaZ, fjv iroieiv ; by Suidas, dvavecoo-ai, dveyeTpai.) Very similar
is the language of St. Peter when he speaks of stirring up
the disciples by way of remembrance, or putting them in
mind (Sieyetpeiv vp-as ev viropvyaei, 2 Pet. i. 13). The cir
cumstances of the time, especially as connected with the
apostle's fresh imprisonment, and now all too probable
destination to capital punishment, rendered such an exhor
tation every way fitting. On such a mind as Timothy's,
disposed to lean rather than to lead — accustomed to take
a subordinate, not a principal part — those circumstances
could not but have a depressing effect. The danger for
him, the apostle would readily foresee, was that he would
lose heart in the conflict, and perhaps withdraw into some
more retired and humble position than his calling and
acquirements qualified him to occupy. He is therefore
urged to brace himself for the occasion, and stir into
vigorous action the gift he had received for the service of
God. The gift itself {xdpiap.a) is undoubtedly the special
endowment or gift of grace qualifying him for the evan
gelistic work to which he was appointed. It was referred
to in the former epistle (1 Tim. iv. 14), and is there con
nected instrumentally with the laying on of the hands of
the presbytery, as here with the laying on of St. Paul's own
hands. There is no contrariety between the two state
ments, as both parties no doubt took part in the ordination
service (see at the former passage) ; but here it was natural
and proper that the apostle should have reminded Timothy
of his own act of imposition, as now more than ever Timothy
was likely to be called to stand, to a certain extent, in the
apostle's room, and enter into his labours. It was of great
importance, therefore, that he should now feel his increased
responsibility, and apply himself to the cultivation of the
grace which had been conferred upon him, undeterred by any
discouragements or dangers which might stand in the way.

2 TIMOTHY I. 7. 315
Ver. 7. For God gave us not the spirit of cowardice, but
of power, and love, and correction. By spirit here may be
understood either God's Spirit working in a certain manner
in us, or our own spirit as wrought upon and formed by
God ; practically, it comes much to the same thing, since
either way the gift is of God, obtained by direct fellowship
with His Spirit. But spoken of as a thing that, hypotheti-
cally at least, might take a wrong as well as a right direction,
it most naturally presents itself to our view in the subjec
tive, concrete aspect — as the inwrought spiritual disposition
or temperament which, by the Spirit of God conferred on
us as ministers of the word, we were at once called and
empowered to exercise. Now, as such it was not, the
apostle says, the spirit of cowardice (SeiAias, more than <po/3ov,
fear, which is capable of a good as well as a bad sense)
— such as would dispose us to shrink from the discharge of
duty when it becomes irksome, or to compromise our prin
ciples when it is perilous to hold them. Not this is the
spirit with which we were endowed by God (as at Rom.
viii. 15 it was denied to be the spiiit SovAeids, of bondage),
but of power, manfully to bear up against trials and diffi
culties, to hold our ground when others are ready to yield
and give way ; and love, which seeks not its own, but the
good of others and the glory of God, even at the expense
of what is personally dear and amiable to it ; and correction.
In regard to this last expression, aw<j>poviap,6s, it is impos
sible, perhaps, to get an English word that exactly corre
sponds with the original. Our translators have rendered it
sound mind, substantially following Beza, sanitatis animi ;
the Vulg. and Erasmus have sobrietatis, not much different,
but giving the import of aw<ppoavvy rather than aw<ppoviap,6s :
for the latter, as Suicer remarks, Thes. ii. p. 1224, " expresses
the authority which admonishes and restrains those who
walk in a disorderly manner, and is opposed to cowardice ;"
so that this spirit shows itself in a capacity to check what,

316 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
either by corrupt motions from within, or by threats and
allurements from without, would lead us into foolish and
perverse ways : it is the power of authoritative control and
wise restraint, which if we but have in sufficient measure,
we shall not weakly bend to adverse circumstances, but
make these bend to us. This coincides, in part at least,
with one of Chrysostom's explanations ; and Theodoret
gives the sense of the whole thus : " God has given us the
grace of His most Holy Spirit, not that we should dread
the perils that beset godliness, but that, being replenished
with divine power, we might both ardently love Him and
repress the disorder of the affections that agitate us ; " as
also, it should have been added, might reprove the false
compliances and disorderly behaviour prevalent around us.
Hence the word, in later times, came to be applied to
ecclesiastical censures ; see in Suicer.
Ver. 8. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of
our Lord, nor of me His prisoner. Having received from
God such a spirit, show it now by repressing all emotions
of shame, and boldly avowing your adherence to the faith
of Christ, and your connection with me as His apostle.
The exhortation does hot imply that any indication had yet
been given by Timothy of an improper sense of shame ;
rather the reverse, indeed, — it is a fatherly admonition, lest
he should give way to the feeling (p.y hraiaxvvBys, coupled
here, as elsewhere, with the accusative, ver. 16, Rom. i. 16).
But amid the painful experiences of the apostle at the time
of his writing, — seeing how one after another of his old
friends had been dropping away from him, and now only
one faithful companion remained to stand by him (chap.
iv. 10, ii), — we cannot wonder that he should have mani
fested solicitude about his beloved Timothy, and called him
to exhibit another spirit. The testimony of Christ, or, as
it is put somewhat unusually, of our Lord (see, however,
i Tim. i. 14, Heb. vii. 14), is certainly not Christ's personal

2 TIMOTHY I. 8. 317
martyrion, His martyr death, or the witnessing that had to
be borne respecting it, but all that the faithful servant and
minister of Christ was .bound to testify concerning His
person and work, His life and death. The genitive, there
fore, is the genitive of the object (p.ap. rod Kvpiov) : the
primary aim of apostolic and evangelistic work was to bear
witness about Him (Acts i. 8, ii. 32). And with this
primary testimony St. Paul couples himself as the Lord's
prisoner,' — a prisoner, that is, for the Lord's sake, and in a
sense also (though this only by implication) by the Lord's
appointment. It was the duty of Timothy to be no more
ashamed of the apostle in such a crisis than of the gospel
itself: for Christ was, in a manner, suffering in His servant;
and to turn the back on the one (considering the closeness
of Timothy's relation to him), would have been virtually to
turn it on the other.
From what Timothy should not do, the apostle proceeds
to say what he should : But suffer hardship with me for the
gospel, according to the power of God. The preposition (crvv)
in the verb — avyKaKoirddyaov — seems to be most naturally
referred to the apostle; as the question which now presented
itself for solution was, whether Timothy would join himself
with the apostle in suffering for the gospel, or to avoid the
suffering would stand aloof. , Not, therefore, as in the A.V.,
" be partaker of the afflictions of the gospel" (which also
somewhat harshly represents the gospel as susceptible of
suffering), but be partaker of affliction, or suffer hardship
with me, for the gospel — eiayyeXiw — the Dat. of interest,
for its sake, or on its behalf. We have a similar mode
of expression in Phil. i. 27, " Striving together for the faith
ofthe gospel" (crvva0AovvTes ttj iriarei tov evay.). When the
apostle exhorts Timothy to share with him in this readiness
to suffer for the gospel according to the power of God, he
points to the great things done by God in the matter of sal
vation as a ground and motive for something corresponding

3l8 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
being done by us : Consider what power He has displayed
in meeting with and overcoming the evils of our condition,
and in that power show that you have become a partaker.
Chrys. : " Because it was a hard saying, Suffer hardship,
he again comforts him, saying, not according to our works ;
that is, Do not think to bear these things by thine own
power, but by the power of God ; for it is thine to choose
and be ready to undertake, but it is God's to relieve and to
give rest. Then also he brings forth proofs of His [God's]
power : Consider how thou wert saved ; how thou wert
called. As he says elsewhere, According to His mighty power
that works in us. Thus there is greater power required to
persuade the world than to make the heavens. How wert
thou called ?" he asks : " By a holy calling. That is, He
made those holy who were sinners and enemies ; and these
things are not of us — they are the gift of God."
Ver. 9. The apostle now proceeds to give a brief but
graphic description of this manifested power of God in the
matter of salvation : Who saved us, and called us with an
holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His
own purpose, aiui the grace which was given us [grace that
which was given = the grace which was given] in Christ
fesus before eternal times. The passage as a whole, includ
ing what follows in ver. 10, has a close resemblance to Tit.
iii. 4-6, only with the introduction here of certain phases of
the work of God, which bear directly on the mighty power
and energy displayed in its execution. The purpose of the
apostle in so distinctly referring to God's more peculiar
work naturally led to this.; since it was designed to brace
and fortify the mind of Timothy to that life of vigorous
action and hardy endurance which was in accordance with
the gospel scheme, and would be a fitting reflection of it.
In saying that God saved us and called us, it is plainly God
the Father that he more specifically refers to, as with Him,
in Scripture, salvation as a whole, and in particular the calling

2 TIMOTHY I. IO. 319
of believers, is commonly associated. The calling, in this
aspect of it, is all one with being brought into a state of sal
vation. And the work itself, with this individual application
of it, is ascribed, as to its origin, simply and exclusively to
the sovereign goodness and electing love of God, projecting
themselves into the future before it could properly be said
there was either a past or a future : the fountainhead of all
was His own (181'av) purpose and grace, and that not waiting
to be evoked by the events and circumstances of human
life, but given in Christ fesus before eternal times. How
carefully is the doctrine of God's saving grace here guarded
from dependence on anything external or creaturely ! It is
traced up to the infinite depths of the Father's loving-kind
ness, not merely as regards the general idea and principal
lineaments of the plan, but also in respect to the glorious
gift it secures for the individual believer. The grace was
given us by Him — given before eternal times; for, as even
De Wette puts it, " what God determines in eternity, is as
good as done in time." And given in Christ, who, as
sponsor for His own in the everlasting covenant, could then
also receive for them what the Father in His good pleasure
gave : so that, as regards those who shall ultimately share
in the blessings of the covenant, all from the first is well
ordered and sure. Much the same thought as to the primal
and thoroughly independent character of God's purpose of
grace is presented in Tit. i. 2, only connected with a promise
instead of a purpose.
Ver. 10. But — passing from the secret purpose of grace
in eternity to its unfolding in time — manifested now by the
appearing of our Saviour fesus Christ, who abolished death,
indeed, but brought life and immortality (or incorruption) to
light. Christ's appearing must certainly be understood in
the larger sense — not of the incarnation simply, but of the
incarnate Son in His entire mission and work on earth. By
means of that He gave full manifestation of the Father's

320 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
eternal purpose of grace ; and did so, the apostle tells us,
by a twofold act — a sort of double agency, on the one side
destructive, on the other salutary and glorifying. The two
necessarily stand in contrast, yet not without a close and
inward connection ; for the one is but the reverse side of
the other. Hence the particles pev — Se, indicative at once of
connection and contrast (which should not be overlooked
in the rendering) : who abolished death, indeed, but brought
life and immortality to- light. In the one respect He acted
as a destroyer, but only that He might place as in the light
of day the destiny of His people to an everlasting heritage
of life and blessing : salvation in its highest issues necessarily
carrying along with it a work of destruction.1 In so speak
ing of the manifestation of God's grace, and identifying the
whole with the appearing of Christ among men, there is a
close resemblance, in point of form, to the representation
previously given of the eternal purpose of grace. This was
contemplated by the apostle, not only as taking shape in
the divine counsels before the world began, but as finding
there an ideal realization in the (predestined) gift of salva
tion-blessings in Christ. So now, here, with respect to the
manifestation of the grace, he- sees its accomplishment in
the personal triumph and glorification of the Redeemer, as
potentially carrying along with it and imaging the common
experience and destiny of His people. For in His triumph
over death theirs also" was involved ; and .in that immortal
life to which He rose, they have tlieir hfe hid (i Cor. xv.
20-22; Col. iii. 3). Or, as St. Peter puts it, "they are
begotten again to a living hope by the resurrection of Jesus
Christ from the dead, to an inheritance incorruptible,
undefiled, and that fadeth not away" (1 Pet i. 3, 4).
Viewing the passage thus as an exhibition in the personal
Saviour of what is distributively, in due time, to be realized
in the experience of all genuine believers, we are saved
1 See, on this principle, Typology of Scripture, B. ii. c. 1 6, s. 2.

2 TIMOTHY I. 10. 321
from the necessity of inquiring in what precise sense death
is here to be understood — whether as a personal adversary,
or as a state in respect alike to body and soul, or as a
power pervading and overshadowing the world (Ellicott).
There seems no need for going into such an inquiry, and
breaking up what is here presented as a unity into a variety
of parts. Death as triumphed over and abolished in Christ
comprehends all that can justly be included in the name ;
primarily, no doubt, the extinction of animal life, but that
only as the natural issue and result of the mortal elements
or powers of evil, which are at work in the temporal con
dition of mankind. In Christ's resurrection from the dead,
and entrance on the power of an endless life, a complete
and final end is made of them all ; as shall be done also
in the case of the redeemed, , when the purpose of God
respecting them is finished. But what appeared like one
great act in Him, who knew no sin, and had the Eternal
Spirit dwelling in Him above measure, can in them be only
gradually developed. And while the work is proceeding in
their experience — proceeding amid many trials, and with
the sure prospect of a temporary sojourn in the grave, they
should strive to keep the eye of faith fixed on the glorious
pattern of the risen Redeemer, as that to which they are
destined to be conformed. For thus they will feel, that it
is not for them to quail before the difficulties and trials of
time, but in the face of all such to remain stedfast to their
calling in Christ, and endure hopefully to the end.
The verb </>(OTt£eiv, though sometimes used intransitively,
is here and elsewhere (i Cor. iv. 5; John i. 9; Rev. xxi. 23)
taken actively. It means, not for the first time to disclose,
but to bring into the clearest light what had hitherto lain in
comparative obscurity. The thing so shone upon, objec
tively illuminated, is Life — life, as elsewhere spoken of in
these Pastoral epistles (here, ver. 1 ; 1 Tim. iv. 8 ; Tit i. 2),
in the higher sense — such as it exists, pure and blessed, in
x

32 2 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
the presence and kingdom of God. It is here conjoined with,
and explained by, d<pBapaiav, immortality or incorruption —
indicating, not anything properly distinct from the life, but
the imperishable and incorruptible nature of this life (as is
done also in i Pet. i. 4). Finally, while the manifestation of
God's grace, as destroying death and exhibiting life and
immortality, took place in Christ, it is also associated with
the gospel — is spoken of as in a manner done through this,
because by the gospel the certain knowledge of it is com
municated to men ; and instrumentally, everything depends
on the sincere belief and faithful proclamation of this gospel
by the ministers of Christ.
Ver. 11. The reference to the gospel, introduced so
casually at the close of the preceding verse, is taken by
the apostle as a link to introduce what follows respecting
his office, and what it called him to suffer, as well as to do,
for the sake of Christ : for which I was appointed a herald
and apostle, and teacher of the Gentiles. The same descrip
tion exactly that was given of his office in the first epistle,
chap. ii. 7. What follows, however, is different, having
respect to the sufferings associated with the calling, as for
merly it stood connected with his authority to prescribe
and rule in church affairs. .
Ver. 12. For which cause also I suffer these things: the
things, namely, alluded to in ver. 8 — his persecutions, im
prisonment, and sufferings. But I am not ashamed; for I
know whom I have trusted, and am persuaded that He is
able to keep my deposit against that day. The chief ques
tion here is, What is to be understood by my deposit — ttjv
irapadyKyv p,ov ? Is it what the apostle had committed to
God, or what God had committed to him? Having just
expressed his trust, and his assurance that this,, whatever
it might be, God was able to guard or keep (c&vAdfai), one
most naturally thinks of it as something which he had com
mitted to God. And this is the view expressed in the

2 TIMOTHY I. 12. 323
Authorized Version — "that which I have committed to
Him ; " that also which many able expositors, in former
and present times, have adopted, with only minor shades
of difference as to the thing committed (his soul — Grotius,
Bengel ; soul, body, and spirit — Conybeare, Alford ; his sal
vation — Calvin, Huther ; his final reward, crown of right
eousness — Theophylact, Beza, Calov, Wolf). But the view
undoubtedly lies open to two somewhat serious objections.
First, the personal pronoun connected with the word — my
deposit — seems rather to connect its possession with Paul
than with God ; it was his as contradistinguished from
another's, and his in connection with the cause for which
he was suffering. Then, the word as used presently after,
ver. 14, and in 1 Tim. vi. 20 (the only other passages
where it occurs), expresses what is committed by God to a
person, and for which he is answerable to God. And there
is force, it must be allowed, in the question of De Wette :
" How could a writer use the same word so shortly after
wards [or before], in a different sense, without giving some
indication of the difference?" Considering, also, that the
matter has respect to a peculiar Greek mode of expression,
there is some weight to be attached to the circumstance
that this is the sense which all the Greek expositors seemed
to regard as the natural and patent one, though they dif
fered as to what precisely should be understood by it.
According to Theodoret, the deposit was "the spirit of
grace which God had given to the apostle." What was the
deposit ? asks Chrysostom ; and answers it by saying,
" Faith, preaching." But he hesitates, and gives, as another
possible answer, the faithful • and these, either as com
mitted by God to the apostle, or by the apostle to God.
Theophylact, as usual, adopts all Chrysostom's, and adds
another also from himself, — namely, the future recompense :
for " whosoever has done anything that is good lays it up
with God, that he may in due season be crowned for it."

324 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
There is obviously a good deal of guess work in several
of these explanations ; in themselves fanciful, they are also
little suited to the connection. On the whole, however,
the weight of probability, in a linguistic point of view,
seems plainly to favour the opinion which reg?rds the
deposit as something entrusted to the apostle. Then,
looking at the connection, the same impression forced itself
upon us. For it will be observed that the apostle is here
accounting for the facit, -that though now in the extremity
of peril and suffering for his apostolic calling and his mis
sionary labours, he was not ashamed. Had he yielded to
the sense of shame, what -would have happened ? He
would have renounced his connection with the gospel of
Christ as a thing unworthy of him — too weak to stand in
the hour of trial. But when he thought of Him who had
sent him on such a warfare, and had put him in trust with
so precious a treasure, he felt there was no room for
shame, and scorned the temporizing policy which shame
would dictate. The all-powerful Guardian and Protector
in whom he confided, and who had borne him through so
many troubles in the past, would assuredly uphold him
still, and enable him to preserve 'his calling, with all its
sacred prerogatives and gifts, unimpaired to the end. So
that in the great day of account, nothing properly belong
ing to it should be found wanting — nothing forfeited or
lost:1 This I take to be the most natural explanation of the
passage, and the 'train of thought which it embodies. The
-attempt, of Alford to vindicate the other view has too arti
ficial an appearance, and overlooks, as it seems to me, the
more important .points, on which the determination of the
1 It might be added, in proof ofthe naturalness of the interpretation
which identifies the deposit with the apostolic calling of Paul, that he
often elsewhere speaks of being put in trust with the gospel ; I Tim.
i. II ; Tit. i. 3; Gal. ii. 7, etc.

2 TIMOTHY I. 13. 325
question must turn. The day referred to in so emphatic
a manner, is undoubtedly the day of the Lord's appearing
for judgment. But eis iKeivyv ttjv fjfiepav is not until, up to
that day, but for, or, as in the Authorized Version, against
it, in view of its proceedings.
Ver. 13. Have (or possess) the pattern of sound words,
which thou heardest of me in faith and love which are in
Christ fesus. The term vxcrvircocris occurs only here and
in 1 Tim. i. 16 ; nor does it mean more than pattern or
exemplar, only this in the more active or vital sense : " a
living expression of things (as Calvin puts it), as if they
were visibly presented to the eye." The verb with which
it is connected, ey^e, has been taken by many commentators,
also in the Authorized Version, as substantially equivalent
to KaTe^e, hold fast. But this is untenable. The examples
appealed to do not bear out the interpretation : in several
of them the meaning may fairly enough be expressed by
hold, but this only in the sense of having as a possession ;
so, for instance, at 1 Tim. i. 19, we can indifferently render
"having" or " holding faith and a good conscience," and at
chap. iii. 9, "having" or "holding the mystery of the faith
in a pure conscience." The verb in ' each case denotes
nothing more than an actual personal possessing. Abiding,
then, by this only allowable sense, what is to be understood
by the exhortation to Timothy, that he should possess the
fresh pattern of sound words, which he had heard from the
apostle? Many would take it, with Calvin and Beza, of
" that form and method of teaching " which he had learned
from Paul ; and others, somewhat more definitely, of an
outline or written sketch, which the apostle had furnished
him withal (Herder, Schrader, De Wette). Alford objects to
this as in one respect too specific (reading virorvirwaiv as if
it were ttjv virorvir.), and in another too general — away from
any immediate connection with the present discourse. He
would therefore render, " Have (take) an example of (the)

326 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
healthy words which thou heardest of me ; " and he would
regard it as pointing to the declaration just uttered by the
apostle in the immediately preceding verse : q.d., Take
these as" a specimen or example of the sound words* which
thou hast so often heard from me. But this also is an ex
planation which has an artificial aspect, and requires too
much to be supplied. Had the apostle meant precisely
what it ascribes to him, we should have expected him to
employ language that pointed more explicitly to the pre
ceding declaration ; nor is exe, with such a rendering,
exactly in its place, as is clear from the virtual displacing
of have in the translation by the bracketed take. There
is certainly no need for excluding the declaration in ques
tion from the sound or healthy words spoken of by the
apostle ; and it is quite probable that the exhortation of
this verse was suggested by the healthful utterance of faith
and practice therein contained. But the general form of the
exhortation, and the reference at the close of it to things
formerly heard by Timothy from the lips of the apostle,
forbid our giving it so limited an application.
Perhaps the main scope and spirit of the exhortation
could not be more happily expressed than has been done in
the following comment of Chrysostom's : " What is it that
he says ? I have, as it were, after the manner of painters,
impressed an image of virtue on thee, and of all the things
which are pleasing to God, as a certain rule and archetype
and declaration which I have let down into thy soul. These
things, therefore, possess ; and if thou shouldst have to give
counsel respecting faith, or love, or self-control, take thence
your exemplars : you shall have no need to seek a pattern
from others, having all these provided to your hand." The
apostle thus expresses the wish that Timothy should retain,
for his own safety against error and backsliding, the many
things he had heard from the apostle as the kind of living
type and embodiment of whatever was healthful in the life

2 TIMOTHY I. 14, 15. 327
.of faith — should remember it, and keep it beside him, like
a faithful monitor and guide. Not, however, that he should
do this in a mechanical and formal manner— out of regard
merely to the authority from which he had derived it — but
in the spirit of a true disciple, as one dwelling in faith and
love that are in Christ fesus : in these, that is, as the
spiritual element, or frame of mind, in which the pattern
of things exhibited to him should be remembered and
applied. He must with a kindred spirit appropriate them,
and endeavour to carry out the high moral ends for which
they were given.
Ver. 14. Very naturally and fitly coming after this exhor
tation, rightly understood, is the charge in this verse : the
goodly deposit keep through the Holy Spirit that dwelleth in
us. The goodly deposit, or good thing entrusted to him,
is just the scheme of divine doctrine and obligation, which
he had received in trust as a believer and an evangelist,
and the living type of which had formed itself in his heart
from the apostolic words he had so often listened to. He
is called to keep or guard this (<pvAa£ov) ; yet not as in his
own strength and wisdom, but through the indwelling of the
Holy Spirit. So that there is no inconsistence between
what is thus charged on Timothy respecting his deposit,
and what the apostle represented himself as doing in regard
to his own — trusting in the faithfulness and power of God
to keep it In both cases alike the effective guardianship
was of God — the assurance of a safe and triumphant issue
stood in their personal relation to Him ; but God's keeping,
in their case as in all others, had man's for its necessary
counterpart — through this alone could it be justly expected
to realize itself.
Ver. 15. A few sad notices are now introduced of persons
who had failed to do toward the suffering cause of Christ
in the apostle what he had been earnestly pressing upon
Timothy. Thou knowest that all who are in Asia turned

328 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
away from me. Who these might be we cannot tell, except
as regards the two individuals specially mentioned, of whom
is Phygellus and Hermogenes ; nor of these do we know
anything more than the names, for no other notice exists
regarding them. But the " all in Asia" can only refer to
some definite number in that region — the Roman province
which bore the name of Asia — with whom the apostie had,
in his hour of trial, some sort of recognised connection.
As Timothy knew, at least, the general circumstances
referred to, the apostle naturally left a good deal to be
supplied. He does not even say where the conduct he felt
so painfully was exhibited ; but the natural supposition is,
it was at Rome, and in connection with the accusation
brought against him, or the trial and imprisonment to
which it led. In this emergency those Asiatics (with one
noble exception presently mentioned) turned away from
him, direarpatpyaav — not " are turned away," as if they had
gone into settled alienation and apostasy — for it refers to
a specific act of unkindness toward the apostle ; yet not,
perhaps, so marked as that implied in the translation of
Alford — they repudiated him ; for the verb does not strictly
import more than to stand aloof : when they should have
showed friendship, they ignored him. Even this was bad
enough, and betrayed a culpable lack of sympathy with
one who had done so much for them, and a kind of half-
heartedness to the cause of which he was the pecuhar
representative. Vers. 16, 17. There was, however, a noble exception to this
faint-hearted procedure : The Lord give mercy to the house
of Onesiphorus, because he ofttimes refreshed me, and was
not ashamed of my chain — that, namely, which bound him
as a felon to the soldier who guarded him. It implies
that others were ashamed, and, shrinking from the igno
minious treatment which his unflinching zeal had brought
on him, turned away. The more gratifying must have been

2 TIMOTHY I. 1 8. 329
the conduct of Onesiphorus, whose Christian principle and
fellow-feeling carried him above the discouragements and
perils of the time, and, regardless of consequences, enabled
him to do the part of a genuine comforter. He ofttimes
did it, says the apostle — even after the chain had turned to
imprisPnment in the capital ; for it is added, when he had
arrived in Rome (yevdpevos ev 'Pco/xtj, not merely was there,
but had come to the city, or arrived in it), he sought me
out with greater diligence, and found me. The expression is
striking, as showing that what led others to turn away from
the apostle was the very thing which prompted the friendly
search and beneficent ministrations of Onesiphorus. " The
comparative [in o-irovSaioTepov] does not imply any contrast
between Onesiphorus and others, nor with the diligence
that might have been expected, but refers to the increased
diligence with which , Onesiphorus sought out the apostle
when he knew that he was in captivity. He would have
sought him out o-irovSatcos in any case ; now he sought for
him crirovSaidrepov " (Ellicott).
Ver. 18. May the Lord grant to him that he may find
mercy from the Lord in that day. The repetition of Lord
is peculiar — the Lord grant that he may find from the Lord !
— but is certainly not to be explained, with some, both in
earlier and later times, as having respect in the first case
to the Father, and in the second to the Son as the Judge.
If such a distinction had been intended to be made, we
may be sure it would have been more broadly marked.
We may explain it (with Huther, Alford), by regarding the
first expression, " May the Lord grant" (Scprj d Kvpios), as so
common a formula in such brief requests to Heaven, that
the repetition in the second part was not noticed. But
Calvin's seems preferable: " It might be that the vehemence
of affection moved Paul to an unnecessary repetition, as is
wont to happen." And he properly adds : " This prayer
teaches us how much greater a reward shall await those

330 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
who, without the hope of any earthly recompense, have done
offices of kindness to the saints, than if they had received a
present reward from the hand of men." It is noticeable,
also, as he still further remarks, that mercy is the thing
prayed for, doubtless because - the apostle had respect to
the Lord's own exposition of the law of recompense :
" Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy ;"
and again, " Blessed . . . because I was sick and in prison,
and ye visited me." The circumstance that St. Paul asks
simply a future blessing for Onesiphorus — mercy of the
Lord in that day, the day when all things shall come into
judgment — coupled with the other circumstance, that when
speaking of the present he twice over names merely the
household of Onesiphorus (ver. 16, iv. 19), has given rise to
the inference that Onesiphorus must have already ceased
to live. The inference may certainly be regarded as pro
bable, though we can scarcely deem it altogether conclusive.
For, possibly, such special mention was made of the house
hold, because Timothy was at the time in their neighbour
hood, and the father of the household may have been known
to be still absent from them. But the matter is of little
moment. More important is the circumstance which the
apostle adds respecting this good man, to show that what
he did at Rome was no isolated thing, but a following out
of the course he was wont to pursue at home : And how
many things he ministered at Ephesus, thou knowest very well
— fieXnov — literally, better — namely, than I can tell you, or
than needs to be told. In these Ephesian ministrations
the apostle doubtless shared ; but as they are mentioned
quite generally, they may justly be regarded as embracing
the Christian community there, and its common interests.
The A.V. has " ministered unto me,'' and in the later copies
of the Vulgate mihi is inserted, but the earlier and better
copies want it ; and there is nothing corresponding to it in
the Greek.

2 TIMOTHY II. I.

CHAPTER II.

33*

Ver. 1. Thou therefore, my child, be strengthened in the grace
that is in Christ fesus. This is the practical result which
the preceding statements were intended to produce in the
mind of Timothy. The therefore, which indicates the con
nection, points back mainly to the apostle himself, and
subordinately to his sympathizing friend Onesiphorus, who
had shown themselves to be possessed of a moral power
that was adequate to the greatest trials and emergencies of
life. And this power the apostle had also been careful to
represent as derived solely from the grace of a redeeming
God. Therefore, when calling upon his child Timothy to
follow in the same path of suffering and obedience, his
primary exhortation is as to the source of strength : Be
strengthened — evSwapov — not simply " be strong," for the
verb in the passive signifies to become strong, to get
strength (comp. Rom. iv. 20, Eph. vi. 10); and this in the
grace that is in Christ fesus — that is, in the supply of the
Spirit of life, which is ever ready to be given to those who
are savingly united to Him. The being in Christ by a child
like faith is the sphere in which the gift of grace is to be
found. But the injunction to be strengthened therein, im
plies that, in order to be realized, it must be actively laid
hold of by the believer. The grace that is provided to sus
tain him and carry him forward in the life of faith, is co
operating grace; and at every step it requires his willing
respondency and implicit obedience. This is what was
seen so nobly exemplified in the case of Abraham (Rom.
iv. 18-22), and is explicitly enjoined upon all believers
(Phil. ii. 12, 13). So that the "more grace" which is said
to be given to believers (Jas. iv. 6), is always given in pro
portion as they feel their need of more, and are prepared to
receive and use it.

