1 Timothy 4:3

ἀπέχεσθαι. On account of the difficulty of construction, Dr Hort suggested that this word might have been a primitive corruption of ἢ ἅπτεσθαι or καὶ γεύεσθαι; but see note in loc. Bentley had previously conjectured that κελευόντων had dropped out before ἀπέχεσθαι.

μετάλημψιν. So אAD2*G; μετάληψιν, the received spelling, is found in CD2cKLP.

3. κωλυόντων γαμεῖν, ἀπέχεσθαι βρωμάτων. See critical note. If the text is not corrupt, the construction is a little awkward, although the sense is plain, and we must suppose some word like διδασκόντων or κελευόντων to precede ἀπέχεσθαι: forbidding to marry and commanding to abstain from meats. There is a similar ellipse in Lucian Charon § 2 κωλύσει ἐνεργεῖν καὶ [sc. ποιήσει] ζημιοῦν.

The false asceticism is two-fold, (a) in respect of marriage, (b) in respect of food. It is viewed not as present, but as future, and as the practical consequence of the apostasy foretold in 1 Timothy 4:1. The germ of it, however, was already in being. Among the Essenes ὑπεροψία γάμου (Joseph. B. J. II. 8. 2) was not unknown, and the Therapeutae described by Philo (de vit. Cont. 4) practised abstinence from food. The former error, in itself foreign to Jewish ideas, does not receive here formal refutation from the Apostle, probably because it had not yet appeared in the Christian communities; but the latter had already been recognised in more directions than one. The Colossian heresy (Colossians 2:16) laid stress on precise regulations as to food; and Romans 14 shews that to such questions a quite undue importance was attached. This is not surprising, when the minuteness of the Levitical law on these points is borne in mind. But the refutation of the error is plain and decisive. These ‘meats’ are the creation of God (not of the Demiurge, as a later Gnosticism, with its dualistic view of the impurity of matter, taught), and were created that they might be received (εἰς μετάλημψιν) with thanksgiving.

μετάλημψις (not elsewhere in Greek Bible) is, of course, not to be confused with ἀπόλαυσις (1 Timothy 6:17); it is the use, not necessarily the enjoyment, of the Divine gifts which is the final purpose of creation.

μετὰ εὐχαριστίας. Thanksgiving is to accompany the use of the gifts of creation, as it is to accompany all requests for future benefit (Philippians 4:6). Cp. εἰ ἐγὼ χάριτι μετέχω, τί βλασφημοῦμαι ὑπὲρ οὖ ἐγὼ εὐχαριστῶ; (1 Corinthians 10:30).

τοῖς πιστοῖς καὶ ἐπεγνωκόσι τὴν�. By them that believe and know the truth, i.e. in contrast to the unbelieving Jews or to the ‘weak brethren’ (Romans 14:21), the half-instructed Christians, who had not yet arrived at ἐπίγνωσις� (see on ch. 1 Timothy 2:4 above). The absence of the article before ἐπεγνωκόσι shews that the πιστ. καὶ ἐπεγν. τὴν�. are to be taken as constituting a single class of persons, the ‘faithful.’

The word πιστός is here used in the active sense, common in later Greek but rare in the N.T. and nowhere found in the LXX., of believing. We have it again used thus 1 Timothy 4:10; 1 Timothy 4:12; 1 Timothy 5:16; 1 Timothy 6:2, and Titus 1:6; but the older sense ‘faithful’ or ‘trustworthy’ is more frequent. see on 1 Timothy 1:19 above.