1 Timothy 2:1. I EXHORT THEREFORE. Carrying on the thought that he has begun a ‘charge and has to continue with it, perhaps also connecting faith in the love of Christ to all men, with the expression of that faith in worship. SUPPLICATIONS, PRAYERS, INTERCESSIONS, AND GIVING OF THANKS. Each word ha... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:2. FOR KINGS. The word was generic, but it at least included the Roman Emperor, besides those to whom, as _e.g._ to Agrippa, the kingly title was conceded. Probably in consequence of the counsels thus given, or of the unwritten tradition which it embodied, prayers of the kind spoken of a... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:3. ACCEPTABLE. This and the kindred word rendered by ‘acceptation' are peculiar to this Epistle. GOD OUR SAVIOUR. The Greek order is more expressive, ‘ _our Saviour_, _God.'_... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:4. No assertion of the universal love of God can be more clear than this. Whatever might be St. Paul's belief as to election and predestination, it did not prevent his resting absolutely on the truth that God wills all men to be saved. Men were tempted to draw a line of demarcation in th... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:5. THERE IS ONE GOD. Better, ‘God is one,' as in Galatians 3:20, a passage which St. Paul may almost be thought of as in some sense reproducing. There, as here, the argument is that the Unity of the Godhead is more than the negation of plurality; that it implies oneness of purpose, uncha... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:6. A RANSOM FOR ALL. The words at once repeat and interpret those which St. Matthew (Matthew 20:28) records as spoken by our Lord Himself. There a ‘ransom' simply, here ‘a ransom paid as in exchange;' there ‘ _instead of many,'_ here ‘ _on behalf of all.'_ GAVE HIMSELF. Not limited to... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:7. AM ORDAINED A PREACHER. Better, ‘ _was appointed a herald.'_ It might have been thought that in writing to one like Timothy, loving and beloved, there would have been little need for this vindication of his authority, as if he were asserting his claims against the Judaizing teachers o... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:8. THAT MEN. Better, as in the Greek, ‘ _the men,'_ as distinguished from the women. The ‘praying' spoken of is not a mental act, but part of the public worship of the Church, and is therefore limited to the men. The sequence of thought implied in ‘therefore,' is that the new view of hum... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:9. IN LIKE MANNER ALSO. The word shows the sequence of the writer's thought. His mind is dwelling on the public worship of the Church. He has laid down rules for the men; he will now give rules for the women. General as those rules may seem, they have (as 1 Timothy 2:12 is enough to prov... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:10. BECOMETH. The same reference to a standard of decorum at once conventional and real, as in 1 Corinthians 11:13. PROFESSING GODLINESS. The usual meaning of the verb is simply ‘promise;' but here and in 1 Timothy 6:21, it is the promise implied by outward act, and is therefore rightl... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:11. LET THE WOMAN LEARN IN SILENCE. Better ‘a woman.' As before noted, the words indicate that St. Paul is dwelling on the position of women in the public meetings of the Church. For them to appear as teachers there would be an usurpation. ‘ _Quietness_ ' or ‘ _tranquility'_ rather than... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:12. TO TEACH. Obviously, as limited by the context, the' reference is to public teaching. The question meets us whether the precept is of permanent obligation. And as far as the foregoing arguments go, it can hardly be said that they give a permanent ground. The appeal is to a standard o... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:13. That argument is (1) from the priority of man as such in the history of Genesis 2. So in 1 Corinthians 11:8-9, the woman was created for the sake of the man. The record (received, of course, by St. Paul as the record of a fact) bore witness to an order which it was not for individual... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:14. (2) The woman was in that first typical history the one directly deceived by the Tempter, Adam's sin being thought of as more against light and knowledge,' and so _‘she has come to be in the state of a transgressor.'_ The implied thought, of course, is that that greater liability to... [ Continue Reading ]
1 Timothy 2:15. SAVED IN CHILDBEARING. Better ‘ _by childbearing.'_ There seems no ground (in spite of the authority of some great names) for taking the Greek article as giving a meaning of pre-eminence to the word that follows it ‘She shall be saved by _the_ childbirth,' _i.e._ by the seed of the w... [ Continue Reading ]