Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 Timothy 1:2

πατρός. So א*AD2*Gdfg; πατρὸς ἡμῶν אcD2cKLP.

2. Τιμοθέῳ γνησίῳ τέκνῳ ἐν πίστει. To Timothy, true child in faith. Timothy (see Acts 16:1-3) might fitly be so described; ἐν πίστει expresses the sphere of the relationship between him and St Paul (see Titus 3:15). The older man was to him, as we say, a ‘father in God.’ Cp. the parallel phrase in Titus 1:4 γνησίῳ τέκνῳ κατὰ κοινὴν πίστιν and 1 Corinthians 4:17. Timothy was thus a recognised representative of his spiritual father. The young men among the Therapeutae (Philo de Vit. cont. 9) are described in like manner as ministering to their elders καθάπερ υἱοὶ γνήσιοι.

χάρις, ἔλεος, εἰρήνη. As has been already said, this full formula of salutation is used by St Paul only here and in 2 Timothy 1:2 (ἔλεος is spurious in Titus 1:4); it is found again in the N.T. letters only in 2 John 1:3. Lightfoot (note on 1 Thessalonians 1:1) finds “in the additional touch of tenderness communicated by ἔλεος in these later Epistles a sense of the growing evils which threatened the Church.”[512] But we have εἰρήνη ἐπʼ αὐτούς καὶ ἕλεος in Galatians 6:16; and, again, ἕλεος ὑμῖν καὶ εἱρήνη καὶ� in Jude 1:2. The combination of ἔλεος and εἰρήνη occurs also in Tob 7:12 (א): and that of χάρις καὶ ἔλεος in Wis 3:9; Wis 4:15. Even grace will not give peace to man, unless mercy accompany it; for man needs pardon for the past no less than strength for the future. And so the combination of the Greek with the Hebrew salutation, of χάρις with εἰρήνη (first suggested, perhaps, by the form of the priestly blessing in Numbers 6:24), was not doctrinally exact or complete, if it was intended to convey the idea of the best Christian blessing, without the addition of ἕλεος. As persecution came on the Church, we find Ignatius (Smyrn. 12) adding yet another word, ὑπομονή, as a grace needful for the Christian. See on this subject Hort on 1 Peter 1:2.

[512] It is worth remarking that in 1 Timothy 1:13; 1 Timothy 1:16 St Paul twice draws attention to the ἑλεος which was so conspicuously shewn to himself.

ἀπὸ θεοῦ πατρὸς καὶ Χρ. Ἰησοῦ τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν. Christ is coupled with the Father as the source of blessing in the salutation in all of St Paul’s letters, with the exception of Colossians, where we have the shorter form χάρις ὑμῖν καὶ εἰρήνη�. It is through Christ that the blessings of the Father come upon the Church.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

1 Timothy 1:2

Old Testament

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