Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

186 Second Timothy I. 3.
Xdpiv t\;w— commonly evxapi'JTLj ; comp 1 Tim. i. 12. To rio 6eu>
the apostle attaches " whom I serve from my forefathers in a pure
conscience." Upoyovoi natural, not "spiritual prof^enitors or models"
(Matthies) as is clear from ver. 5, which stands with this in undeniable
connexion. That this would require iwv (Matthies), is erroneous
;
comp. 1 Tim. v. 4, where npoyovoi is used as here ; nor do
we see any purpose in referring to the -npoyovoi of the Jewish peopla
That for the sake of the Judaists he should represent himself here
as a good Israelite, is an extraordinary hypothesis ; and equally so
that he would remind Timothy of his superiority as a Hebrew of
the Hebrews to him, the son of a Jewish mother, but Grecian
father. Kightly Bengel, De Wette, Winer (Gr., § 47, b. p. 333
" from my forefathers [Polyb. v. 55, 9] with the disposition inherited
from them"). That diro is not = instar, and d-no Trpoyuvoiv not =
fe/c TTai66(: needs no proof ; comp. on the former point Winer, ubi
sup., on the latter De Wette, Matthies, etc. 'Ei^ Kadapa avveifirjaei
= in pure conscience (comp. at 1 Tim. i. 5, 19); the apostle inherits
not merely the service, but the moral state. His relation to
God he represents as a transmitted blessing, by him merely preserved.
The statement has been regarded as involving on the one
hand a denial of the superiority of Christianity to Judaism, on the
other, an incorrect judgment, and one contradictory to 1 Tim. i. 13,
regarding the conduct of the apostle before his conversion ; comp.
De Wette to whom the passage is but a disjointed compilation
from Rom. i. 9 ; Acts xxiii. 1, xxiv. 14, seq. But how does the
apostle place here " the worship of God in Judaism and Christianity
on the same level ?" He certainly held (Acts xxiv. 14), that his
fathers, and he as a Christian served one and the same God ; the
equalization therefore must lie in the subjoined tv kuO. ovvn6. But
this involves no such consequence ; for it merely affirms that alike
he and his fathers have served God according to their best knowledge
and conscience ; and it is precisely this moral disposition which
serves God according to its knowledge, that has been transmitted
from them to him. Unquestionably his knowledge of God as a
Christian is more perfect, his moral consciousness more ])r(ifound, his
pure conscience more deeply grounded ;
but this advancement no
more does away with that essential equality of dis})osition, which
makes our attained knowledge the rule of moral conduct, than does
the equality implied in the tV KaO. aw. exclude that advancement.
For what is this haO. ow. but that ovdtv tfiavrio avvnida (1 Cor. iv. 4)
of which our i)resent knowledge nuist be our only standard ;
hence
also the ciAa' ovk iv tovtg)^ hid in this I am not justified, of that passage.
Nor is the statement here at all at war with the earlier conduct
of the apostle, nor with his declaration regarding it, 1 Tim.
i. 13, seq. He here declares that he did it ignorantly ; and although