Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 Timothy 1:5

λαβών. So א*ACG; the rec. text is λαμβάνων with אcD2EKL and the Latin versions.

5. ὑπόμνησιν λαβών, having been put in remembrance, lit., having received a ‘reminder.’ ὑπόμνησις (only again in 2Ma 6:17; 2 Peter 1:13; 2 Peter 3:1; but cp. ὑπομιμνήσκειν 2 Timothy 2:14; Titus 3:1) is an act of the memory prompted from without; and thus Bengel’s suggestion, that there is here an allusion to some news of Timothy which had recently reached St Paul whether by messenger or by letter, is not improbable.

τῆς ἐν σοὶ�, of the unfeigned faith that is in thee. For ἐν σοί instead of σου cp. Romans 1:12, διὰ τῆς ἐν�; for ἀνυπόκριτος see on 1 Timothy 1:5.

ἥτις. see on 1 Timothy 1:4.

πρῶτον ἐν τῇ μάμμῃ κ.τ.λ. πρῶτον simply means ‘before it dwelt in you.’ It is likely (though not explicitly stated) that Lois was Eunice’s mother. The latter is described in Acts 16:1 as a believing Jewish woman, and as this was on St Paul’s second visit to Lystra it has been supposed that she accepted the gospel on the Apostle’s first visit to that place. After the word Ἰουδαίας (Acts 16:1) one cursive MS. (25) adds χήρας, and this is confirmed by two or three Latin authorities; the tradition that Eunice was a widow at the time of Timothy’s circumcision (although thus slenderly attested) is interesting and falls in with the omission of any mention of Timothy’s father in St Paul’s letters. It also gives a new significance to the injunctions in 1 Timothy 5:4. But, however this may have been, the faith of both Lois and Eunice is here commended, and it was evidently to their pious care that Timothy owed his instruction in the Scriptures (2 Timothy 3:15). Whether Lois was a Christian or only a faithful Jewess we cannot tell. The word ͅμάμμη, ‘grandmother,’ only occurs again in the Greek Bible at 4Ma 16:9; the more correct Attic form being τήθη.

πέπεισμαι δὲ ὅτι καὶ ἐν σοί, and [not only so, but] I am persuaded [that it dwells] in thee also. We are not to press the adversative force of δέ, as if it meant ‘but, notwithstanding all appearances’; it simply connects the clause with what has gone before.

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Cambridge Greek Testament Commentary

2 Timothy 1:5

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