Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

4. 203
in their turn transmit Christian truth, not mere catechumens, as is
shown also by the Kai. Our passage therefore contains perhaps the
first trace of theological, as distinguished from Christian culture.
To teach others requires a different appropriation of Christian truth
from that attained by the ordinary Christian. Of these preferred
teachers the apostle demands but the single qualification of fidelity.
UiaTog not " believing," which would be a supei-fluous and extraordinary
requisition ; but " faithful"—a quality on which the apostle
elsewhere lays stress (1 Tim. i. 12 ; 1 Cor. iv. 2 ; vii. 25) as specially
required for " keeping what is committed" to him and being a " steward
of the mysteries of God :" 1 Cor. iv. 1). Uapadov corresponds
not merely partially, as De Wette maintains, but entirely to napad'^KT]^
if this be taken not as " calling" but " entrusted doctrine ;" comp.
Luke xii. 48 ; Acts xiv. 23 ; see Passow at iraparidTini. It is modified
by the connexion 1 Tim. i. 18 (observandum trado) ; Acts xvii. 3
(docendo propono). OItlve^^ wlio (such as): Passow on the word, g.:
the remainder of the clause is not a further requisition, but gives
the reason for the ixiGTolq. The future laovrai represents their
" ability" as dependent on the naparideodat. This passage bears on
the doctrine of tradition, as shewing how the apostle conceived to
himself of the maintenance and propagation of the Christian doetrine.
" Still the Lord provided," justly remarks Mack, " that the
living word should receive a written attestation ;" but the doctrinal
inference that we accordingly have two sources of truth, independent
in their formal principle (" two witnesses," Mack) is entirely
unauthorized.
Yer. 3.—Renews his personal exhortations to Timothy. He is
to be strengthened to endure suffering as a good soldier of Jesus
Christ. Timothy needed the command. He was still deficient in
this moral strength ; the perils of the gospel made him timorous,
and these had augmented ; he owed also personal service and devotion
to the apostle. The reading ai) ovv KaKondOrjaov^ which makes
clear the connexion with ver. 1 must yield to ovyKaKOTTddrjaov ( Tisch.
after A.C.*D*E*r.Gr., etc., versions, the Fathers. On ovjKaK. comp.
i. 8, 12 ; ii. 9 ; the ovv points to the apostle. 'Q.g mXog k.t.X assigns
the reason of the injunction :
suffering and contending go together.
Ver. 4.—Hence Timothy may learn from the example of the
soldier. " None who warreth entangleth himself," etc., comp. 1 Tim.
V. 5 ; 1 Cor. vii. 32, seq. The apostle has reference to the general
rule : such is the case with the proper soldier. IrpaTevd^evog, performing
service in war ;
the term selected instead of the preceding
o~pariooT7]g to mark the person in the actual discharge of his duty.
Dr. Baur discovers in the comparison itself a trace of the latter half
of the second century, when the figure was common. But as he
himself acknowledges it as Pauline (1 Cor. ix. 7 ; 2 Cor. x. 4, 5), and