Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

First Timothy V. 22. 141
ordination of presbyters. This would do only in the case of ver.
20 referring to the presbyters (comp. above); but even then it
might be objected to this interpretation that such an injunction is
not in its right place* here, but belongs to chap. iii. (Baur), that
there, in fact, what is necessary to be said respecting the conditions
of a2:)i3ointing to ofl&ce, has already been said, and more exactly
than here, and that according to the qualifications there laid down
the case here indicated in the words, he not partaker, etc., cannot
well be supposed in reference to a presbyter, as De Wette has also
observed. If the transition has already been made at ver. 20 from
the presbyters to the members of the church generally, then ver. 22
can also only be understood of receiving into the Christian fellowship
in general, or of restoring to this fellowship those who had
fallen.
I prefer the latter view, with De Wette, from regard to ver.
20, and on account of the he not partaker, etc. Ver. 20 does not
indeed treat of exclusion from the church ; but the eXey^ig there is
the next step to this (comp. Matth. xviii. 17), and the words, he
not partaker, etc., evidently find a more natural explanation in accordance
with this supposition. Meanwhile I admit that I do not
regard these reasons as decisive. Olshausen has assented to that interpretation
of this verse, which is the most ancient, and which is
still the common one, according to which it
is understood of ordination.
On the laying on of hands, comjD. on iv. 14, According to
the view which we have taken, it is to be supposed that this laying
on of hands was repeated on the restoration of any one to church
fellowship, which was certainly the practice at a later period ; comp.
the proofs of this in De Wette. Baur explains the passage principally
of the restoration of heretics, of which he adduces examples
from a later period which involve, however, no proof whatever
against the apostolical character of our passage. On i^irj raxeoo^
Chrysostom observes : TroXXaKig Trsptafceipdnsvog koX aKpifioJg i^erdaaq.-.—
Be not p)artaker : Timothy adopts the gins which he overlooks, he
becomes a partaker of these sins, inasmuch as he does not place
himself towards them in the attitude of a rebuker. On the dative,
comp. Winer's Gr., § 30, 8, p. 180, 'L^avTov dyvhv rrpei : here, as
De Wette rightly observes, oeavTov is placed first with emphasis ;
it forms the antithesis with, he not partaker of other men's sins.
For this very reason the clause cannot be explained to mean : keep
thyself pure from such sins, but : thyself keep pure ; for in order
to be able to rebuke the sins of others, Timothy must above all be
pure himself. Thus the subject turns to the person of Timothy,
as ver. 23 also shews ;
a circumstance which it is also of importance
to observe in reference to ver. 24, seq. 'Ayvog is therefore not
to be taken in the special sense = chaste, but = pure, as at 2 Cor.
vii. 11 : vi. 6.