33 2 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
Ver. 2. A direction is now given how best to secure the
transmission of the testimony he was called to bear for
Christ, and its faithful maintenance in the church : and the
things which thou hast heard from me with many witnesses,
these commit to faithful men, such as shall be able to teach
others also. The things that had been heard are undoubtedly
the same as those referred to in chap. i. 13, and are no more
in the one case than in the other to be confined to what was
uttered on some particular occasion. It is the whole scheme
of doctrine and duty as taught by the apostle, and which
Timothy had enjoyed numberless opportunities of listening
to, that is here meant ; not simply, as many commentators
suppose, what was delivered of it at Timothy's ordination.
This were an unwarranted abridgment, and is no way
countenanced, but the reverse, by the mention of many
witnesses in connection with the things delivered — Sid
iroAAcov fiaprvpwv, literally, through these ; but as at 2 Cor.
ii. 4, where the apostle speaks of writing through many'
tears, meaning with tears accompanymg and giving a specific
impress to his work, so here the " through many witnesses "
must signify with them, their presence forming a clear indi
cation- of the character of the things spoken and heard.
These were no private communications, no secret doctrine
delivered in a corner, as if adapted only to the wants of a
select few, or intended to minister merely to personal grati
fication. They were the great things which concern the
salvation of men and the glory of God; therefore things
which all ears should hear, and which it was important to
have committed in every particular church to faithful men
(irto-Tois dvdpwtrois, men worthy of such a trust), in order
that these might testify aright concerning them, and in
turn find others who should receive and deliver the testi
mony to the generation following. This is the true apostolic
succession ; the kernel lies here, in the maintenance from
age to age of the same grand fundamental principles of

2 TIMOTHY II. 3, 4. 333
faith and practice. External organizations are but the shell
which may more or less fitly serve to guard and perpetuate
the treasure ; and it is by the possession of this, the kernel,
or gospel treasure, that the worth of the other is to be tried,
not that other which is to determine or modify it. Both
the doctrina arcani (the secret traditionary doctrine) of the
Catholics, and the so-called impressed character and in
herent virtue of a ministerial sacerdotalism in the Christian
church, are here virtually struck at the root.
Ver. 3. Suffer hardship with me {avyKaKoirdByaov, the
reading of a, A, C, D, F at first hand, is undoubtedly the
correct text, not o-v ovv KaKoirdByaov of the received text),
or "take thy share in suffering" (Conybeare), intimating
that the disciple in this must not expect to be above his
master : if he would do his work faithfully, he. must lay his
account to experiences of trouble. As a good soldier of
fesus Christ. This is the first of a series of illustrative
examples showing the necessity, for those who in any de
partment would do effective service, of being in habitual
readiness to endure hardship. Every believer, and pre
eminently the believer who is also a minister of the gospel,
- is a soldier of Jesus Christ, enlisted under Him as the
Captain of salvation, to contend against the powers of evil ;
therefore hardship of some sort is inevitable (2 Cor. x. 3 ;
Eph. vi. 11 sq.).
Ver. 4. No one serving as a soldier (Scholfield, Hints) en
tangles himself (taking the verb ep-irAeWai as in the middle)
in the businesses of life — that is, in the ordinary affairs and
occupations of a 'worldly calling, such as of the forum
or the market-place — in order that he may please him who
has called him to be a soldier — literally, who enrolled him
as a soldier, for such is the exact import of the verb o-Tpa'-
ToAoyeiv, milites conscribere; but, with a very natural exten
sion of the meaning, also to call or choose one so to serve.
The fact stated is notorious : no officer engaged in earnest

334 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
warfare would hire soldiers who did not engage to separate
themselves for the special service, so as to be ready at any
moment to do his commands. A similar disentanglement
is needful to the Christian warrior from everything that
might keep him at a distance from his Divine Master, or
impede him in the service he is called to render. But only
thus far ; not that he must absolutely withdraw from all em
ployments of a secular kind. The great mass of believers
must serve Christ in these ; and even for the Christian
pastor, his specific relation to them must depend, to some
extent, on circumstances. Ordinarily he should be free
from any business of a worldly kind ; but like Paul himself,
with his tent-making, some work of that description may
even form a part of his soldier-service to Christ.
Ver. 5. But (Se, introducing a fresh illustration — Winer,
Gr. § 53, 7, b ; not only so, but there is this further case) if
any one also strive in the games — another good rendering of
Scholfield's, and decidedly preferable to that of the Autho
rized Version, "if a man strive for the masteries," which is
too general, and scarcely suggests to the mere English
reader the specific kind of striving referred to. It is im
possible, except by such a circumlocution, to give the force
of the Greek dOXy. The Vulgate also had to take the same
course — certat in agone. He is not crowned utdess lu have
striven lawfully — adhering with whatever self-sacrifice to
the prescribed rules. This alone entitles him, even if his
striving have been such as to place him in the foremost
rank, to obtain the crown of victory. The inference is
plain : if so in the lower sphere, and with respect to a
perishable distinction, how much more in regard to the great
struggle between righteousness and sin, light and darkness
in ourselves and in the world, which carries with it issues
of eternal moment !
Ver. 6. The toiling {Koiriwvra, hard-working) husbandman
must first partake of the fruits, or, must be first in partaking

2 TIMOTHY II. 6. 335
of them ; his very character as a man of hard labour gives
him in this respect a precedence and superiority over
others : he first partakes, partakes even while he works,
somewhat like the ox who might eat while in the act of
treading the corn (i Tim. v. 18). So, the apostle means to
say, it is in the Lord's husbandry. There is here also a
compensation ; for they who grudge not the hardship, the
present sacrifice involved in doing God's work, have a
blessing which others know not — they reap, in a measure,
while they labour, having an immediate satisfaction in the
fruits which they have been enabled to gather. Such ap
pears to be the precise import of the apostle's statement ;
and it is one quite suited to the connection, though we
would rather, perhaps, have expected him to put it some
what differently, so as to express the idea that the husband
man must first labour if he is to partake of the fruits, or
labour before he can do so. This is, indeed, what many
commentators have actually extracted from his words, with
so exact a scholar as Winer to countenance the exposition
as grammatically tenable {Gr. § 6i, 5,/). But it is without
support from any properly parallel passages, and manifestly
does violence to the natural order and meaning of the words.
The object of the apostle in using the illustration was
not, seemingly, to mark the distinction between the active
and the idle husbandman : he assumes that Timothy would
not be exactly idle, that he would be a worker in the Lord's
vineyard ; but he would have him to be a worker in the
stricter sense, like the husbandman who labours hard, who
toils at his employment, and so reaps the first and fullest
'recompense. This is so clearly the preferable sense of the
passage, that it is needless to recount other interpretations,
and equally needless to go into the various applications
which have been made of it by the Fathers and others in
later times. Some of these are fanciful enough. We must
keep hold of the great principle which the statement is

336 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
brought to establish — that the most willing and hard labourer
is ihe most speedily and richly blessed. This holds good in
the spiritual as in the natural sphere ; and only those things
which can be called real exemplifications of such a principle
are fair applications ofthe apostle's similitude.
Ver. 7. Understand what I say — so the verb (vdei) pro
perly means, Lat. intellige — not simply consider, or observe ;
and it was said with reference to the figurative language
employed in the immediately preceding verses. " For since
it was a parabolical mode of speech, it was necessary that
he (Timothy) should be stirred up to search into the mean
ing of the hidden sense" (Theodoret). And he couples
with the exhortation an expression of confidence that the
requisite assistance would be given from above : for the
Lord will give thee discernment in all things. The correct
reading seems to be Scoo-ei, not Siotj, having the support of
N, A, C, D, F, with the Latin and Cop. versions ; and the
thing which the apostle expresses his confidence would be
given to Timothy is avveaiv iv iracriv, a complete understand
ing in all things — such an exact and comprehensive knowing
as " grasps the connection, with its grounds and conse
quences" (Beck) — or a clear and intelligent discernment.
Combining thus personal application with the assurance of
divine grace, the apostle virtually said to Timothy, " Seek,
and ye shall find."
Ver. 8. Remember fesus Christ as having been raised from
the dead, of the seed of David, according to my gospel. This
I take to be the exact rendering of the original — not
"remember that Jesus Christ has been raised" — with the
Vulg. (Jesum Christum resurrexisse), Authorized Version,
and, among others, Alford, who tries to distinguish between
the use of an accusative after pvyp,6veve, and a genitive, as
if in the former case it was a fact that was to be borne in
mind, rather than an object or a person. Any one who
will compare the following examples, in the two first of

2 TIMOTHY II. 8. 337
which the object*of the verb is in the genitive, and the
other two in the accusative (Luke xvii. 32 ; John xvi. 21 ;
Matt. xvi. 9 ; 1 Thess. ii. 9), may see that the alleged dis
tinction is entirely fanciful. When in the first of those
passages our Lord called His disciples to remember Lot's
wife, He surely meant Lot's wife as embodying a memor
able fact, not less than when in the third of them He called
His disciples to remember the five loaves of the five
thousand; and so with the others. The verb seems to
have been indifferently coupled with a genitive or an accu
sative of the object — in classical writers more frequently
with the accusative, in the New Testament more frequently
with the genitive ; but with whichever case, the import is
much the same — namely, to remember or bear in mind the
person or object expressed in the noun that follows. So
here it is, Remember Jesus Christ, but Jesus Christ in a
specific aspect, as " having been raised from the dead,"
while still " of the seed of David." Why should an injunc
tion have been laid on Timothy to keep so specially in
remembrance the fact of a risen Saviour, and a Saviour
sprung from the seed of David? We are left to conjec
ture ; but it was partly, no doubt — perhaps we should say
primarily — by way of encouragement : for, having his eye
ever fixed on one so sprung and so glorified, he had in a
manner before him the fulfilment of all promise, and the
pledge of all just hope and expectation. Why should he
therefore faint under his duty of service, or quail before the
assaults of the persecutor ? He knew that his Redeemer,
the destined Head of God's chosen heritage, lived after
having triumphed over sin and death, and was set down at
the right hand of the Majesty on High. But in the same
great facts, grasped by a childlike and reliant faith, he
should have a secure position against the more subtle
dangers which had begun to arise from that Gnostic spirit
which, in its disparagement of flesh, at once ignored the

338 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
natural descent of Christ, and made void the truth of His
literal resurrection. And this also may have been in the
view of the apostle, though there seems no reason for sup
posing, with some, that it was the only consideration to
which he had respect in introducing the subject; nor,
looking to the connection, even the more prominent one.
The more immediate point is, how to endure hardship, to
brave persecution, for the truth of Christ ; and, surely,
holding fast by Christ's royal lineage, which was essential
to His being the Messiah promised to the fathers, and by
His resurrection from the dead, which was equally essential
to His right to reign over the house of God, could not but
form the best preparation, as it was indeed the indispensable
condition, of stedfastness.
Ver. 9. The truths respecting Christ, which Timothy in
the preceding verse was exhorted to bear in mind, were
spoken of in connection with St. Paul's gospel — the gospel
which had been committed to him (1 Tim. i. 11); he now
adds, in which (that is, the gospel, as his appointed sphere
of action) T suffer hardship up to bonds as a malefactor.
Corresponding phrases are, Phil. ii. 8, p-expi davdrov, up to
death ; Heb. xii. 4, p,expis aipiaros, up to blood ; so in the
Vulg., usque ad vincula. But (though as to my personal
condition I am in chains) the word of God is not bound:
this still ran, and was glorified. It did so partly, indeed,
through the apostle himself testifying of it, even in his
bonds, before rulers and kings, so that his gospel as well
as his bonds came to be known in Caesar's household
(Phil. i. 13, iv. 22), and in his letters sounding it forth far
and wide ; but partly also through tlie instrumentality of
others who gave themselves to the same blessed work, and
some of whom, he intimates, waxed bold through his bonds to
speak more abundantly the word of God (Phil. i. 14). Thus,
when an arrest is laid on one, freedom and boldness are given
to others to spread abroad the good seed of the kingdom.

2 TIMOTHY II. I O. 339
Ver. io. For this reason I endure all things for the sake of
the eled, in order that they also may obtain the salvation that is
in Christ fesus with eternal glory. The connection between
this and the preceding cannot be taken so close, as with
Bengel, " Because through " my chains the gospel runs,
therefore I endure." He, no doubt, has in view the dif
fusion of the word, because it was in connection with that
his sufferings had come upon him ; but in the present pas
sage that circumstance rather lies in the background, recog
nised and felt, yet not distinctly exhibited; for he has a
more special point which he wishes to bring into notice in
relation to the preaching or diffusion of the word, viz. the
salvation of God's elect This was the aim of his preaching,
yet not of his preaching merely, but also of his sufferings ;
for these, too, had an important bearing on the contem
plated issue. We must therefore connect the Sid rovro at
the commencement with what follows, as is usual in similar
constructions, where these words stand related to a suc
ceeding Tva, as at i Tim. i. 16, " For this reason I obtained
mercy, that in me first," etc. (Sid tovto yXeydyv, iva ev epoi
irpwrw), and so again at Philem. 15. The explanation of
Chrysostom is quite to the point: "For what cause do I
suffer these things ? For the benefit of others, that they
may obtain eternal- life. What, then, do you promise? He
did not say simply, for the sake of some persons, but for
the 'sake of the elect If God chose them, we ought to
suffer all things for them, in order that they also may obtain
salvation. When he says, that they also, he means to say,,
as also we; for God chose us also ; and as for us God
suffered, so also we for them." Under the name of the
elect the apostle may certainly be regarded as having pri
marily in view those who belonged to that number in his
own day; for them he was called more immediately to
think and act, yet by no means exclusively. His apostolic
work, as well in suffering as in preaching and writing, he

34» THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
knew well was for all countries and for all time ; and the
elect of this present age are in many ways reaping the
benefit of his self-denying and devoted labours. Nor is it
unimportant to mark how he heightens the good he sought
for them— not their salvation merely, but the salvation that
is , in Christ Jesus, and that with eternal glory : so that if
their salvation has to be made good through trial and
suffering, its connection with Christ, and with the mass of
glory laid up with Him in eternity, justifies, and unspeak
ably more than justifies, the sacrifice. So in i Pet. v. io
the present suffering condition of believers generally is, in
like manner, connected with their call to God's eternal glory.
Vers. 11-13. Faithful is the saying, For if we died with
Him, we shall also live with Him. Does the saying point
to what precedes, oa: to what follows ? Commentators are
divided on the question ; and as nothing very decisive can
be urged for the determination either way, they are still
likely to be so. Certainly, as Ellicott contends, and
Huther also admits (though, he adopts the forward refer
ence), the for {ydp) which follows the proverbial saying
seems to point backwards, and to introduce a confirmatory
statement of what had been uttered immediately before ;
and this is the view taken by all the ancient Greek com
mentators. But there is no need for pressing the matter
closely either way, as it is substantially the same line of
thought that is indicated in both the preceding and the fol
lowing context — only in the former more individually, in
the latter more generally. Whether viewed with respect to
Paul himself and his fellow-labourers in the gospel, or with
respect to those who in any place or time would lead the
Christian life, one must be prepared to look for the same
kind of mixed experience — temporal evil followed by a
glorious compensation ; hardship and suffering as the con
dition of ultimate victory ; death even as the pathway to
life, never-ending and full of glory. The truth of the

2 TIMOTHY II. II-13. 341
gospel in this respect is a faithful saying: it holds good
every way ; the apostle himself was in the course of realiz
ing it in his own experience, with the full consent and
approval of his own mind. So he had said just before ;
and now he makes a quite general and comprehensive
application of it : For if we died with Him (namely, when
by a living faith we embraced Christ as our Saviour, enter
ing into the fellowship of His sufferings and death), we
shall also live with Him, sharing at last in His resurrection-
power and blessedness of life, as spiritually we do in a
measure now. If we endure (virop-evop-ev, patiently undergo
trial and hardship, — namely, with Him, or in His cause
and service), we shall also reign with Him : as our Lord
Himself repeatedly testified (Matt xvi. 24-27, xix. 28, 29 ;
Luke xxii. 28-30), and as is stated also in other passages
(Rom. v. 17, vi. 8, viii. 10, 11, 17; Col. iii. 3, 4; Rev.
iii. 21). If we shall deny {Him), — put contingently, as a
thing that might possibly happen in the future, — He also will
deny us; a virtual repetition of our Lord's solemn words :
" Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also
deny before my Father who is in heaven" (Matt. x. 33).
Finally, if we are unbelieving, — diricn-ovpev, not merely prove
unfaithful in times of trial, shrink from confessing what we
inwardly feel to be the truth concerning Him, but, rejecting
or quitting our hold of the truth, pass over entirely into the
region of unbelief,— if we should thus estrange ourselves
from the common ground of faith, still He abides faithful —
remaining perpetually true to His declarations and promises,
whether we accredit them or not. And the reason follows :
For1 He cannot deny Himself. This implies that the word
given as the ground of our faith in Scripture is the ex
pression of His own essential nature ; it reveals what, as
possessed of that nature, He is in His relation to us, what
1 The received text omits yap, but it is found in the best copies,
s, A, C, D, F, L, and is admitted by all the best critics.

342 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
He purposes toward us, or has done in the execution of
His purposes. To disown this, therefore, were to deny
Himself; and that it is impossible He should ever do,
seeing He is the unchangeable Jehovah (Mai. iii. 6) ; and
so, His word, like Himself, " liveth and abideth for ever."1
Ver. 14. There follow now a series of exhortations to
Timothy, founded upon the important statements contained
in the preceding verses, and bearing directly on the manner
in which he should ply the work of the ministry, and with
stand the errors which were already beginning to prevail
in the church. Put them in mind of these things {virofil/ivyaKe,
sup. avTovs, which in a similar exhortation at Tit. hi, 1 is
expressed). The things meant were, no doubt, those men
tioned immediately before. Timothy was first rightly to
apprehend and grasp them for himself, and then act as a
faithful monitor in enforcing them upon others. Solemnly
charging them (Siap-ap-rvpop-evos, the Sid intensifying the mean
ing of the verb, and the verb, though primarily signifying to
bear witness or testify, evidently meaning, in such a connec
tion as this, to deliver a protest or charge, 1 Tim. v. 21)
before God not to wrangle about words, — a practice already
mentioned in 1 Tim. vi. 4, and warned against as character
istic of a class of persons who were unsound at the very core,
and of itself fitted to produce much mischief. So here it is
declared to be profitable for nothing (xpyaipiov having for its
object Xoyofiaxeiv, the art or practice of mere word-fighting) ;
no one is in a moral respect the better for it. And worse
than that, it is upon the subversion of them that hear: an
elliptical clause, but plainly meaning that the practice tends
to this melancholy result. And the reason is obvious ; it
serves to beget and nourish a captious, sophistical state of
1 As regards the question wliether the passage vers, n-13, from its
somewhat measured and rhythmical structure, was not part of some
Christian hymn, I would be inclined to give the same judgment as in
regard to 1 Tim. iii. 16— which see.

2 TIMOTHY II. 15. 343
mind, the reverse of that babe-like spirit which receives the
sincere milk of the word, and rests with a firm trust in the
testimony it brings. If the parties in question were deficient
in this before, they were sure to depart further from it by
listening to such teaching : it would lead them entirely off
from the foundations.1
Ver. 15. Give diligence to present thyself to God approved:
SoKtp-ov, one who can stand, or has actually stood, the test
appointed by God, and come forth stamped with His ap
proval. The object of the exhortation was to lead Timothy,
in contrast to the frivolous disputes mentioned before, to
realize himself as a servant of God, and to guide his course
through the trying and perilous circumstances around him,
so as to be able to appear before the Divine Majesty as
one that had proved faithful to the trust # reposed in him.
A workman not ashamed : dveiraiaxwrov, in New Testament
Scripture found only here, and in classical Greek signifying
shameless, impudent, but used by Josephus in the sense of
not being ashamed of, or having no occasion to blush for (Ant.
xviii. 7- I, pTjSe SevTepevetv dveiraicrxvvTov Tjyov : "nor think
that one should not be ashamed to be inferior to " . . . ; so
also in Agapetus, quoted by Wetstein). The sentiment is
the same as that expressed by Paul respecting himself in
Phil. i. 20, iv ovSevl aurxyvdyaofiai, In nothing shall I be
ashamed — meaning that his behaviour would be such as to
1 There is some variation both in the reading and the pointing of
this text. Instead of /a} Xoyo/ia%e7v, MSS. A, C have poi Xoyo/tdxti —
the imperative : Do not wrangle about words ; and this forming a clause
by itself, necessitates another distribution of the preceding words : Put
tiiem in mind of these things, solemnly charging them before God.
But this is an unnatural sort of arrangement, and differs from the
apostle's usual practice ;' for elsewhere o'lapxprvpofiai precedes the exhor
tation to which it belongs,: I Tim. v. 21 ; 2 Tim. iv. I. And though
the reading above noticed must have early crept in, appearing as it does
in the Latin versions, yet Xoyopt,a%uv is the text of s, D, F, K, L, and
is exhibited in the Syr., Coptic, and Gothic versions.

344 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
afford no occasion for such a feeling. And as the more
special ground of this confidence, we have the still further
characteristic — rightly handling the word of truth. Here
again there is a word of singular occurrence in the New
Testament — opdoropieiv, primarily signifying to cut straight,
with reference, as is supposed by some, to the cutting and
distributing of bread (Calvin, Vitringa) ; by others, to the
right division of the victims in sacrifice (Beza, Mel.) ; by
others, to the drawing of straight furrows in ploughing
(Theodoret) ; but by the majority to the cutting of a line
of road, in which sense it occurs figuratively in Prov.
xi. 5, Sept. The question is, how the word may most
naturally be understood when applied, as it is here, to the
treatment of God's word ? To divide rightly, in one point
of view, might give an appropriate meaning, but scarcely
one quite suited to the connection ; for as the subject under
discussion is the true as opposed to the false, the serious
and earnest as opposed to the frivolous and unprofitable,
dealing with spiritual things by a minister of the gospel,
one does not so naturally think of the mode of distributing
or administering the word of truth among the hearers (a
matter of tact and wisdom rather than of fidelity), as of a
fair and conscientious or straightforward handling of the
word itself. This, as opposed to all kinds of tortuous
interpretations, or by-plays of ingenuity for sinister pur
poses, is pre-eminently what becomes the teacher who
would stand approved in the judgment of God: like a
sincere and honest workman, he must go right on in his
use of the word, maintaining it in its integrity, and apply
ing it to the great spiritual ends for which it has been
given. This appears at once the simplest and the most
suitable explanation of the phrase ; it is that which sub
stantially was expressed by the Vulgate, rede tractantem,
and is acquiesced in by Huther, Alford, and others.1
1 Deyling has the merit of establishing the correct view in a very full

2 TIMOTHY II. 16, 17. 345
Ver. 16. Here, again, the apostle returns to the things to
be avoided — the corrupt practices of false teachers : But
profane babblings shun — irepito-Tacro, stand aloof from, as one
naturally does in respect to any object of dislike or terror.
It was used at Tit. iii. 9, much in the same way, with
reference to unprofitable questions about the law, genea
logies, and such like contentions. See also at 1 Tim vi.
20, where profane babblings are mentioned as things which
Timothy should turn away from. Here it is added, by way
of strengthening the exhortation, for they will advance to
more of ungodliness ; which the succeeding context shows
must be understood of the persons who teach the profane
babblings, not of the babblings themselves. The sense also
requires this ; for it is only the teachers of such things, of
whom a forward movement in the wrong direction could
justly be predicated. But readily enough of them : for
exhibiting, as they did, a relish for modes of thought and
discourse which could be characterized as at once empty
and profane, their downward progress might be reckoned on
as certain; the rather so, as now the great moral earnestness
which appeared in the true teachers of the gospel would
reflect unfavourably upon them, and almost inevitably drive
them into extravagances of a more startling and pernicious
kind. Ver. 17. And their word will eat as a gangrene. A
gangrene is described by Galen as " an eating sore," or a
tumour in the state between inflammation and entire mor-
dissertation on the verse; Obs. Sac. vol. iv. p. 2, u. 3. After examining
the other views, and stating that here, as in many other compound
words, we cannot adhere to the etymological sense of cutting, he adds :
Nam quemadmodum xaivoro/iiiv non est res novas secare, sed res novas
moliri, ita similiter oploropLuv est recte tractare, et opSorofiia, tractatio '
recte, prout decet, instituta, traducta significatione a specie ad genus.
Idem confirmat versio Syriaca pervetus, quae ophr. rov Xoyov transtulit
recte pradicare sermonem veritatis, hoc est, recte tractare et exponere
Scripturam sacram, etc.

346 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
tification, .and tending to the latter. Though not strictly
synonymous with our word cancer, it might not improperly
be represented in popular language as a sort of cancerous
affection, and, like this, spreading or finding pasture {vop-yv
eiei) on the contiguous parts of the body. It was therefore
a fitting image of the evil tendency in such false teaching to
diffuse itself among the people, because ministering in one
respect or another to the weaknesses and follies of human
nature. As the moral disease in the teachers themselves
would get worse, so their word would eat outwards, catch
ing hold of others, and bringing them under its noxious
influence. It is a general statement, but to what extent
applicable then, or to any particular error arising in later
times, must always depend, partly on the kind of error
which seeks propagation, and partly in the more or less
congenial elements amid which it has to work.
Ver. 1 8. The apostle now points to specific examples of
what he meant : of whom is Hymenceus and Philetus, men
who (oiTives) concerning the truth swerved (or went astray,
see at i Tim. i. 6), saying that the resurrection has already
taken place, and overthrow the faith of some. One of the
names mentioned here, Hymenaeus, occurred in the First
Epistle to Timothy, chap. i. 20 ; and, as was stated there,
the name in both cases had respect, in all probability, to
the same person. In the former passage he was represented
as a man who had sunk into a bad moral condition — had
thrust from him faith and a good conscience, and so con
cerning faith had made shipwreck. It is not materially
different to say here of him, that he had gone astray
respecting the truth, and did so to such an extent as to
overthrow the faith of some. This, of course, implies that
his own faith had previously suffered shipwreck — that he
had virtually abandoned the ground of faith, and discarded
the truth of God as taught by His authorized ambassadors.
In this apostasy Philetus is coupled with him, of whom

2 TIMOTHY II. l8. 347
nothing is known except what is stated in this brief
notice. The specific error charged upon the persons in question,
that they held the resurrection to have already taken place,
is no proof of Marcionite teaching, as Baur and his school
assert. There was no ne'ed of Marcion to account for the
broaching of such opinions. The First Epistle to the
Corinthians (chap, xv.) shows plainly enough how ready
the Grecian mind was to stumble at the doctrine of a literal
resurrection; and no wonder, since the doctrine was so
entirely alien to the whole spirit and tendency of the Greek
philosophy. Tertullian expressly affirms, that however much
the philosophic sects might differ on other points, they were
at one in denying that doctrine of the gospel (De Pressor.
Hcer. § 7) ; and hence, when St. Paul, in his discourse before
the Athenian Areopagus, came to refer to the' resurrection
of the dead as a fact in history,, already exemplified in
Christ, the patience of his audience could stand it no
longer ; the assembly broke up amid jeers and laughter,
as if some incredible absurdity had been uttered in their
hearing. This, therefore, was precisely the point in respect
to which it might be expected that heathen' converts to the
gospel would be apt to stagger; and such as were of a more
speculative tendency, while admitting it in words, would
deny it in reality. Within a few years of the first planting
of the church at Corinth certain parties did so there, as
several years later others appear to have done at Ephesus.
In both places, very probably, the explanations fallen upon
were of the kind mentioned by Tertullian : some identifying
the resurrection with the soul's spiritual renewal by the
doctrine of the gospel, causing it "to burst forth from the
sepulchre of the old man;" while others understood it of
the soul's departure from the body, "the world in their
view being only the habitation of the dead" {De Resurr. §
19). • The Hymenaeus and Philetus here noticed must have

348 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
taken somewhat of the former view, holding, as they did,
the resurrection to be already past. It was altogether a
spiritual thing in their account, a quickening merely of the
soul's activities to newness of life; and thus, by their excess
in spiritualizing, they loosened the very foundations of the
Christian system ; for the position they assumed involved
by necessary inference the denial of Christ's resurrection,
and the saving efficacy of His death (1 Cor. xv. 12-19).
Ver. 1 9. Nevertheless (jievroi, here only in Paul's writings,
but frequently in John's, certe quidem, expressive of opposi
tion to the preceding, and preparing for an announcement
of a contrary nature) the firm foundation of God stands,
having this seal, " The Lord knoweth them that are His."
There can be no doubt that this is the proper mode of
rendering — not, as in the Authorized Version, " The foun
dation of God standeth sure," which is grammatically unten
able. The apostle's assertion is, that, notwithstanding the
existence of such cases as he had just mentioned of defection
from the truth and the consequent loss of salvation, there is
a firm or strong foundation of God which remains stedfast
What, then, is the foundation ? To this a great variety of
answers have been given : with some it is the doctrine of
the resurrection, denied by the heretics of the preceding
verse ; with others, the word of promise, or the plighted
faith of God ; with others, Christ or the Christian rehgion ;
with others, including Calvin, Calov, Wolf, and various
besides, the election of God. It is quite possible to explain
the apostle's assertion in connection with each of these
views, and to say only what is in perfect accordance with
the truth of things, and has also a certain bearing on the
matter immediately in hand. Yet, unless it be the last,
they fail in presenting such a contrast to the evil, which the
thought here suggested was intended to meet with an
adequate corrective, as exactly suits the requirements of
the case. The evil was an actual falling away in some from

