1 Timothy 1:15

πιστὀς ὁ͂ λόγος. This remarkable formula is peculiar to the Pastorals. Here and in 1 Timothy 4:9 the words καὶ πάσης� are added; in 1 Timothy 3:1; 2 Timothy 2:11, and Titus 3:8 we have the simple form πιστὸς ὁ λόγος. In 1 Timothy 3:1 it introduces a saying which may well have become proverbial at this stage of the Church’s development, If a man seeketh the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work. In 2 Timothy 2:11 the words which follow probably formed part of an early Christian hymn (εἰ γἀρ συναπεθἁνομεν, καὶ συνζήσομεν κ.τ.λ.). In the three remaining cases it refers to some important statement of doctrine tersely and generally expressed (as here and in 1 Timothy 4:8-9), or with more detail (as in Titus 3:8). πιστός is used in the sense of trustworthy (see below on 1 Timothy 4:3); and a ‘faithful saying’ in the Pastorals indicates a maxim (whether of doctrine or practice) on which full reliance may be placed. There is nothing in the N.T. quite analogous to the phrase. We have πιστός ὁ θεός (1 Corinthians 1:9; 1 Corinthians 10:13; 2 Corinthians 1:18), πιστός ὁ καλῶν (1 Thessalonians 5:24), but these do not help us much. A more instructive parallel is afforded by οὖτοι οἱ λόγοι πιστοἰ καὶ� of Revelation 21:5; Revelation 22:6. The usual Latin rendering of πιστός in the phrase πιστὸς ὁ λόγος is fidelis; but at this verse r has humanus, a reading also adopted by Augustine in one place. See crit. note on 1 Timothy 3:1.

πάσης�. ἀποδοχή only occurs again in the Greek Bible at 1 Timothy 4:9. It had come to mean approbation in late Greek; cp. Philo (de Praem. et Poen. 2) where the man who is ἀποδοχῆς ἄξιος is contrasted with the ὑπαίτιος. Cp. also an inscription found at Ephesus[516]:

[516] See Classical Review 1. 1, p. 4.

Τίτου Αἰλίου
Πρἰσκου�.

The rendering acceptation gives the nearest sense here; cp. Acts 2:41, οἱ μὲν οὖν�.

We thus translate: worthy of all (universal) acceptation. As always in such constructions in St Paul, πᾶς is used extensively, not intensively, and the phrase is equivalent to ‘acceptation by everyone,’ or as we have it in our office of Holy Communion (where this verse is one of the Comfortable Words) “worthy of all men to be received.”

Χρ. Ἰη. ἦλθεν εἰς τὸν κόσμον. The phrase is, with this exception, only found in the Fourth Gospel (see John 1:9; John 12:46; John 16:28), and is not characteristically Pauline; it here occurs in a doctrinal formula so familiar and undisputed among Christians as to take rank as a ‘faithful saying.’ Indirectly the expression involves, as has been often pointed out, the pre-existence or προῢπαρξις of the Redeemer; but the prominent thought in the ‘saying’ is simply that Redemption was part of the purpose of the Incarnation. The ‘coming into the world’ is the assumption of human nature by the Eternal Word. It is worth observing that throughout this Epistle the name of our Lord is χριστὀς Ἰησοῦς, not Ἰησοῦς Χριστός. It is God’s Anointed who is man’s Saviour.

ἁμαρτωλοὺς σῶσαι. Parallels from the Gospels readily suggest themselves; St Luke 5:32 is the nearest in form. The statement is quite general.

ὦν πρῶτός εἰμι ἐγώ. “Non quia prior peccavit, sed quia plus peccavit” (Aug. Serm. 299); πρῶτος here applies not to time, but to degree; Paul is ‘chief,’ not ‘first’ of sinners. The phrase may seem extravagant, and indeed would hardly have commended itself to a forger; but it is quite in conformity with St Paul’s way of speaking of himself and his conversion. Cp. 1 Corinthians 15:9 and Ephesians 3:8, where the expressions “the least of the Apostles,” “less than the least of all saints,” are used by him. Such language is not to be described as mere rhetoric; it is too often found in the writings of the most saintly and most sincere to permit of any such explanation. For instance, Ignatius again and again speaks of himself as ‘the last’ (ἔσχατος) of the Christians at Antioch, among whom he is not worthy to be reckoned (Ephes. 21; Magn. 14, &c.). The Confessions of St Augustine, the autobiography of Bunyan, the letters of Dr Pusey, furnish other notable illustrations. The truth is that in proportion as a man fixes his ideal high, in proportion as he appreciates the possibilities of what St Paul calls ‘life in Christ,’ in that proportion will his actual progress in the spiritual life appear poor and unworthy of the grace with which he has been endowed. It is noteworthy that the Apostle does not say ‘of whom I was chief,’ but ‘I am,’ by the present tense marking the abiding sense of personal sinfulness.