1 Timothy 5:23

Rec. text has σου after στόμαχον with D2cGKL and most versions; om. אAD2*P.

23. ἁγνεία does not refer only to bodily purity and discipline; it is rather concerned with purity of intention and singleness of life. This may however be misapprehended, and to avoid any mistaken inference from σεαυτὸν ἁγνὸν τήρει in the direction of undue asceticism the Apostle parenthetically adds Be no longer a water-drinker, but use a little wine &c.

ὑδροποτεῖν (only here in the N.T., but a common word) is not equivalent to ὕδωρ πίνειν; it means to drink water habitually, to be a ‘total abstainer’ from wine (cp. Daniel 1:12 LXX.). This it appears Timothy had been (for such is the force of μηκέτι; cp. Romans 6:6; 2 Corinthians 5:15), possibly under Essene influences (see Philo de Vit. cont. 4), but more probably by way of protest against the sin of drunkenness, which the injunctions in 1 Timothy 3:3; 1 Timothy 3:8 suggest was a crying evil at Ephesus, if the ἐπίσκοποι themselves needed to be warned against it. We have other warnings of a like nature at Romans 13:13; Galatians 5:21; Titus 2:3; 1 Peter 4:3. But what is commended to Timothy is temperance in the use of wine, not total abstinence from it: οἴνῳ ὀλίγῳ χρῶ, in contrast with οἴνῳ πολλῷ deprecated in 1 Timothy 3:8.

διὰ τὸν στόμαχον. στόμαχος does not occur again in the Greek Bible, but is, of course, a common word. Wetstein aptly cites Libanius Epist. 1578, πέπτωκε καὶ ἡμῖν ὁ στόμαχος ταῖς συνεχέσιν ὑδροποσίαις; cp. Pliny Hist. Nat. XXIII. 22.

καὶ τὰς πυκνάς σου�, and thine oft infirmities. St Paul uses ἀσθενεία of his own bodily infirmity at Galatians 4:13; πυκνός does not occur again in his letters, but cp. Luke 5:33; Acts 24:26; 2Ma 8:8. Timothy is here described as a man of weak health, for whom the ascetic life would be dangerous and unwise.

It is obvious to remark how improbable it is that such a precept as this, and introduced thus parenthetically, should occur in a forged letter. Like 2 Timothy 4:13 it is a little touch of humanity which is a powerful argument for the genuineness of the Epistle in which it is found.

The duty of careful enquiry into the character of ordinands. 1 Timothy 5:23 was parenthetical, and the general subject is now resumed: character is difficult to judge, therefore do not (a) hastily accept (1 Timothy 5:24) or (b) hastily refuse (1 Timothy 5:25).