2 TIMOTHY II. 19. 349
the belief of the truth, and their consequent loss, with all
who came under their influence, to the church of Christ.
Now, to meet this, and reassure the hearts of believers
under it, something more was plainly needed than to point
attention to the certainty of the fact itself of a coming
resurrection, or of the word generally and promises of God,
or of Christ as the manifested Saviour, and the religion
introduced by Him. For all these might have been eon-
ceded to be as they are represented in Scripture, and yet
the defection in question gone on unchecked, nay, possibly
spreading and growing till everything was involved in ruin.
There was needed to set over against it an objective good,
which should practically circumscribe the evil, set bounds
to its operation, by securing that there should be a succes
sion of living witnesses to the truth, whom no temptation
could mislead, nor false teaching beguile, into a betrayal of
its interests. Such a security might be said to be furnished
by the election of God, yet in this only as actually realized
in a company of faithful men, who abide in the truth, and
resist the errors that tend to undermine it. It is also only
such a living embodiment of the election of God, not the
abstract idea or doctrine itself, which could fitly be desig
nated a foundation ; for this necessarily has respect to an
objective reality, a structure of some sort (material or
spiritual), whereof it forms a part. So that, not precisely
the divine act of election, but " the' faithful elect," as put
even by the Catholic Estius, or, " which is the same thing,
the church in the elect" — -those chosen in Christ before
the foundation of the world, and who are prepared and kept
by omnipotent grace for the glory to which from the first
they were destined — in a word, the members of the true or
invisible as contrasted with the simply outward or profess
ing church : these are what we may here most naturally
understand by the foundation of God. They constitute
His firm foundation, which stands amid both the assaults

350 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
of adversaries and the defection of unstable souls, because
held fast by His own eternal purpose and efficacious grace.
This, accordingly, is the view now generally adopted by
commentators — for example, by De Wette, Huther, Wie-
singer, Ellicott, Alford; and it is the only one that fitly
accords with what follows about the sealing, which has
immediate respect to Christ's true people, not to Christ
Himself. Of course they are what they are only from their
relation to Him ; so that by this view He is not excluded
from the foundation, but, as it were, subsumed ; and they
who would find Christ more directly in the passage are still
obliged, when they come to the sealing, to couple His
people with Him, and even to have special regard to them.
The notion of sealing with reference to a foundation is
peculiar to this passage. For a literal foundation it were
somewhat out of place, but not so when understood spiri
tually of those appointed to a particular calling or desti
nation. It is in this way that the action of sealing is
commonly employed in New Testament Scripture ; it re
presents persons as somehow certified of God, or having a
special pledge of security granted them (John vi. 27 ; 2 Cor.
i. 22 ; Eph. i. 13, iv. 30). Such, at least, is the prominent,
if not in every case the exclusive, idea conveyed by the
expression. It is plainly in that sense used here ; the
persons spoken of as sealed are those who derive from
their peculiar relation to the divine foreknowledge what
ensures their permanent stability and progress in the divine
life. Genuine believers are God's firm foundation, because
they have their place and calling under this certification :
" The Lord knoweth them that are His ; " that is, knoweth
them as such ; and knowledge being necessarily for Him
the ground of correspondent action, He regulates His pro
cedure toward them accordingly. The passage itself, thus
identified with the seal of God, is taken, with the substitu
tion merely of Kvpios for ®eds, from the Sept. of Num. xvi. 5,

2 TIMOTHY II. 19. 351
eyvco 6 ®eds tovs oWas avrov — literally, God knew them that
are His (all the verbs in the passage being in the past) :
He knew from the first who stood in that peculiar relation,
and (it is implied) would take steps for making this manifest
to all, as the Hebrew, indeed, quite distinctly states : He
will show, or give to be known. It was spoken of those
whom He had chosen to the priesthood, as contradistin
guished from Korah and his company, who were seeking to
thrust themselves into the office. When quoted, however,
as a general statement, nothing depends upon the particular
tense ; and we may as well render knoweth as knew who
are His. For the knowledge of God is not affected by the
evolutions of time : what He knows now, He knew with
equal certainty in the past ; and it is not the time when
the knowledge was possessed by Him, but the manner how
it bears on the state and destiny of those who are the
objects of it, that is the point of special moment.
The apostle adds another sentence, which cannot, like
the former one, be regarded as a quotation, though in sub
stance it occurs in other parts of Scripture : And let every
one that names the name of the Lord1 depart from iniquity.
To name the name of the Lord is to do more than call
upon Him, or profess some knowledge of His mind and
will ; it is to assume that name as the one by which we
would be called, or to identify ourselves with the cause and
interests it represents. The expression points back to Old
Testament usage, where we find not only "naming the
name of," but having " the name named upon," sometimes
" called," or " put upon " one — that is, the name of Jehovah
upon the people of His covenant. To have it so named or
put upon them, implied the existence or expressed the ac
knowledgment of such a relationship (Gen. xlviii. 16 ; Num.
vi. 27 ; Isa. xxvi. 13, xliii. 7 ; Amos ix. 12, etc.). And for
1 There can be no doubt that Kvpiov is here the correct reading, being
that of K, A, C, D, F, K, L.

35 2 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
any one to name the name of the Lord, in the sense meant
by the apostle, is, in other words, to give himself out for a
true believer in Christ, and formally, to take up his position
among those who look to Him for salvation. Let every
one who does this, says the apostle, depart from iniquity, or
unrighteousness, because everything of this description is at
variance with the position assumed ; it would be a practical
lie upon it. This call, therefore, to depart from iniquity,
expressed in the second apophthegm, we can readily see,
forms a fitting sequel and counterpart to that contained in
the first : the naming of the Lord's name, and, in conse
quence, departing from iniquity, is, on man's part, the
reflex and practical outcome, as well as evidence, of the
blessed distinction of being known by God as emphatically
His. But it seems rather fanciful to consider the second
word, couched in the form of an exhortation, as equally
with the first included in the designation of seal, and form
ing, so to speak, the inscription on its reverse side. For
seals had not, like coins, a reverse side, from which another
impression different from the primary one could be made.
Nor could an exhortation to a particular course of life, hke
a divine, perpetually influential act, have properly attributed
to it anything of sealing virtue. The relation of the two
sayings to each other may rather be regarded as correspond
ing to a similar pair in Eph. iv. 30, " Grieve not the Holy
Spirit of God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of re
demption " — where the sealing is made to stand simply in
the indwelling grace and action of God's Spirit ; and the
call not to grieve Him is an exhortation to the line of duty
which such a near and blessed relation to the Spirit involves
as a natural sequence or imperative obligation. There is
no need, or even propriety, in pressing the connection
further here. It is God who seals the firm foundation, or
secures a living and abiding membership in His church, by
choosing and recognising those who belong to it as His ;

2 TIMOTHY II. 20. 353
and the proof that this seal really exists in any particular -
case, because the sure, unvarying result in which it ex
presses itself, is the departure of him who has it from
iniquity — his treading in the paths of righteousness. This
bespeaks his living connection with "the Holy One, while
the want of it would as clearly indicate his alienation from
Him. Ver. 20. Here the apostle passes to another and appa
rently somewhat contradictory aspect of the church — from
the church viewed as God's firm foundation, all solid and
compact, to the church as a house composed of various
and; to a certain extent, heterogeneous materials. The
distinction is simply that of the real and the professing, or
the invisible and the visible church. But (Se, the adversa
tive, indicating something diverse from the preceding) in a
great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but
also of wood and of earth, and some to honour, others to dis
honour. That by the great house is to be understood the
church as an outstanding, visible institution, is the nearly
unanimous opinion of commentators, although Chrysostom
insists on its being taken to mean the world, as the apostle
(he says) wished everything in the church to be considered
of gold and silver. But the question is as to the facts of
the case, not what the apostle might wish to be such ; and
the whole tenor of his discourse here has respect to what
in some way or another stands related to God as His house
hold, in a religious point of view, in which respect there
can be no doubt that there is a mixed condition of things —
a false as well as a true. Considered in this light, there
are certain obvious resemblances between it and the utensils
of a large dwelling-house, accompanied, no doubt, as usual
in such comparisons, with underlying differences, which
require to be kept in the background. But, so far as here
put, the similitude is apt and natural : the vessels of gold
and silver in such a house, being in themselves of costly

354 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
material, and reserved for honourable uses, differ widely,
though pertaining to the same establishment, from those of
wood and earthenware, which are of little intrinsic worth,
and fit only for meaner services. And such relatively to
each other are the two great parties in God's professing
church : the one God's true elect, His jewels, as He else
where calls them, or peculiar treasure, preserved by His
faithful guardianship, and destined to His eternal glory;
the other, those who have but an outward standing in the
household, and if capable, perhaps, of performing some
inferior offices, yet never attaining either here or hereafter
to the honour of God's saints, because destitute of the
spiritual life which constitutes the essential property of such.
This is the highest that can be said of the latter class ; for
if in certain things they may do a little service to the in
terests of the church, in others of a more vital nature they
cannot ; but, as a rule, do much disservice. In the great
conflict which is proceeding between good and evil, God
does not receive from them the honour to which He is
entitled, and they in turn must be treated by Him with
dishonour, awaking at last to " shame and everlasting con
tempt." They are of Israel, yet not Israel ; called, but not
chosen. Ver. 21. There follows, therefore, a virtual exhortation to
separate oneself from this class, and make sure of reaching
the state and destination of the other. Without explaining
what corresponded to the two kinds of vessels, taking for
granted that this was understood, the apostle says, If any
one, then, shall have purged himself from these — that is, as
Bengel well explains, shall by purifying himself have gone
out of their number, those, namely, represented by the
vessels associated with dishonour — he shall be a vessel for
honour, sanctified, serviceable to the Master, prepared for every
good work. Looking at the matter simply from a human
point of view, and as connected with each man's personal

2 TIMOTHY II. 22. 355
responsibilities, the apostle merely points to the result to
be aimed at and attained, leaving it to be ascertained from
the great principles of the gospel how the end in question
was to be accomplished. He contents himself with putting
before men a plain practical issue : moving no question
about election, or about adoption into the family of God ;
but simply teaching, as Calvin well puts it, " that all who
would consecrate themselves to the Lord must purge them
selves from the filthiness of the ungodly — the same, indeed,
that God everywhere teaches. For we hear nothing else in
this passage than what we find in many other parts of Paul's
epistles, and particularly in his second to the Corinthians ;
Be ye clean who bear the vessels of the Lord. It is hence
clear beyond contradiction that we are called to holiness.
But the calling and duty of Christians is one thing, and it
is another whence the faculty or power of effecting it. That
the faithful are required to purify themselves, we deny not ;
but that this is a matter which belongs to the Lord, He
declares Himself, when through the prophet Ezekiel He
promises to send forth the Holy Spirit, that we may be1
cleansed (chap, xxxvi. 25). Wherefore we should rather
beseech the Lord to purge us, than vainly make trial, in
such a matter of our own strength without His- aid." In a
word, the thing itself must be done by us : every individual
should lay it upon his conscience as a condition he is
morally bound to have made good ; but when he comes in
earnest to attempt it, he finds he can only succeed by
throwing himself on the redeeming mercy and sanctifying
grace of God.
Ver. 22. But flee youthful lusts — Vulg. juvenilia desideria.
— primarily, no doubt, sensual indulgence, yet not this
alone, levity of spirit also, love of pleasure, vainglory, and
things of a similar kind (Theodoret). Such an advice was
still suitable to Timothy, who, though now in ripe manhood,
was yet not beyond the period when the mind is liable to

356 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
aberration or excess, from the undue impulse of the lower
affections (see Introd. sec. iii.). And the advice is intro
duced by the adversative particle (Se), in order more dis
tinctly to mark the importance of the thing here required,
if the well-qualified condition for doing good service, noticed
immediately before, was to be attained : but remember this
at least is indispensable — you must keep clear from the
gratification of youthful lusts. But (instead of yielding to
those lusts) follov) after righteousness, faith, love, peace with
them that call upon the Lord out of a pure heart; in short,
maintain a character such as becomes the gospel of Christ,
adorned with the graces and virtues which it especially
inculcates. The lesson here comes out again, so often
already and in so many ways presented in these Pastoral
epistles, that a sound moral condition is above all things
,essential to -fitness for effective ministerial service in the
divine kingdom. Other things may more or less be helpful,
but this is indispensable. The peace spoken of is un
doubtedly to be understood of peace in the closer sense —
a state of inner harmony and agreeable fellowship ; because
it is sach as is to be maintained with them that call upon
the Lord out of a pure heart This connection obviously
reflects upon the nature ofthe peace intended.
Ver. 23. But foolish and ignorant questions avoid, knowing
that they do gender strifes. The -same advice substantially
was given to Titus (chap. iii. 9) ; and the tendency of discus
sions .about questions of the kind here indicated to give rise
to fruitless contention, is distinctly stated at 1 Tim. vi. 4.
The only point Which calls for explanation is the precise
meaning of the second epithet applied to the questions —
dsraiSevVovs. Our translators have rendered it unlearned,
which may be said to express the etymological sense, like
•the Vulgate's sine disciplina, or Alford's undisciplined. But
to proscribe unlearned or undisciplined questions, with an
implied sanction of such as could fitly be called learned or

2 TIMOTHY II. 24-26. 357
disciplined, is certainly not what the apostle meant, in the
ordinary sense of such expressions. The Greek word
nowhere else occurs in the New Testament ; but in the
Septuagint it is employed in a considerable variety of sig
nifications (if we may judge from the Hebrew terms it is
taken to represent) — not only untaught or undisciplined
(Prov. v. 23), but worthless (1 Sam. i. 16), senseless or
foolish (Prov. viii. 5, xv. 13, 15), etc. (See Schleusner,
Lex., on the word.) Ignorant is probably as good a second
ary meaning, and as suitable to the connection here, as
any that can be employed, — understanding thereby some
thing closely allied to the other epithet, foolish, with which
it is conjoined — senseless, stupid; such questions as might
be raised by persons who had undergone no proper instruc
tion or training in the things of God. Questions of that
description the thoughtful and earnest minister of God's
word will do well to eschew : he should feel like one that
has no heart or time for them ; and a little observation will
soon convince him that they are, when entertained, as the
apostle intimates, a fruitful source of strife.
Vers. 24-26. But the servant of the Lord, it is added, must
not strive, but be gentle toward all : not a person of conten
tious and combative disposition, but of mild and conciliatory
bearing. Every one who is a true believer in Christ, and
in any sphere of life is called to do service to Him, ought
to be such ; for it is what Christ Himself, the great pattern
of behevers, pre-eminently was ; but the connection makes
it plain that servant of the Lord is here taken in the more
emphatic sense — of those who, like Timothy, were set
apart to special service — evangelists and ministers of the
word. In such a case it is more in accordance with our
idiom to say the than a servant of^the Lord, though the
SovAov of the original is without the article ; but the pro
minent position of the word, at the very commencement of
the sentence, and its being coupled also with a defining

35^ THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
genitive (Kvpiov), serve substantially the same purpose as
our definite article. Besides being gentle in his bearing,
the Lord's servant must be apt to teach (1 Tim. iii. 2, which
see), patient of wrong (dve£tKaKov, enduring evil), in meekness
correcting those who oppose themselves — meaning thereby per
sons within the professing church, but who, taking up some
false notions, or misled by perverted counsels, set them
selves to withstand the pure teaching and goodly order of
Christ's kingdom. Such persons need to be firmly met,
and brought under a corrective, wholesome administration
(iratSevovTa, see at 1 Tim. i. 20, Tit. ii. 12), yet conducted
with a meek and forbearing spirit. And the reason follows :
if peradventure, or sometime perchance, God may give tliem
repentance unto the full knowledge of the truth. The form of
expression is peculiar, indicative of hope, yet mingled with
much doubt and hesitancy : fiyirore Sutj avTois d ©eds, literally,
lest at any time God may give them. But what is meant is,
plainly, not something to be dreaded, but something to be
desired and hoped for, only of so uncertain or improbable
a kind, that there was only a faint prospect of seeing it
realized. " Mtj is here used somewhat irregularly, in its
dubitative .sense ; irore, with which it is united, is not otiose,
but brings its own signification of indefinite time; and while
marking clearly the complete contingency of the change,
still leaves the faint hope that at some time or other such a
change may, by God's grace, be wrought within" (Ellicott).
See also Winer, Gr. § 56, 2, b, note by Mr. Moulton, who
suggests as a translation, whether haply; and Scherlitz,
Grundziige der Neutest. Gracitat, p. 365, perhaps fully better,
whether God may not still give. It is an elliptical sentence,
and cannot, as it actually stands, be very definitely con
strued ; while yet there is plainly enough expressed a
hesitating, yet not altogether groundless hope, that the
desired good might be ultimately reached. The if per
adventure, therefore, of the Authorized Version gives the

2 TIMOTHY II. 24-26. 359
sense nearly as well as any rendering that could be
adopted. In regard to the good itself to be sought in behalf of the
opposers in question, a twofold description is given : first,
that through a p-erdvoiav, a benignant change of heart wrought
by the grace of God, they might come to the full knowledge
(iiriyvwaiv) ofthe truth — might not know it in part merely,
or in so superficial a manner as to leave the spirit and
temper of the inner man still unsubdued by its hallowed
influence. Only the full knowledge, apprehended and em
braced by a properly receptive heart, would be sufficient to
win them over to the obedience of Christ. The other aspect
presented of the good in question is contained in the next
verse, 26 : and that tliey may return to soberness out of the snare
ofthe devil. Such is the only ascertained sense of the verb
dvavyijrwaiv, found only here in the New Testament writings.
The parties in question are contemplated as having sunk
into a kind of drunken or benumbed state, through the
*artful devices of the great adversary, and capable only of
being recovered to sobriety of thought and soundness of
moral perceptions by being dealt with in a kindly and tem
perate, yet faithful exercise of authority. In that case* with
God's blessing on the means employed, the delusive spell
might possibly break, and a position of freedom and safety
be gained by them. The sentence is here, again, elliptical;
and the full import plainly is, that they may return to sober
ness, [and so escape] out of the snare of the devil. The
bewildered or stupefied state into which they had fallen was
as if they had been caught in a snare of the wicked one ;
and so the dispelling of the one brought an escape from the
other. The remaining clause is attended with some difficulty,
and has been variously interpreted : i£wypyp.evoi iir airov
els rb iKeivov BeXypia, being, or having been, taken captive by
Mm, for, or according to the will of him. Such is the plain

360 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
rendering of the words, which in themselves are simple
enough. But in the original there are two pronouns, which
are at least most naturally referred to different subjects, as
indeed they do refer, in a passage quite near (chap. iii. 9),
where the one (avrds) has respect to a nearer, the other
(ckcivos) to a more remote party. Cases have been pro
duced in which both pronouns, when occurring in a single
sentence, have respect to the same subject (Kuhner, § 629,
3). But they are somewhat exceptional, and, as stated by
Alford, it tpok place only when it was sought by such a use
of eKetvos to emphasize the subject. The meaning, there
fore, can hardly be that given by the Vulgate, a quo captivi
tenentur ad ipsius voluntatem ; reproduced in our English
version, " who are taken captive by him at his will,"
adopted still by De Wette and Huther ; for, so rendered,
the devil would be the subject of both pronouns, with no
more emphasis in connection with the one than the other :
avrov would have served equally well in both places. The
objection applies also to the view of the Greek expositors,
who ascribe the taking captive not to the devil, but to God,
and as the product of His will, which is liable to the further
objection that it represents men, who had just returned to
the free use of their intellectual and moral powers, as now
taken captive, though in a better sense than before — borne
away by another power than their own. Nor is the matter
much mended by Bengel, Wetstein, and others, who would
refer the airov, who takes captive, not to God Himself, but
to the servant of God, through whose instrumentality the
blessed captivity is effected, and God's will in this respect
made good. This gets rid, indeed, of the objection as to
the two pronouns being made to refer to one subject ; but
there still remains the apparent unnaturalness and impro
priety of representing persons, just restored to sense and
liberty, going into captivity — carried captive, on this sup
position, by a human agent, who, immediately before, was

2 TIMOTHY III. I. 361
taught to regard his working upon them to any good pur
pose as only a bare possibility. A transition of this sort
wants verisimilitude. It seems necessary, therefore, to a
satisfactory explanation, that we understand by the power
who takes captive the devil, and, as a matter of course, that
the captivity so effected be associated with the preceding
period of spiritual intoxication, when the" parties lay locked,
as it were, in a stupefying delusion. The tense also con
firms this view — the perfect, not the aorist — pointing, there
fore, not to a, single act, but to a continued state : having
been taken captive by him. Then the concluding clause, eis
rb iKeivov deXyfia, unto (in pursuance of, or for the carrying
out of) the will of Him — namely, of God : this may gram
matically be connected, either with their captivity to the
power of evil, which in that case comes to be regarded as
under His appointment and control ; or, as appears more
natural, with their recovery from that state — the restoration
to sobriety of mind, which is all one with escaping from the
snare and captivity of the devil, being the fulfilment, in their
experience, of His gracious will. The whole passage, then,
might be read, pointed, and slightly paraphrased thus : In
meekness correcting those who oppose themselves, if peradventure
God may give them repentance [to come] unto the full know
ledge of the truth ; and that they may return to soberness, [and
so escape] out of the snare of the devil {by whom they had
been taken captive), according to the will of Him (God), who
for this end seconds the efforts of His servant, by giving
the spirit of repentance and true enlightenment

CHAPTER III.

Ver. 1. This knowf however, that in the last days grievous
times shall set in. The introduction of the mournful topic
1 It is scarcely worth while to advert to the plural reading of A, F,

362 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
discussed in this section of the epistle is made with a but,
or a however, because forming a sort of contrast to the
hopeful issue indicated at the close of the preceding chapter
respecting the opponents there referred to. Timothy, and
those following him in the administration of the affairs of
the church, are warned against entertaining too sanguine
expectations — admonished to bear in mind that, however
they may succeed with particular persons in repressing in
cipient disorders, and winning men back to sobriety of
mind, there was to be a great development of evil in the
approaching future, not only of the outlying world, but also
of the Christian church. This gloomy prospect is associated
with the last days (iv iaxdrais rjfiepais — without the article,
because the expression itself is sufficiently individualizing
as to the time meant ; Winer, Gr. § 19). But while in one
sense this term is specific enough, in another it is attended
with a considerable amount of vagueness. In prophecy it
was often used for the far distant future, especially as con
nected with Messianic times (see the Sept, for example, at
Num. xxiv. 14 ; Isa. ii. 2, ix. 1 ; Jer. xxiii. 20; Dan. ii. 28,
x. 14, etc.). And about the gospel age, it would appear
that the expression, with some slight variations — such as
John's iaxdry wpa (1 John ii. 18) — had become appropri
ated generally to the period or dispensation of Messiah.
So, in Heb. i. 1 and 1 Pet. i. 23, this whole period is distin
guished from the times of the fathers and the prophets which
preceded, by being designated " the last days," or " the
last of the days ; '' and we learn from other sources that the
Jews of later times familiarly used the same mode of speech
(Schottgen, Hor. Heb., on this passage). It does not appear
that in this respect they were wont to distinguish between
the " latter " days and the " last " days (see at 1 Tim. iv. 1).
And it is somewhat doubtful how far the apostles attempted
yivitxtri, strangely preferred by Lachmann and Huther ; for yivxcxt
has the support of s, C, D, K, L, Vulg., Syr., and Coptic versions.

2 TIMOTHY III. I. 363
to go beyond their countrymen in any more discriminating
use of such expressions. They were discouraged by our
Lord from expecting to get definite revelations of the times
and the seasons pertaining to the future of His kingdom
(Acts i. 6) ; and while they throw out, from time to time,
prophetic intimations of events, both of an adverse and a
prosperous kind, which should mark its progress, they leave
us much in the dark as to either the absolute or the relative
times of their occurrence. In particular, the deplorable
manifestation of corruption and godlessness which here, for
example, — and at 2 Pet. iii. 3, also in 1 John ii. 18, and 2
Thess. ii. 1-12, — is coupled with the last days, appears from
the descriptions to deepen as those days proceed, and to
reach, one is apt to think, a culmination not far from their
close in the second advent ; while yet the evil is represented
as either actually begun in the apostolic age, or just on the
eve of beginning to develope itself. The grievous times
or seasons (xaXeiroi, grievous in a moral respect ; difficult,
hence perilous) which the apostle in this passage associates
with the last days, are at the same time said to be pressing
on — ivaryaovrai, aderunt (Bengel), they will immediately be
present, are even now close at hand — so that all should be
on the outlook for them. Indeed, consisting as they do
in spiritual defections from the life of the gospel, and con
sequent moral depravations, they are never wholly wanting
in any age of the church, though at certain periods and in
particular localities they become more rife and rampant.
than in others. " I think," says Theodoret, " that it was
our time which is here predicted. For our life is full of
these evils ; and while we bear about us an aspect of piety,
it is the image of wickedness which we produce by our
works." So, many have in substance said, of their particular
time, both before and since ; so, doubtless, they will say in
the future ; and what is written of the evil in the epistolary
or apocalyptic portions of New Testament Scripture, is

364 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
but an expansion of the prophetic glimpses given by our
Lord in some of His parables (such as the Wheat and
Tares, the Wise and Foolish Virgins), and in His discourse
on the last times, which speaks of false teachers and pro
phets, delusions, iniquity abounding, and the love of many
Waxing cold (Matt. xxiv.). It was not that Christianity was
in any measure to produce the corruptions and disorders
that were in prospect, but simply that they should exist in
spite of the divine grace and reformatory agencies it was
bringing into play, and to some extent also should take ad
vantage of its hallowed name under which to cloak, or more
effectually prosecute, the work of evil /
Ver. 2. For men {ol dvBpwiroi, men, not universally in
deed, yet, as the article seems to indicate, in large num
bers) shall be selfish {cpiXavroi, self-lovers, each seeking his
own, comparatively regardless of another's good), covetous,
boastful, haughty (virepytpavoi, carrying themselves with a
lofty and supercilious air), slanderers (/?Ado-<pTjp,oi, offen
sively speaking evil of others, vilifying them), disobedient to
parents, unthankful, unholy. Ver. 3. Without natural affec
tion (aaropyoi, wanting the instinctive sense of endearment
which links together parents and children, aropyy), implac
able (dcrirovSoi, not truce-breakers, as in the Authorized
Version, but such as would not enter into "a truce; sine
pace, as the Vulgate, or as Luther, unversohnlich, not to be
appeased — see Lexicons), false accusers, incontinent (cocpa-
Tets, without moral power or self-control, unbridled), fierce,
haters of good (dtpiXdyaBot, the opposite of the <f>iXdyaBov
commended and required in Tit. i. 8). Ver. 4. Betrayers,
headlong (irpoirereis, ready to precipitate matters by hasty
speech or action), carried with conceit (see at 1 Tim. iii. 6),
lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God {tf>iXrj8ovoi —
<ptAd0eoi, both dira£ Aeydp., but quite natural compounds,
and found in Philo ; see Wetstein). Ver. 5. Having a form
(jioptpwaiv, an outward show or appearance) of godliness,

2 TIMOTHY III. 2-5. 365
but denying the power thereof- — that is, by their immoral lives
and wicked, deeds belying their profession — practically
disowning that godliness was an actual power in their
experience. It is a dreadful picture, and from the very darkness of
the characteristics it delineates, plainly requires to be
understood with some limitations. If such characteristics
were to become general in any particular age or country,
society could not long continue to exist ; it would fall to
pieces by the weight of its own corruptions. We must
therefore suppose the apostle to mean, that in the coming
future there would be ever and anon persons appearing
with those vicious qualities more or less characterizing
their behaviour — not that all of them should meet in the
same individuals', and still less that any entire community
should be pervaded by them. But in proportiop as the
spirit of selfishness should at any time prevail, . the others
might be expected in a corresponding ratio to follow. That
spirit fitly stands at the head of this black catalogue of
moral evils, being in a manner the root-quality out of
which the rest will, as circumstances admit, '' inevitably
spring,, and being that also, which more almost than any
other bespeaks the disregard of Christian verities, and the
absence of their influence on the heart. And if, from
being simply a negation, there should come to any extent
to prevail an antagonism to the fundamental truths and
love -inspiring influences of the gospel, one can easily
understand how the barriers which restrain the selfish
spirit, and oblige it to maintain a certain moderation and
formal decency, would one after another give way, and a
fierce, unscrupulous, reckless opposition to whatever is
pure, lovely, and of good report, rise to the ascendant.
In such a case the reigning spirit of the time would neces
sarily be, if not avowed, at least virtual atheism ; and the
atheist, as has been justly said, "holds all mankind in

366 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
contempt, and would be ready with a jest to blot out life
from the world. Let but the day come, when it shall be
fearlessly and commonly professed that death is annihila
tion, and that therefore the pleasures of appetite, graced
by intelligence, are the best portion of man, and this hor
rible opinion shall quickly become parent to a giant cruelty,
loftier in stature, and more malign, than any the earth has
hitherto beheld. Even the most sanguinary superstitions
have had some profession of sanctity and of mercy to
maintain ; a reserve, a saving hypocrisy, a balance of
sentiments, which has set bounds to their demands of
blood. But atheism is a simple element : it has no re
straining motive, and must act, like itself, with a dreadful
ingenuousness."1 The nearest approach to this on a large
scale which the world has seen since the diffusion of
Christianity, was the state of France at the close of the
last and the beginning of the present century. But the
disturbing elements which brought on that terrible state of
things, there can be no doubt, are again actively at work
in many parts of Christendom ; and it can scarcely be said
to be beyond the bounds of probability that "the last
days" of the present dispensation are destined to witness,
in certain quarters, a realization of the prophetic picture
before us more appalling than has yet been exhibited in
the history of the past.
And from these turn away. Such an exhortation clearly
implies that the state of moral pravity described was not
regarded by the apostle as belonging entirely to the future ;
that persons were even then to be found in whom its
features partially at least appeared ; and consequently, that
what was said at the outset of " the last days " as inclusive
generally of Christian times, holds also here.
Vers. 6, 7. The apostle now not only presupposes the
existence of parties to whom his description in a measure
1 Isaac Taylor's Saturday Evening, chap. xiii.

