Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

INTEODUCTION. 171
vice of love toward the imprisoned apostle. " This epistle distinguishes
itself essentially from the first, by having reference no longer
to Timothy's temporary connexion with the churches of Ephesus
and Asia Minor, but by exhorting him to resume with fresh zeal the
preaching of Christ, in which the apostle is his pattern, and from which
afflictions are not to deter ; and no longer to allow the gifts which
adapt him to this work, to slumber. The first step toward this is to
come to Kome, and aid the imprisoned apostle in his sacred work"
(Zeitschrift fiir Prot. u. Kirche, Sept. 1849, p. 137).
This indicates
at once the occasion of the epistle ; it is primarily a summons to
Timothy to join him in his imprisonment. But the apostle knows
(perhaps through Onesiphorus) that, with all Timothy's love to
himself and unfeigned faith, he yet does not at present exhibit the
requisite zeal and devotion to his calling ; that he shrinks from the
danger and shame of publishing the gospel, and needs a fresh incitement
to fidelity and zeal amidst the sufferings and heresies which
encompass him. And precisely because of his conviction of Timothy's
firmness in the faith, he summons him to fresh proofs, first of
his devotion to his public calling, then of personal attachment to
himself. To such an assumed occasion the epistle itself perfectly
corresponds. We shall not then, with De Wette, regard the summons
of Timothy to Eome as its single object, and then seek what
portions of it may perchance prepare the way for this invitation, or
how otherwise it may be brought into connexion (as De Wette assumes
in regard to i. 6-18, ii. 1, 3-13, iii. 10-12, iv. 5, 6-8), still less
regard its injunctions under this point of view, as they then rather
divert from the assumed object. We shall rather regard as the purpose
of the main portion of the epistle (ii. 1^8), the admonition to
Timothy's faithful fulfillment of his calling, and of the other portion
(iv. 9-22), the invitation to Rome, as in fact at i. 8, its twofold
purpose is already indicated. That the invitation to Rome was the
primary, does not prove it the exclusive purpose of the epistle, and
all that does not bear on this as foreign ; rather the contents of the
epistle must determine its purpose, and the proof of its adaptedness
must be found in the degree of its adjustment to the objects indicated
by its contents—a problem which the writer has made easy
for the interpreter. It is with this precisely as with the Epistle to
the Philippians, in which, while its immediate purpose is to acknowledge
a benefaction, yet none will dream of judging its entire contents
by their relation to this object. Why should not the apostle,
who in the Epistle to the Philippians blends with his expressions of
gratitude, admonitions and warnings, connect also with his invitation
to Timothy exhortations to fidelity in his office ?