1 Timothy 1:3

καθώς : The apodosis supplied at the end of 1 Timothy 1:4 in the R.V., so do I now, is feebler than the so do of the A.V. We need something more vigorous. St. Paul was more anxious that Timothy should charge some, etc., than that he should merely abide at Ephesus. This is implied in the A.V., in which so do = stay there and be a strong ruler.

An exact parallel occurs in Mark 1:2. Similar anacolutha are found in Romans 5:12; Galatians 2:4-6; Ephesians 3:1

παρεκάλεσά σε : It is far-fetched to regard this word as specially expressive of a mild command, as Chrys. suggests. παρακαλεῖν constantly occurs, and with very varying meanings, in the Pauline Epistles. διεταξάμην is used in the corresponding place in Titus 1:5, because there the charge concerns a series of injunctions.

προσμεῖναι : ut remaneres (Vulg.). The word (see Acts 18:18) naturally implies that St. Paul and Timothy had been together at Ephesus, and that St. Paul left Timothy there as vicar apostolic.

πορευόμενος refers to St. Paul, not to Timothy, as De Wette alleged. The grammatical proof of this is fully gone into by Winer-Moulton, Gram. p. 404, “If the subject of the infinitive is the same as that of the finite verb, any attributes which it may have are put in the nominative”.

It is unnecessary here to prove that it is impossible to fit this journey of St. Paul to Macedonia, and Timothy's stay at Ephesus connected therewith, into the period covered by the Acts.

τισίν : τινες is intentionally vague. The writer has definite persons in his mind, but for some reason he does not choose to specify them. To do so, in this case, would have had a tendency to harden them in their heresy, “render them more shameless” (Chrys.). The introduction of the personal element into controversy has a curiously irritating effect. For this use of τινες see 1Co 4:18, 2 Corinthians 3:1; 2 Corinthians 10:2; Galatians 1:7; Galatians 2:12; 1 Timothy 1:6; 1 Timothy 1:19; 1Ti 5:15; 1 Timothy 6:10; 1 Timothy 6:21; 2 Timothy 2:18.

μὴ ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν : This compound occurs again in 1 Timothy 6:3, and means to teach a gospel or doctrine different from that which I have taught. ἕτερος certainly seems to connote difference in kind. Galatians 1:6, ἕτερον εὐαγγέλιον, δ οὐκ ἔστιν ἄλλο, and 2 Corinthians 11:4, illustrate St. Paul's language here. The heresy may have been of recent origin, and not yet completely systematised heresy of course does not aim at finality but St. Paul does not mean to deal gently with it. It was to him false and accursed (cf. Galatians 1:8-9). His forebodings for the church in Ephesus (Acts 20:29-30) were being fulfilled now. Hort (Judaistic Christianity, p. 134) compares the διδαχαῖς ποικίλαις καὶ ξέναις of Hebrews 13:9.

St. Paul elsewhere uses compounds with ἑτερο, e.g., 2 Corinthians 6:14, ἑτεροζυγεῖν; and more remarkably still, when quoting Isaiah 28:11 in 1 Corinthians 14:21, he substitutes ἐν ἑτερογλώσσοις for διὰ γλώσσης ἑτέρας of the LXX. The word is found in Ignat. ad Polyc. 3, οἱ δοκοῦντες ἀξιόπιστοι εἶναι καὶ ἑτεροδιδασκαλοῦντες.