2 TIMOTHY III. 6, 7. 367
applied, but also points to a specific line of operations
carried on by them. For of these are they who creep into
houses, and take captive silly women, laden with sins, led away
by diverse lusts. A sly and cunning mode of procedure is
indicated, as of persons in a low moral condition, watching
their opportunities, and ready to take advantage of the in
firmities and troubles of others to compass their own selfish
ends. They creep into houses: evSvvovTes, not necessarily
more than entering into, but here, as also sometimes in clas
sical writers, with the collateral idea of doing so by secret,
stealthy movements ; so that, as Chrysostom states, "some
thing dishonourable is implied — deceit, cozening." Their
object in this is said to get thoroughly under their power
(ai^p-aAcoTi^covTes, a word said to be of Macedonian origin,
meaning literally, to take captive — Luke xxi. 24 ; figura
tively, to get dominion over, or bring under one's control —
Rom. vii. 23 ; 2 Cor. x. , 5) yvvaiKapia (a diminutive, dira£
Aeydp,., expressive of contempt), little, or silly women. And
these are further described as laden (aeawpevp,eva, heaped
up, hence laden) with sins, led away, or borne along (dyd-
pieva), by various kinds of lusts : in ver. 7 further charac
terized as ever learning, and never able to come to the full
knowledge (iiriyvwaiv, knowledge in the true and proper
sense) ofthe truth.
It is not quite easy to get a perfectly satisfactory view of
the sort of women here referred to, or why the designing
and corrupt characters spoken of should have especially
sought to win their confidence. It may naturally be sup
posed that they were possessed of wealth, though of small
worth as to personal qualities, and that it was this the in
triguers were mainly intent on acquiring. Such, probably,
was the case, but it can only be matter of inference : the
fact is not directly stated. Reference has been made to
the well-known circumstance that the Gnostic leaders
sought to lay hold of females, used them as instruments

,3'bo THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
for the propagation of their false doctrines, and not un-
frequently carried on with them, under high-sounding pre
tensions, the most licentious practices. Irenaeus (Hcer.
i. 13), Epiphanius (Hcer. xxvi. 12), and others, have given
special notices of these ; and Baur finds, in the supposed
allusion here to those wily and corrupt proceedings of the
second century heresiarchs, a proof of the sub-apostolic
origin of this epistle {Pastoralbr. p. 36). But the cha
racter of the women as described here is not such as we
are given to understand were chiefly sought after by the
Gnostic leaders : these were, as might be expected from
the Gnostic pretensions, and as Irenaeus expressly tells
us, "the well-bred, elegantly attired, and very wealthy;"
and it was rather (if we except the fables of a later age
about Simon and Nicolaus) the fascinating and corrupting
influence which the Gnostic teachers contrived to exert
over women hitherto reputed honourable and good, that
the accounts in question complain of, than their intercourse
with women of loose character, carried away by sinful lusts.
But it is of such the apostle speaks — women, not sinners
merely, but laden with sins (which we have no right to
interpret, with De Wette, whom Alford follows, burdened
in their consciences with a sense of sins, labouring under
convictions of guilt ; for such were not the indications of
silliness in the early church, nor was it customary then any
more than now to represent people as laden with sins in
any other than an objective sense). And, finally, it is not
said by the apostle that the persons who acted this treache
rous and ensnaring part to the women in question were
teachers : they were adversaries and opponents of the
gospel, because agents of deceit and corruption, while it
was all intent on the interests of truth and purity; but
nothing more is known of them, and the allusion that fol
lows to the Egyptian magicians, and a little after to others
of a like description now (ver. 12), rather leads us to sup-

2 TIMOTHY III. 8. 369
pose that they were of the class generally called sorcerers
or magicians — the class to which Simon the Samaritan,
Elymas, and the sons of Sceva belonged (Acts viii., xiii.,
xix.) — men of bloated consciences and reprobate minds,
who, for merely selfish ends, played upon the weakness
and credulity of mankind, and pre-eminently upon certain
portions of the female section of them. We have undoubted
evidence of persons of that description abounding in apos
tolic times about Ephesus and its neighbourhood; and
from what is known of them, nothing seems more likely
than that they should have presented .themselves to the
apostle as the prototypes of the most worthless and de
praved characters of the latter days.
Taking this view of the deceivers, we can scarcely hesi
tate where to find the deceived. They were, as the words
of the apostle naturally import, the loose, the frivolous,
worldly-minded ladies, who lived for the most part in ful
ness and pleasure, but, as frequently happens with such
persons, were visited at times with recoils of feeling, guilty.
compunctions, fears of a judgment to come ; and yet, when
casting about for relief, and desirous of learning what might
be for their good, continued still too light-hearted and un
stable to embrace a life that aims at conformity to the
example of Christ; hence they were peculiarly in danger
of being caught by the arts of those who pretended, by
some heaven-taught secret, to charm away from their dis
ciples the powers of evil. It is precisely among such that
impostors of that stamp have ever found their readiest
dupes and their richest harvest.
Ver. 8. Now in the same manner (ov rpoirov Se) that fannes
and fambres withstood Moses, so do these also withstand the
truth. The reference to these ancient magicians shows, as
already stated, the class of corrupt opponents more imme
diately in the eye of the apostle. It appears that a very
old tradition among the Jews had handed down the two
2 A

370 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
names here mentioned as those of the leading magicians
who endeavoured to- rival the miracles of Moses, and foil
him in his mission. The names appear in the Chaldee
paraphrast, at Ex. i. 15, very nearly the same as here
— Janis and Jimbres ; and again as Janis and Jambres at
Ex. vii. 11. Other modes of spelling the names in the
Rabbinical writings (such as Jonos and Jombros, Janos and
Jambrinos), with various, evidently fabulous, accounts re
specting them, are given by Schottgen on this passage ; also
by Wetstein. It is needless to go into these tales, which
apparently belong to different periods, and are not always
consistent with each other. But there is no reason to doubt
the. correctness of the tradition as to the names and the
persons they represented, there being no conceivable temp
tation in such a case to depart from the truth, and a very
great probability that the truth so far should have found
some place in Jewish memorials of the past. As regards
the substance of the historical allusion, nothing depends on
the specific names ; for the action ascribed here to Jannes
and Jambres is the same that in the narrative of Exodus is
associated with the magicians generally; nor can it be
doubted that a body so peculiar in the powers they pro
fessed to exercise, and so influential in their position, would
have their recognised heads and leaders, by whatever names
they might be called. In proud reliance on their thauma-
turgical skill, and doubtless supposing that Moses and
Aaron were only members of a similar craft with their "own,
they withstood the claim to a divine commission and a
strictly supernatural power which was put forth by those
men of God, entered with them into a competitive trial,
and so completely failed in the attempt that they were
obliged to own themselves vanquished. Such, too, the
apostle affirms, would be the issue of the trial which was
then proceeding between the ministers of the gospel and
the adversaries — not false teachers, properly so called, but

2 TIMOTHY III. 9, IO. 371
deceitful workers, the professors of secret lore and magical
art. The conflict now, as of old, was essentially one be
tween God's truth on the one side, and the devil's lie on
the other ; between the one grand remedy of Heaven for
the ills of humanity, and the wretched devices of self-
seeking, fraudulent men, — men, it is added by the apostle,
corrupted in their mind, reprobate (or worthless) concerning
the faith. Such was generally the condition of the class of
persons who assumed the delusive pretensions referred to,
and plied the infamous traffic connected with them. From
the very nature of things, their consciences must have been
entirely sophisticated, and a moral state induced strongly
repellent to the faith of the gospel.
Ver. 9. But (such is the conclusion of the matter) they
shall not make progress (ov irpoKotj/ovaiv iirl irXeiov, lit. shall
not advance to more, or rise to a stronger position) ; for their -
folly shall become manifest to all, as theirs also came to be.
The triumph of truth over error, of reality over presump
tion, should now, as of old, become apparent. An opposi
tion has been thought to exist between this passage and
chap. ii. 16, where it is said of the teachers of profaneand
vain babblings, that they would advance to more of un
godliness. But the cases are really very different, for the
persons spoken of here were not of the same class as the
others ; and having become already thoroughly corrupt and
reprobate, an advance in this direction was impossible.
The advance, however, which is denied respecting them
has reference not to their personal state, but to the godless
cause they were seeking to promote : in this they should
not make progress ; the course of events would expose
their folly, and leave them, like the old wonder-workers of
Egypt, exposed to obloquy and shame.
Ver. 10. Thou, however, hast closely followed1 my instruc-
1 The received text has vrxptixoXovltixis, the perfect, with D, E, K, L,
the great majority of cursives, Chrys., Theod., Damas. ; but S, A, C

3 72 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
tion, my manner of life, my purpose, my faith, my long-suffer-:
ing, my love, my patience, etc. In contrast to the selfish and
crafty proceedings of the parties just referred to, the apostle
now reminds Timothy of the very different line of conduct
he had been made familiar with in the apostle's own case —
what proofs it had afforded of sincere devotion to the truth,
self-denial, and all the higher graces of a pure and earnest
, life. Thou hast closely followed my course, says Paul, in all
this, hast gone along with me therein as a sympathizing and
approving disciple (see at i Tim. iv. 6). The aorist, or
indefinite past, is thought by some preferable to the perfect
here : not that the reading, as stated in the note, is the
better supported, but that it affords a fitter sense, convey
ing, as it would do, a kind of latent admonition to Timothy
to take heed that it was as well with him now in this respect
as it was in the past ; or, as Alford more strongly puts it,
the aorist bears something of reproach with it, virtually
implying that Timothy was not the man now he had for
merly been. In an earlier part of this epistle the same
meaning was extracted from certain things said by the
apostle, but without any just grounds, as we endeavoured
to show ; see at chap. i. 3-7. If the aorist were ascertained
to be the correct reading, it would still convey no such
reproach ; it would only indicate that for some reason the
apostle thought fit to refer specially to the earlier trials he
had undergone, and the spirit he had manifested under
them, rather than to those of a later period. Some expla
nation has been given of it by Paley and others, when
tracing the coincidences between this epistle and the narra
tive in the related chapters of the Acts (chaps, xiii., xiv.,
xvi.) ; the old scenes of persecution and trial which took
place at and around Timothy's earthly home naturally pre-
read trap TixoXoviwas ; also F, G, the simple verb tixoXoiiwas. Tischen
dorf now adopts the second, as do also Alford, Ellicott, Huther, chiefly
on internal grounds, which are referred to in the text.

2 TIMOTHY III. II. 373
senting themselves afresh here, and this in the very order
in which they occurred : ver. n. My persecutions, my suffer
ings, such as befell me in Antioch, in Iconium, in Lystra; such
persecutions as I endured : and out of them all the Lord
delivered me. " We have thus the strongest reasons for
believing that Timothy was a witness of St. Paul's injurious
treatment ; and this, too, at a time of life when the mind
receives its deepest impressions from the spectacle of inno
cent suffering and undaunted courage. And it is far from
impossible that the generous and warm-hearted youth was
standing in the group of disciples who surrounded the ap
parently lifeless body of the apostle at the outside of the
walls of Lystra" (Howson). We can thus sufficiently
account- for the peculiar stress laid by the apostle here on
matters connected with his first and second mission tour in
Asia Minor, and for the reference being couched in the
indefinite past, if so be that the aorist is the correct reading.
But the other, the perfect, appears to me fully as natural
(though the aorist has been retained in the text), because
the reference of the apostle is not by any means exclusively
to his remote experiences at Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra,
but rather to the spirit, temper, and behaviour exhibited by
him during the whole of Timothy's acquaintance with him,
but especially so in connection with what may be called
the formative period of Timothy's Christian, life and mini
sterial agency. Commonly as an eye-witness, always in inti
mate fellowship and sympathy of spirit, Timothy had made
common cause with him in all ; and could thus judge at
how high a - moral elevation he stood above the low and
worthless impostors against whom he was warning— yea,
had himself shared in it.
The article prefixed to the several items in the apostle's
delineation of his course — rfj SiSacrKaAia, rfj dywyfj, etc. —
individualizes them much in the same manner as our pos
sessive pronoun, and may be said to carry forward the p-ov,

374 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
which stands at the beginning : the teaching of me, the
conduct, namely, of me = my conduct, and so on.
Ver. 12. Yea, and all {koi irdvres Se, or, and all too) who
are minded to live piously in Christ fesus, shall be persecuted.
The apostle had spoken of his own persecutions, how he
himself bore them, and how God dehvered him out of
them ; but he now generalizes, in a manner, his own ex
perience : others may look for a measure of the same.
None, indeed, are excepted; all who are minded (oldeXovres,
having their will set) to live piously in Christ fesus — in
Him, or in union with Him, as the one true source of
living godliness — shall be persecuted. He does not say how
or to what extent ; but merely states the fact, that persecu
tion in some form or another shall be their portion. And
even this general announcement obviously presupposes as
its ground, the existence in the world around of a spirit of
alienation and hostility with respect to vital godliness. But
that might not be always and everywhere the same ; it
could not but vary as Christianity itself rose to power, or
the reverse; and so, as regards quantity and force, a certain
conditional element necessarily enters into the statement,
which may be put thus : In so far as the world retains its
native character, those who are bent on leading in it lives
of piety shall have to meet persecution. If through the
diffusion of the gospel the old has to a considerable extent
passed away, and a better order of things taken its place,
then the persecution may narrow itself to taunts, reproaches,
spiteful or contemptuous treatment, when a): the behest of
holy principle a stand is made against worldly compliances
or fashionable vices. In these, however, the persecuting
spirit breathes, only less coarsely and vehemently than
when fire and sword are its weapons (Gal. iv. 29). So that
the apostolic utterance still has its application to the Chris
tian life ; and they who would prosecute this life must be
ready to brave such persecution. But they should never

2 TIMOTHY III. 13. 375
court it ; they are as much bound to avoid provoking it by in
discretions, as to bear it meekly when excited by their virtues.
Ver. 13. But evil men and deceivers shall grow worse and
worse, deceiving, and being deceived. We have here, by way
of contrast to the life and experience of such as live piously
in Christ, a return to the wretched characters formerly dis
coursed of — the modern representatives of the Egyptian
magicians. For the language employed is strictly appli
cable only to such : evil men and yoyres — we have no
precise synonym for it ; deceivers is too general, though we
must take it for want of a better; but the word is expressive
of a specific class of deceivers — the class of magicians,
sorcerers, thaumaturgists, or wonder-workers, as they were
variously called, who by dexterous sleight of hand, mysteri
ous incantations, and consummate hypocrisy, wrought upon
the hopes and fears of the credulous. In naming these, the
apostle is plainly not to be understood as introducing a new
class, for they bear the very lineaments of those already
described and denounced ; but their course of life and its
fruits are now placed over against those of the true followers
of Christ. How different ! Living in an element of deceit,
they come to be themselves deceived ; their sin becomes
their snare and their punishment : so that, in so far as they
are capable of progress, the progress is from bad to worse ;
and if their manner of life is such as to save them from
persecution at the hand of otherSj it brings recompenses of
evil far more to be dreaded, and these prepared by their
own hands. The assertion of Huther, that the term yoTjTes
in this passage is only in a kind of secondary or figurative
sense applied to the parties in question, that it merely
represents them as exercising a sort of magical power over
their weak, especially female, followers, is without founda
tion. The unqualified use of such a term cannot justly be
understood otherwise than as identifying them with the wily
and unscrupulous professors of the magical art.

376 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
Ver. 14. But do thou (av Se emphatic, in contrast to the
deceivers in the preceding verse) continue in the things which
thou didst learn (lit., in what things thou didst learn), and
wert assured of — imarwdys — not, were committed to thee,
as the Latin and Gothic versions, which would have re
quired iiriarevdys. Hesychius, iiriarwBy : iireiady, eirXypo-
<f>opyBy, persuasus est, cerium et exploratum habuit. (See
much more to the same effect in Suicer, in voce.) The
things had not only been learned by Timothy, but learned
in such a way as to give them a firm place in his belief.
Knowing of whom thou didst learn them — namely, of per
sons who were entitled to the fullest confidence, utterly
incapable of practising the deceit, by, which others are
misled to their ruin. The reference must primarily be to
his mother Lois, and his grandmother Eunice.
Ver. 15. And that from a very child (dirb ftpecpovs, from
an infant, the youngest period of childhood) thou knowest
the holy Scriptures, which are able to make thee wise unto
salvation. This is only a further specification and enhance
ment of the preceding statement, bringing out more dis
tinctly the kind of learning Timothy had received, and
from what period it dated. The expression rd iepd' ypdp,-
paTa for the divine word is peculiar, so far as the New
Testament is concerned; but it occurs in Philo and Josephus
(see in Wetstein), and always in the definite sense, the sacred
writings, or the Holy Scriptures, namely, of the Old Testa
ment. Here also, of course, it is Old Testament Scripture
that is meant. And the things contained in them are
represented as still possessed of saving virtue — possessing
it even for such a believer as Timothy : which are able (Swd-
peva, the present, not the past, as the oTSas, knowest, virtu
ally is) to make thee wise unto salvation — ao<piaai eis awrypiav
(the verb used in this sense also, Septuagint, Ps. xix. 7, cv.
22) ; yet not now as apart from the revelation of Christ in
the gospel, but through the faith which is in Christ fesus (or,

2 TIMOTHY III. l6. 377
through faith — that, namely, which is in Christ Jesus). When
ability to such an extent is ascribed to the Old Testament
Scriptures, instrumental agency is all that can be meant —
available means in regard to salvation when intelligently
and faithfully used ; which they can be now only as hand
maids to the faith in Christ — the end to which they all
more or less pointed ; not when employed as a barrier to
keep men at a distance from Christ, as if they were in
themselves God's perfected revelation. It was necessary
that the apostle should thus guard himself in respect to Old
Testament Scripture, considering the abuse to which the
unbelieving Jews were ever applying it. But having so
guarded himself, he proceeds in the next two verses to give
a fuller deliverance of his sentiments respecting the value
and importance of sacred Scripture.
Ver. 1 6. Every scripture .[is] given by inspiration of God,
and [is] profitable for teaching, etc. ; or, Every scripture, given
by inspiration of God, [is] also profitable for teaching, etc. It
is now admitted by all competent scholars that either of these
translations is grammatically admissible ; no valid objection
can be urged against either from the construction. Take
the one or the .other, and it will be found quite easy to
support it by parallel examples ; so that it is from the sub
ject, and the connection in which it stands, that our grounds
of preference must be drawn. Indeed, it matters little for
the interpretation which we adopt, if the subject itself be
rightly determined. What precisely is meant by irao-a
~ypa<py ? Every scripture, as it must be rendered, since there
is no article after iracra. Can this, as some would have it,
be taken in the sense of scripture, or written production of
any sort? If it could, then the nearest adjective (0eo7rvev-
o-tos) should have to be regarded as an attributive of the
subject, distinguishing between one kind of writing and.
another :— Every writing God-inspired — not writings of all '
sorts, but whatever writing has this origin and character —

37§ THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
is also profitable, etc. The expression, however, cannot be
so taken. The usage is against it. There are as many as
fifty passages in the New Testament in which ypatpy occurs ;
and in every one of them, whether it has the article or not,
— whether, also, it is in the singular or the plural (the
singular, besides here, in John xix. 37, 2 Pet. i. 20), — the
word has but one meaning : it signifies uniformly sacred
Scripture, which virtually determines the meaning here.
But the context conclusively fixes it ; for there the subject
of discourse is not writings generally, but specially the
sacred writings — those which Timothy had as a child been
instructed in. These alone were in the eye of the apostle
at the time ; and so the irao-a ypaxpy, which follows, cannot
fairly have any other sense attached to it than that of every
part of the previously mentioned whole. He spoke first
collectively of the Holy Scriptures ; now he speaks individu
ally of the component writings. So Chrysostoih : " All, of
what sort ? That of which, says he, I said all holy ; of
which he was just declaring that from a mere child thou
hast known the Holy Scriptures."
Holding this, then, to be the subject in hand — Holy
Scripture in one and all of its parts — it is plainly of no
moment, as regards the substantive import of the passage,
whether we say, Every scripture given by inspiration of
God is also profitable ; or, Every scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and is profitable. For in the former
the theopneustic or divinely-inspired character is made to
extend to every part of the sacred volume as well as in the
other. In both, indeed, there is a virtual predication of
the divine element ; only, according to the first, the quality
is assumed under a specific attribute or title, stamped, as it
were, on the formal character of the writings ; while, ac
cording to the second, it is directly affirmed of them.
That is really the whole amount of the difference when you
limit the reference in yparpy to sacred Scripture alone, and

2 TIMOTHY III. l6. 379
make the attribute of divine inspiration associated with it
co-extensive with each and all of the component parts of
Scripture. For in that case the expression, Every scripture
given by inspiration of God, is equivalent to, Every scrip
ture being given by inspiration of God ; which, as already
said, is a predicate in the form of an assumption. Such,
precisely, is the way Origen explains, who is commonly re
presented as denying the predicative force of the 0edirvev-
o-tos here. He says : " Let it be to us according to our
faith, whereby we have trusted, that every scripture, being
God-inspired (f)e6irvevaros ovcra), is profitable. For one alter
native you must admit regarding those scriptures — either
that they were not God-inspired, since they are not profit
able ; or that, since they are . profitable, they are God-in
spired " (Op. vol. ii. p. 443, ed. De Larue). Clearly, there
fore, Origen attached a predicative force to the 0edirvevo-Tos ;
not less (only with a slight difference in the mode of exhibi
tion) than Chrysostom, when, after explaining the " every
scripture " here to be inclusive of all the sacred writings, he
adds: "The whole of this^ therefore, is divinely inspired;
doubt not, then," says he — namely, as to the truly divine
character of Scripture — " in every part it is of God."
Since nothing, then, as to the import of the passage de
pends on the mode of construing it, the only question
touching the construction is, which of the two modes seems
the more natural. Was it more likely that St. Paul would
seek to confirm the soul of Timothy in his early-imbibed
regard to Scripture, and appreciation of its value, by directly
asserting the divinely-inspired character of each of its parts,
and then indicating what, as possessing such a character,
were the important uses which it was calculated to serve ?
or that, on the assumption of its divinely-inspired character,
he should simply point attention to those various uses ? I
cannot but think (after all that Huther, Ellicott, Alford, and
others have advanced on the other side) that the former

380 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
was the more natural. The inspired character of particular
portions of Old Testament Scripture, it is alleged, was
not then called in question by those who acknowledged an
inspired element in any. But are we sufficiently acquainted
with all the phases of opinion then afloat, to-be sure that
such was the case ? No one can be sure ; and besides,
Timothy was coming into contact with modes of thought
which set light by the very heart and substance of the Old
Testament revelations. Even apart from such things, might
not Timothy himself — not the less, one might almost say
all the more, that he had been familiar with the Scriptures
from his very childhood — be the better for having his mind
thus arrested on the higher element in their composition?
Would it not serve to bind him the more closely to them,
and render him dispqsed to apply them to the uses for
which they were designed ? Surely, if it was not unneces
sary or out of place to press on him such simple exhorta
tions as to remember that Jesus Christ, of the seed of David,
was raised from the dead, and that St. Paul was a minister
of His truth and an apostle to the Gentiles, it could not
be superfluous to impress upon him a sense of the divine
character of Old Testament Scripture. And then, as to
the objection that on this view " the Kat, being copulative,
would seem to associate two predications, — one relating to
the essential character of Scripture, the other to its practical
applicabilities, which appear scarcely homogeneous " (Elli
cott), — the simple reply is, that according to the structure of
the passage, the Kat is to be taken as Kal consecutivum, pre
senting what follows as a consequence growing out of what
precedes (Winer, Gr. liii. 3) : — Every scripture is given by
inspiration of God, and hence is profitable ; because it is
that, then, as a matter of course, it is also this. The ancient
versions, it may be added, omitted the koL Thus the Vul
gate : Omnis scriptura divinitus inspirata utilis est ; so also
the Syriac ; and both Origen and his Latin translator, in

2 TIMOTHY III. 17. 381
. the passage formerly referred to. But this probably arose
from a desire merely to evade what was felt to have a
measure of difficulty in it — they thought it enough to give
the substance.
In regard to the subject itself of the inspiration of Scrip
ture, the field is too wide and varied for discussion here.
I simply refer to my article on 'the subject in the Imp.
Bible Dictionary, and the works noticed there. The quality
expressed by deoirvevaros is primarily and strictly applicable
only to men, employed as the instruments of the Spirit in
making known His will to the world, writing as they were
guided, or speaking as they were moved by the Holy Ghost
(2 Pet. i. 21). But it is in accordance with common usage
to apply the same epithet to the words or writings that
came from them under such an influence : the product of
divine inspiration, they might justly enough be said to be
themselves inspired.
The things mentioned in connection with the profitable
ness of Old Testament Scripture call-for no special illustra
tion : it is profitable for instruction (SiSao-KoAidv, or teaching
in the things of God),y»r conviction (or reproof, iXeyp.6v),for
correction, for discipline (iratSetdv, see at chap. ii. 25, Tit.
ii. 12) in righteousness ; that is, for such a moral training as
will lead those who submit to it to live in righteousness.
All this, be it observed, is affirmed of the Old Testament
Scriptures, even after the fuller light of the gospel had
come. They have such uses still to fulfil to the church of
Christ. Ver. 17. Then follows the practical aim and result of
this profitableness, when turned to proper account : in order
that the man of God may be perfect (dpnos, aptus in officio,
Bengel ; every way complete), thoroughly furnished for every
good work. This explains more fully what is meant by
dpTios — denoting one who, by the study of the Scripture,
and the intimate acquaintance thereby obtained with the

382 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
mind and Spirit of God, is well equipped for every good
work to which he may be called. The minister of God's
word should be this in a pre-eminent sense ; what should
be found generally in such as can be called men of God,
should be found more especially in him. And we can
scarcely doubt the apostle had persons of that class pecu
liarly in view : in an emphatic sense, they are men of God ;
but the expression is not to be limited to such — it must be
extended in a measure to all true believers in Christ (see at
1 Tim. vi. 11).

CHAPTER IV.

