2 Timothy 1 - Introduction
title The best mss. give, as for the first Epistle, the shortest title, SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. Ch. 1. Apostolic Gifts and Responsibilities... [ Continue Reading ]
title The best mss. give, as for the first Epistle, the shortest title, SECOND EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. Ch. 1. Apostolic Gifts and Responsibilities... [ Continue Reading ]
The Salutation to Timothy 1. _an apostle of Jesus Christ_ Read with the mss. CHRIST JESUS, and see note on 1 Timothy 1:1 for the frequency of this order of the words. _by the will of God_ This phrase with the preceding words in precisely the same order commences the Ep. to Colossians and Ep. to Eph... [ Continue Reading ]
my _dearly beloved son_ Or MY BELOVED CHILD. -Child" as in 1 Timothy 1:1; -beloved" in place of -mine own," but surely not a weaker word, when we remember its use to express -the only begotten," Matthew 3:17. _mercy_ Omitted in the greeting to Titus is in both the letters to Timothy, and may imply... [ Continue Reading ]
_whom I serve … with pure conscience_ The verb -serve" with its noun -service" was specially used to render the worship of Jehovah by the covenant people; it is the same as in St Paul's profession before Felix, Acts 24:14, -after the way which they call a sect so serve I the God of our fathers," and... [ Continue Reading ]
Timothy's inheritance of Personal Faith and Ministerial Gifts a double ground of Appeal From what St Paul was himself follows now the first appeal to Timothy, based on his affectionate remembrance of the son's likeness to his spiritual father, (1) in the personal faith forged with links of natural... [ Continue Reading ]
_being mindful of thy tears_ At the close we must suppose of the visit paid him by St Paul in accordance with the intention expressed 1 Timothy 3:14. It seems very awkward to insert this clause as a subordinate parenthesis -with a faint causal force," -longing to see thee, as I remember thy tears in... [ Continue Reading ]
_remembrance_ The noun occurs only 2Pe 1:13; 2 Peter 3:1, besides in N. T.; the verb Titus 3:1, where see note, 2 Peter 1:12, &c. _the unfeigned faith that is in thee_ -Unfeigned," -true and trusty." Contrasted with that of Phygelus and Hermogenes and Demas, 2 Timothy 1:15; 2 Timothy 4:9. The word i... [ Continue Reading ]
_Wherefore I put thee in remembrance_ More decidedly FOR WHICH CAUSE. It will break the whole delicacy and tenderness of the exhortation, unless the cause be taken as the thankful recognition of Timothy's living faith and likeness to his spiritual father. _put thee in remembrance_ See note on the l... [ Continue Reading ]
_For God hath not given us_ Rather, GAVE US; i.e. both St Paul and Timothy, at the time of their -setting apart" for the ministry; this gift is of special grace for special work, more particularly the proper temper and character formed in them by the Holy Spirit; and this NOT A SPIRIT OF COWARDICE,... [ Continue Reading ]
Appeal to Timothy to be a brave Champion both of the saving work of Christ and of the suffering witness of St Paul 8. _Be not thou therefore ashamed_ Omit -thou" here, and in -be thou partaker;" the stress is on the -shame" and -suffering," and no pronoun is expressed in Greek. _the testimony_ For... [ Continue Reading ]
_who hath saved us_ Rather, WHO SAVED US; the -saving" and -calling" should both be referred to the same point of time viz. Baptism; and 2 Timothy 1:9-10 are compressed by the Prayer-Book Catechism into the sentence -he hath _called me to this state of salvation_through Jesus Christ our Saviour." Se... [ Continue Reading ]
_is now made manifest_ BUT MANIFESTED NOW; the opposition thus put between the -given" and the -manifested" implies that the gift had been, in the phrase of the other parallel passage, Romans 16:25, - _kept in silence_through times eternal." Compare 1 Timothy 3:16, -who in flesh was manifested." _by... [ Continue Reading ]
_whereunto I am appointed a preacher_ Rather, FOR WHICH I REMEMBER WAS APPOINTED A HERALD. St Paul -magnifies his office" here in the same terms as in 1 Timothy 2:7; but there to assert his authority for ruling, here to commend his example in suffering: see note.... [ Continue Reading ]
_For the which cause I also suffer these things_ R.V. places -also" after -suffer" that the emphasis may belong as much to -these things" as to -suffer" according to the order of the Greek; and substitutes YET for -nevertheless," which is too emphatic for the Greek word. _am not ashamed_ The refere... [ Continue Reading ]
The double ground of Appeal is also the double line of Responsive Action 13. _Hold fast the form of sound words_ Rather, HOLD TO THE MODEL; the word for -form has occurred in 1 Timothy 1:16. As Bp Lightfoot points out, Clem, _ad Cor_. c. v. _fin_., the compound signifies the first roughly modelled... [ Continue Reading ]
That _good thing which was committed unto thee_ THE GOOD DEPOSIT as in 2 Timothy 1:12 and 1 Timothy 6:20, _catholicae fidei talentum_; see notes on both verses. _keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us_ GUARD THROUGH THE HOLY GHOST. The indwelling of the Holy Ghost is -the gift of God" in 2 Tim... [ Continue Reading ]
_all they which are in Asia be turned away_ Omit -be"; the tense describes a definite act, not a continuing state. We are left to conjecture when and where this desertion took place. -They which are in Asia" implies the residents in Asia, but the desertion may have been either in Asia, between the f... [ Continue Reading ]
A Sad Warning and a Bright Example The connexion is: -Many faithless ones failed me; be thou faithful all the more: the faith and practice of an Onesiphorus may surely be thine.... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord give mercy_ The phrase -give mercy" does not occur elsewhere in N.T. As the use of the word -mercy" with -grace and peace" in the salutation to Timothy in both epistles marks the special intimacy and tenderness of sympathy between St Paul and his -son in the faith," so here the -friend in... [ Continue Reading ]
_when he was in Rome, he sought me out very diligently_ It is the simple verb, and, according to the best mss., the positive not the comparative adverb, HE SOUGHT ME DILIGENTLY. What -close confinement" could be under the Emperor Tiberius we see from Suet. _Tib_. 61 (quoted by Lewin) -quibusdam cust... [ Continue Reading ]
_The Lord grant unto him that_he _may find mercy of the Lord in that day_ The repetition of -the Lord" arises apparently from the use of two clauses together which had become customary separate phrases in intercessory prayer. In its first use, as in 2 Timothy 1:16, with the article, understand -our... [ Continue Reading ]