1 Timothy 2:4

“The grace of God hath appeared, bringing salvation to all men” (Titus 2:11) as was foreshadowed in the O.T.; e.g. Psalms 67:2, “Thy saving health among all nations”. God is, so far as His inclination or will is concerned, “the Saviour of all men,” but actually, so far as we can affirm with certainty, “of them that believe” (1 Timothy 4:10). These He saved, ἔσωσεν (2 Timothy 1:9; Titus 3:5), i.e., placed in a state of being saved. But here St. Paul does not say θέλει σῶσαι, but θέλει σωθῆναι; for by His own limitation of His powers, so far as they are perceived by us, the salvation of men does not depend on God alone. It depends on the exercise of the free will of each individual in the acceptance or rejection of salvation (so Wiesinger, quoted by Alf.; and, as Bengel notes on ἐλθεῖν, non coguntur), as well as on the cooperation of those who pray for all men; and, by so doing, generate a spiritual atmosphere in which the designs of God may grow.

It is also to be observed that since salvation means a state of being saved, there is no difficulty in the knowledge of the truth following it in the sentence, as though it were a consequence rather than a precedent condition. This is indeed the order indicated in the Last Commission: “baptising them … teaching them” (Matthew 28:19-20). So that there is no need to suppose with Ell., that καὶ εἰς … ἐλθεῖν was “suggested by … the enunciation of the great truth which is contained in the following verse”.

εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν ἀληθείας ἐλθεῖν : This whole phrase recurs in 2 Timothy 3:7. For ἐπίγνωσις ἀληθείας see reff. In Hebrews 10:26 both words have the article. It has been shown by Dean Armitage Robinson (Ephesians, p. 248 sqq.) that ἐπίγνωσις is not maior exactiorque cognitio; but, as distinguished from γνῶσις “which is the wider word and expresses ‘knowledge' in the fullest sense, ἐπίγνωσις is knowledge directed towards a particular object, perceiving, discerning, recognising”. Cf. 2Ma 9:11, ἤρξατο … εἰς ἐπίγνωσιν ἔρχεσθαι. ἀληθεία occurs fourteen times in the Pastorals; and often with a special Christian reference, like ὅδος and εὐσέβεια. See e.g. in addition to this place, 1 Timothy 3:15; 1 Timothy 4:3; 1 Timothy 6:5; 2 Timothy 2:15; 2 Timothy 2:18; 2 Timothy 3:8; 2 Timothy 4:4; Titus 1:14. It is a term that belongs to the Johannine theology as well as to the Pauline.