Ver. 1. I solemnly charge thee before God, and Christ
fesus, who is going to judge living and dead, and by His
appearing and His kingdom. (On the Siafiaprvpofuu, see
at 1 Tim. v. 21. Here, as there, the correct reading is
undoubtedly, " before God and Christ Jesus " — the received
text inserting on very slender authority (only K, L, Syr.),
tov Kvpiov before Xpiorov. It also inserts, on equally poor
authority, ovv iyw after Siapapr.; but the best mss. omit them,
X, A, C, D, F, L, also the Latin and Syriac versions.) This
is, so to speak, the apostle's last charge to Timothy — the
last in this epistle, and not improbably the last absolutely ;
and he therefore puts it in the most solemn form, not only
delivering it as in the presence of God and of Jesus Christ,
but also the appearing of Christ (rrjv eirupdveiav, the usual
accusative after verbs of religiously charging or adjuring, —
Deut. iv. 26 ; Mark v. 7 ; Acts xix. 1351 Thess. v. 27, —
and requiring by to be prefixed in our idiom ; as also the
Lat Vulg., per adventum ejus) and His kingdom. These
are obviously added for the purpose of bringing before
Timothy the great realities of the future world, which should

2 TIMOTHY IV. 2. 383
infinitely outweigh all the present : Christ's appearing, when
everything in the past shall be brought into judgment, and
His kingdom, when His faithful servants shall reign with
Him in glory. Our translators have been quite misled here
by the KaTa, which in the received text stands before ttjv
iirupdveiav, but which is omitted by a, A, C, D, F, also by
the Vulg. (according to the better copies) and Copt, ver
sions, and is rejected by all the leading critical authorities.
Ver. 2. Here follow, in a series of imperative sentences,,
the several things which Timothy was taken bound to do ;
the imperatives all in the aorist, as noted by Ellicott, indi
cating rapidity of action, or the vivid nature of the address
(Winer, Gr. § 43, 3, a). Preach the word — the word of God
generally, no doubt, but that word more especially as con
nected with the realities, obligations, and hopes of the
gospel. Be instant (iiriaryBi, lit. stand by, or near ; and
when used here in a moral sense, with reference, no doubt,
mainly to what goes before, — the preaching of the word,
implying an ever wakeful, ready attitude : be at it) in
season, out of season — that is, at all times ; for what may
seem to the careless or lukewarm unseasonable occasions
for making mention of the truth, will often by the zealous
and faithful pastor be found opportunities of usefulness.
It means, says Chyrsostom, " Have no definite time ; let it
be always time for thee : not in peace alone, or in quietness,
or when sitting in the church. And if you should be in
perils, if in prison, if compassed about with chains, if even
going forth to death, at that very time convince, withhold
not the word of rebuke. For then even rebuking is in
season, when the work meets with success." Truly and
beautifully said, only somewhat too exclusively with reference
to the circumstances of the pastor ; for, as Calvin remarks,
the reference should also be made to the people. " To the
pastor, indeed, lest he should give himself to the function
of teaching only at his own times, and when it suits his

384 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
own convenience ; but let him apply himself, sparing no
labpur and trouble. As regards the people, there is this
importunate diligence, when they are entreated though in
a state of slumber, when the hand is laid upon them while
they are hurrying elsewhere, when they are chid as to the
vain occupations of the world." Then, as required by the
various conditions of those addressed, a corresponding
variety in the mode of address is enjoined : reprove, exhort,
rebuke, in all long-suffering and teaching — SiSa^jJ, which
occurs only here and in Tit. i. 9, of the Pastoral epistles,
while StSao-KoAia is of pretty frequent occurrence : the for
mer having respect mainly to the work or mode of teaching ;
the latter to the thing taught — the instruction. This con
cluding part of the charge clearly implies that in his mini
sterial vocation Timothy should have to lay his account
with much in the condition of those he had to deal with
that would try his patience, and call for earnest pleading
and remonstrance. Instead of listening with attentive ears
and willing hearts to the gospel message, ready to hail what
it taught, and comply with its requirements of duty, the
corrupt tendencies of nature, the sluggishness of the flesh,
the love of ease and the world, would present to his efforts
too often a resisting medium, which would call for some
thing else than soft and honeyed words — what might rather
be likened to a sharp and two-edged sword. All faithful
ministers must lay their account to a measure of the same,
and must consequently know how to reprove and admonish
as well as to win, to exhort as well as encourage. But
it is of unspeakable importance for the success of their
mission, that, when those severer methods have to be
resorted to, all should be done in a gentle ¦ and patient
spirit, or, as it is here, in every kind of long-suffering and
teaching, continuing at the work in a forbearing, steady,
peaceful manner, if haply the truth may thus find its way
into the heart, and bring the stubborn will into captivity to

2 TIMOTHY IV. 3. 385
the obedience of Christ. The more any one can carry on
his ministerial work in such a spirit, the more is the con
viction likely to take hold of his hearers that he really seeks
their good, and that it will be well for them to listen to his
counsels; whereas, if he should but mock their follies,
fiercely denounce their sins, or flare up in passion at their
opposition to the calls addressed to them, it is next to
certain that no progress will be made — a prejudice rather
will be created against the work of the ministry. He must
act, as Chrysostom says again well, " not as one provoked,
not as inflamed with hatred, not as insulting or as having
found an enemy : let all such things be absent. But what ?
As one who loves and condoles, as sorrowing even more
than the other, and grieved at the things which concern
him."
¦ Ver. 3. The earnestness and fidelity thus recommended,
with all possible gentleness and patient industry in the
application, is now enforced by a reference, to the foreseen
tendencies of the future : For there shall be a time when they
will not endure the healthy instruction (or doctrine — namely,
of the gospel), but after their own lusts will heap up to them
selves teachers, having itching ears — ears, that is, which were
always pricking with an uneasy desire for what would gratify
the taste of a carnal, self-willed heart The evil is drawn
in very striking colours, especially considering that it is of
persons still professedly within the pale of the Christian
church that the apostle speaks. But the delineation is
otherwise indefinite ; he merely says there will be a time
or season when such things shall happen, and urges the
prosecution of ministerial work after the style and character
he has described, as the only means of postponing its
arrival. In the spirit of prophecy he knew it would come ;
it was but one of the phases of corruption and backsliding
which were to characterize the last days. And we who now
live in this advanced period of them, have no difficulty in
2 B

386 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
pointing to facts which amply corroborate the apostle's
forebodings ; not only in these later times of discord and
disunion in Protestant Christendom, but even greatly
more in those ancient and so-called halcyon times, when
the visible church was still im a manner one. For no one
who has read with any degree of impartiality the history of
those times, and with discernment to understand the lessons
it teaches, can be ignorant that the falling away from sound
apostolic doctrine, and sliding into the asceticism, the legal
ism, the endless mummeries and superstitions, which became
consolidated into mediaeval and Romish Christianity, grew
up precisely in the manner here indicated. Men came over
into the church from the ranks of heathen superstition and
Gentile philosophy, bringing along with them many false
notions and degrading practices which should have been
left behind; and the teachers of the church, unwisely ac
commodating themselves to these, preached so as to gratify
the itching ears they should have reproved, and kept back
the pure word which would have checked the influx of
evil. Accordingly, the more the church grew as an out
ward institution, — growing in that respect, indeed, far too
rapidly, — the fewer always became the number who would
endure sound doctrine, till they were found only in holes
and corners, or, when occasionally occupying more con
spicuous places, it was at the hazard of their lives. There
is enough of this itching after false doctrine in the scattered
communities of Protestantism to humble and sadden any
Christian heart; the signs of the times give no doubtful
indication of even more yet to come ; but it is in the bbsom
of the great apostasy that the most marked and mournful
exemplification of the apostle's prediction is to be met
with. Ver. 4. And so is it also in regard to the further state
ment concerning the errorists in question made in diis verse :
and they will turn away their ears (lit. their hearing) from

2 TIMOTHY IV. 5. 387
the truth, but be turned aside to fables. We can scarcely
believe, with Ellicott, that this indicates as the result " a
complete turning away from every doctrine of Christian
truth ; " for if such were the result, there would necessarily
be an abandonment of the Christian profession — a going
over to the ranks of unbelief. But it is rather a deprava
tion within the professing church that the apostle appears
to be speaking of, than a formal forsaking of its communion
— such a depravation as would disincline the minds of men
to sound doctrine ; consequently such a turning away from
the truth as would cause this to lose its proper character,
and by mixing it up with error and fable, would prevent it
from effecting its proper aim upon the heart and conduct.
Even the Gnostic sects, who shortly became , so prominent
in this line of things, did not go further than has just been %
stated — they still retained many Christian elements in their
systems ; but these did not save their doctrine from being
justly denounced as a corruption of the truth, and held as
a whole to be essentially antichristiaVi. In a modified
sense, the same may be said of the false worship and dis
cipline which now bears the name of Popery : it undoubt
edly has many Christian elements in it ; but these are so
intermingled with error, that the system as a whole is a-
grievous departure from the truth of Christ And how
large a part fable played in accomplishing that departure, —
tales of lying wonders concerning reputed saints and their
adversaries in this world and the next, — no one acquainted
with the history of the subject, and even with the present
state of Catholic belief, can need to be told. The modern
tendency in Protestant countries, even when turning away
the ear from the truth, can scarcely be said to take this
particular direction ; the substitute is not fables, but rather
science falsely so called — science, not in its ascertained
results, but in its speculative processes and rash deductions.
Ver. 5. But watch thou in all things , endure hardship;

38,8 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
do the work of an evangelist ; fully perform thy ministry. It
is as much as to say : Whatever others may do, and whether
men will hear, or whether they will forbear, this is what
thou must do. First, watch, vy<pe, or be sober, in all things.
The being sober is the primary meaning of the word — sober
in the literal sense ; but when used metaphorically, as it is
here, it denotes more than we commonly understand by
being sober — a vigilant, wakeful, considerate frame of mind,
which takes good heed to what is proceeding around, and
with calm and steady aim pursues its course. It is an ex
hortation to maintain the clear perception and even balance
of the mind, so as not to be entrapped by false appearances,
or by undue excitement turned aside from the onward path
of truth and duty. Suffer hardship, or tribulation, in respect
to which the apostle had already referred to himself as an
example (chap. ii. 9). In such times Timothy would plainly
be required to show that he had somewhat of the same
resolute and hardy spirit. Do the work of an evangelist —
much the same as a preacher or missionary of the gospel,
a carrier of its good tidings, without, as in the case of a
pastor, being fixed to any definite locality. In the apostolic
age, persons recognised as evangelists seem to have occupied
a position between apostles and pastors (Eph. iv. n), and
to have stood in a certain relation to the former with regard
to the diffusion of the gospel and the planting of churches.
In some - respects, therefore, " they were nearest to the
apostles, and had an office cognate to these ; in respect to
dignity alone they were inferior. For at the command of
the apostles [sometimes, indeed, without this; Acts viii.
5, 40] they went forth to various churches in order to
preach the gospel, and to perfect the work which had been
begun by the apostles" (Suicer). Or it might be in the
inverse order, the apostles came to perfect what the evan
gelists had begun ; for the relations so far do not seem to
have been exactly determined. Fully perform thy ministry,

2- TIMOTHY IV. 6. 389
irXypo<popyaav — not, as in the Authorized Version, after
Beza, "make full proof of;" but as the Vulg. ministerium
tuum imple — fill it up, perform it fully, or make it, as far as
you can, a complete and effective service.
Ver. 6. The course of active, faithful, devoted labour in
the work of the ministry thus enjoined upon Timothy is
now enforced by a reference to the apostle's own case, his
approaching departure from the field, coupled with a brief
retrospect of the manner in which he had fulfilled his calling,
and the prospect that lay before him of the coming recom
pense. Commentators have traced the connection variously
— some laying stress on one point, some on another. I
agree with Alford, that there appears no propriety in con
fining it to any one ; and it may well be put, as he does it,
so as to include several weighty considerations : " I am no
longer here to withstand those things : be thou a worthy
successor of me, no longer depending on, but carrying out
for thyself, my directions ; follow my steps, inherit their
•result, and the honour of their end."
For I (eyu ydp — emphatic with respect to the thou, av,
in the preceding verse) am already being offered — tjStj airiv-
Sopai, already poured out as a drink-offering. He contem
plates himself in the light of a sacrifice, yielding up his life
for the cause of the gospel — a sacrifice which might be said
to have already begun in the sufferings of a preliminary'
kind he was called to endure ; and the drink-offering, or
libation, was thought of as the special kind of sacrifice
under which he presented the surrender, because of the
resemblance it would be seen to carry to the shedding of
his blood. This is so much the most natural explanation
of the reference, that it is not worth while noticing any
other. The same thought, and expressed in the same
language, was employed at an earlier period by the apostle,
in Phil. ii. 17. But in the following clause he gives it
without a figure : and the time of my departure is at hand—

39° THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
departure, namely, from life ;. without reference, as some
would have it, to leaving the sacrificial feast with a libation,
or, as others, to withdrawal from the battle-field. Such
allusions are too far-fetched, and instead of adding to the
beautiful simplicity and force of the language, tend rather
to spoil it. From what he had already seen in the treat
ment of his case, and the obvious temper of those he had
to deal with, he was convinced that the final stage was
approaching. Ver. 7. I have fought the good fight — or more exactly, as
at 1 Tim. vi. 12, though one is unwilling to alter such
familiar words, I have maintained the good contest — rdv koAov
dySva yywviafiai — referring to the contest for the mastery in
the public games ; and the perfect tense having here its full
significance, for the contest was now in a manner over :
he could look back on it as a thing of the past. And- why
does he speak of having maintained the good contest ?
" It is (says Chrysostom beautifully) as if a father should
console his little son seated beside him, and unable to bear
the bereavement, saying : My son, weep not ; we lived
honourably, and having come to old age we left you ; our
life has been blameless, we depart with glory ; you can also
acquire honour from the things that have been done by us."
And why emphatically the good contest? Let Chrysos
tom again answer : " Nothing better than this contest ; this
crown takes no end. It is not a thing of wild olives ; it
has not a man for presiding arbiter, nor has it men for
spectators [of the contest] ; the theatre is replenished with
angels. There they labour for many days, and are fatigued,
and in a single hour they receive the crown, and the pleasure
presently is gone. But here it is not so ; for they are always
in brightness, in glory and honour." 7" have finished the
course — the race being the contest which here, as elsewhere
(Phil. iii. 12 ; 1 Cor. ix. 24; Heb. xii. 1), presented itself
to the apostle's mind as the fittest of the Grecian games to

2 TIMOTHY IV. 8.

391

symbolize the Christian struggle; so that to finish the
course, only expresses in a more specific form the thought
contained in the preceding clause. I have kept the faith —
that, namely, which had been entrusted to him as a sacred
deposit — faith objectively, as the great treasure of gospel
verities. As to meaning, it is much the same thing over
again : the apostle, as Bengel notes, having expressed the
matter twice by metaphor, now gives utterance to it in
direct speech. Through all trial, and mockery, and perse
cution, and suffering, he had. held fast by the saving truths
which he received by special revelation from above, and
which as a chosen vessel he was sent forth to declare to a
perishing world (Gal. i. 12 ; Acts ix. 15). In. doing this he
maintained the good contest, and finished the course.
Ver. 8. Henceforth {Xoiirbv, quod reliquum est, Beza) there
is laid up (or aside, diroKetTat, reserved) for me the crown of
righteousness ; not a crown merely, but the crown — that
which is associated with righteousness, either as its proper
object or its destined possession. A return is made to the
figure of the contest ; and as the victor in each particular
species of game — wrestling, running, etc. — got the crown
appropriated to it, so the apostle designates his reward as
the crown of righteousness : therefore the righteous crown,
or the crown which by divine appointment belongs to it,
which is (prospectively) its own. In plain words, it is that
kind and measure of bliss which the wrestler in righteous
ness alone is either entitled or prepared to enjoy — the
destiny, as it is put in Rev. iii. 21, to share in Christ's
throne, as having previously shared in His triumph over sin.
It is reserved, therefore, till this triumph is completed ; and
then, in that day, the terminating point of the believer's
struggles and exertions, it shall be awarded by the Lord as
the judge — the righteous judge or arbiter of the contest.
Considered in the light of a recompense, the future inherit
ance of bliss and glory is fitly connected with the Lord's

392 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
righteousness or justice — as it is also elsewhere (2 Cor. v.
10; Rom. iii. 6; Eph. vi. 8, etc.) — because the bestowal of
it shall be in accordance with the just and holy principles
on which the divine government is conducted toward men.
Yet grace is not hereby superseded or made of no account.
On the contrary, it is regarded as the basis on which the
whole administration of reward proceeds in the kingdom of
Christ. It is an economical arrangement, made by God in
Christ for carrying out the purposes of His salvation ; but
as the salvation itself, so the bestowal of reward connected
with it, is all of grace — to be thankfully received, but never
to be claimed as a debt. For without the Spirit of grace
working both to will and to do in them that believe, there
could be neither righteousness nor reward ; and so, while
those who, as partakers of grace, have faithfully done their
part here, shall all, like the apostle, in the great day receive
their crowns from the Lord, they shall again lay them at
His feet, in lowly and grateful acknowledgment of the
source whence they have been derived, ascribing to Him,
as alone worthy, the honour and the glory (Rev. iv. 10,
v. 9, io).1
The apostle gracefully concludes by noticing this par
ticipation of others with him in the anticipated good : the
crown which the Lord the righteous judge shall award, he
says, not only to me, indeed, but to all those that love His
appearing — rjyamjKoaiv ryv iiri<pdveiav avrov, the second
appearing, doubtless, as the connection requires ; and the
action of the loving being put in the perfect, betokens it as
a thing commenced in the past, but continuing on till the
proper completion is reached : who have fixed their love on
His appearing, and so still love (Winer, Gr. § xl. 4, b). A
remarkable characteristic ! How rarely is it possessed by
believers as it ought to be ! If they might justly be repre
sented as loving Christ, yet how seldom should we think of
1 Comp. Delitzsch on Heb. vi. 10.

2 TIMOTHY iv. 9, io. 393
describing them as loving precisely His appearing — when
He shall come to wind up the affairs of His administration,
and distribute to every one as his case may be ! To love
Him in this particular aspect bespeaks not only faith, but
such a full assurance of faith and hope in Him as casts
out fear, and carries with it the confidence that, when He
appears, we shall also appear with Him in glory. Why
should the followers of Christ fail of this peaceful and
loving anticipation, when even Old Testament believers
hailed the prospect of the Lord's appearing to judgment
with songs of joy and hope? (Ps. xcvi. n, 13, xcviii. 9.)
Ver. 9. From here to the end of the chapter a few notices
are given by the apostle of his own condition and prospects,
also of some of his companions in the gospel, with the free
expression of his feelings and desires in respect to them.
Do thy endeavour to come to me quickly. An earnest desire
had already been expressed for Timothy's coming (chap. i.
4), and now there is the command to hasten it forward :
cnrovSao-ov, do it promptly and diligently, lose no time
about it. The apostle seemed to have no doubt whatever
in his mind as to Timothy's willingness to come: he could
thoroughly count on his affectionate fidelity, -even while
others were falling away from him ; which surely implies
that nothing had yet occurred to shake the apostle's confi
dence in the hearty and stedfast devotedness of his disciple.
Ver. 10. The reason follows why he would have Timothy
to make such haste to come to him : he now peculiarly
needed his sympathy and support. For Demas forsook me,
having loved this present world — dyairTjcras, the participle as
expressive of the cause = because he loved, or, through his
love of, the present world. There can be no doubt, there
fore, that this withdrawal of Demas was the result of carnal
influences, and was regarded by the apostle in the circum
stances as a dereliction of duty — a kind of desertion of his
post. It must have been all the more painful to Paul, as

394 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
Demas had formerly stood near to him, and had once and
again been mentioned with honour among his fellow-workers
(Col. iv. 14 ; Philem. 24). Yet we should perhaps press
what is said here too far, if we inferred from it that Demas
had made total shipwreck of the faith in Christ. His
unworthy conduct at this time may have been the temporary
result of the violent measures which in the last mad days of
Nero had bejrun to be taken against Christians at Rome.
Demas was meanwhile alarmed at these, and under servile
fear withdrew to a safer region : he is gone (says the apostle)
to Thessalonica. But with what view we are not informed.
It may have been, as Chrysostom states, his home ; or it
may have been to do some ministerial work, where it could
be done with less risk; or, finally, to look after some
worldly interest. The stress laid by the apostle on his love
to the present world, renders the last supposition fully the
most probable. And in that painful uncertainty as to his
real state and future career, the notices we have respecting
him leave us ; and to make positive affirmations, either on
the favourable or on the unfavourable side, is unwarrantable.
Crescens [is gone] to Gaul,1 Titus to Dalmatia — the
latter a part of the province of Illyricum, on the eastern
side of the Adriatic coast. Why these brethren left is not
stated. They are not included in the blame associated
with the name of Demas, yet we cannot say with Theodoret
1 This is the reading of », C, us Taxxlav, also 23, 31, 72, 73, 80,
several Latin codices, and has the distinct testimony of Euseb. Hist. iii.
4, Epiph. ff. 51. Tisch. adopts it in his eighth edition. Even if Galatia
were retained in the text, as it undoubtedly is in the larger number of
authorities, we should probably have to understand by it Gaul, as
Theodoretexpressly states : tis VaXariav ro\s raxxias eSrxs Ixixstri — •
adding that the ancients were wont so to call it. So, for example,
Plutarch, Cms. c. 20 ; Polybius, iii. 77, 87. Coupled with Thessalonica
on the one side, and Dalmatia on the other, it is more likely that Gaul
was meant by the word (whichever form was used) than the province in
Asia Minor.

2 TIMOTHY IV. II. - 395
that they were absolutely free from blame, and that they
.were sent 'into those regions to preach the gospel. The
probability is, that they did go with this design ; but the
language of the apostle implies that they went of their own
accord, not that they were sent by him. Of Crescens no
mention is made elsewhere, nor have we any reliable tradi
tions of him.
Ver. it. Luke alqne is with me — the beloved physician,
as he is called in Col. iv. 14; there also, and in Philem. 24,
coupled with Demas in salutations — but now different in the
relations they now occupy ! All the names mentioned in
the passage of Philemon referred to again recur here, except
that of Aristarchus. De Wette asks what has become of it?
and Alford justly replies, that while we have no means of
answering the question, "a forger, such as De Wette sup
poses the writer of this epistle to be, would have taken good
care to account for him."
Mark take up (dvaXaj3wv, here, the literal sense the best,
implying that he was to be picked up on the way), and bring
with thee; for he is serviceable to me for the ministry. There
can be no reasonable doubt that the Mark here is John
Mark, the evangelist, who caused the unfortunate split
between Paul and Barnabas (Acts xv. 36-41), but who at
a later period became reconciled to the apostle, and was
in close fellowship with him (Col. iv. 10), By being service
able for the ministry — eis SiaKovtdv — cannot be understood
otherwise, when spoken in this absolute manner, than of
the ministry of the gospel. There is a similar omission of
the article at 1 Tim. i. 12, where, beyond doubt, it is
that kind of ministration which is meant. Mark, probably,
had been more at Rome than most of the other evangelists
known to Paul, and was hence better acquainted both with
the language (whence not a few Latin words have crept
into his Gospel) and the manners of the place. If so, the
apostle might see his peculiar adaptation for evangelistic

39^ THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
work there, and naturally wish to have him again employed
in it.
Ver. 12. But Tychicus I sent to Ephesus — not and I did
so, for in the Se there is plainly a certain adversative mean
ing, though it may be regarded as of the slighter kind. If
connected with what immediately precedes, it may have
respect to a thought not unlikely to arise in the mind of
Timothy when asked to bring Mark with him : Haven't you
Tychicus ? But I had occasion to' despatch him to Ephesus
— for what specific purpose is not said. There must have
been some urgent business to attend to when he was sent
at such a time ; and it seems to imply that Timothy himself
was not now there. He appears to have been also sent,
during Paul's first imprisonment, with special greetings and
friendly communications to Ephesus and Colosse (Eph. vi.
21 ; Col. iv. 7).
Ver. 13. The cloak which I left at Troas with Carpus,
bring when thou comest, and the books, especially the parch
ments. It would seem from this that Timothy was still
somewhere in Asia Minor ; if he had indeed left Ephesus,
he could not have been very far from it, as Troas lay on his
way. The kind of cloak mentioned — <peXovyv, ~La,xm,penu-
lam — was a long thick cloak, understood to be without
sleeves, enwrapping the whole body. The derivation is not
quite certain (see in Ellicott). . As to the reason for wishing
such a cloak, there is no need for looking further than the
mention of approaching winter in ver. 21. If his destina
tion to suffer martyrdom should anyhow be postponed till
that season, he would need the garment to protect him
from the cold. The books, as contradistinguished from the
parchments, were probably written on papyrus, and less
valuable than those written on the more costly and endur
ing material. Hence a request that the latter especially be
brought. But what respectively might be their nature and
contents cannot be known, further than that, being urgently

2 TIMOTHY IV. 14. 397
sought at such a moment, they must have related to things
of highest interest — if not Scripture itself, writings more or
less bearing on its revelations of truth and duty. When the
articles had been left by Paul at Troas we know not ; but,
as noticed in the Introduction, it could scarcely be on the
occasion noticed in Acts xx. 6, which belonged to a period
about six years earlier. From the passing nature of the
reference, and the things themselves which were left, the
probability is, that the leaving of them behind was compa
ratively recent.
Ver. 14. Alexander the coppersmith (or, simply smith; for
latterly ^oAkcvs came to signify a worker in metals of any
sort, and particularly in iron, as being the most frequently
used) did me much evil — eveSei^aro, exhibited it, but which is
all one with doing it. Where he did it, however, is not
said ; nor how, though the language seems to betoken out
ward, active malignity. He may have been the same Alex
ander who is mentioned along with Hymenaeus in 1 Tim. i.
20 ; but it is just as probable that he was not ; and possibly
the more precise designation here of the person by his trade
may have been meant to distinguish him from the other.
The Lord will requite him according to his works — diroSwaei
seems clearly the correct reading (being that of K, A, C, D,
F, also the Vulg., Cop., Syriac versions, Chrysostom, Theo
doret ; while the diroSwy of the received text has the sup
port only of K, L, at first hand, and of many cursives). The
future, as compared with the optative, may be called popu
larly the milder sense ; and Theodoret seems to lay some
stress on so explaining: "It is a prediction, not an impreca
tion ; and it was given forth for the purpose of consoling
the blessed Timothy, and teaching him not to be discon
certed by the assaults of the adversaries." In a theological
respect, however, there is no material difference ; and if the
optative were the correct reading, no one need stumble at
it. For, surely, what it is perceived God is going to do, a

398 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
believer, an apostle, nay, even the purest of angelic natures,
may fitly desire to see accomplished. " Thy will be done" is
the prayer of all saints, alike in heaven and on earth ; only,
when the thing to be done is the execution of deserved
judgment upon the wicked, the difficulty is to breathe the
prayer without any intermixture of wrathful feeling — with
nothing but a pure and simple regard to the glory of God
and the interests of righteousness. This may, however, be
done even on earth by the ripened Christian, such as the
apostle, who might now be said almost to stand midway
between earth and heaven. From what he had seen in the
behaviour and suffered at the hands of Alexander, he had
come to understand that it was meet this man should, in
some marked way, receive the due recompense of his mis
deeds : the cause of the gospel required it — why should not
God do it, and righteous men desire it to be done? It
might be the best thing even for the man himself — possibly
the one chance for him of being brought to a better mind ;
as many adversaries and persecutors of the truth have been
led to see, only when humbled to the dust by chastisement
and rebuke, how vain it is to contend with the Almighty.
Ver. 15. Of whom be thou also on thy guard, for he ex
ceedingly withstood our words. That is, he made himself
extremely obnoxious as an opponent of the gospel testified ,
and pleaded for by St. Paul ; had shown a bitter and deter
mined spirit of resistance, so that Timothy could have no
hope of winning him over, and should only beware of falling
into his hands.
Ver. 16. The apostle now comes to speak of his own
case in its judicial aspects : In my first defence, no one stood
forward with me, but all forsook me. What is meant here
by his first defence can only be understood of his first
appearance before a tribunal at Rome to answer to the
charge recently brought against him ; not, as some, of what
happened under his first imprisonment. We have spoken

2 TIMOTHY IV. 17. 399
of the probable nature of this charge in the Introduction.
It was, in all likelihood, an indictment against him as the
setter forth of a new religion, which was forbidden by the
laws of the Empire, though there may possibly have been
some other accusations mixed up with it ; so that, even as
regards the matter of the indictment, it might have ad
mitted of falling into two separate parts. Or, if the proper
charge was only one, the trial may have been distributed
into two distinct stages — the one called, according to the
Republican practice, the actio, the other the ampliatio. It is
disputed whether this practice still continued in judicial
proceedings under the Empire (see Conybeare and Howson,
vol. ii. p. 488) ; and our knowledge of the circumstances is
too scanty to enable us to speak definitely on such minor
points. Evidently, from what the apostle himself says,
there was somehow a twofold cause to be adjudicated upon,
calling for a double pleading or vindication on his part.
He had already passed the first, yet with a saddening im
pression of the forlornness, humanly speaking, of his posi
tion. He had to stand all alone, without a patron, without
an advocate, without even the sympathy and support of
trusty and confidential friends, so disreputable and perilous,
on grounds of law, seemed to be the cause with which he
was identified. The conduct of friends, deserting him in
the hour of need, he naturally felt most Yet he pities
rather than condemns them, and he prays for their forgive
ness : May it not be laid to their charge I He would have
it to be reckoned as a proof of weakness, not of false-
heartedness. Ver. 17. Though alone in one sense, however, the
apostle was far from being alone in another: he had
better and nobler defences than human advocates or in
tercessors could provide : But the Lord stood by me, and
strengthened me — ivSwdfiwaev fie, replenished me with
might; that is, inspired him with a holy boldness and

400 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
energy for the occasion. And this, in order that through
me the preaching [of the gospel] might be fully accomplished:
irXypo<popyBfj, not " fully made known," as in the Autho
rized Version, which, the word never signifies, but, as at
ver. 5, fully accomplished or performed — not left, so to
speak, as an imperfect, half-executed work : and that all the
Gentiles might hear. This seems strong language to use
of a single address of St. Paul, delivered before a judicial
tribunal in Rome. It could only have been used by him
on the supposition that there was a very great, in some
sense a representative, Roman audience present to listen.
And the cause, we can easily conceive, did excite a con
siderable interest there, and bring into court a vast assem
blage, partly no doubt composed of Christians and Jews,
but still more of the Gentile population of Rome, who
usually crowded the Forum. In that case, it was most
probably in one of the large Basilicas connected with the
Forum, which were capable of accommodating a vast con
course of spectators, that the cause was heard. And Paul,
seizing the noble opportunity it presented, and specially
assisted by divine grace for the occasion, made his defence
by unfolding the great theme of that gospel which had
been committed to him ; proclaimed the wonderful facts
of Christ's life, and death, and resurrection, and of the
solemn and momentous bearing which these were destined
to have on the present well-being and eternal destiny of
mankind. Such a vindication of the blessed gospel, and of
his own connection with it, in such a place, and to such
an audience, he might not unnaturally regard as the cul
mination of his work as an ambassador of Christ to the
Gentiles. As regards the immediate design of this great effort, it
had the desired result, as is here added : And he — that is,
the Lord — delivered me out of tlie mouth ofthe lion. There
can be no doubt it means that he was rescued from the

2 TIMOTHY IV. 1 8. 401
immediate danger that threatened him— got his acquittal,
on the -first count, or in respect to' the first stage of the
charge brought against him. But when one goes to in
quire what precisely is to be understood by being delivered
out of the lion's mouth, a great variety of answers present
themselves : Nero, say some (most of the Fathers) ; the
lions in the amphitheatre, others ; others, again, his Jewish
accuser (so Wieseler), or the jaws of death (ex prasenti in-
cendio, vel ex faucibus mortis — Calvin, Ellicott); perhaps the
farthest-fetched of any of them, and in sense the feeblest,
is Alford's, from or " in spite of desertion arid discourage
ment." It seems to me that the most natural way is to
take the words as an appropriation of figurative language
frequently occurring in the Psalms — in those Psalms which
describe the experience of the writers in their darkest sea
son's of danger and distress. Lion or lions was the sort of
personification under which at such times they often ex
pressed the fierce and remorseless' adversaries or crushing
calamities that were ready to devour them ; and to be de
livered from the lion's mouth was, in plain terms, ,to be set
in a position of safety (Ps. xxii. 21, xxxv. 17, lvii. 4, etc.).
So here : deliverance from the lion's mouth was simply
escape from the complication of adversaries and intriguers
that were gnashing, as it were, their teeth at him : for the
moment he was free. Nothing, I believe, will ever be
gained by pressing the language closer; on the contrary,
by doing so we rather impair its force, and get, besides,
into a region of uncertainties.
Ver. 18. From the past the apostle turns to the future,
giving expression in this respect also to his filial confidence :
The Lord will deliver me from every evil work, and preserve
me safe to His heavenly kingdom. The and (Kal) with which
in the received text this utterance of faith and hope is
introduced, is more than doubtful. It is wanting in
K, A, C, D, Vulg., Copt., Arm. versions. The Kal appears
2 c

402 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
only in F, K, L, and is represented in the Syriac versions.
While in this reference to the future the apostle uses the
same verb as in regard to his late deliverance, he changes
the preposition : it was there ipvaaro Ik ; here it is pvaerai
dirb, pointing, as Ellicott notes, "more generally to the
removal from all the evil efforts that were directed against
the apostle, and the evil influences around him — not merely
all that threatened him personally, but all that in his per
son thwarted the gospel." Clearly, what he means by
deliverance in this connection is a safe issue, as regards all
that is really great and important, out of the endless
machinations and troubles with which he had to contend
here as the servant of Christ in the gospel. He should be
so delivered, that none of them would be allowed to bear
down his intrepidity, or make him flinch from the path of
obedience, so that he should reach in safety the kingdom
of everlasting bliss and glory. The expression f3aaiXeiav
ryv iirovpdvwv, with respect to Christ's kingdom, is found
only here in St. Paul's epistles, and has consequently been
deemed ««-Pauline by the opponents of the genuineness
of this epistle. But it is a frivolous objection, as in other
places he associates Christ's existence in glory with a
present reigning or kingdom (i Cor. xv. 25 ; Eph. i. 20 ;
Col. iii. 1).
The passage fitly ends with a doxology : to whom be glory
for the ages of ages — that is, for ever and ever (1 Tim. i. 17)
— Amen. The context obliges us to connect this ascrip
tion of divine glory with Christ ; for it was He, doubtless,
of whom the apostle spake as standing by him, strengthen
ing and delivering him.'
Ver. 19. Salute Prisca and Aquila — widi whom the
apostle maintained a long, very endearing, and intimate
fellowship (Acts xviii. 1 ; Rom. xvi. 3, 4, eta) — and the
household of Onesiphorus. See at chap. i. 16.
Ver, 20. Erastus abode at Corinth, but Trophimus I left

2 TIMOTHY IV. 21. 403
behind at Miletus sick. It was shown in the Introduction
that these notices could not refer to anything recorded in
the history of the Acts, and that they must be understood
of later, and indeed quite recent events. On his last visit
to Asia Minor and Jerusalem, as related in the Acts, Tro
phimus, so far from having been left at Miletus sick, went
with Paul to Jerusalem, and his appearance there with the
apostle gave occasion to the disturbance and accusation
that were raised by the Jews (Acts xx. 4, xxi. 29).
Ver. 21. Do thy endeavour to come before winter — that is,
while still the sea was open for navigation, according to the
usages of the time ; at the approach of winter, vessels were
for the most part laid up till the return of spring (Acts
xxvii. 9, 10). Ex die tertio Iduum Novembris, usque in
diem sextum Iduum Martiarum, Maria clauduntur, is a pas
sage quoted by Mr. Smith, from Vegetius, in his Voyage
and Shipwreck of St. Paul, p. 45. He has others to the
same effect. Sq that, if Timothy did not reach Rome
before winter, his visit would in all probability have to be
postponed till the following year; and by that time the
apostle should very possibly have finished his course.
Eubulus saluteth thee, and Pudens, and Linus, and Claudia,
and all the brethren. The names mentioned here occur
nowhere else in New Testament Scripture. Tradition in
one form connects with this Linus the first presidency of the
church of Rome after the apostles, while another tradition
assigns that honour to Clemens. , The Pudens and Claudia
here associated have been supposed to be the same men
tioned as man and wife in an Epigram of Martial, iv. 13,
comp. with xi. 34; and much- learned labour has been
employed of late to make out the identity. An outline of
the discussion may be found in Alford's Prolog, to this
epistle — Appendix ; also in Conybeare and Howson, vol.
ii. pp. 500-2. But the story is woven together by so many
slender threads, and has to be eked out by such a variety

404 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
of hypothetical, sometimes not very probable conjectures,
that I confess, with Ellicott, the identification appears to
me " very doubtful."
Ver. 22. The Lord be with thy spirit. (This is the short
est and probably the correct reading, that of X, F, G ; some
authorities add Jesus after Lord, and others Jesus Christ.)
Grace be with you.

