1 Timothy 6:3

Tischendorf is almost alone among critical editors in his adoption of προσέχεται the reading of א* (formerly conjectured by Bentley) for the better attested προσέρχεται.

3. εἴ τις ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖ κ.τ.λ., if any man teach other [sc. inconsistent] doctrine &c. For ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν see on 1 Timothy 1:3, the only other place where the word is found; it is here used in contrast to δίδασκε of the preceding verse, and probably the feature of the false teaching which is, for the moment, in the writer’s mind, is its worldliness. He has just declared that slaves are not to make their Christianity a pretext for seeking social advancement; and he proceeds to give a warning against the heretical teachers who, by their example, would encourage the idea that godliness is a way of gain.

μὴ προσέρχεται, assenteth not (see crit. note). In the N.T. as a rule εἰ with the indicative (supposed reality) takes οὐ, where classical Greek would have μή (cp. 1 Timothy 3:5; 1 Timothy 5:8); here however the more correct literary form εἰ … μή is found. (See Blass, Grammar of N.T. Greek, § 75, 3.) προσέρχεσθαι is not used elsewhere by St Paul, and in all the other passages where it occurs in the N.T., it is used of the approach of the body, and not of the assent of the mind; the latter sense is, however, quite legitimate and not uncommon in later Greek. Cp. Sir 1:28; Acts 10:28 and the term προσήλυτος, as marking the transition from the original to the derivative meaning.

ὑγιαίνουσιν λόγοις, wholesome words; see on 1 Timothy 1:10.

τοῖς τοῦ κυρίου ἡμῶν Ἰ. Χ., those of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is a gen. originis. There is no reference to actual words of the Lord, but to the fact that He (and not man) is the source of the sound doctrine, of which His words furnish the standard.

καὶ τῇ κατʼ εὐσέβειαν διδασκαλίᾳ. The test of the διδασκαλία is its conformity with that εὐσέβεια (see on 1 Timothy 2:2), without which it is impossible to appreciate the moral distinctions so vital in all sound theology; cp. Titus 1:1.

In 1 Timothy 6:3 the ἑτεροδιδασκαλία is described as discrepant both from the standards and appropriate test of the true doctrine; its practical results are now brought forward, a picture of the false teacher himself being first drawn.