Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Timothy 1:16

ἀλλά : This is not adversative, but rather continues from 1 Timothy 1:13, and develops the expression of self-depreciation. The connexion is: “I was such a sinner that antecedently one might doubt whether I could be saved or was worth saving. But Christ had a special object in view in extending to me His mercy.”

διὰ τοῦτο, followed by ἵνα and referring to what follows, occurs in Romans 4:16; 2 Corinthians 13:10, Ephesians 6:13, 2 Thessalonians 2:11; Philemon 1:15. See also Romans 13:6. ἐν ἐμοί is used as in Galatians 1:16; Galatians 1:24, and as ἐν ἡμῖν in 1 Corinthians 4:6. I was an object lesson in which Christ displayed the extent of His longsuffering.

πρώτῳ : Alford correctly says that the foll. μελλόντων proves that St. Paul here combines the senses first (A.V.) and as chief (R.V.).

τὴν ἅπασαν μακροθυμίαν : the utmost longsuffering which he has (Blass, Grammar, p. 162). Here [261] renders μακροθ. longanimitatem. Chrys., followed by Alf. and Ell., explains, “Greater longsuffering He could not show in any case than in mine, nor find a sinner that so required all His longsuffering; not a part only”. If there had been only one soul of sinful man to save, it would have needed the Incarnation to save that soul. In St. Paul's case, conversion had been preceded by a long internal struggle on his part, and patience on Christ's part: “It is hard for thee to kick against the goad”. ἅπας only occurs in the Pauline epistles again in Ephesians 6:13. Its use “is confined principally to literary documents” (Moulton and Milligan, Expositor, vii, vi. 88).

[261] Cod. Frisingensis

πρὸς ὑποτύπωσιν τῶν μελλόντων : The use of the genitive here is paralleled exactly in 2 Peter 2:6, ὑπόδειγμα μελλόντων ἀσεβεῖν, “an example unto those that should live ungodly”; and 1 Corinthians 10:6, ταῦτα δὲ τύποι ἡμῶν ἐγενήθησαν; also 1 Timothy 4:12, where see reff. It does not mean as R.V. (an ensample of them), that St. Paul was the first specimen of Jesus' work of grace, but rather as A.V. (a pattern to them), that no one who ever afterwards hears the gracious invitation of Christ need hang back from accepting it by reason of the greatness of his sin, when he has the example of St. Paul before him (so Chrys.). The ὑποτύπωσις, of course, is the whole transaction of St. Paul's conversion in all its bearings, ad informationem eorum qui credituri sunt illi (Vulg.). Bengel compares Psalms 32:5-6, “Thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin. For this let every one that is godly pray unto thee,” etc.

πιστεύειν ἐπʼ αὐτῷ : πιστεύειν is usually followed by εἰς and the acc., or the simple dat. But ἐπί with acc., and ἐν are also found. The construction in the text is due to an unconscious recollection of Isaiah 28:16 (also quoted Romans 9:33; Romans 10:11; 1 Peter 2:6); and no other explanation need be sought. The only other certain instance of the same construction is Luke 24:25. The critical editors reject it in Matthew 27:42.

Continues after advertising

BibliaPlus

Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Timothy 1:16

Old Testament

New Testament