1 Timothy 3:15

ἵνα εἰδῇς … ἀναστρέφεσθαι : It is a matter of indifference whether we render how men ought to behave themselves (R.V.), or how thou oughtest to behave thyself (A.V.; R.V. m.). It was Timothy's duty to carry out the apostle's directions, directions relating to the life, ἀναστροφή, of the Church. His ἀναστροφή would necessarily react on that of the Church. See the Western interpolation in apparat. crit.

οἴκῳ θεοῦ : the household, perhaps, rather than the house, of God. In view of the prevailing paucity of articles in these Epistles, one cannot lay stress on the absence of τῷ before οἴκῳ, so as to render, a house of God such as is the Church, etc. οἶκος τοῦ θεοῦ is always found elsewhere. The Church is God's οἶκος, Hebrews 3:6; God's κατοικητήριον, Ephesians 2:22; a ναὸς ἄγιος, Ephesians 2:21; ναὸς θεοῦ, 1 Corinthians 3:16; 2 Corinthians 6:16; a μεγάλη οἰκία, of which God is the δεσπότης, 2 Timothy 2:20; an οἶκος πνευματικός, 1 Peter 2:5.

The body of the Church, τὸ σῶμα ὑμῶν, is a ναὸς ἁγίου πνεύματος (1 Corinthians 6:19); and the human body of Jesus was a ναός (John 2:21); but it is not in accordance with Scriptural language so to describe the body of any individual Christian.

οἴκῳ … ἥτις : “The noun which forms the predicate in a relative sentence, annexed for the purpose of explanation (ὂς … ἐστίν), sometimes gives its own gender and number to the relative, by a kind of attraction” (Winer-Moulton, Grammar, p. 206).

θεοῦ ζῶντος : A constant phrase, occurring again 1 Timothy 4:10.

στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα κ. τ. λ.: The view of Gregory Nyssen and Greg. Naz. that στύλος here refers to Timothy does not need refutation, although an early reference to this passage in the Letter of the Churches of Lyons and Vienne (Eus. H. E. 1 Timothy 3:1) applies στύλος καὶ ἑδραίωμα to the martyr Attalus. στύλος has of course a personal reference in Galatians 2:9; cf. also Revelation 3:12; but it is childish to suppose that metaphors have a constant value in the Bible. Holtzmann's suggestion that στύλος is in apposition to θεοῦ is rightly rejected by von Soden.

The clause is, of course, in apposition to ἐκκλησία which is by a kindred metaphor called in 2 Timothy 2:19 ὁ στερεὸς θεμέλιος τοῦ θεοῦ. This latter passage suggests that we should here render ἑδραίωμα ground or basis rather than stay (R.V. m.). ἑδραῖος is rendered steadfast elsewhere. See reff. and especially Colossians 1:23 (τεθεμελιωμένοι καὶ ἑδραῖοι), ctr. Hort, Christian Ecclesia, p. 174.

The truth, ἡ ἀλήθεια, has, as has been already stated, a technical Christian connotation in the Pastorals, and has not a wider reference than the Christian revelation, which is the truth in so far as it has been revealed. The Church, of the old covenant or of the new, is the divinely constituted human Society by which the support and maintenance in the world of revealed truth is conditioned. Truth if revealed to isolated individuals, no matter how numerous, would be dissipated in the world. But the Divine Society, in which it is given an objective existence, at once compels the world to take knowledge of it, and assures those who receive the revelation that it is independent of, and external to, themselves, and not a mere fancy of their own.

Bengel puts a full stop at ζῶντος and removes it after ἀληθείας, making τὸ … μυστήριον the subject of the sentence, and στύλος … μέγα the predicate.

The mystery, etc., is the pillar, etc., and confessedly great,” μέγα being used as in 1 Corinthians 9:11; 2 Corinthians 11:15, the whole expression being equivalent to πιστὸς ὁ λόγος καὶ πάσης ἀποδοχῆς ἄξιος. He quotes from Rabbi Levi Barcelonita and Maimonides parallel expressions concerning precepts of the Law, “ fundamentum magnum et columna valida legis,” and a striking phrase from Irenæus, Haer. iii. 11, 8, Columna autem et firmamentum ecclesiae est evangelium, στύλος δὲ καὶ στήριγμα ἐκκλησίας τὸ εὐαγγέλιον.