Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

First Timothy VI. 11. 155
strongest proof of that assertion, "And have pierced themselves
through with many pains." By these f»ains are to be understood
the gnawings of conscience, the harbingers of the future a-n-cjAeta,
ver. 9. The expression Tcepi-ndpoi only here ; the same figure occurs
at Luke ii. 35. In the same manner as here it is used in Josephus,
B. J. III. 7j 31 ; Diodor. Sic. etc., comp. Leo, Wahl.
Yer. 11.—The writer now passes to the positive side of the subject—^from
the warning against desiring to be rich, to the exhortation
to strive after the attainment of those possessions in which
alone true riches consist. The Christian is not required, on the one
handj to renounce anything without having ofiered to him, on the
other, a rich compensation ; that which he gives up for the sake of
Christ, he shall receive again in him an hundred fold, Matth. xix.
29 ; Mark x, 30. This positive side forms the specific character of
the Christian exhortation ; comp. on ver. 6. But thou—the apostle
thus turns to Timothy— man of God, flee this, and follow after
righteousness, piety, faith, love, patience, mildness. But thou, in
opposition to some, ver. 10. The whole of the following exhortation,
not merely ver. 11, but vers. 11-16, does not extend beyond
what belongs to Christians in general, and accordingly has no reference
to the special calling of Timothy. From this it will at once
appear that the title which is here given to Timothy, civdp. rov Beov,
which certainly stands in a real connexion with the following exhortation,
is not to be referred to the official calling of Timothy, and
in this sense to be placed along with the nih^x-te-'N of the Old Testament
(1 Sam. ix. 6, etc., comp. with 2 Pet. i. 21); this designation
in reference to the prophet implies an allusion which is not
applicable to the StddoKaXog ;
the expression is not used difierently
here from 2 Tim. iii. 17, and its sense is given in such passages as
Jam. i. 18 : dneKv-rjoav 'i'judg, etc. He who thus belongs to God as
his creature cannot regard the earthly as his highest good ; only the
man of this world can do so. But it also follows from the above
remark that ravra in the words ravra (pevye is not, as many think,
to be referred to vers. 3-10, but specially to the above-mentioned
(piXapyvpla together with its results, ver. 10. The whole of the following
exhortation, chiefly also vers. 15 and 16, shews that the
apostle has this point in view (comp. infra), and ver. 17, seq.,
shews this in like manner, as De Wette has already observed.
Atdjico)—frequently used by the apostle in this sense, comp. on
enatcoXovdEO), v. 10. Actcatoavvrj in the same general sense as dlKaiag^
Tit. ii. 12, where likewise dcKuicjg and emefi(^g are connected ; comp.
on the passage. Special aspects of this are then denoted in the
following characteristics : faith, love, patience (comp. on Tit. ii. 2),
mildness (= mansuetudo, comp. on Tit. iii. 2). We have but to
compare Matth. v. 5 in order to understand why these are here spe-