1 Timothy 6:5

παραδιατριβαὶ of the received text is only found in some cursives; διαπαρατριβαὶ is read by אAD2GLP &c. Compounds of δια-παρα are rare, which may account for the variant as a correction of the primitive reading. See note in loc.

εὐσέβειαν. After this the rec. text adds ἀφίστασο� with D2cKLP and Syriac Vss; om. אAD2*G, Latin and Egyptian Vss. See note in loc.

5. διαπαρατριβαὶ, incessant wranglings; the first of two prepositions in a composite word governs the meaning, and thus διά is emphatic, signifying the persistency and obstinacy of the disputes: παρατριβή is friction. διαπαρατ. is ἅπ. λεγ. in the Greek Bible. The usual Latin rendering is conflictationes or conflictiones, but r preserves the curious form perconfricationes, ‘perpetual frictions.’

διεφθαρμένων�. τὸν νοῦν, of men depraved in mind; νοῦς is the moral reason, furnishing the intellectual element of conscience. When this is corrupted, the eye of the soul is darkened and cannot catch the Divine light. Cp. 2 Timothy 3:8 ἄνθρωποι κατεφθαρμένοι τὸν νοῦν, and Ephesians 4:17.

καὶ�, and bereft of (not only ‘destitute of’) the truth. The expression is even stronger than that used of the false teachers in Titus 1:14 : ἀνθρώπων�: cp. 1 Timothy 1:19. St Paul has ἀποστερεῖσθαι again in 1 Corinthians 6:7-8.

νομιζόντων πορισμὸν εἶναι τὴν εὐσέβειαν, supposing that godliness is a way of gain. The A.V. “supposing that gain is godliness” is undoubtedly wrong, as is shewn by the order of the words and the position of the article. For a like construction with νομίζω cp. 1 Corinthians 7:26. πορισμός, ‘a gainful trade,’ is found in the N.T. only in this passage; and in LXX. at Wis 13:19; Wis 14:2. This characteristic of the false teachers is alluded to again, Titus 1:11; Seneca, in like manner, speaks of some “qui philosophiam velut aliquod artificium venale didicerunt” (Ep. 108).

The words at the end of this verse in the Received Text, ἀφίστασο�, are insufficiently supported (see crit. note); they were probably added by a copyist who did not understand the construction of the clause, having failed to observe that the apodosis begins at τετύφωται (1 Timothy 6:4).