1 Timothy 1:1-2

SALUTATION.

1 Timothy 1:1. ἀπόστολος Χρ. Ἰησ. The use of this official title is an indication that the Pastoral Epistles were not merely private letters (ctr. Παῦλος δέσμιος Χρ. Ἰησ., Philemon 1:1), but were intended to be read to the Churches committed to the charge of Timothy and Titus respectively. The phrase means simply one sent by Christ, not primarily one belonging to Christ. Cf. Philippians 2:25, where Epaphroditus is spoken of as ὑμῶν ἀπόστ., and 2 Corinthians 8:23, ἀπόστ. ἐκκλησιῶν. ἀπόστ. Χρ. Ἰησ. is also found in 2 Corinthians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1, Colossians 1:1, 2 Timothy 1:1; ἀπόστ. Ἰησ. Χρ. in 1 Corinthians 1:1; Titus 1:1. The difference in the use Jesus Christ and Christ Jesus seems to be this: in each case the first member of the compound name indicates whether the historical or the notional idea of the Person is chiefly in the writer's mind. Jesus Christ briefly expresses the proposition, “Jesus is the Christ”; it embodies the first theological assertion concerning Jesus; it represents the conception of the historical Jesus in the minds of those who had seen Him. St. John, St. Peter and St. James employ this name when speaking of our Lord. But in Christ Jesus, on the other hand, the theological conception of the Christ predominates over that of the actual Jesus Who had been seen, felt and heard by human senses. Accordingly we find Christ Jesus in every stage of the Pauline Epistles; and, as we should expect, more frequently in the later than in the earlier letters. In almost every instance of the occurrence of Jesus Christ in the Pastoral Epistles the thought of the passage concerns the humanity, or historical aspect, of our Lord. Thus in Titus 1:1, “a servant of God and an apostle of Jesus Christ,” we could not substitute Christ Jesus without weakening the antithesis. See note there. St. Paul, here as elsewhere, claims to have been as truly sent by Christ as were those who were apostles before him.

κατʼ ἐπιταγήν : in obedience to the command. The full phrase κατʼ ἐπιτ. θ. σ. ἡμῶν occurs again (τοῦ σωτ. ἡμ. θεοῦ) in a similar context in Titus 1:3; κατʼ ἐπιτ. τοῦ αἰωνίου θ. in Romans 16:26. In 1 Corinthians 7:6; 2 Corinthians 8:8, κατʼ ἐπιτ. is used in a different sense.

St. Paul more commonly refers the originating cause of his mission to the will of God (1Co 1:1; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Ephesians 1:1; Colossians 1:1; 2 Timothy 1:1). He would hardly say through the will of Christ, θέλημα being used of the eternal counsel of the Godhead; but inasmuch as the command is the consequent of the will, he can speak of his apostleship as being due to the command of Christ Jesus, as well as of God the Father. In this matter Jesus Christ is co-ordinated with God the Father in Galatians 1:1; while in Romans 1:4-5, Paul's apostleship is “through Jesus Christ our Lord” only. On the other hand, in Titus 1:3, St. Paul says he was intrusted with the message “according to the commandment of God our Saviour”. Here it is to be noted that the command proceeds equally from God and Christ Jesus. This language could hardly have been used if St. Paul conceived of Christ Jesus as a creature. Moulton and Milligan (Expositor, vii., vii. 379) compare St. Paul's use of ἐπιταγή as a Divine command with its technical use in heathen dedicatory inscriptions. We cannot, with Chrys., narrow the “commandment of God” to the specific date of St. Paul's commission by the Church, whether in Acts 13:2 or on an earlier occasion. St. Paul claimed that he had been “separated from his mother's womb” (Galatians 1:15).

θεοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν : Westcott on 1 John 4:14 has an instructive note on the Biblical use of the term σωτήρ. “The title is confined (with the exception of the writings of St. Luke) to the later writings of the N.T., and is not found in the central group of St. Paul's Epistles.” It may be added that in the Lucan references (Luke 1:47, of God; 1 Timothy 2:11; Acts 5:31; Acts 13:23, of Christ) the term σωτήρ has not primarily its full later evangelical import, and would be best rendered deliverer, as in the constant O.T. application of the term to God. Perhaps the same is true of Philippians 3:20, and Ephesians 5:23, where it is used of Christ. On the other hand, apart from ὁ σωτὴρ τ. κόσμου (John 4:42; 1 John 4:14), the conventional evangelical use is found: of God the Father in (a) 1 Timothy 1:1; Jude 1:25, θεὸς σωτὴρ ἡμῶν; (b) 1 Timothy 2:3; Titus 1:3; Titus 2:10; Titus 3:4, ὁ σωτὴρ ἡμῶν θεός; (c) 1 Timothy 4:10, σωτήρ in apposition to θεός in the preceding clause; of Christ, in (a) 2 Timothy 1:10, ὁ σωτὴρ ἡμῶν Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς; (b) Titus 1:4; Titus 3:6, Χρ. Ἰησ. ὁ σωτὴρ ἡμῶν; (c) 2 Peter 1:11; 2 Peter 2:20; 2 Peter 3:18, ὁ Κύριος ἡμῶν καὶ σωτὴρ Ἰησ. Χρ.; (d) 2 Peter 3:2, ὁ Κύριος καὶ σωτήρ. To the (c) class belong, perhaps, Titus 2:13, 2 Peter 1:1, ὁ [μέγας] θεὸς [ἡμῶν] καὶ σωτὴρ [ἡμῶν] Ἰησ. Χρ.; but see note on Titus 2:13.

In the text, there is an antithesis between the offices of God as our Saviour and of Christ Jesus as our hope. The one points to the past, at least chiefly, and the other to the future. In speaking of the saving action of God, St, Paul uses the aorist. 2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 2:11; Titus 3:4-5. He saved us, potentially. See further on ch. 1 Timothy 2:3. God, as the Council of Trent says (Sess. vi. cap. 7), is the efficient cause of our justification, while Jesus, “our righteousness,” besides being the meritorious cause, may be said to be the formal cause; med (κατηρτίσθαι, as in Hebrews 10:5, σῶμα δὲ κατηρτίσω μοι. In Hebrews 13:21 καταρτίσαι ὑμᾶς, “perfect you” as in Luke 6:40; 2 Corinthians 13:11; 1 Thessalonians 3:10. The word is perhaps used in the present connection to suggest not a bare calling into existence, but a wise adaptation of part to part and of the whole to its purpose) by God's word, ῥήματι θεοῦ. This is the perception of faith. The word of God is an invisible force which cannot be perceived by sense. The great power which lies at the source of all that is does not itself come into observation; we perceive it only by faith which is (Hebrews 11:1) “the evidence of things not seen”. The result of this creation by an unseen force, the word of God, is that “what is seen has not come into being out of things which appear”. εἰς τὸ … γεγονέναι. εἰς τὸ with infinitive, commonly used to express purpose, is sometimes as here used to express result, and we may legitimately translate “so that what is seen, etc.” Cf. Luke 5:17; Romans 12:3; 2 Corinthians 8:6; Galatians 3:17; 1 Thessalonians 2:16. Cf. Burton, M. and T., 411. μὴ ἐκ φαινομένων, the Vulgate renders “ex invisibilibus,” and the Old Latin “ex non apparentibus” having apparently read ἐκ μὴ φαιν. τὸ βλεπόμενον the singular in place of the plural of T.R. and Vulgate, presents all things visible as unity. Had the visible world been formed out of materials which were subject to human observation, there would have been no room for faith. Science could have traced it to its origin. Evolution only pushes the statement a stage back. There is still an unseen force that does not submit itself to experimental science, and that is the object of faith. To find in this verse an allusion to the noumenal and phenomenal worlds would be fanciful.