1 Timothy 1:4

μηδὲ προσέχειν : nor to pay attention to. This perhaps refers primarily to the hearers of the ἑτεροδιδάσκαλοι rather than to the false teachers themselves. See reff.

μύθοις καὶ γενεαλογίαις ἀπεράντοις : “Polybius uses both terms in similarly close connection, Hist. ix. 2, 1” (Ell.). Two aspects of, or elements in, the one aberration from sound doctrine.

Some light is thrown upon this clause by other passages in this group of letters (1 Timothy 1:6-7; 1 Timothy 4:7; 1 Timothy 6:4; 1 Timothy 6:20; 2Ti 2:14; 2 Timothy 2:16; 2 Timothy 2:23; 2 Timothy 4:4; Titus 1:10; Titus 1:14; Titus 3:9). The myths are expressly called Jewish (Titus 1:14), and this affords a good argument that νομοδιδάσκαλοι and νόμος, in 1 Timothy 1:7-8 and Titus 3:9, refer to the Mosaic Law, not restricting the term Law to the Pentateuch. Now a considerable and important part of the Mosaic legislation has relation only to Palestine and Jerusalem; it had no practical significance for the devotional life of the Jews of the Dispersion, with the exception of the community that worshipped at Hierapolis in Egypt. There is a strong temptation to mystics to justify to themselves the continued use of an antiquated sacred book by a mystical interpretation of whatever in it has ceased to apply to daily life. Thus Philo (De Vit. Contempl. § 3) says of the Therapeutae, “They read the holy Scriptures, and explain the philosophy of their fathers in an allegorical manner, regarding the written words as symbols of hidden truth which is communicated in obscure figures”. Those with whom St. Paul deals in the Pastoral Epistles were not the old-fashioned conservative Judaisers whom we meet in the Acts and in the earlier Epistles; but rather the promoters of an eclectic synthesis of the then fashionable Gentile philosophy and of the forms of the Mosaic Law. μῦθοι, then, here and elsewhere in the Pastorals (see reff.), would refer, not to the stories and narrative of the O.T. taken in their plain straightforward meaning, but to the arbitrary allegorical treatment of them.

γενεαλογίαι may similarly refer to the genealogical matter in the O.T. which is usually skipped by the modern reader; but which by a mystical explanation of the derivations of the nomenclature could be made to justify their inclusion in a sacred book, every syllable of which might be supposed antecedently to contain edification. This general interpretation, which is that of Weiss, is supported by Ignat. Magn. 8, “Be not seduced by strange doctrines nor by antiquated fables (ἑτεροδοξίαις μηδὲ μυθεύμασιν τοῖς παλαιοῖς), which are profitless. For if even unto this day we live after the manner of Judaism (κατὰ ἰουδαϊσμὸν ζῶμεν), we avow that we have not received grace.” Hort maintains that γενεαλογίαι here has a derived meaning, “all the early tales adherent, as it were, to the births of founders” (see Judaistic Christianity, p. 135 sqq.). On the other hand, Irenæus (Haer. Praef. 1 and Tertullian (adv. Valentin. 3; de Praescript. 33) suppose that the Gnostic groupings of aeons in genealogical relationships are here alluded to. It was natural that they should read the N.T. in the light of controversies in which they themselves were engaged.

ἀπεράντοις : endless, interminatis (Vulg.), infinitis ([253].), because leading to no certain conclusion. Discussions which do not concern realities are interminable, not from their profundity, as the ocean is popularly speaking unfathomable in parts, but because they lead to no convincing end. One end or conclusion is as good as another. The choice between them is a matter of taste.

[253] Speculum

αἵτινες : qualitative, they are of such a kind as, the which (R.V.).

ἐκζητήσεις : Questionings to which no answer can be given, which are not worth answering. See reff. on 1 Timothy 6:4. Their unpractical nature is implied by their being contrasted with οἰκονομία θεοῦ. Life is a trust, a stewardship, committed to us by God. Anything that claims to belong to religion, and at the same time is prejudicial to the effectual discharge of this trust is self-condemned.

παρέχουσι : παρέχω is used here as in the phrase κόπους παρέχω.

It will be observed that οἰκονομία is here taken subjectively and actively (the performance of the duty of an οἰκονόμος entrusted to a man by God; so also in Colossians 1:25); not objectively and passively (the dispensation of God, i.e., the Divine plan of salvation). The Western reading οἰκοδομήν or οἰκοδομίαν, aedificationem, is easier; but the text gives a deeper meaning.

τὴν ἐν πίστει : This is best taken as in the faith; cf. 1 Timothy 1:2; 1 Timothy 2:7; Titus 3:15. The trust committed to us by God is exercised in the sphere of the faith.

The aposiopesis at the end of 1 Timothy 1:4 is due to an imperative need felt by St. Paul to explain at once, and develop the thought of, οἰκονομία θεοῦ. The true teaching that of the apostle and of Timothy would be the consequence of the charge given by Timothy and would issue in, be productive of, an οἰκονομία θεοῦ. This οἰκονομ. θ. is the object aimed at, τέλος, of the charge; and is further defined as love, etc.

This is the only place in Paul in which τέλος means the final cause. In every other instance it means termination, result, i.e. consequence. 1 Peter 1:9 is perhaps an instance of a similar use.

The charge is referred to again in 1 Timothy 1:18. See also 1 Thessalonians 4:2. The expressed object of the charge being the comprehensive virtue, love, it is strange that Ellicott should characterise this exegesis as “too narrow and exclusive”. Bengel acutely observes that St. Paul does not furnish Timothy with profound arguments with which to refute the heretics, because the special duty of a church ruler is concerned with what is positively necessary. The love here spoken of is that which is “the fulfilment of the law” (Romans 13:10); and its nature is further defined by its threefold source. Heart, conscience, faith, mark stages in the evolution of the inner life of a man. Heart, or disposition, is earlier in development than conscience; and faith, in the case of those who have it, is later than conscience.

καθαρὰ καρδία is an O.T. phrase. See reff. συνείδησις is καθαρά in 1Ti 3:9, 2 Timothy 1:3; it is ἀγαθή in reff.; καλή in Hebrews 13:18; it occurs without any epithet in 1 Timothy 4:2; Titus 1:15. πίστις ἀνυπόκριτος occurs again 2 Timothy 1:5; and the adj. is applied to ἀγάπη, Romans 12:9; 2 Corinthians 6:6. See other reff. It is evident that no stress can be laid on the choice of epithets in any particular passage.