1 Timothy 6:20

A last Appeal. The keeping of the Deposit

20. See the summary above at 1 Timothy 6:3. This brief résumé, at the close, of the main anxiety of the whole Epistle is like the corresponding résumé, 1 Timothy 6:16, of the rule for widows, and v. 24 of the visitation of presbyters.

O Timothy Previously, and in 2 Tim., when the address is less intense and solemn, -my child," -my child Timothy."

keep The stronger word guard. Compare 1 John 5:21, -Little children, guard yourselves from idols."

that which is committed tothy trust The mss. favour the simpler noun, compounded with only one preposition, here and in the only other places where the word occurs in N. T., 2 Timothy 1:12; 2 Timothy 1:14, the latter place being exactly parallel. What is this -deposit?" it has been thought to be (1) grace for his own spiritual life, -the commandment" above 1 Timothy 6:14, (2) grace for the office of superintending the Church at Ephesus, -the charge" above 1 Timothy 6:17 and elsewhere; and these arethe two subjects pressed most closely upon Timothy, next to the great, the recurring and now all absorbing anxiety, that he may have (3) grace to maintain sound doctrine; the -charge" of 1 Timothy 1:3; 1Ti 1:18, 1 Timothy 4:6; 1Ti 4:16, 1 Timothy 6:3; 2 Timothy 1:13-14; 2 Timothy 2:2; 2 Timothy 2:16. The words which follow are alone sufficient to make (3) the certain reference. In effect, to use the words quoted from St Vincent of the island-school of Lerins (the author of the famous canon of Christian doctrine -quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus"), St Paul says to Timothy -Depositum custodi: catholicae fidei talentuminviolatum illibatumque conserva."

avoiding profaneand vain babblings Lit. turning away from the profane babblings; the article with -babblings" and not with -oppositions -shews that both go together, with -knowledge." -Babblings is another of the -Pastoral" compounds recurring in 2 Timothy 2:16. The word is literally -empty voicings," vox et praeterea nihil, windbag; speculations and errors which are the complete opposite of the solid Church truth on its firm foundation and rock, -Thou art the Christ." For the accus. after this verb, cf. Winer, § 38, 2, 6.

oppositions of science falsely so called Rather, as R.V. the knowledge which is falsely so called. -The knowledge falsely so called" is in the Greek the well-known Gnosis, only used here in N. T. with direct reference to the heretical teaching, though the allusions, both with substantive and verb, imply that assumptions of superior knowledge were among the claims of the new theology. The -oppositions" meant are probably the dualisticoppositions between the good and evil principle, see introduction, pp. 45, 46; though some explain them as the dialectical niceties and subtle rhetorical antitheses of the teachers. See Dr Hort's interpretation, Appendix B. This peculiar -Pastoral" word goes to make the Apostle's biting -aculeus in fine."