APPENDIX.

APPENDIX A.— Page 119.
THE PECULIAR TESTIMONY FOR GOSPEL TIMES — I TIM. II. 6.
TO designate the truth that Christ gave Himself a
ransom for all, the testimony for its own (i.e. gospel)
seasons or times, is so peculiar, and at the same time so
important a statement, that some further illustration of it
than could fitly be introduced into the text may not be out
of place. Indeed, as matters now stand, it calls for vindi
cation as well as for more lengthened exposition. The
peculiarity and importance of the statement consist in the
singular prominence given, not to the simple fact of the
death of Christ, but to that death in the character of a
ransom or redemption-price for sinful men — elevating this
to the central place in God's scheme as disclosed for gospel
times. The death of Christ on the cross as a historical
fact is recorded with great fulness by all the evangelists,
and is unquestionably the most prominent subject in their
respective narratives. But has it there the same doctrinal
significance as is assigned to it by the apostle ? This is now
frequently called in question, and by some the teaching of
St. Paul on the subject is expressly affirmed to be out of
accord with that of Christ Himself, as reported by His more
immediate witnesses. Of the class referred to, Professor
Jowett may be 'taken as one of the most eminent represen
tatives. He says : x — " It is hard to imagine that there can
be any truer expression of the gospel than the words of
Christ Himself, or that any truth omitted by Him is essen-
1 Commentary on St. Paul's Epistles, ii. p. 555.

406 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
tial to the gospel. 'The disciple is not above his master,
nor the servant greater than his lord.' The philosophy of
Plato was not better understood by his followers than by
himself; nor can we allow that the gospel is to be inter
preted by the Epistles, or that the Sermon on the Mount
is only half Christian, and needs the fuller inspiration or
revelation of St. Paul, or the author of the Epistle to the
Hebrews. . . . How strange would it have seemed to the '
apostle St. Paul, who thought himself unworthy to be called
an apostle, because he persecuted the church of God, to
find that his own words were preferred in after ages to
those of Christ Himself ! " To regard the teaching of the
Epistles as an essential part of Christian doctrine, it is again
said, " is to rank the authority of the words of Christ below
that of apostles and evangelists."
Now, representations of this sort proceed on the idea
that Christ and His apostles stood related to each other
just as Plato did to his followers ; that they were alike
simply teachers of certain moral or religious truths; and
that, of course, the master-mind must have taught in a
clearer and nobler strain than any who might sit at His
feet. But this is not the view of the relation given by the
Master Himself — not, at least, in its bearing upon the
question at issue. Jesus Christ had not simply a doctrine
to teach, but a work to do ; and a work of which His doc
trine in the fuller sense was to be but the proper exposition
and the varied application. Hence the promise of the
Holy Spirit so largely dwelt upon by Christ before His
departure, as requisite to bring His disciples to a full know
ledge and appreciation of the truth concerning Him. The
revelation He had given of Himself, therefore, in the
Gospels could not by possibility be the whole. The germ
of all, indeed, was there, but not its development into a
comprehensive scheme of truth and duty. There are say
ings and discourses of Christ which are profound and large
enough to embrace everything : as when He said, " God so
loved the world, that He gave His only-begotten Son, that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have
everlasting life" (John iii. 16) ; or, " Come unto me, all ye
that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest "
(Matt. xi. 28); or, "The kingdom of heaven is like a

APPENDIX.

407

certain man that made a great supper, and bade many"
(Luke xiv. 16); and so on. But how much was still re
quired to explicate the meaning of such statements, and
show precisely what they involved respecting the work of
Christ, and its adaptation to the wants and circumstances
of mankind ? Then, there were utterances of Christ which
were thrown out as occasion" offered — like seed-corn scat
tered here and there — but in which so little regard was had
to systematic form or rounded completeness of representa
tion, that, if taken apart, and without regard to acts and
operations yet in prospect, which would shed a reconciling
light upon them, might have seemed scarcely compatible
with each other. For example, we find forgiveness of sin
at one time coupled simply with the exercise of a penitent
disposition, as in the case of the woman who was a sinner,
or in the parable of the prodigal son (Luke vii. 15) ; on
other occasions with the manifestation of a forgiving spirit
toward one's fellow-sinners (Matt. vi. 12, 14; Luke vi. 37) ;
while, again, in a different class of statements everything in
that respect is made to depend upon the atoning death of
Christ1 — as when He said that He came to give His life a
ransom for many (Matt. ix. 28), or that He must die, that
repentance and remission of sins might be preached in His
name (Matt. xvi. 21 ; Luke xxiv. 44-47), plainly pointing to
His suffering obedience as the ground on which all hope of
blessing was to rest.
Indeed, this one great fact of the death of Christ — its
necessity, its priceless worth, and the essential relation it
was to hold to the entire mission of Christ — obviously ren
dered His own teaching, during the period of His personal
ministry, in a great degree fragmentary and incomplete. It
was with His death (coupled, of course, with the resurrec
tion that was to follow)" that He connected the finishing of
His work ; it was in that He was to perfect Himself as the
Messiah ; and till the destined consummation actually took
place, the doctrinal significance of it could not possibly be
more than very partially revealed. It was then only that
the mystery which had hung around God's scheme of grace
began to clear away, and that it became possible to present
anything like a full and harmonious exhibition of the truths
and principles embodied in it. All instructions delivered

408 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
beforehand, though uttered by One who spake as man had
never spoken, were in a doctrinal respect necessarily imper
fect ;, they could not possess the perfect clearness of gospel
light, because the consummating act still lay in the future,
which was to constitute for all time the main ground of
God's gracious procedure toward men, and of their confi
dence and love toward Him. It hence is the mediatorial
death of Christ, not the moment of His incarnation, or of
His entrance on His public ministry, which forms the
proper boundary line between the Old and the New. It
is with the shedding of His blood for the remission of sins
— as He distinctly announced at the institution of the supper
— that the new covenant was ratified, and its provisions of
grace and blessing were made for ever sure to a believing
people. And so the doctrine taught up to that time could
not be final ; in other words, the utterances and facts of
gospel history could not be seen in their proper force and
meaning till the events had taken place to which they all
more or less pointed. The Gospels, indeed, reveal much ;
but they themselves close with the expressed need and
promise of further revelations, in order to set in its true
light, and carry out to its moral results, the perfected work
of the Redeemer.1
What, then, do we find as to those further revelations,
or that more explicit and developed knowledge, when we
turn to the other books of the New Testament ? Do we
find our Lord still acting with a view to impart it ? We do.
His agency in this respect did not cease with His death,
nor even with His ascension tP the heavenly places. A
1 Archbishop Whately long ago urged very cogently the considerations
just stated : "How could our Lord, during His abode on earth, preach
fully that scheme of salvation, of which the keystone had not been laid
— even His meritorious sacrifice as an atonement for sin — His resurrec
tion from the dead, and ascension into glory, when these events had not
taken place ? He did, indeed, darkly hint at these events in His dis
courses to His disciples by way of prophecy ; but we are told that ' the
saying was hid from them, and they comprehended it not, till after that
Christ was risen from the dead.' Of course, therefore, there was no
reason and no room for Him to enter into a full discussion of the doc
trines dependent on those events. He left them to be enlightened in
due time as to the true nature of His kingdom by the gift which He
kept in store for them [the Holy Spirit]. . . . Our Lord's discourses,
therefore, while on earth, though they teach the truth, did not teach,

APPENDIX. 409
period of instruction, we are expressly informed, intervened
between His resurrection from the dead and His ascension
to glory, during which He often met with the disciples, and
expounded to them the things concerning the kingdom. Of
these explanations we are merely told that they turned
much upon the necessity of His sufferings and death, in
order to the fulfilment of what had been written of Him in
the law and the prophets ; and the results of the teaching
we naturally look for in the discourses and epistles which,
under the power and guidance of the Spirit, were addressed
by the apostles to those who received their testimony. It
had now become, in a sense, the dispensation of the Spirit,
but it was not the less the dispensation of Christ, the glori
fied Redeemer. And it is instructive to mark how beauti
fully the one is linked with the other in the narrative of the
Acts, „ where the Spirit is represented as working all, yet
working as the representative of Christ — carrying forward
His agency, giving effect to His will. Hence, in the march
of events we never lose sight of Christ, any more than of '
the Spirit : everything is done as under the direction of His
hand, and the witness of His risen power and glory. It is
the same when St. Paul comes upon the scene ; it is Christ
who, by the Spirit, arrests him in his career of persecuting
violence, and calls him to the work of an apostle, furnishing
him with the authority and gifts requisite for its discharge.
Hence the apostle disclaimed his doing anything as of him
self : the commission he bore was not of man, or by the
will of men, but by Jesus Christ, or by the commandment
of God our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ : the gospel he
preached was received, not of man, but by revelation from
nor could they have been meant to teach, the whole truth, as afterwards
revealed to His disciples. What- chance, then, can they have of attain
ing true Christian knowledge who shut their eyes to such obvious con
clusions as these ? who, under that idle plea, the misapplication of the
maxim that 'the disciple is not above his master,' confine their atten
tion entirely to the discourses of Christ recorded in the four Gospels, as
containing all necessary truth; and if anything in the other parts of the
sacred writings is forced upon their attention, studiously explain it away,
so that it do not go a step beyond what is clearly revealed in the evan
gelists ? As if a man should, in the culture of a fruit-tree, carefully
destroy as a spurious excrescence every part of the fruit which was not
fully developed in the blossom that preceded it."— Essays on St. Paul,
sec. 2 of Essay ii.

410 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
Jesus Christ, so that the things he spake and wrote were to
be acknowledged as the commandments of the Lord (i Cor.
xiv. 37) ; and he and his fellow-labourers were but instru
ments to bear the treasure of the gospel, that others might
believe as the Lord gave to every man. In short, the later
history of the New Testament was but the varied manifes
tation of the continued life and agency of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Through the instrumentality of His delegated
servants, He was, though personally unseen, giving articu
late form to His gospel, and applying it to the salvation of
souls and the planting of His church in the world. The
voice of Paul or the voice of Peter speaking to the churches,
was in effect the voice of Jesus. Hence He had Himself
said from the outset, " He that heareth you, heareth me ;
and he that despiseth you, despiseth me" (Luke x. 16).
Was the voice the same now, then, as when it came
directly from Christ ? The same, we reply, in substance,
but with a difference of a circumstantial kind suited to the
more advanced stage of things which had now been reached.
It was no longer the objective Saviour merely, but this
through the Spirit made manifest in the hearts of men : in
other words, the facts concerning Christ's person and work
known and apprehended as doctrine; divine truth entering
into human thought and human experience. On this ac
count, also, it might be expected the word would be more
effective, since everything would appear now at once in its
proper harmony and proportions, and in its thorough adap
tation to human wants and circumstances, enhghtening the
understanding, satisfying the heart and conscience, taking
possession of the thoughts and feelings of the inner man.
Now this is precisely what we find in the representations
given in the Acts and Epistles. Christ is throughout the
great subject, or matter of the testimony delivered, and the
instruction imparted. The apostles, we read in the Acts,
" ceased not to teach and to preach Jesus Christ ; " of
one it is said "that he preached Christ unto them;" of
another, " that he preached Christ in the synagogues," or,
" he preached Jesus unto them, and the resurrection." The
Apostle Paul sums up his preaching, in one place, as
" Christ and Him crucified, the power of God unto salva
tion ; " in another, as " repentance toward God, and faith

APPENDIX. 411
toward our Lord Jesus Christ ; " or, in the one immediately
before us, as " the Mediator between God and man, who gave
Himself a ransom for all, the testimony for its own seasons "
— Heaven's special testimony for the times of the gospel.
In other-passages we find the kingdom of God put along
with the person of Christ as the subject of apostolic testi
mony. So St. Peter, for instance, on the day of Pentecost,
when he gave the people to know assuredly that the " Jesus
whom they had crucified was made both Lord and Christ "
— that is, both King and Messiah, or King Messiah ; and
St. Paul, in the last notice we have of him in the history of
the Acts, is said to have received those who came to him,
" preaching the kingdom of God, and teaching those things
which concern the Lord Jesus Christ."
This mode of representation, it will be observed, carries
us back to the kind of preaching or proclamation of which
we read in the Gospels : it connects the one with the other,
but with an obvious advance as to the mode of doing it.
"The kingdom of God is at hand." -That was the common
style of preaching as reported in the Gospels, first of John
Baptist, then of Jesus, finally of the twelve ; and many a
parable was taught by our Lord, having for their common
object the kingdom of God, in its nature, its principles of
administration, and final issues. But now, since Christ had
finished the work which was required for laying the founda
tion of the kingdom in its New Testament form, the doctrine
of the kingdom came to be all associated with Himself;
the truth had come to its proper realization in Him ; and to
preach the things which concerned .His person, His work,
and the glory that followed, was at the same time to testify
of the kingdom. All who really received Christ as the
ground of their peace and hope, entered into the kingdom ;
they were " translated out of darkness into the kingdom of
God's dear Son ; " and what they thenceforth looked for was
His appearance in the kingdom, when they also expected
to appear with Him in glory. It was thus that the Spirit,
through the preaching of the aposdes, glorified Christ, in a
way they could not possibly do during His sojourn upon
earth. And, as a matter of course, the things testified re
specting Him now were no longer simply facts, but facts as
the basis of doctrine — facts with an interpretation put upon

412 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
them which gave them a spiritual significance and power in
relation to men's spiritual life and well-being. "The Christ
preached by the apostles was one who [had not only lived
and wrought righteousness on earth, but also] had died and
risen again, and whom the heavens had received till the time
of the restitution of all things. In these three facts the mani
festation of the Son of God had culminated, and in them
the true character of His mission had appeared. The old
carnal thoughts of it had been left in the grave, and could
never rise from it again. It was ' the Prince of Life ' who
had risen from the dead ; it was ' the King of Glory ' who
had passed into the heavens. And no less did these facts
declare the spiritual consequences of His manifestation, since
they carried with them the implication Of those three cor
responding gifts — the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection
of the body, and the life everlasting." 1
It thus appears how naturally, and by reason of the in
evitable progress of events, the things concerning Christ
assumed a more doctrinal form ; or rather, how the facts which
made up the earthly career of Christ necessarily became, on
being completed, doctrines, and as such were preached in the
name of Christ by apostles, and by the Holy Spirit were
sealed upon the understandings and hearts of men. The
question' now was, not whether men simply beheved in
Jesus as the Messiah, but with what meaning or to what
results did they accept of His Messiahship ? , Could they
say, with St. Peter, " Neither is there salvation in any other ;
for there is none other name given under heaven among
men whereby we must be saved " ? Or, with St. Paul, " By
Him all that believe are justified from all things, from
which they could not be justified by the law of Moses " ?
To say this was to affirm the doctrine that Christ by His
death had done, in respect to the desert of sin, what the
old sacrificial system of the law could do only in a sym
bolical manner — that His death is the one great sacrifice
that atones, because in it He bore our sins in His own
body on the tree ; and, consequently, that legal rites of
propitiation must be done away, and no dependence rested
on anything for salvation but the perfect work of Christ
the crucified. This was the gospel of Peter and Paul ; and
1 Bernard, Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament, p. 130.

APPENDIX. 413
when Paul accused the Galatians of accepting, through false
teachers, another gospel, he did not mean to say that they
denied the facts of Christ's holy life and humiliating death,
but that they understood these differently, failed to give
them their proper moral significance — in other words, did
not accredit and appreciate them in their true doctrinal im
port. So, also, when parties in the church of Corinth and
elsewhere sought to couple with the faith of, Christ a dis
belief of the doctrine of the resurrection, or a licence to
sin, they were denounced as really subverters of the faith,
enemies of the cross of Christ, because practically robbing
it of that moral worth and significance which in the scheme
of God are inseparably connected with it.
Such is the gospel of Christ in its completed form — com
pleted under the direction of Christ Himself, by the Spirit
He gave and the instrumentality He appointed. It is
simply the facts of His mediatory work in their spiritual
bearing and personal application. Contemplated merely as
facts or historical events, they stand outside of us, and may
leave us morally much as we were. But when apprehended
as doctrine, or appropriated by faith as the elements of
saving knowledge, they enter into our consciousness ; they
touch the springs of thought and feeling in our bosom ; they
form the ground of new aspirations, the motives of a new
and higher life. Without the facts, indeed, the doctrine
might swim in the air; but without being seen in their
doctrinal import, the facts would not be spirit and life to
the soul.
We thus perceive the absurdity of attempting to separate
Christianity from doctrine. Only as containing elements
of doctrine does it become to us matter of truth and duty.
Have I faith in Christ as the Son of God and Saviour of
the world ? Then I hold the doctrine of the incarnation^
and realize its importance. Have I faith in the death of
Christ, as the ground of my reconciliation with God ? Then
I hold the doctrine of the cross, or of a crucified Redeemer,
as the one thing needful to my peace and hope. Have I
faith in Christ as the conqueror of death, the resurrection
and the life ? Then I embrace Him as the source of a new
and undying life, beginning here and perfected in eternity.
Have I faith in Christ as ready to come again and appear

414 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
on the throne of judgment ? Then I hold the doctrine of
the second advent, and recognise its bearing on my personal
condition and destiny. Thus Christianity as a doctrine, is
the root of Christianity as a life ; reject it in the one respect,
and you cut the sinews of its vitality and strength in the
other. But there is no difficulty in understanding how many
should be disposed to make such a separation — disposed,
that is, to accredit more or less of the recorded facts in
Christ's life, but make little or no account of them in their
doctrinal aspects. So long as they are considered apart
from these aspects, everything about them presents a kind
of loose, sporadic appearance ; and men may fix, some upon
this, others upon that point in the life-history of Jesus as
what, in their view, chiefly serves to make it valuable and
important There is, too, so much in that history, brief
and chequered as it was, which appears attractive and
winning even to the natural man — so much of grace and
condescension, of disinterestedness in doing good, of com
passion toward the miserable and unworthy, of readiness
to brave the fiercest opposition, and to sacrifice hfe itself
in the cause of truth and righteousness, that all the better
feelings and sympathies of the heart can without difficulty
be awakened, and turned toward the Son of man as exhi
bited in the Gospels with profound affection and regard; nay,
can find there, as they can find nowhere else, what is fitted
to interest and instruct them, in the varied circumstances and
relations of life. But it is another thing when all that there
was in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, is brought
out in the subsequent parts of the New Testament, and,
under the form of doctrinal belief, presented to every Chris
tian bosom as the ground and nourishment of a life devoted
to God, and fraught with the fruits of righteousness. Under
this aspect of matters the natural heart rebels, and seeks in
a thousand ways to escape the unwelcome conclusion. It
does so, often, by putting another than the natural interpre
tation on the facts of gospel history ; or, if not, by allowing
other things to intercept their due influence on the affec
tions of the soul and the actions of the life. To enter
aright into this part of gospel teaching — to accept and relish
Christianity as exhibited by the apostles, and by them formed

APPENDIX.

415

into a system of truth and duty — has for its essential pre
requisite a mind that has become profoundly conscious of
the guilt and danger of sin, and longs for an interest in the
restored favour and blessing of God as the one great good.
Whenever men reach this state of spiritual conviction and
desire, they will be ready to hail the entire manifestation of
the truth in Scripture, and will find but the fitting sequel of
Christ's own teaching, and the true explanation of His work
in the world, in the discourses and writings of His apostles.
It is incumbent on all who would do the part of faithful
representatives of Christ, and true exponents of His mind
and will to men, to draw their materials from what He has
thus made known to us as the whole of His counsel in
regard to salvation. It is of special moment that they
should do so in an age like the present, when many persons
of note, biassed by the aims and spirit of literary or scientific
culture, are disposed to take the gospel only in part, and
refuse to go the full length of a cordial appreciation and
belief of the truth. They will speak, perhaps, in the most
approving terms of the simply human aspects of our Lord's
character, and of the moral qualities exhibited by Him in
His career on earth ; they will also frankly concede the
impulse derived from the power of Christianity in raising
the tone of thought and feeling among the nations that have
received it, and ameliorating in many respects the condi-'
tion of society. But in all this they restrict themselves to
humanitarian ground, and appear to make account of nothing
as actually true, or at least appreciable by them, except the
incomparable excellence of Christ's character, and the pure
morality of the gospel. But had that been all, great and
valuable as it is, should the results which even such writers
acknowledge to have followed in the train of Christianity
have been produced by it? What wonders bave been
achieved, what moral reformations accomplished, by such a
Christianity in the hands of its formal abettors, the modern
Unitarians ? Has not the history of the past taught us to
associate with them the stagnant marshes of Christianity,
rather than its vivifying streams and fruitful fields ? " The
force which Christianity has applied to the world, and by
which it has produced that change in the world which it
has, is the doctrine of grace. There has been a new power

41 6 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
actually working in the system, and that power has worked
by other means besides doctrine ; but still it is the law of
God's dealings with us to apply His power to us by means
of our faith and belief in that power — that is, by doctrine.
Faith in his own position, the belief at the bottom of every
Christian's heart that he stands in a different relation to God
from a heathen, and has a supernatural source of strength,
— this it is which has made' him act, has been the rousing
and elevating motive to the Christian body, and raised its
moral practice."1
Yes, for a Christianity of regenerating power and divine
blessing, we must have the saving doctrines, as well as the
historical facts and moral teaching, of the gospel wrought
into men's convictions and experience. The hght shall
otherwise want power to reach the conscience, and call
forth the nobler acts of self-denying love and patient con
tinuance in well-doing, which are the marks of a living
Christianity. Only when there is a faith which embraces
all the essential elements of truth and hope in Christ, and
is itself sustained in the heart by the Spirit of God, is there
a principle of life powerful enough to resist the desires of
the flesh, and overcome the evil that is in the world. With
such faith, however, the followers of Christ have no need to
be afraid. They will prevail in the future as they have done
in the past. " Their antagonists themselves will be their
helpers ; " for these will but serve to drive them the more
closely to Christ, and cause them to drink more deeply from
the well-spring of His salvation.

APPENDIX B.— Page 139.
ON THE MEANING OF THE EXPRESSION " HUSBAND OF ONE
WIFE," IN I TIM. III. 2, 12, TIT. I. 6.
The explanation given of this expression, under the first of
the passages referred to, restricts the qualification indicated
by it to an existing relationship, irrespective of the question
1 Mozley on Miracles, p. 182.

APPENDIX. 417
whether a previous relationship may or may not have existed,
which had been dissolved by death. It simply required
that when one was called to office in the Christian church,
there should be but one living woman to whom he stood
related as husband. And as the expression of itself does
not import more, there are various considerations which
appear to shut us up to' this meaning as the only one that is
properly tenable.
1. First of all, let the place be noted which the qualifica
tion holds in the apostle's delineation of fitness for office in
the Christian church. In both the epistles (1 Timothy and
Titus) it stands second in the list of qualifications for the
pastorate, — in each also occurring immediately after the
epithet blameless or irreproachable, — as if, among the
characteristics of a life free from any palpable stain, the
first thing that might be expected to start into notice was,
whether the individual stood related in marriage to one
person only, or to more than one. Now, supposing this
latter alternative had respect merely to the contracting of a
second marriage after the death of a first wife, is the quali
fication one that, in the circumstances, we could imagine
to have been so -prominently exhibited, and so stringently
imposed ? Or is it what we have reason to think would
have been borne up by the moral sense of the community ?
Quite the reverse in both respects: The legislation and
the practice of Old Testament times were notoriously of a
different kind. They went to an extreme, indeed, in the
opposite direction ; and even our Lord, When correcting
that extreme, gave no indication of His purpose to intro
duce a restriction of the nature in question, or to make
monogamy, in this sense, a condition either of office or of
sanctity. St. Paul himself had explicitly declared, in his
earlier writings, that death dissolved the marriage tie, so as
to leave the survivor free to enter into another union, if such
might be deemed advisable or expedient (Rom. vii. 1-3 ;
1 Cor. vii. 8, 9). And in the laws and usages of the Greeks
and Romans no hindrance was ever known to be put upon
men in respect to their use of this freedom ; no stigma
attached to their doing so, unless it might be in connection
with the time and mode of their going about it. Such being
the case, is it in the least degree probable, or does it seem
2D

41 8 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
to accord with the wisdom we are wont to associate with
the apostle (apart altogether from his inspiration), that he
should now, for the first time, and in so brief and peremp
tory a manner, without even a note of explanation, have
pronounced more than a single marriage-union absolutely
incompatible with the ministerial function? — nay, should
have set it in the very front of admitted disqualifications ? —
and should even have extended the rule to deacons, whose
employment was rather about, than in, spiritual things,
serving tables, not ministering in word and doctrine ? Un
questionably, if such were the import of the apostle's in
struction, a new thing was now introduced into the discipline
of God's house, and introduced in a very extraordinary way.
A principle of sanctity was enunciated which was without
warrant in any prior legislation or recognised usage ; a
principle, moreover, which, in contrariety to the whole spirit
of the apostle's writings, must have given to caste distinc
tions and ascetic notions of excellence a legitimate footing
in the church of Christ. In point of fact, when the sense
we contend against began to be put upon his words, it did
work powerfully both in the ritualistic and the ascetic
direction. And if that sense could be established as the
natural and proper one, a difficulty of a very formidable
kind would be raised against the Pauline authorship of the
Pastoral epistles.
2. A second ground of confirmation to the view we
advocate is the general concurrence in its favour on the
part of the earlier interpreters ; and this in spite of a pre
valent feeling and usage tending to produce a bias in the
contrary direction. Thus Chrysostom : " He (St Paul)
speaks thus, not imposing a law, as if it were not allowed
one to become [an episcopos] without this condition [viz.
unless he had one wife], but to restrain undue licence (ryv
dfierpiav kwXvwv) } since among the Jews it was lawful to
enter into double marriages, and have two wives at the same
time."1 So,, too, Theodoret: "Concerning that saying,
1 His comment on Tit. i. 6, though less explicit, is to the same effect
when rightly interpreted. It speaks merely of a double marriage
relationship as incompatible with the pastoral office: "chastising the
wanton, and not permitting tliem with a second (or twofold) marriage
to assume the governing power, " — ovx aqiis ftara hvr'spov ya/mv rxv ipx*'

APPENDIX. 419
the husband of one wife, I think certain men have said well.
For of old both Greeks and Jews were wont to be married
to two, three, and more wives at once. And even now,
although the Imperial laws forbid men to marry two wives
at one time, they have commerce with concubines and
harlots. They have said, therefore, that the holy apostle
declared, that he who dwells in a becoming manner with a
single wife is worthy of being ordained to the episcopate.
For, they say, he (that is, Paul) does not reject a second
marriage, who has often commanded it to be used." Then,
on the other side : " If he have put away his former wife,
and married another, he is worthy of blame and deserving
of reprehension ; but if force of death has deprived him of
his former wife, and nature has prompted him to become
united to another, the second marriage is to be attributed,
not to choice, but to casualty. Having respect to these
and such like things, I accept the interpretation of those
who so view the passage." Theophylact is briefer, but to
the same effect : " If he be a husband of one wife; this he
said because of the Jews, for to them polygamy was per
mitted." Even Jerome, with all his ascetic rigour, speaks
favourably of this interpretation (in his notes on the passage
in Titus) ; states that, according to the' view of many and
worthy divines, it was intended merely to condemn poly
gamy, and not to exclude from the ministry men who have
been twice married. Now, considering the general preva
lence of ascetic feeling at the time, and the virtue commonly
attached to celibacy as a qualification for the proper dis
charge of priestly functions, the interpretation thus either
expressly put upon the expression under consideration by
those fathers, or held at least to be allowable, cannot but
seem entitled to the greatest weight. It presents a series of
testimonies to what may be fairly called the natural sense of
the expression, and to what appeared the just and reasonable
nature of the qualification demanded by the apostle, in spite
of a strong current of feeling, and a very prevalent usage,
tending- to incline them in the opposite direction.
\yXupiZ,a/Bai,— not after the marriage in question, but with it — standing
in the twofold relationship at the same time— guilty of a moral wrong,
though practised under the forms of law. See Suicer, under A,yap.la,
vol. i. p. 897.

