Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Timothy 3:7

τῶν ἔξωθεν : οἱ ἔξω in Mark 4:11 (ἔξωθεν, W.H. m.) means those who came into contact more or less close with Jesus, but who were not His disciples. In the Pauline use (see reff.) it means the non-Christian Society in which the Church lives. St. Paul's attitude towards them that are without is one of the many proofs of his sanity of judgment. On the one hand, they are emphatically outside the Church; they have no locus standi in it, no right to interfere. On the other hand, they have the law of God written in their hearts; and, up to a certain point, their moral instincts are sound and their moral judgments worthy of respect. In the passage before us, indeed, St. Paul may be understood to imply that the opinion of “those without” might usefully balance or correct that of the Church. There is something blameworthy in a man's character if the consensus of outside opinion be unfavourable to him; no matter how much he may be admired and respected by his own party. The vox populi, then, is in some sort a vox Dei : and one cannot safely assume, when we are in antagonism to it, that, because we are Christians, we are absolutely in the right and the world wholly in the wrong. Thus to defy public opinion in a superior spirit may not only bring discredit, ὀνειδισμός, on oneself and on the Church, but also catch us in the devil's snare, viz., a supposition that because the world condemns a certain course of action, the action is therefore right and the world's verdict may be safely set aside.

We cannot infer with Alford and von Soden, from the absence of another preposition before παγίδα, that ὀνειδισμόν also depends on τοῦ διαβόλου. It would not be easy to explain satisfactorily ὀνειδ. τ. διαβόλου.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Timothy 3:7

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