Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

224 Second Timothy III. 8, 9.
propheta3 Eliaj); and—whicli is still more decisive—can 1 Cor. x. 4
be understood otlier"vvise than by a reference to Jewish tradition ?
See Meyer in loco ; setting aside entirely Jude 14, scq. Why, it is
very properly asked, should
the apostle, who makes use of heathen
writers, not also borrow from Jewish tradition barely the names of
two sorcerers, when in all other points he adheres to the record of
Moses, and makes not the slightest reference to the monstrous features
whicli tradition has attached to them ? It cannot assuredly
be maintained that the magic arts fonn the point of the comparison.
The apostle designates these men as Kare(f)Oapiih'ot -bv
vovv.
This coiTUptness of mind they liave indeed in common with
others (1 Tim. vi. 5), as well as their reprobateness in relation to
the faith (Tit. i. 16 ; 1 Tim. i. 19 ; iv. 1 ; vi. 21) ;
but their mode
of manifestation is different.
The second point of the comparison is given ver. 9, aAA' ov
npoKoxpovatv tnl tt/UZoi'.
'AAAa in contrast with dvdiar. ver. 8, properly
they will not advance further, thence they will not make further
progress, i. e. in external success. The declaration has been deemed
contradictory to the prediction of the
perilous times, ver. 1, as well
as of the statements, ver. 13 and ii. 17. The latter passage we dispose
of by referring it not to outward diffusion ;
but even were ij;
otherwise we have already shown that the two passages do not refer
to the same subject. Also ver. 13 treats of an intensive progress in
-nXavT] ; and, if the words of ver. 9 be pressed as by De Wette, we
might doubtless say with Bengel :
" non proficient amplius : quamquam
ipsi et eorum similes proficient in pejus :" but this is unnecessary
; Chrysostom has given the true explanation : nav yap nporFpov
dv6j]ori TO. rrjg nXdvTjg, eig rtXog ov diavei^ei. The more rapid this advancement
to the worse (ver. 13), the more speedily will their dvoia
disclose itself. And with the prediction of ver. 1 our declaration
stands not in the remotest contradiction ; for assuredly the fact
that these seducers in their gross immorality foretoken the last days
does not warrant the inference that their special form of error
(which is not the special ground of their being called precursors) will
And why should the forger
continue and increase until that period.
of the epistle have proved himself so utterly void of sense ?—The
reason why the course of these seducers will be arrested is that their
glaring folly will soon be manifest to all ;
their ini(iuitous course
will prove its own overthrow, as did that of the celebrated antagonists
of Moses. Entirely different is the apostle's mode of regarding
the trepoiMnoKaAuv and Aoyo/ia\;"''- It behoves Timothy and Titus
and the presbyters whom they ordain, to struggle against them with
all the force of sound doctrine in order to bring back the diseased to
a healthy faith. The term dvoia, again at Luke vi. 11, applies not
merely to their foolish conduct in spreading their error, but also to