420 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
3. The commencement and growth of the other view —
the view which understands the expression to exclude from
¦ the offices of pastor and deacon in the church any one who
might have re-married after having lost a wife by death —
furnishes an additional argument in favour of our interpre
tation. For the history of church opinion and practice on
the subject puts it beyond a doubt, that the more natural
view was abandoned only when a false asceticism began to
flow in upon the church, and an ideal of piety unwarranted ,
in Scripture, and at variance with the flesh and blood rela
tions which God has established for men in this life. It is
not till near the end of the second century that the ascetic
spirit makes its appearance as a disturbing element in this
particular line ; and when it does so, the perverting influence
discovers itself in respect to the members generally of the
Christian church, not specifically to those who were called
to discharge any spiritual function. It may be questioned
whether the Plea of Athenagoras or The Shepherd of Hermas
had, in point of time, precedence of the other. Probably
they were nearly contemporaneous ; and they are the earliest
extant of the Patristic writings which can be referred to on
the present subject Athenagoras is often erroneously •
adduced as a witness for the other view ; for when the pas
sage in his Plea is correctly explained, it has respect to
bigamy in the proper sense. " A person (he says) should
either remain as he was born, or be content with one mar
riage ; for the second marriage (6 SevVepos ydfios) is only a
specious adultery, ' For whosoever puts away his wife (says
He), and marries another, commits adultery,' — neither
permitting a man to put her away whose virginity he has
made to cease, nor to marry another (ovSe imyafieiv). For
he who deprives himself of his first wife, even though she be
dead, isa veiled adulterer, resisting the hand of God" (c. 33).
The thought is somewhat loosely expressed, but the reason
assigned for the judgment given clearly shows that the
second marriage contemplated by the writer is one con
tracted under the forms of law, after an improper divorce
had been effected against a first wife. In such a case a
second marriage was justly held to be from the first vitiated
-—essentially adulterous ; and this for all Christians alike,
without respect to official distinctions. The passage in The

APPENDIX.

421

Shepherd is more to the point : " If a wife or husband die,
and the widower or widow marry, does he or she commit
sin ? There is no sin in marrying again, said he ; but if
they remain unmarried, they gain greater honour and glory
from the Lord; yet if they marry, they do not commit sin"
(Com. iv. c. 3). This also has respect to the Christian life
generally, and makes but a slight advance upon the teaching
of Scripture ; for there both our Lord and St. Paul speak of
the resolution to abstain from marriage as, in certain circum
stances, and with a view to more entire devotedness to the
service of God, an indication of spiritual excellence beyond
what would be exhibited by a different course. Only here
the married state is apparently contemplated more apart,
as in itself, especially when entered into a second time,
incompatible with the higher degrees of honour in the
divine kingdom. It was still but an incipient indication
of the leaven which bad begun to work. A stage further
on, and we meet with greatly more marked symptoms of
its operation.
This stage had its commencement with the rise of that
pretentious Gnosticism whichj especially from about the
middle of the second century, in the hands of the Encratites
(Tatian and Marcion), sought to elevate the tone of Chris
tianity, and raise the ideal of Christian perfection higher
than was done by the acknowledged teachers of Christianity.
According to this school, true perfection consisted in working
one's self free from the ordinary relations and enjoyments
of life : marriage, which formed the common basis of these,
was esteemed a kind of service of the devil, utterly at vari
ance with the higher aims of the spiritual life ; the " elect "
spirits must have nothing to do with it, and must also abstain
from the use of flesh and wine, and give themselves to fast
ings and other kinds of bodily mortification. The real ten
dency of this Gnostic spiritualism did not quite immediately
discover itself; it pressed at various points as a reforming
influence into the church; and in some of its more charac
teristic features it ere long burst forth with great power
among the excitable and enthusiastic Christians of Phrygia
in the guise of Montanism. Montanus and his followers
did not profess, indeed, to stand in any proper affinity to
Christians of the Gnostic type ; but they so far coincided

42 2 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
with them as to aim at introducing a new and higher style
of Christianity, and one that partook largely of Gnostic
elements. Having received (as they imagined) the fuller
afflatus of the Spirit promised by Christ, they had attained
to the position of right truly spiritual Christians ; were the
pneumatics {irvevfiariKoi), while others, if Christians at all,
were but psychical or carnal (i/a^ocoi) ; and, in proof of
their nobler elevation, they renounced not only the pleasures
and luxuries, but also most of the comforts of life — fasted
oft, and rigidly ; courted indignities, self-denials, persecu
tions ; disparaged marriage, and stigmatized second mar
riages as fornication. Though the movement was opposed
by all the leading authorities in the church, and the claim
to supernatural guidance was on every hand rejected, yet
many were impressed by the apparent elevation and moral
strength of the party ; and the opinion grew, that the more
select class of Christians should cultivate the ascetic virtues,
and should either remain in ccelibacy, or at most be but
once married. The tendency of Christian thought and
practice in this direction received a great impulse from Ter
tullian, who not only imbibed the distinctive principles of
Montanism, but threw himself into the advocacy of them
with zeal and energy. On the subject of marriage he occu
pied what he called middle ground — between those (the
Encratites) who repudiated marriage altogether, as a thing
inherently evil, and the Psychical party, who maintained ,
the lawfulness of the married state, even when entered into
anew after the death of a previous wife. He contended for
the absolute singleness of the marriage union, pressing all
sorts of considerations into his argument ; such as that the
first Adam had but one spouse (Eve), the second also but
one (the church) ; that death does not entirely destroy the
union of married parties, since the soul still lives, in which
the more vital' seat of the union resides ; that at the resur
rection, though there shall be no more marrying, but an
angelic state of being, yet those who have been married on
earth shall recognise each other as such, etc. (De Monog.,
and Ad Uxorem, L. i.). By considerations like these, Ter
tullian reaches the conclusion that in no case is more than
a single marriage allowable for a Christian, while the state
of coelibacy is to be preferred as one of higher sanctity.

APPENDIX. 423
He admits that in 1 Cor. vii. 39 the apostle grants liberty
of re-marrying to those who had been deprived of a spouse
by death, if only they married in the Lord ; but he thinks
this had respect to such merely as had been first married
in heathenism, so that their union was no marriage in the
Christian sense. He also admits that the principle laid
down at the beginning of Rom vii. as to death severing the
marriage tie, and leaving the survivor free to marry again
without being guilty of adultery, is at variance with the view
maintained and advocated by him ; but finds his escape in
the new revelation of Montanism, that as Christ had taken
away the liberty which Moses' allowed to the Israelites be
cause of the hardness of their hearts, so the Paraclete now
takes away what Christ and Paul allowed on account of -the
infirmity of the flesh, in order that the original ideal of
marriage might be restored. So that he concludes second
marriages are contrary to the will of Christ — not lawful —
next thing to adultery {juxta adulterium; De Monog. c.
xi.-xv.). In the course of this strange piece of argumentation, the
passages 1 Tim. iii. 2, Tit. i. 6, are naturally brought into
consideration, and the expression husband of one wife is
held, without question, to denote a person only once
married : those who married a second time are termed
digami, bigamists — the first time that such an explanation,
followed by such an application of the term, occurs in any
Christian writing.1 Tertullian's argument from the passages
is this: The apostle requires of those who hold clerical
functions in the church, that they be no more than once
married; but this cannot be confined to them, no more
than any of the other moral qualifications mentioned in the
same connection : if the rest are common to them with
believers generally, why should not this also? Or if the
clergy alone have to do with this, then they, too, alone
must be subject to the discipline ofthe rest. And is it not
the doctrine of Scripture, that all genuine believers are of
priestly rank, having one and the same spiritual standing,
the same high and holy calling, with official' distinctions
only for orderly administrations? Here, undoubtedly, Ter-
1 The word is found in Justin's Apology, c. i. 15, but in the usual
sense of separating from one wife and marrying another.

424 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES,
tullian got hold of a right principle, though he utterly mis
applied it ; for it is against the fundamental principles of
the gospel (as already indicated) to have class distinctions
as to moral attainments — to set up one type of purity or
holiness for the pastor, and another for the flock. And it
betrayed a departure from the simple faith and true spirit
of Christianity when the authorities in the church began, as
they did about or shortly after Tertullian's time, to hold
that it was allowable for common believers, but not for
Christian ministers, to enter a second time into a marriage
relationship. This was really to change the constitution of
Christ's spiritual kingdom.
The influence of Tertullian's writings on this subject, as
on many others, operated far and wide throughout the
church, though he failed to carry the formal sanction of his
views. In various quarters, second marriages, even among
thelaity, came to be viewed with disfavour, and were occa
sionally subjected to a measure of disciplinary treatment.
Thus, in one of the canons of the provincial synod of Neo-
Caesarea (a.d. 314), priests are forbidden to countenance
the festivities of second marriages by their presence, " since
the bigamus needed penitence." (Thus early did the eccle
siastical use of the word bigamus become distinguished from
the civil, in which it always denotes one married to two
spouses still living.) The Council of Nicsea sought to in
terpose a check on this foolish restriction, and required (in
its 8th canon) that the cathari^ or purists, on being received
into the church, should formally consent to communicate
with such as had been married a second time. Yet a pro
vincial council at Laodicea, held about a quarter of a cen
tury later (a.d. 352), ordained, in its very first canon, that
persons legally marrying a second time should be received
into communion only after fasting and prayer, and juxta
indulgentiam. The general sense of the church, however,
successfully withstood the ascetic tendency in this form of
its manifestation ; but only that it might be made to con
centrate itself upon the select class of the priesthood, in
respect to whom the feeling continued to grow that the
normal condition was one of entire separation from married
life, and that disqualification for clerical ministrations was
consequent on a second marriage, especially if the second

APPENDIX. 425
had been entered into after baptism. A rule to this effect
is laid down in the so-called Apostolical Canons, which,
though bearing a false title, undoubtedly expressed the
general mind ofthe church about the close of the fourth cen
tury. They ordained, among other grounds of exception,
that no one who had become involved in second marriages
after baptism, or who had married a widow (this being also
on one side a second marriage), could be admitted tg any
grade of priestly standing (Can. 1,7, 18). In like manner
Ambrose, while distinctly asserting that the apostolic pre
cepts do not condemn second marriages {De Vid. c. 2, §
10), yet maintains that they were rightly held to be incon
sistent with priestly functions (according to the prescrip
tion in 1 Tim. iii. 2), and for this among other reasons,
that there should not be one rule for the clergy and the
people ; that the former, as they stood on a higher spiritual
eminence, should be held bound to a more perfect mode of life
(Ep. ad Vercell. Ecclesiam, § 62-64. To the same effect also
Innocent of Rome, ,De Cr. 13 ; and Epiphanius, Hcer. 48).
Yet, with all this countenance from some of the more
prominent authorities of the church, and the steady growth
of public sentiment in the same direction, the practice in
many places but slowly conformed to what the ascetic spirit,
in this alliance with caste distinctions and ritualistic services,
demanded as right and proper. Theodoret (whose com
ment on St. Paul's expression was formerly given) mentions,
in a letter to Domnus of Antioch (Ep. no), that he had or
dained one Irenaeus, though he had entered into marriage
a second time ; and that in doing so he had but " followed
the footsteps of those who had gone before him." He
refers also to various examples of ihe same kind. And the
frequency of the practice, coupled with the impropriety, or
rather the palpable indecency, of the church's commonly
recognised procedure in excluding from sacred ministrations
those who had lawfully entered into wedlock a second time,
while persons guilty of concubinage and the grossest im
moralities were freely admitted, is denounced by Jerome, in
his own peculiar style, when commenting on a case of the
former description in his'letter to Oceanus. " I wonder,"
says Jerome to his correspondent, " that you should think
of dragging forth one bishop as having transgressed the

426 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
apostolic rule, since the whole world is full of these ordina
tions : I don't mean of presbyters, or those of inferior grade,
but I come to bishops, of whom I could unroll such a list
as would exceed in number the members of the synod of
Ariminum." He then refers to a disputation he had with
an eloquent man at Rome on the subject, whose syllogistic
reasoning he met by a counter reasoning of the same
kind ; and then he adds : " It is a new thing I hear, that
what was not sin shall be reckoned for sin. All sorts of
prostitutions, and the filth of public abominations, impiety
towards God, acts of parricide, of incest, etc., are purged
away in the font of Christ. Shall the stains of a wife still
inhere, and brothels be preferred to the marriage-bed ? I
do not cast up to you troops of harlots, lots of catamites,
shedding of blood, and swinish indulgences at every feast ;
and you bring up to me from the sepulchre a wife long since
dead, whom I received lest I should do what you have
done ! Let the Gentiles hear it ; let the catechumens, who
are candidates for the faith, lest they marry wives before
baptism, lest they enter into honourable matrimony, but
may have wives and children in common — nay, may shun
the term wife in every form, lest, after they have beheved
in Christ, it shall prove to their detriment that they had
wives, and not concubines or harlots."
Such were the factitious distinctions and the mischievous
results which grew out of this unscriptural mode of teaching
which, the church received mainly at the hands of Tertullian,
after he had assumed the heretical position of a Montanist
The view ultimately became associated nearly as much with
false notions of the ministry and of the sacraments, as with
unwarranted restrictions regarding marriage. And as the
development in that direction could not be deemed other
wise than natural, if the principle had been sound on which
it proceeded, — that a species of sanctity incompatible with
second marriages was required of pastors and deacons
which is not required of believers generally, — the .develop
ment itself may fairly be regarded as a proof of the un
soundness of the principle. Doctrinally, it was wrong ; but
in a practical respect also, the view could not fail to be
accompanied with serious embarrassment or trouble of a
domestic kind. Pastors bereaved by death of their wives,

APPENDIX. 427
and without any female relative to supply the blank, would
often find it impossible to have their children' properly
cared for, and their households ruled well (according to
apostolic precept), except by entering anew into married
life. And to interdict this would necessarily have forced
on them the painful alternative of either perilling the moral
well-being of their family, or, to avoid that, renouncing their
position as ministers of God's word.
4. There remains still another line of reflection to strengthen
the interpretation given — this, namely, that in addition to
the objections which have been urged against understanding
the expression of absolute monogamy, the other view affords
a perfectly good and appropriate meaning. Recent inter
preters have sometimes denied this, and laid considerable
stress on the opposite allegation. Thus Alford: "The
apostle would hardly have specified that as a requisite for
the episcopate or presbyterate which we know to have been
fulfilled by all Christians whatever ; no instance being ad
duced of polygamy being practised in the Christian church,
and no exhortation to abstain from it." If this were any
thing like a fair and full representation of the matter, it
would be hard to account for so many of the early interpre
ters (conversant, as they were, with the circumstances of the
time) taking the other view of the passage, and thinking
that, as matters then stood alike among the Jews and
Gentiles, ample grounds existed for insisting on monogamy
in the ordinary sense — monogamy in contradistinction
simply to polygamy and divorce — as a qualification for
office in the church. A certain proportion of its membership
consisted of converts from Judaism; and though divorce,
perhaps, on insufficient grounds, and subsequent marriage,
or the undisguised practice of polygamy^ might not be very
common in the gospel age among the Jews, yet there is not
wanting evidence to show that usages of that description
did exist, and continued for ages after the Christian era.
Justin Martyr charges it as matter of just reproach against
the teachers of the Jewish people, that even till now they
permitted each man to have four or five wives (Trypho, c.
134). And in the year a.d. 393 a law was passed by Theo
dosius, enjoining that "none of the Jews should retain their
own custom in marriage, nor enter into diverse marriage

428 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
relationships at one time" (nee in diversa sub uno tempore
conjugia conveniaf), — a law which is not likely to have been
enacted without adequate reasons for it, and still less to
have been re-enacted, as it was by Justinian a century and
a half later. It will readily be understood, that if persons,
who in their unchristian state had become entangled in
such double or treble marriage relationships, might be ad
mitted, on their conversion, to the communion of the church,
they should still not be entrusted with the spiritual admini
stration of its affairs : there was a flaw in their condition
which unfitted them for being unexceptionable guides and
overseers of the flock. It is notorious, also, that among
the Greeks and Romans, although polygamy was not for
mally sanctioned, yet it virtually prevailed — prevailed under
the connivance or sanction of law ; and that the most de
plorable and wide-spread laxity in this respect existed, both
previous to the apostolic age and for long after it. In the
later stages of the Republic, with the influx of wealth and
luxury, a fearful degeneracy of manners made way among
the higher classes of society; many shunned the restraints
of marriage, and with those who entered into the bond it
was often little more than a temporary contract. Divorce
was so common, that " public opinion ceased to frown on
it ; it could be initiated by husband or wife with almost
equal freedom : there was a ready consent of both parties
to the separation, in the prospect of marrying again ; and
this facility was open to all classes who could contract
marriage."1 It was even open to them to do it without
any legal process ; for,' as another authority on the subject
tells us, " among the Romans divorce did not require the
sentence of a judge ; no judicial proceedings were neces
sary. It was considered a private act, though some, distinct
notice or declaration of intention was usual."2
This great social evil, instead of abating, grew with the
introduction of the Empire, and received a powerful stimulus
from the scandalous excesses of persons in high places.
The two first Caesars set here an example which was only
too closely followed by many of their successors and under
lings. Female manners became so loose, that no woman
1 Dr. Thos. D. Woolsey On Divorce and Divorce Legislation, p. 41.
8 Lord Mackenzie On Roman Law, part i. c. 6.

APPENDIX. 429
(Seneca could say) " was now ashamed of divorce ; and
illustrious and noble ladies counted their years, not by the
number of consuls, but by the number of their husbands."
Hence also the bitter sarcasm of Juvenal :
Sic fiunt octo mariti
Quinque per autumnos. — vi. 229.
The influence of such a state of things at headquarters
must have told disastrously throughout the empire. The
States of Greece are known to have been lax enough eyen
before such an influence began to work upon them ; there
was little of a high moral tone in the relations of domestic
life. Along with marriage, the practice of concubinage was
everywhere tolerated, and actions of divorce were effected
' by common consent, and on the weakest grounds. Even in
Sparta, which was probably the least licentious State of
'Greece, what a light is thrown on the prevailing sentiments
and habits of the people by such a fact as this : " To bring
together the finest couples was regarded by the citizens as
desirable, and by the lawgiver as a duty. There were even
some married women who were recognised mistresses of two
houses, and mothers of two distinct families, -r- a sort of
bigamy strictly forbidden to the men, and never permitted
except in the remarkable case of King Anaxandrides, when
the royal Herakleidan line of Eurystheus was in danger of
becoming extinct." 1 But without going further into detail,
there can be no doubt that corruption in this particular line
held its course generally throughout the Roman Empire for
centuries after the Christian era, only partially checked by
the introduction of the Christian element; so partially,
indeed, that " divorce ex communi consensu kept its ground
all the way down to Justinian" (Woolsey, p. 101). The
legislative attempt of Constantine to grant liberty of divorce
only on the proof of such heinous crimes as poisoning and
adultery, failed from the impossibility of carrying it into
effect. It had to be first relaxed, and by Honorius was
almost abrogated. " A Christian writer, at the beginning
of the fifth century, complains that men changed their wives
as quickly as their clothes, and that marriage chambers
were set up as easily as booths in a market. At a later
period still, when Justinian attempted to prohibit all divorces
1 Grote's History, vol. ii. p. 520.

43° THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
except those on account of chastity, he was obliged to relax
the law on account of the fearful crimes, the plots and
poisonings, and other evils, which it introduced into domestic
life." 1
Taking, then, all the known circumstances of the time
into account, we see only too ample reason for such a quali
fication as that specified by the apostle for pastors and dea
cons — if by that qualification is understood simply fidelity
to the marriage vow, or relationship to no more than one
living woman as a spouse. The question was not (as put
by Alford) whether, after being received into the Christian
church, a looser practice might be held compatible with
Christian obligations, — a wife and a concubine, or two wives
at a time, — but whether those who had in these respects
followed the too common practice of the world, should, on
becoming Christians, be admitted to office in the church.
Had they been so, the church might have seemed to take
too light a view of the prevailing immorality ; embarrassing
complications also might have arisen for the parties them
selves in the discharge pf duty ; so that the part of Christian
wisdom with the church evidently was to stand entirely
clear, in her administrative capacity, from having any par
ticipation in the abounding corruption. It is the very course
which missionaries of the gospel are obhged in heathen
lands to pursue still. They can often receive parties into
church fellowship, because apparently sincere in the pro
fession of the faith, whom yet, on account of essentially
adulterous connections contracted in their heathenish state,
they have felt it necessary to exclude from positions of
honour, especially from functions of government in the
church.2 It has been thought by some Protestant writers (by
Vitringa, for example, Synag. Vet. P. i. c. 4 ; also by Elli
cott, Alford, and some others), that the corrupt state of
1 Milman's History of Christianity, vol. iii. p. 290.
2 The comment of Conybeare and Howson on the passage under con
sideration, though brief, is in perfect accordance with the view we have
given. "The true interpretation seems to be as follows : In the cor
rupt facility of divorce allowed both by Greek and Roman law, it was
very common for man and wife to separate, and marry other parties
during the life of one another. Thus, a man might have three or four
living wives. An example of the operation of a similar code is un-

APPENDIX.

431

matters prevailing at the time may have induced the apostle
to lay down the rule of absolute monogamy for rulers in the
church — to provide a more efficient check against the evil
— but that, as the same motive no longer operates now, the
rule is fitly regarded as having ' had only a temporary sig
nificance, and as no longer in force. This, however, is a
quite arbitrary supposition. The qualification, as given by
the apostle, is coupled with no temporal limitation. It
stands, in that respect, on the same footing as the other
prescriptions — alike valid, apparently, for all times. Besides,
the extremely lax state of morals then prevalent, while it
undoubtedly called the church, especially in its official re
presentatives, to be examples of a truly chaste and becoming
behaviour, could never have justified the application of
tests which went beyond the requirements of God's law
and the dictates of sound reason ; for this would have been
to make one evil the occasion of opening the door to
another. It would have been an attempt, as the ascetic
discipline in every form is, to improve upon God's institu
tions by setting up a higher ideal of purity than is proper
to them, and which always ends in bringing on worse evils
than those it seeks to correct. In the form now under
consideration, it would have given apostolic sanction to
false views of marriage, and, against the whole spirit of the
gospel, would have formally authorized gradations of sanc
tity in the membership of the church — a lower that might
have sufficed for common believers ; and another and higher,
as not only proper, but indispensable, for those who should
be called to bear rule in the congregation. A distinction
certainly not of apostolic origin, and the fruitful parent,
when originated, of grievous errors and perversions !
. Special stress is laid, in this connection, by the writers in
question on the corresponding qualification prescribed for
widows, who were to be admitted to the kindly oversight
happily to be found in our own colony of Mauritius. There the French
revolutionary law of divorce has been suffered by the English Govern
ment to remain unrepealed ; and it is not uncommon to meet in society
three or four women who have all "been the wives of the same man, and
three or four men who have all been the husbands of the same woman.
We believe it is this kind of successive polygamy, rather than simul
taneous polygamy, which is here spoken of as disqualifying for the
presbyterate."

432 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
and benefactions of the church : these were, among other
moral characteristics, to be known as having each been the
wife of one man, chap. v. 9. How, it is asked, could this
be understood otherwise than as descriptive of a woman
who had been only once married ? And if such is the kind
of oneness indicated in this case, how can it justly be re
garded as different in the other ? The facts already stated,
however, show that the necessity supposed for so under
standing the expression in the woman's case by no means
existed ; and the very circumstance of a qualification of this
sort being necessary to entitle a poor widow to become
merely the recipient of the church's charity, may surely be
regarded as no mean evidence that the qualification in both
cases could have involved nothing of an ascetic nature —
could have required only what is due to the claims of
decency, and is in accordance with the essential nature and
design of marriage. But this is shown more fully in the
annotations on chap. v. 9.

APPENDIX C— Page 232.
THE TREATMENT OF SLAVERY IN NEW TESTAMENT
SCRIPTURE (i TIM. VI. 2; TIT. II. io).
This subject, in its relation to the spirit and teaching of
Christianity, naturally falls into three closely-related parts :
first, the direct instructions it gave to those standing to each
other in the relation of slave and slave-owner ; second, the
principles it unfolded tending indirectly, yet most materi
ally, to bear on the relation ; and third, the practical
measures which, under the influence of one or the other of
these, came to be adopted with a view to the improvement
of the existing order of things.
i. As regards' the first of these points, it is to be borne in
mind that the original heralds of Christianity had to do with
slavery as not only an existing, but a time-honoured and
widely-ramified institution, with a recognised place in the
laws and usages of the empire, and of such gigantic propor-

APPENDIX.

433

tions that in the gospel age a slave for every freeman has
been thought a moderate computation for the provinces of
the empire at large.1 In particular districts the proportion
was niuch greater, though in others probably somewhat
less. It was such, indeed,' that in the more populous parts
of the empire nearly all menial employments must have
been discharged by servile hands, as well as much besides
that belonged to the category of skilled labour. Now, with
this vast system of legalized property in human flesh, the
evangelists and apostles of our Lord came into contact
chiefly as it bore on the class, not of owners, but of owned
— of bondmen, not of those who held them in bondage ; for
the gospel drew at first the great body of its adherents from
the lower grades of society, and those who ranked imme
diately above them. Of the first generation of believers in
Christ, an extremely small proportion, it may be confidently
assumed, would be owners of slaves ; but not a few, in all
probability, of the slaves themselves, whose depressed and
suffering condition would naturally dispose them to hail a
religion which looked so benignly on the afflicted, and held
out such elevating prospects to all who sincerely embraced
it. We thus quite readily account for the circumstance that
the prescriptions in New Testament Scripture bearing on
the relation in question are most numerous and pointed
with respect to the slaves; and that sometimes, when
charges are given as to the behaviour becoming them, none
are delivered on- the correlative duties of masters. It was
not that the one class required the word of counsel or ad
monition more than the other ; but because there were as
yet scarcely any of the higher' class who professed subjec
tion to Christ, while there were many of the lower.
Having, therefore, mainly to do with those who occupied
the lower place in this relationship, the authorized ambassa
dors of Christ naturally regarded them as peculiar objects
both of pity and concern. They found them in an abject
and humiliating condition, which they had no power, how
ever they might have wished it, to alter or amend,— a con
dition which, in all its essential features, was fixed and
regulated by the legislation of the empire. While the
gospel of Christ could not break the chains which out-
1 This is Gibbon's estimate.
2 E

434 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
wardly lay upon them, it could, and did also, in a moral
and spiritual respect, mightily relieve and benefit then-
state ; / and, in return, it justly called them to prize the
better things which it brought within their reach, and to
show their profiting therein by discharging in another
manner than before the duty of service exacted of them —
to eye, in all they did, the divine rather than the human
authority under which they stood : that so they might honour
and commend to others the Master whom now it was their
delight and glory to serve. They were thus, by their very
calling as Christians, elevated within their own sphere to
the high rank of witnesses of Christ, and instruments in His
hand for diffusing abroad that saving light and truth by
which alone the greater disorders of society could be
rectified, and the troubles of the more afflicted portions of
mankind .effectually removed. By taking the line of con
duct prescribed, also, they would pursue the course which
was almost sure to react beneficially on their social position.
They necessarily became patterns of active virtue ; and
such were the encouragements given under the system of
Roman slavery for obtaining freedom as the reward of good
conduct, that Christian slaves, who in their daily procedure
exhibited .the spirit of the gospel, might be said to be on
the high road ioward manumission.
So much did .the aposties set by conformity in this respect
to the mind of Christ, and so confidently did they reckon
upon other desirable ends being thus in due time attained,
that they scarcely ever touched on the civil aspect of the
question — on the acquirement of liberty. Incidentally the
subject comes up in the Epistle to Philemon, with respect
to Onesimus, his runaway slave ; and yet it is so consider
ately and delicately handled by the apostle, that, while he
shows distinctly enough his appreciation of a brotherly as
contrasted with a servile relation, he would not have the
former in any case acquired by fraud — would not even have
it wrung from the legal owner by a reluctant concession ;
yet, if frankly conferred, would esteem it a most worthy ex
pression of enlightened and sanctified feeling. In another
place — a passage in the First Epistle to the Corinthians —
the subject is also briefly treated in connection with a more
general question, namely, how the reception of the gospel

APPENDIX. 435
should be regarded as affecting people's family and social
relationships? Were they still to continue in these after
they had become Christians ? Or were they to find- in their
Christianity a reason for abandoning them ? The apostle's
direction is : Abide as you are, and where you are, if you
can do so consistently with Christian principle ; and in so
far as anything in your existing relations may be trying and
irksome, instead of hastily ridding yourselves of it by a self-
chosen method of escape, seek rather by your meek, patient,
noble Christian bearing, to rise above the disadvantages
of your outward position, and in the interests of godliness
triumph over them. This is the general principle of action
enunciated ; and when applied to those who, on becoming
Christians, found themselves oppressed by the yoke of
slavery, it meant that they were not to use any power or
opportunity they might have to break the yoke violently
asunder ; that they were rather to regard this as a part of
the burden which, meanwhile, they had to bear for the sake
of Christ ; and- that, while it was not good to be in slavery
to man, itwas possible even in this to be Christ's freeman :
and to be such was so noble and blessed a thing, that their
civil disabilities might be borne, while they lasted, with
comparative indifference. This seems plainly the gist and
bearing of the apostle's treatment of the subject, however
we interpret the particular expressions.1 It did not, when
fairly considered, betoken any insensibility in the apostle's
mind to the evils of slavery, taken by themselves. It is im
possible, indeed, that he and the other heralds of the cross
should have thought lightly of. them, seeing they were in
themselves so numerous and flagrant, and so contrary to
the spirit of philanthropy which breathed in the gospel of
Christ, and which was also exemplified so finely in the con
duct of its divinely-commissioned teachers. But these men
of God knew that the promptings of nature were likely to
furnish a sufficient stimulus in that direction, and were not
forgetful also of the effect which the new wine of the king
dom might have in the same direction — fermenting, as it
would naturally do, in the minds of Christian slaves, with
thoughts and aspirations in ill accord with their depressed
1 It is only in respect to chap. vii. 21 that any diversity of interpre
tation prevails. See at the close of this Dissertation, p. 448.

