1 Timothy 6:7

The reading in the text is that of א*AG 17 r, but (see note) is not without intrinsic difficulty. Before ὄτι אcD2bcKLP and most cursives insert δῆλον, while D2*m insert ἀληθές. Both additions have patristic support, but there can be little doubt that they are corrections of the primitive text. Hort suggested that ὄτι is only an accidental repetition of the last two letters of κόσμον, ON being read as OTI.

7. οὐδὲν γὰρ κ.τ.λ. For we brought nothing into the world, neither can we carry anything out. The construction (see crit. note) is difficult. If we read (as manuscript authority requires) ὅτι οὐδὲ ἐξενεγκεῖν, the meaning of ὄτι has been variously explained. (a) It has been taken as equivalent to quia, ‘because.’ The general sense then would be that the reason why we brought nothing into the world is because we can carry nothing out of it. But this seems an unnatural and farfetched sentiment, and we cannot accept such a rendering, if any other will fit the words. (b) The copyists who inserted δῆλον seem to have thought that there was an ellipse of δῆλον or some word like it. It is, however, hardly admissible to assume such an ellipse, unless it can be illustrated by a clear example. 1 John 3:20 has been adduced, but (see Westcott in loc.) can be better explained otherwise. Field adduces an example from Chrysostom, but it is not conclusive. (c) It remains then to take ὅτι as resumptive: we brought nothing into the world; I say, that neither can we carry anything out; a somewhat irregular construction, but not impossible. The words (familiar to us from their place in the Burial Service) may be illustrated from writers of widely different schools. Comp. e.g. Job 1:21; Ecclesiastes 5:15; Hor. Odes II. 14. 21; Propert. IV. 4. 13; Seneca (Ep. 102) “excutit natura redeuntem sicut intrantem. Non licet plus auferre quam intuleris”; and (a close parallel in words as well as in thought) Philo de Sacrif. 6 τὸν μηδὲν εἰς κόσμον, ἀλλὰ μηδὲ σαυτὸν εἰσενηνοχότα; γυμνὸς μὲν γάρ, θαυμάσιε, ἦλθες, γυμνὸς πάλιν�.