Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

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Second Timothy III. 16, 17. 229
Koi OTL, K. T. X. Grammatically we may either take on as a resolution
of the
preceding participle (comp. Winer's Gr. § 63, II.), with
the majority of interpreters, or as dependent on eidw^, rather in the
sense of " reflecting," as De Wette and Huther. The former construction
yields a better train of thought. 'Atto /Spt-^ovf comp.
Acts xvi. 1, and 2 Tim. i. 5. The collective phrase re kpa ypdixiiara
is found only here : ordinarily ?} 7'pa?/, at ypacpai, ypacpai dyiac, Rom.
i. 2.— " Able to make thee wise ;" the participle dwdneva is to be
taken as present, since oldag has a present signification : it marks
the permanent quality of the scriptures which must determine
Timothy to abide by what he has learnt. That quality is that they
can make him wise unto salvation through the faith which is in
Christ Jesus. They become therefore a testimony to that which is
learnt by Timothy, locpiaai (at 2 Pet. i, 16, but in a different sense;
as here with the LXX., Ps. xix. 7, cxix. 98 ; Sir. xxxviii. 24) marks
here not the first instruction, but the successively advancing grades
of practical knowledge. Its goal is salvation : comp. Theophylact
" not as outward knowledge renders man wise to deceit, and sophistry
and verbal strifes, whence the perdition of the soul, so is divine
knowledge : for this renders wise unto salvation." Am TTJg Trtarecog
cannot, as by Heydenreich, be constructed merely with aojTrjptaVj
thus the article must have been repeated : together with the limiting
elg auTTjplav it is to be i-eferred to the verb. " Through faith,"
etc., marks the necessary condition of the use of the Old Testament
only the believer therefore will find in it the truth of salvation ; thus
not the unbelieving Jew. To take did Triareo^g as expressing the means
inhering in Scripture in the sense of passages like Gal. iii. 6, seq.,
23, seq., is forbidden by the limiting clause iv 'I. Xpioru) with its emphatic
ri]g ; since ntorig ev Xptaru) 'Irjaov never denotes elsewhere
" faith in Christ," but " faith which originates in Christ" (comp.
Winer's Gr. § 31, 2) ; this meaning also would require the omission
of ^Irjoov ; and vers. 16, 17 which illustrate the adaptedness of the
Scriptures to make wise unto salvation, make no mention of faith but
presuppose it.
Vers. 16, 17 illustrate this capability of scripture by declaring it
all divinely inspired and profitable for doctrine, etc. Kai, which is
wanting only in versions and in the Fathers, must on external and
internal grounds be deemed genuine. Qeonv. as well as dxpeXinog is
then a predicate of Trdoa ypatpi]. For if Kat meant " also," and
deoTTv. were an epithet adjoined to ndaa ypa(prj, an tart would be indispensable.
And taking ''.nem both as predicates, we must translate
-ndaa yp. not " every scripture," but " all scripture, scripture in
all its parts," as remarked by Dr. Hofmann, who cites for this use,
ndoa olKoSofxi]^ Eph. ii. 21, and Harless in loco, and rrdg ohog, Heb.
iii. 3, The omission of the article is natural in a word like ypacprj,
as