436 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
and abject condition. It was therefore the part of Christian
wisdom to throw the fence mainly on the- more exposed
side, and urge them, as their main concern, to the cultiva
tion of those graces and habits which tended to elevate
them as rational and immortal beings.
- On this side of the question, then, wisdom was manifestly
justified of her children; but was it equally so in the
reserve practised, on the other side, toward the masters?
If the apostles were right in plying the oppressed class with
exhortations to virtue and obedience, why should they not
have pressed those who had the power to let 'the oppressed
go free ? They certainly did not do this. The considera
tions chiefly urged upon the masters are, that they should
remember they had to do with One who is no respecter of
persons ; who stood to them in the relation of a Master, as
they to their fellow-creatures ; and that they should conse
quently forbear, not the use of the lash merely, but even
threatening, and should give to all under their control what
is just and equal. Such injunctions, if properly carried out,
would at least secure practical freedom to the slave — such
freedom as would enable him to serve God faithfully in the
humble duties of his station. But we can scarcely say
apostolical precept, in its direct and explicit requirements of
the slave-owner, goes further ; especially as, when the sup
position is made of believing servants under the yoke
having also believing masters (1 Tim. vi. 2), the latter are
spoken of as still retaining their proprietary rights, and the
former are enjoined to do their work of service all the more
cheerfully that they were under believing masters. If, how
ever, we take into account not the letter merely, but the
spirit also of the exhortations given, we shall doubtless see
that something further is required of the parties in question,
and that they could not have intelligently and cordially done
so much without feeling impelled in ordinary circumstances
to do more. For if the master consented, as he was ex
pressly required, to treat his bondmen as rational beings,
capable of the same exalted privileges and hopes as himself,
how could he desire to have them kept in a position which
exposed them to treatment of another kind, treatment from
which his own spiritual nature must have recoiled ? Plainly
he could not with hearty good-will take the one part of a

APPENDIX. 437
Christian behaviour, without feeling drawn to do something
also in respect to the other. And that the Apostle Paul
thought persons in that situation should have so felt and
acted, is evident from the style of address in his letter to
Philemon respecting Onesimus, in which, as already indi
cated, he did not indeed claim strictly as a right, or demand
as by divine authority, yet besought with powerful suasion,
the reception of Onesimus, not merely as a forgiven bond
man who had wronged his master, but in a higher character
— "above a slave (as he expressed himself), a brother
beloved." To yield to this affectionate entreaty,, and' yet
re-assert over Onesimus his proprietary rights as a slave
holder, had been impossible ; the very attempt to do so
would have been justly branded as a pitiful evasion.
But if such were the mind of the apostles, and the certain
tendency of their instructions, might it not have been better
to go straight to the point, and lay upon every Christian
slave-owner the authoritative injunction to enfranchise his
slaves ? So some have, even in our time, been bold enough
to assert. But had the course in question been taken, how
many enfranchisements might have been expected through
its operation ? Or what progress was Christianity likely to
have made in ameliorating the social evils of the Empire ?
With this startling demand among its requirements,- — in the
very front, we may say, of these requirements (for it was
sure to be the first that should ever meet the eye of the
slave-owner), — persons of this class would with one consent
have denounced Christianity as the opponent of their legal
interests and hereditary rights ; they would have every
where met it with their determined opposition — would have
put it, in fact, under the ban of the Empire, as a system that,
under the guise of religion, aimed at unsettling the founda
tions of society, and kindling the flames of a servile war.
It was at once the wiser and the more humane course to
make the direct prescriptions of the gospel bear only on the
just and equitable treatment of the slave, so that the moment
he was placed under the dominion of a believing master he
should become practically free to move within the ordinary
sphere of Christian duty ; and in addition to this, to place
the master as well as the slave under motives and conside
rations of a higher kind, which, in proportion as they were

438 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
realized and acted on, necessarily led to the readjustment
or removal Of whatever in their mutual relationship was at
variance with the essential principles of rectitude and
goodness. 2. This touches, however, upon the second point — the
higher influences brought by the gospel to bear on the
hearts of slave-owners, and tending indirectly to loose the
bonds of slavery. The whol,e spirit and tendency of the
religion of the gospel must have wrought in this direction.
' The view given in Scripture of the common origin and
natural relationships of mankind — even this, which is im
plied in the revelations of the gospel, rather than directly
announced — could not, if thoughtfully pondered, be without
effect in this particular line. That all should be the offspring
of one parent, — inheritors of one blood, and partakers of
the same rational and immortal nature, — and yet that they
should make merchandise of one another, as if some be
longed to a different world, or a different order of creation
from the rest ; — who that justly considers the one can find it
in his heart to do the other ? How especially could he do
so, if he coupled with men's brotherly relation to himself
their filial relation to God, though he should only think of
that relation as it exists in nature, implying the formation
of all alike in God's image, and their calling as such to
occupy the earth, and use its means and opportunities of
good for Him ? To treat a human being so formed, so
constituted and destined by the hand of his Maker, as from
the mere accidents of position bereft of freedom of will and
independent action, were virtually to disown and shamefully
dishonour the claims and interests of such a natural re
lationship. Yet this is but the preliminary ground or implied basis
of Christianity, not its proper substance ; and its influence
in this direction becomes much greater when its grand cen
tral doctrine of the incarnation and death of the Son of God
for the salvation of mankind is brought distinctly into view.
This, when rightly known and considered by men, could
not but be felt to be like the letting in of a new light upon
the world, tending by a moral necessity to raise the common
platform of humanity to a higher than its former level. It
is from hence, most of all, that has sprung the idea of the

APPENDIX. 439
brotherhood of mankind — of their original equality in God's
sight, and of the honour and blessedness of ministering to
thpir weUbeing, apart from all the outward and artificial
distinctions which in the heathen world entered so largely
into men's estimation of their fellow-men, and threw some
thing like an impassable gulf between race and race, and
one condition of life and another. The infinite condescen
sion and glorious example of Christ virtually established for
all a claim to the highest offices of kindness, and, wherever
practically known, gave such an impulse to the more gene
rous feelings of the heart, and the more active charities of
life, that everything like cruel neglect or lordly oppression
toward even the humblest grades of society could not fail
to be regarded otherwise than as an outrage on humanity.
Then, regard to the interests of salvation must have
wrought in the same direction. From the moment that
any one became a genuine believer, it was part of his obli
gations to see that everything of a proper and fitting kind
was done to bring all under his influence or control to par
take with him in the blessings of salvation. But how could
the slave-owner commend to others about him the offers of
a love, of which it was but too clear he had not yet received
the full impression in his own bosom? How could he
desire in earnest to see them rising to the possession and
enjoyment of the liberties of God's dear children ? The
attainment of such a standing in spiritual things, with its
high privileges and endowments, he could not but see,
would only render them the more deeply conscious of the
ignoble chains which - rested on their bodily condition ; for
how could they possess the rank of sons in God's house,
and -realize their title to the glorious inheritance of the
saints in light, without feeling the incongruity and the dis
honour of being denied the place of citizens of earth, pr of
being allowed to take an independent part in the ordinary
concerns of a present life ? It was obviously impossible
that the intelligent Christian slave should have felt other
wise than is now, represented ; and if not absolutely impos
sible, at least not very natural or easy, for his master to
become a sincere convert to the gospel, and still keep the
yoke of bondage riveted on the neck of a Christian brother.
Of the force of these considerations the history of the

440 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
subject has yielded two very instructive and convincing
illustrations. The first is the reluctance commonly exhibited
by slave-owners to let those under their sway enjoy the full
benefit of Christian instruction and privilege. How far
this was the case in ancient times we can only infer from
what has happened among the modern representatives of
the class ; but in the particular point under consideration, it
is likely to have been worse rather than better in the earlier
as compared with the later ages. Yet, as regards these later
ages, no one in the least acquainted with the history of
slavery can be ignorant how commonly slave-owners have
been jealous of the diffusion of Christian Icnowledge and
instruction among their slaves — what restraints they have
generally laid upon it — how often even they have expressly
and by severe penalties interdicted it Viewed as a whole,
it is not too much to say of their conduct, that it has
betrayed an unmistakeable conviction that the hght and
liberties of the gospel carry along with them a certain
danger to their proprietary interests, and involve views of
truth and duty materially different from their own. The
other confirmatory fact consists in the grounds and reasons
which have most commonly induced believing slave-owners
to grant liberation to their bondmen. It appears that in
the actual progress of events the spirit of the gospel, im
perfectly as it was too often understood and imbibed,
played an important part While the work of emancipation
made slow advances compared with the progressive advance
ment of an external Christianity, it still was always proceed
ing,' and generally did so within the professing church as a
response to the undeserved mercy of Heaven — an act of
becoming tenderness and compassion in the recipients of
divine grace and blessing. This may be seen by referring
to the ancient charters of that description given by Du
Cange, or even from the specimens selected out of them
by Dr. Robertson (Charles V, note 20). We find tliere
grants of freedom made by sundry persons in favour of
their slaves — made "for the love of God," "for the benefit
of the soul" of the grantor, or something to that effect.
When Pope Gregory the Great bestowed liberty on some
slaves that had become his property, he prefaced the deed
thus : " The Redeemer made Himself a propitiation to free

APPENDIX. 441
men from the yoke of bondage, and restore them to their
pristine condition ; whence it well became men to restore
those whom the law of nations, not nature, had brought
into servitude, to the freedom which originally and properly
belonged to them." Hence also a large number of manu
missions appear to have been granted by persons on their
death-beds, when their near approach to the judgment-seat
rendered their consciences more alive to the great realities
of the gospel, and the corresponding obligations : they
granted the boon, it is commonly stated, " for the redemp
tion of their soul." And hence also occasions of special
favour and blessing were not unfrequently seized for con
ferring the, grant ; the benefit received on the one side being
naturally felt to call for the bestowal of a like benefit on the
other. Indeed, it is difficult to understand how any one, if he
could only divest himself of the perverting bias of habit, or
the still more perverting bias of worldly interest, and would
calmly look at the matter in the light of gospel truth, could
come to another conclusion than that of either abandoning
his right of property in his fellow-men, or of disclaiming
allegiance to the authority of Christ. I do not see how,
even with the kindest and most considerate treatment of
his slaves, he could feel that he had discharged his obliga
tions according to the requirements of the gospel without
releasing them from their bondage. By one of these re
quirements he is called to be an imitator of Christ in that
very walk of love wherein Christ has at once set so illustri
ous an example and given so costly a sacrifice. By another,
he is enjoined to do to others whatsoever he would that
they should do to him. By a third, he is urged to do good
to all around him, as he has opportunity — to do it beyond
the measure of the heathen, and for the promotion espe
cially of the higher interests of mankind. But, on the sup- -
position of his continuing to be a slave-owner, what honour
do such precepts receive at his hands? He deliberately
prefers holding men subject to bondage, while it was the
special glory of his Master to deliver them from it; he
practises upon them a wrong ; and if he does not personally
inflict, he leaves them in a position in which they may have
inflicted upon them, insults and injuries, pains and cruelties,,

442 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
which no man of sane mind would wish another to have the
power of inflicting upon himself. And instead of using his
opportunities to do the part of a wise benefactor and moral
regenerator ofthe world, he lazily and selfishly contributes
to the maintenance of one of the foulest stains on the-
brotherhood of mankind ; he lends his countenance and
support to a system of which, as a whole, and as regards its
inherent tendency, it has been not more eloquently than
justly said : " It darkens and depraves the intellect ; it
paralyzes the hand of industry ; it is the nourisher of
agonizing fears and of sullen revenge ; it crushes the spirit
of the bold ; it is the tempter, the murderer, and the tomb
of virtue ; and either blasts the felicity of those over whom
it domineers, or forces them to seek for relief from their
sorrows in the gratifications, and the mirth, and the mad
ness of the passing hour." 1
It is proper to add, however, that there may have been
persons in ancient times, as there are known to have been
some in later, who were not insensible to the considerations
now'noticed, and yet refrained from granting liberation to
their slaves, out of regard chiefly to the present temporal
comfort of the slaves themselves. In those States where
slavery has become a widely-extended and compact system,
the manners and usages of society so adapt themselves to it,
that emancipation in individual cases, or on isolated proper
ties, might have the effect of throwing the emancipated out
of one class without being able to secure their introduction
into" another, better, or even so well, situated for employ
ment and comfort as the one they had. They might, in
consequence, if enfranchised, become exposed to neglect
and want There can be no doubt that such was the case,
about the gospel era and before it, with many freedmen in
certain districts of Italy, where, from the general employ
ment of slaves in the cultivation of the soil, the free part of
the population often fell into a very depressed and pitiable
condition. The same may have happened, and doubdess
did happen, in other provinces of the empire, of which we
have less specific information ; and it is also known to have
happened in particular portions of what but lately were the
slave states of the West Indies and of America. So that it
1 Speech of Dr. Andrew Thomson, Edinburgh.

APPENDIX. 443
would not always be simply from the power of the gospel
not being felt, or from a deliberate disregard of its claims
in this particular direction, that the bondmen of Christian
masters did not regain their freedom. A benevolent regard
to their present weUbeing, even though possibly a some
what mistaken or undue regard, may have often contributed
to the result.
3. We turn now, lastly, to the practical measures in
which, so far as we know, the early teachers and represen
tatives of the gospel gave effect to the direct instructions,
and the indirect, the higher considerations under which, in
this respect, they were placed by their belief of the truth.
On this point our means of information are very limited
and fragmentary, and there is much we should like to know
ofthe earlier periods of church action of which we must be
content to be ignorant. Undoubtedly the process of relief
within the church would 'have been quick and satisfactory,
compared with what we have reason to believe it was, if all
in the position of slave-owners, who professed obedience to
the gospel, had risen at once to the proper height of know
ledge and attainment in this branch of their calling. But
we are not at liberty to suppose that ; the pleading alone
in the Epistle to Philemon, shows plainly enough how
slowly the very best of the early converts grasped here the
full results and consequences of their faith. There would
doubtless be many who at once felt it their duty to give
hearty obedience to the precepts of the gospel, in so far as
these required a kind and considerate treatment of their
dependants, who yet, from the force of habit or other in
fluences, would never think Of bringing the system itself of
slavery to the test of the great principles of the gospel.
The case of John Newton, in modern times, may be cited
in proof, since, after undergoing one of the most remarkable
conversions on record, he continued for a time not only in
sensible to the common evils of slavery, but even actively
engaged in the inhuman transactions of the slave-trade,
conceiving all his obligations in the matter to be' discharged
if only he looked after the bodily comfort of the unhappy
victims who fell into his hands. The utterly antichristian
character of the traffic disclosed itself but gradually to his
mind. A bequest may also be noticed in the same connec-

444 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
tion, which was left by an American gentleman of last cen
tury to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel — " a
plantation stocked with slaves." "An odd legacy," says
Warburton, in the sermon preached by him for the Society of
the same year ; " an odd legacy to the promulgators of the
law of liberty, but intended, perhaps, as a kind of compen
sation for these violations of it." Custom had in all proba
bility rendered the individual entirely unconscious of the
inconsistence. It should not therefore surprise us to learn that, in the
church of the apostolic and immediately subsequent age,
there were Christian slave-owners as well as Christian slaves
in her communion, with a relaxation no doubt of the bond,
and a tendency begun toward its dissolution, yet still no
general movement made for its formal extinction. Slaves
and masters alike, on their professing Christianity, came under
the discipline ofthe church, and were amenable to it for their
actual behaviour. This was of itself a great security against
all harsh treatment, considering what discipline was in those
early times- — how impartial and how stringent ; and it is
probably the main reason why so little is said on the subject
of slavery in the more ancient Patristic writings, although
doubtless the ascetic tendency which so early began to tell
on leading men in the church exercised, to some extent, an
unfavourable influence also here. The so-called Apostolic
Fathers — Justin Martyr, also Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyprian
— very rarely refer to the subject of slavery in any way, and
give no special instructions concerning it. Even in the
voluminous writings of Augustine, we shall scarcely find a
more explicit or pointed testimony than the following : "A
Christian should not possess a slave after the same manner
that he does a horse or a piece of silver " {De Serm. Dom.
in Monte, L. i. § 590). And when giving a summary of
what the church, as the true mother of all Christians, en
joins upon her children, the whole he says in her behalf as
to the relation of. master and servant is : " Thou teachest
servants to cleave to their masters, not so much from the
necessity of their condition, as from delight in the duties of
their calling. Thou makest masters placable toward their
servants, from regard to the great God, their common Lord,
and more ready to give counsel than to practise coercion "

APPENDIX. 445
(De Mor. Eccl. Cath. § 63). Chrysostom failed even more
than Augustine to bring out on this point the true spirit
of the gospel ; and his continuous commentaries on the
epistles of the New Testament furnished him also with
better opportunities. In his exposition of Philemon, while
he speaks strongly enough of the scandal brought on
Christianity by slaves running away from their masters, and
of Christians abetting and aiding them in their attempts
to do so, he does not say a single word on the duty of
Christian masters to grant liberty to their slaves ; he speaks
also quite familiarly of our custom of purchasing slaves with
money, and of its being esteemed the glory of a master to
have many of them. He is somewhat better at Eph. vi. 9,
where masters are enjoined to do the same things toward
their slaves that the slaves themselves were exhorted to do,
and to forbear threatening, as knowing that they had a
Master in heaven, with whom there is no respect, of persons.
Here Chrysostom presses the consideration that masters
shall assuredly have their measure meted back to them ;
that they must do as they hope to be done to ; and that
they should teach their slaves to be pious and godly, and
then all would go well. But emancipation is not once
hinted at.
Notwithstanding such comparative failures, however, on
the part of the standard-bearers of the church, the mild,
beneficent, love-embracing spirit of the gospel made way,
first lightening the yoke, and then subverting the existence
of slavery. This appears especially in the efforts put forth
' from time to time to obtain the freedom of Christians who
by misfortune had been reduced to slavery, and the fresh
facilities that were given to slave emancipation by legal
enactment. The barbarous treatment of the servile class
was openly condemned by the ministers and councils of
the church. Clement of Alexandria absolutely prohibited
the acceptance of any oblations from cruel and sanguinary
masters ; and several councils appointed temporary excom
munications to be pronounced against those who, without
any judicial sentence, put their slaves to death. Acacius,
bishop of Amida, had the gold and silver vessels of his
church melted to redeem 7000 captives, whom the Romans
had brought from Persia, and sent them back free. Am-

446 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
brose did something of the same sort at Milan. Cases are
even mentioned of persons who sold their whole property
to purchase the freedom of their fellow-Christians. One
Melania is said to have liberated so many as 8000 slaves ;
Obidius, a Gaulish Christian, 5000, etc. And so congenial
did the work of manumission seem to the spirit of the
gospel, that Constantine, while suspending ordinary work
on the Lord's day, expressly allowed the manumission of
slaves, as having in itself the essential characteristics of a
pious and charitable action.1
In another respect, also, the ancient church did good
service : she guarded the chastity of female slaves, and
servile birth formed no disqualification for the sacred offices
of the priesthood. The legal statutes, for a considerable
time, embarrassed her operations, and made the progress of
the work more difficult. The Code of Justinian recognised,
indeed, the original equality of mankind, but it admitted the
forfeiture of this equality by the casualties which use and
wont had allowed to entail the loss of freedom. Still, what
was not removed was in several respects alleviated. Masters
were forbidden to abandon their slaves when sick or en
feebled with age^they were obliged to have them privately
cared for, or sent to the hospitals. In heathen times, slaves
could not properly marry; their union was merely con
cubinage ; and for a^ free person to marry a slave was even
held a capital offence. The Christian church struggled
long and stedfastly against such things, and at last suc
ceeded in getting legal sanction to the marriage of slaves,
and gave to marriages of this kind, as well as others, her
benediction. The tendency of the imperial legislation be
came increasingly favourable to the interests of the slave ;
and Gibbon says of Justinian's Code, that " the spirit of his
laws promoted the extinction Of domestic servitude." But
the extinction was much retarded, especially by two causes.
The first of these was the growing worldliness and cor
ruption of the church. The salt, to a very large extent,
had lost its savour. In process of time, churches them
selves came to hold property in slaves, and even had their
property in this respect guarded by special enactments.
1 Guizot, Hist, of Civil, in France, ii. p. 128 ; Bingham, Ant. B. xx.
c. 2, 5.

APPENDIX. 447
While churches were constituted asylums for runaway slaves,
slaves that belonged to ecclesiastics or sacred foundations,
if they became runaways, were denied all right of protection;
any one who harboured them became liable to pay a triple
fine (Milman's Lat. Christianity, i. 365). The other circum
stance was the enormous multiplication of slaves consequent
upon the irruption of the northern nations. This increased-
the evil tb such an extent that, by its very excess, it helped
to work out the remedy. Slaves ceased in a manner to
be saleable ; they became serfs — labourers attached to the
soil ; and by this appropriation they had conceded to them
a measure of security against the caprice and despotism of
the masters. In this state one could not be sold, save as
part and parcel of the ground on which he resided ; and
while thus bound to a kind of hereditary serfdom, his posi
tion was regulated by law — guarded, though still but imper
fectly, from the freaks of arbitrary violence and oppression.
Other changes, mainly effected by trade and commerce,
came in to ameliorate their condition ; and after centuries
of delay, and a step-to-step progress, serfdom itself passed,
throughout the different countries of Europe, into personal
and social freedom.
Broken, therefore, and chequered as the history is, in
terrupted by many haltings and even temporary reverses, it
has still been an advancement — Christianity has vindicated
her title to the character of a friend of the captive and the
bond. She would have done so, it is true, far more speedily
and extensively if she had herself remained free from the
corruptions of the world, and if her grand aims for the good
of mankind had been properly carried out. But, as matters
actually stood, a gradual rectification took place ; a milder
and better tone was diffused throughout society; a standard
of generosity and loving-kindness was everywhere raised,
which might be said to frown on the intolerance and cruelty
of slavery, and prepared the world for giving practical effect
to the feeling of a common brotherhood. Nothing, indeed,
can be more certain, from the struggles and triumphs of the
past, than that this horrid institution, which is alike dis
honouring to God and injurious to the best interests of
society, cannot stand with a healthful and robust Chris
tianity : as the one lives and thrives, the other of necessity

448 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
gives way ; and were there a gospel everywhere triumphant,
there would infallibly be a free as well as a righteous and a
blessed world.

NOTE to p. 435, on 1 Cor. VII. 21.
In illustration of the general principle that people, on be
coming Christians, should abide in the calling wherein they
were called, the apostle refers, along with some other cases, to
that of bondmen : " Wast thou called, being a slave ? Care
not for it. But if also (or indeed) thou art able to become
free, use it rather." " That is," says Chrysostom, " rather
be a slave. And why, then, does he bid him, who had it in
his power to become free, to continue a slave ? He did it
to show that slavery no way injures, but rather profits (oti
6v8ev ftXdirrei y SovXeia, dXXa Kal dxpeXei)." Rather Strange
doctrine, surely, to ascribe to one who in his own case
valued so highly, not merely his common liberty, but his
special freedom as a Roman citizen, that he would not
allow its rights to be trampled on ; and who, in respect to
his convert Onesimus, showed how well he could distinguish
between the disadvantages of a slave's place and the honour
able position of a brother ! Chrysostom adds that he was
aWare there were some who understood the use recom
mended of liberty: if you are able to become free, embrace
freedom rather. But he rejects this view as against the
connection, which (he thinks) requires that even if a be
lieving slave had the option of becoming free, he should
prefer his slavery. And the same view is taken by Theo
doret, Theophylact, also by various modem commentators
of note, in particular by Estius, Wolf, Bengel, Meyer, Alford.
Several of them hold it to be the only view grammatically
tenable; for when Kai succeeds ei, it does not belong to
et, but to the following clause, which it is spread over and
qualifies ; so that the meaning (it is alleged) can only be :
But if even thou canst be free, use it — namely, slavery —
rather. Dean Stanley hesitates between the two modes of
explanation. Whether freedom or slavery is to be supplied
to the verb use, he conceives to be "one ofthe most evenly
balanced questions in the interpretation of the New Testa-

APPENDIX.

449

ment." And he goes on to state, with his wonted dexterity,
the considerations that appear to make for the two views
respectively, but commences with the strange assertion that
the verb xp»)o-ai " may either be choose, or make use of,
although it leans rather to the former, and thus favours the
first interpretation" — that, namely, which would couple it
with slavery. He does not, however, produce any passage
in the New Testament in support of the sense of choosing ;
nor can a single one be produced. In the two Epistles to
the Corinthians it occurs, besides the present passage, six
times (i Cor. vii. 31, ix. 12, 15 ; 2 Cor. i. 17, iii. 12, xiii. 10),
but never in the sense of choosing — always in that of using,
making use of. And retaining this as the only allowable
meaning, how could the apostle exhort any Christian slave,
who had the opportunity of becoming free, to use slavery
rather ? Slavery is not a gift or talent to be used, but a
restraint, a hardship to be borne or submitted to — if.neces-
sary — but no more. And with all its tendency to asc'eticism,
and to a foolish self-imposition of outward restraints, the
ancient church still had common sense enough, and native
instincts remaining, to dispose her members generally so to
regard it. The well-known practice of Christians in freely
spending of their means to liberate their brethren from
servitude, when by some calamity reduced to it, was a
virtual protest against the inflated oratory of Chrysostom,
and his false exegesis.
As" to the grammatical canon, very formally propounded
by Alford, that Kat after ei qualifies the succeeding clause,
so as to mark a gradation upward — if even, — one has only
to look at the passages in which the particles occur to see
how far it will carry us. Sometimes, no doubt, the ascen-
sive force is plain enough, as at Phil. ii. 17, " But if I even
. be offered (dAAd et Kat airev8op.ai) ;" to which may be added
1 Pet. iii. 14. But take other examples — such as 2 Cor.
xi. 15, where, speaking of Satan and his instruments of
working, the apostle says, " No great wonder, therefore, if
also (et «ai) his ministers are transformed as ministers of
righteousness." Here the particles indicate merely an addi
tional and subordinate fact — if progress at all, a progress
downward, not upward. So also at 1 Cor. iv. 7, " What
hast thou, that thou didst not receive? But if also (or
2 F

450 , THE PASTORAL EPISTLES.
indeed) thou didst receive it — ei 8e Kai eXa/3es " (also 2 Cor.
v. 16, vii. 8) ; on which Alford is himself obliged to let go
the ascensive force. It does not appear that for the New
Testament usage one can go further with a grammatical
principle in the matter than as stated by Winer : " In
general, et Kat .signifies although, si etiam, quanquam, indi
cating something as an actual fact ; " or, as Mr. Moulton
puts it in a note, indicating either that what the sentence
expresses is, in the writer's belief, an actual fact, or a con
cession on his part that the supposition is correct (Gr.
§ 53, 7, Clark's ed.). Mr. Moulton, however, himself
adopts the ascensive force in the passage before us. /
The difficulty, as appears to me, in giving a natural and
proper explanation of the passage has been aggravated -by
supposing that either iXevBepia, freedom, or SovAeia, bondage,
must, be supplied for the verb xpijo-ai. The more natural
construction is to supply the noun involved in the preceding
verb ; the stress lies on it — on Svvaaai. " Wast thou called,
being a slave ? Care not for it. But if also thou art able
(SvVao-ai) to become free, use it (the SvVap,ts, ability) rather ;"
having the power, turn it rather to account. It is not pro
perly the use of the freedom which the apostie advises (in
which case we should certainly, as Alford remarks, have
judged iXevdepia to be the proper word to be supplied to
xpyaai), but the use of the power to obtain freedom ; and
either this, or the whole clause, power to become free, is the
thing to be supplied. Thus viewed, two suppositions are
made in the verse : first, slavery without the power of
escaping from it — in which case the principle of abiding in
one's station holds without any qualification, and under the
elevating influence of the gospel a noble indifference is re
commended ; second, the power of acquiring freedom, with
an advice to take advantage of the opportunity. Then, in
the following verse, a twofold consideration is introduced
by ydp, suited to the two suppositions going before : the
bondman, even though remaining such, is the Lord's free
man, and the freeman is the Lord's bondman. Either way
a qualifying circumstance — in the one case tending to abate
the natural evil, in the other to circumscribe and regulate
the natural good. But to leave no doubt that the apostle
was not insensible to the superiority of a free over an en-

APPENDIX. 451
slaved condition, and regarded the former as alone properly
suited to the place of a believer, he adds, ver. 24, " Ye were
bought with a price ; do notbecome slaves of men." Seeing
how great a price has been given to raise you into the
glorious liberty of the gospel, do not act an unseemly part
by becoming bondmen to your fellow-creatures. And of
course, if they should not voluntarily become such, neither
should they voluntarily continue such, when it was in their
power to escape from the anomalous position.
Interpreted in this manner, the exhortation of the apostle
is throughout reasonable and consistent. His general direc
tion is that people, on becoming Christians, should continue
in the relations which they at the time occupied — the
married (though - to a heathen spouse) in wedlock, the
uncircumcised in uncircumcision, the slave in bondage.
But where a change to the better might be found practi
cable, let it be adopted — the Christian wife drawing over to
the faith her unbelieving husband, or, failing in that, and
finding domestic peace impracticable, retiring into privacy ;
the slave having the" power to become free, using that
power ; but the free on no account bartering their freedom
for a state of bondage, since that would be unsuitable to
their high calling as the redeemed children of God in
Christ.

THE END.

MURRAY AND GIBB, EDINBURGH,
PRINTERS TO HER MAJESTY'S STATIONERY OFFICE.

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