1 Timothy 6:12

After ἥν the rec. text inserts καί, but it is omitted by all the uncials.

12. ἀγωνίζου τὸν καλὸν�.τ.λ. Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold (as a prize) on eternal life. The metaphor of life as a gymnastic contest was one which naturally suggested itself to those who had witnessed the Olympian or Isthmian games which played, even as late as the Apostolic age, so important a part in Greek national life. Philo uses the illustration again and again. He notes, e.g. (Leg. All. iii. 71), the training and (Leg. All. i. 31) the diet of the athletes; he speaks (de Migr. Abr. 24) of the race and of the crown, which he says is the Vision of God (de mut. nom. 12); and in one striking passage he uses language comparable to that here employed by St Paul: κάλλιστον� … καλὸν καὶ εὐκλεᾶ στέφανον ὃν οὐδεμία πανήγυρις� (Leg. All. ii. 26). The metaphor is also found in the Ep. to the Hebrews (Hebrews 12:1) and in the Book of Wisdom (Wis 4:2), and is a favourite one with St Paul; cp. 1 Corinthians 9:24; Philippians 3:12; Philippians 3:14 and 2 Timothy 4:7 where he says of himself τὸν καλὸν�. It is worth noting that the phrase is found almost verbatim in Euripides:

καίτοι καλόν γʼ ἂν τόνδʼ ἀγῶνʼ ἠγωνίσω (Alcest. 648).

This contest is τῆς πίστεως, of faith (not ‘of the faith’); it is the personal warfare with evil to which every Christian is called; the καλὴ στρατεία in 1 Timothy 1:18 is, on the other hand, a contest with human opponents.

ἐπιλαβοῦ. St Paul uses ἐπιλαμβάνεσθαι only here and at 1 Timothy 6:19; it is a common LXX. word, and means to lay hold of. The aorist imperative marks the single act of reaching out for the crown, while the present ἀγωνίζου marks the continued struggle.

τῆς αἰωνίου ζωῆς. This is the ‘crown’ or βραβεῖον for the victor in the contest; cp. James 1:12; Revelation 2:10.

εἰς ἣν ἐκλήθης, whereunto thou wast called. Some have found here an allusion to the voice of the herald calling the combatant into the arena; but eternal life is not the arena of the contest, but the reward. The metaphor is not to be pressed so closely.

καὶ ὡμολόγησας τὴν καλὴν ὁμολογίαν κ.τ.λ., and didst confess the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. This does not refer (a) to any special moment of persecution in Timothy’s life (for which we have no evidence), or (b) to his ordination; cp. 1 Timothy 4:14; but (c), as the close connexion with the preceding εἰς ἢν ἐκλήθης and the main thought in the next verse shew, to his baptism, as the moment at which he made his ὁμολογία or confession of faith in the Christian Revelation.