Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 Timothy 2:21

St. Paul drops the metaphor. The general meaning is clear enough, that a man may become “heaven's consummate cup,” σκεῦος ἐκλογῆς (Acts 9:15), if he “mistake not his end, to slake the thirst of God”. When we endue the vessels with consciousness, it is seen that they may “rise on stepping-stones of their dead selves to higher things”. The τις has been, it is implied, among the “vessels unto dishonour”. “Paul was an earthen vessel, and became a golden one. Judas was a golden vessel, and became an earthen one” (Chrys.). Bengel supposes that the ἐάν τις is an exhortation to Timothy himself. This is suggested in R.V. of 2 Timothy 2:22, “But flee,” etc. The reference in τούτων is not quite clear. It is best perhaps to explain it of the false teachers themselves, “vessels unto dishonour,” rather than of their teaching or immoral characteristics, though of course this is implied. The thoroughness of the separation from the corrupting environment of evil company is expressed by the ἐκ - and ἀπό. Where ἐκκαθαίρω occurs again, 1 Corinthians 5:7, the metaphor (leaven) also refers to the removal of a corrupting personal element. There the person is to be expelled; here the persons are to be forsaken. ἡγιασμένον is the equivalent in actual experience of the simile σκεῦος εἰς τιμήν, as εἰς πᾶν ἡτοιμασμένον is of εὔχρηστον τῷ δεσπότῃ. Compare 1 Corinthians 6:11, “And such were some of you: but ye were washed [lit. washed yourselves], but ye were sanctified” (ἡγιάσθητε).

ἡτοιμασμένον : “Even though he do not do it, he is fit for it, and has a capacity for it” (Chrys.). Cf. Ephesians 2:10, κτισθέντες … ἐπὶ ἔργοις ἀγαθοῖς οἶς προητοίμασεν ὁ θεὸς ἵνα ἐν αὐτοῖς περιπατήσωμεν, and reff.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

2 Timothy 2:21

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