Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

226 Second Timothy III. 10, 11.
Mov T^ 6i6.— iiov emphatic in its jiosiiion, comp. Winer's Gr. § 22,
7, Rem. 1. It is constructed with the following nouns. T^ 6id. in
the same sense as 1 Tim. iv. 6 (whence also the accompanying TrapaK.
should have a like signification as there). T^} aywyf/ comp. Esther
ii. 20 ; 2 Mace. iv. 16. Rightly Theodoret = // 6ia tCjv tpyojv
TToXi-eia, conduct, vitas ratio, in general contrast to the immoral
conduct of those seducers. Tf/ TrpoOtaei comp. Acts xi. 23 (xxvii. 13)
= purpose which controls the conduct of life. Uiang in its ordinary
signification as the ground of all action, as shown by the following
dycLTXT]. MaKpoOvfiia toward the " crooked and perverse generation"
(Phil. ii. 15) not as Theoph. specially toward false teachers. Hence
the more general dydTtr], love, shown alike in the " long-suifering"
which does not yield to exasperation, and in vrroiiovrj which endures
without terror or exhaustion. This "endurance" (yr^oiiovi]) leads
naturally to the mention of persecutions and sufferings in which it
was displayed. But 6L0)yiiolg is not therefore to he constructed
grammatically with v-oilovt] as with tV understood, as Flatt maintains
referring to 2 Cor. xi. 26, but stands coordinate with the jirevious
terms. To explain -napaK. by " imitari" would certainly make
this a very harsh construction, as Timothy could not imitate the
sufferings, and that the apostle refers, as Huther thinks, to his
mode of enduring them, is unsupported by the context. UapaK. as
explained by us, intimates that Timothy had followed with approval
alike the apostle's teaching and sufferings on behalf of the
gospel, and moved by his triumphant deliverance from them, had
become his associate. " Which befell me in Antioch, Iconium,
Lystra": comp. Acts xiii. 50—xxv. 20. On the gi-ouud of the specification
of these sufferings see above. Baur in remarking that
the author in accordance with the previously mentioned reference to
the Gospel of Luke, attaches himself to the Acts, and that the fact
of these being first mentioned in that part of the Acts which records
Paul's missionary journeys, was the reason of his selecting
these particular persecutions, disposes altogether too easily of the
matter. For this author's acquaintance with the Acts must surely
have informed him that Timothy was at that time not with the
apostle. We must therefore seek some deeper reason for this selection;
and if it is furnished by the context, the entire reasoning in
favor of the fabricator falls to the ground. Or if the genuineness
of the epistle is compromised by its harmony with the Acts, would
the absence of such agreement be an argument in its favor.^ Comp.
Matthies p. 538, Anm. Parallel with the o}d pot tytre-o, the apostle
adds in a relative clause in reference to (^noypolt;, olovt; diutypovq
vTTr'iveyKa = what sufferings I endured (the word v7T0