2 Timothy 1:13

Ver. 13. Have (or possess) the pattern of sound words, which thou heardest of me in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. The term ὑποτύπωσις occurs only here and in 1 Timothy 1:16; nor does it mean more than pattern or exemplar, only this in the more active or vital sense: “a living expression of things (as Calvin puts it), as if they were visibly presented to the eye.” The verb with which it is connected, ἔχε, has been taken by many commentators, also in the Authorized Version, as substantially equivalent to κάτεχε, hold fast. But this is untenable. The examples appealed to do not bear out the interpretation: in several of them the meaning may fairly enough be expressed by hold, but this only in the sense of having as a possession; so, for instance, at 1 Timothy 1:19, we can indifferently render “ having ” or “ holding faith and a good conscience,” and at 1 Timothy 3:9, “having” or “ holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.” The verb in each case denotes nothing more than an actual personal possessing. Abiding, then, by this only allowable sense, what is to be understood by the exhortation to Timothy, that he should possess the fresh pattern of sound words, which he had heard from the apostle? Many would take it, with Calvin and Beza, of “that form and method of teaching “which he had learned from Paul; and others, somewhat more definitely, of an outline or written sketch, which the apostle had furnished him withal (Herder, Schrader, De Wette). Alford objects to this as in one respect too specific (reading ὑποτύπωσιν as if it were τὴν ὑποτύπ.), and in another too general away from any immediate connection with the present discourse. He would therefore render, “Have (take) an example of (the) healthy words which thou heardest of me; “and he would regard it as pointing to the declaration just uttered by the apostle in the immediately preceding verse: q.d.., Take these as a specimen or example of the sound words which thou hast so often heard from me. But this also is an explanation which has an artificial aspect, and requires too much to be supplied. Had the apostle meant precisely what it ascribes to him, we should have expected him to employ language that pointed more explicitly to the preceding declaration; nor is ἔχε, with such a rendering, exactly in its place, as is clear from the virtual displacing of have in the translation by the bracketed take. There is certainly no need for excluding the declaration in question from the sound or healthy words spoken of by the apostle; and it is quite probable that the exhortation of this verse was suggested by the healthful utterance of faith and practice therein contained. But the general form of the exhortation, and the reference at the close of it to things formerly heard by Timothy from the lips of the apostle, forbid our giving it so limited an application.

Perhaps the main scope and spirit of the exhortation could not be more happily expressed than has been done in the following comment of Chrysostom's: “What is it that he says? I have, as it were, after the manner of painters, impressed an image of virtue on thee, and of all the things which are pleasing to God, as a certain rule and archetype and declaration which I have let down into thy soul. These things, therefore, possess; and if thou shouldst have to give counsel respecting faith, or love, or self-control, take thence your exemplars: you shall have no need to seek a pattern from others, having all these provided to your hand.” The apostle thus expresses the wish that Timothy should retain, for his own safety against error and backsliding, the many things he had heard from the apostle as the kind of living type and embodiment of whatever was healthful in the life of faith should remember it, and keep it beside him, like a faithful monitor and guide. Not, however, that he should do this in a mechanical and formal manner out of regard merely to the authority from which he had derived it but in the spirit of a true disciple, as one dwelling in faith and love that are in Christ Jesus: in these, that is, as the spiritual element, or frame of mind, in which the pattern of things exhibited to him should be remembered and applied. He must with a kindred spirit appropriate them, and endeavour to carry out the high moral ends for which they were given.