Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Timothy 4:5

ἁγιάζεται : The use of the present tense here supports the explanation given of 1 Timothy 4:4, and helps to determine the sense in which λόγος θεοῦ is used. The food lying before me at this moment, which to some is ἀπόβλητος, is sanctified here and now by the εὐχαριστία. See 1 Corinthians 10:30.

λόγος θεοῦ and ἔντευξις (see note on 1 Timothy 2:1) are in some sense co-ordinate (almost a hendiadys), and together form elements in a εὐχαριστία. If St. Paul had meant by λόγος θεοῦ, the general teaching of Scripture, or the particular text, Genesis 1:31, he must have said ἡγίασται. At the same time, the written word was an element in the notion of the writer. λόγος θεοῦ has not here merely its general sense, a divine communication to man; it rather determines the quality of the ἔντευξις, as a scriptural prayer; a prayer in harmony with God's revealed truth. The examples that have come down to us of grace before meat are, as Dean Bernard notes here, “packed with scriptural phrases”.

The best commentary on this verse is the action of St. Paul himself on the ship, when, having “taken bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all; and he brake it, and began to eat” (Acts 27:35).

Although there is not here any direct reference to the Sacrament of the Eucharist, it is probable that thoughts about it have influenced the language; for the Eucharist is the supreme example of all benedictions and consecrations of material things. And if this be so, the passage has light thrown on it by the language of Justin Martyr and Irenæus about the Prayer of Consecration; e.g., Justin, Apol. i. 66. “As Jesus Christ our Saviour, by the word of God (διὰ λόγου θεοῦ) made flesh, had both flesh and blood for our salvation, so we have been taught that the food over which thanks have been given by the word of prayer which comes from him (τὴν διʼ εὐχῆς λόγου τοῦ παρʼ αὐτοῦ εὐχαριστηθεῖσαν τροφήν) that food from which our blood and flesh are by assimilation nourished is both the flesh and the blood of that Jesus who was made flesh”. Similarly Irenæus (Haer. 1 Timothy 4:2-3), “Both the mingled cup, and the bread which has been made, receives upon itself the word of God, and the Eucharist becomes the body of Christ” (ἐπιδέχεται τὸν λόγον τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ γίνεται ἡ εὐχαριστία σῶμα Χριστοῦ). Perhaps by the word of prayer which comes from him Justin means a formula authorised by Christ. It must be added that the Prayer Book of Serapion, bishop of Thmuis in Egypt, circ. A.D. 380, contains an epiclesis in which we read, “O God of truth, let thy holy Word come to sojourn on this bread, that the bread may become Body of the Word, and on this cup, that the cup may become Blood of the Truth” (Bishop J. Wordsworth's trans.).

A comparison of these passages suggests an association in the thought of the primitive Church of the Holy Spirit and the λόγος τοῦ θεοῦ.

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Expositor's Greek Testament (Nicoll)

1 Timothy 4:5

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