Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

—
First Timothy IV. 8. 109
bodily advantage, inasmuch as ascetism has no regard to such an
advantage, but to moral perfection. Calvin well ; Qui pietatem
habet isti nihil deest, etiamsi oareat istis adminiculis. There is
therefore no ground for maintaining, with De Wette, that ''at all
events, the writer has thought and M^ritten indistinctly." The view
of many of the ancient expositors, as Chrysostom and Theophylact,
who, out of respect for asceticism, understood the aoyfj.. yvjiv. of bodily
gymnastic exercises, and with whom, in more recent times. Mack
and De Wette have coincided, which makes only a verbal connexion
in the thought, as such a species of exercise in reference to Timothy
could not be conceived of— this view is refuted as a mere make-shift,
by the very difficulty of connecting with it an intelligible interpretation.*—The
objection of Schleiermacher, that if Paul were the
author, we should have a more full description of the exercise unto
godliness, is obviated by the remarks in the Gen. Introd., § 4. He
who reads the epistle consecutively can, moreover, be in no doubt as
to what the apostle means. Zwt/^ tt]^ vvv koX rrjg fieXXovarjg explains
the TTpbg TTavra (hcpeX. The genitive denotes the import of the promise,
comp. 2 Tim. i. 1 ; 1 John ii. 25. This life promised to godliness
is separated into the two parts ij vvv koI 7) fisXXovaa. On the article
comp. Winer's Gr., § 18, 7.
This construction, which, by the repetition
of the article before jweAA., represents the two parts as independent—as
also the allusion to npbg Travra—shews that it was not
the apostle's intention to say : godliness has the promise of the life
which is a present, and at the same time a future life (= t% kuI
vvv Kol fieXXovarig) ; in which case t] vvv ^cdrj would itself signify "the
true life of godliness" (Matthies), or " the true life of blessedness"
(Mack), while ^w?) 7/ vvv, as De Wette has already observed in opposition
to these, is evidently intended to represent the reward or
fruit of godliness. Thus ^o)fj ij vvv can only be (comp. 1 Cor. xv. 19)
the present life in contradistinction to the i] fiiXX., that which follows
it. With the ^(OT^g rrig vvv are then to be associated such promises
as we find in Deut. iv. 40, v. 33 ;
Matth. vi. 33, xix. 29 ; Mark x.
29 (comp. also Eph. vi. 2, seq.) It does not exhaust the import of
the expression, as De Wette observes, to explain it merely of bona
et commoda hujus vitae, as the proper rendering of the genitive
shews (comp. above) ; it is rather to be understood of a long and
happy life, as Eph. vi. 2, seq. The sentiment receives its necessary
limitation through the following koI t. fi., as also through the point
of view from which the Christian regards life as a whole. Harless
aptly observes on the passage in Ephesians "
: Thus then the Christian
knows that the cross is his first good, the earthly blessing which
* Huther also adheres to this interpretation "
; the apostle sets in opposition to the
yv/ivuCeiv which he enjoins upon Timothy the yvfivd^eiv which was practised with much
earnestness among the Greeks, although it profited hut little."—It is, however, of Timotl\7
not of the Greeks, that the writer of the epistle is here speaking {yup).