Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

110 First Timothy IV. 9, 10.
God gives hiai in any measure, the second good in "which he is to
rejoice ;
or if he knows not this, then he must consider every earthly
joy as a curse, which hinders him from participating in his best
good ."'•'
Ver. 9.—This assertion with regard to godliness, by which the
admonition to Timothy to exercise himself therein is confirmed, is
now itself corroborated in the words : it is a faithful saijing, and
worthy of all acceptation, comp. i. 15. The emphatical form in
which this sentence is expressed, is explained by the prediction, ver.
3, seq., which forms the basis of the admonition, ver. 6, seq. ; this
is the true antidote to those ascetic errors.
Ver. 10.—This certainty the apostle further confirms by reminding
Timothy of the fact, that they are borne up by it amid all their
labour and suflTering. For what else—is the sense of the verse—do
we endure labour and reproach, than on account of this hope.? And
the more laborious and reproachful this apostolic calling is, the more
strongly does it confirm this hope ; as Baumgarten well observes. I
prefer to take elg rovro as having reference to the following uti, not
as pointing back to the promise made with respect to godliness in
ver. 8 ; in which latter case, the life which is to come is generally
taten by itself, as the life lohich noio is would not agree very well
with ive labour, and suffer reproach. The sentence appears to me
thus to contain a more strict confirmation of the -moTbg 6 Xoyog. Accordingly,
eig TovTo is = " from regard to this that," not = " for
this" (namely, for the po'omise). Kal kottiCjiiev koI dveidi^ojieda— not
Koii.u)iiEv without Kai, and koX dycjvii^ofieda, the former of which is
preferred by Tischendorf, though the latter reading has also weighty
authorities in its favour (comp. in Tischendorf). 'Ovei6iC6neOa, as
passive, might seem strange in the connexion in which it here stands.
It is a concise expression of the idea = we suffer it that we are reproached.
KoTrm'w denotes the lahorio2is work of the apostolic calling,
a word frequently used by the apostle, 1 Cor. xv. 10 ; Gal. iv.
11 ;
Phil. ii. 16, etc. The perfect tense in ijXTciKafiev (comp. 1. Cor.
XV. 19 ; 2 Cor. i. 10), " because we have set our hope," represents
the hope in which their laborious calling rests, as the enduring result
of the act of mind denoted by ijATTiKafiev. Tbe expression Oebg
^uiv does not indeed signify : the God who bestows that life mentioned
in ver. 8 ; it doubtless, however, contains a retrospective reference
to the promise of life, ver. 8. 'Errt as at Kom. xv. 12. The
accessary clause, ivho is the Saviour, etc., is expressed not from the
point of view occupied by every Christian, but from that of those
whose hope is to them an impelling motive to take labour and shamo
* Huther differently: " For the present and future life." The idea would then bo
Bimplo ; but the question is, whether, contrary to common usage, the Cw7 can here signif/
anything else than the object.