Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

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First Timothy I. 3. 25
4. This commencement reminds us of the epistle to Titus in a
two-fold respect.
Here, as in that epistle, the introduction expressing
the apostle's tlianksgiving, which is usual elsewhere, with the
exception of the Epistle to the Galatians, is wanting ;
and in both
epistles the apostle begins by calling to mind a commission which
had been given, and for the fulfilment of which the epistle gives further
directions. Already, then, may we infer from this commencement
of the epistle, if the writer is true to himself in the other
parts of it, that this, like the Ei^istle to Titus, is, to use Schleiermacher's
expression, an official letter, and, like it, was designed
only for the person named in the inscription. This, as has already
been observed in reference to the Epistle to Titus, will account for
the absence of an expression of thanks in the introduction, as also
for the absence of all allusions to the first imprisonment (if the
epistle was written subsequent to this) during whicb Timothy was
with the apostle. All this is quite difi'erent in the second epistle to
Timothy, the peculiarity of which has been more justly apprehended
by Schleiermacher than by many of the more recent commentators,
when he says of that epistle that it is altogether of the confidential
and friendly kind, and with respect to the contents, observes that it
has nothing else in common with the first to Timothy than merely
the personal relation of the apostle to his disciple, and is not intended
to give directions as to the proper regulation of a church ;
and that the second Epistle to Timothy and that to Titus, have in
their contents no similarity whatever. This distinction shews itself
at once in the introduction (as 1 Tim. i. 3, seq., comp. with the
commencement of the two other epistles, proves), and discovers an
author who knows well what he writes.
Upoaiielvat h 'E^eaco, 7Topev6fj,evog slg M. De Wette has already
observed that -nopevonevog cannot with Matthies be referred to Timothy
instead of Paul, and be rendered : when going to Macedonia
to remain in Ephesus. This is grammatically impossible (comp.
Winer's Gr., § 44, 3, p. 287, note, against De Wette, who thinks
this connexion possible), and yields no proper sense.
Quite as arbitrary
is it, as every one will perceive (comp. likewise De Wette) to
connect nopevoiievog with what follows, and to supply : so I entreat
thee now, on thy journey to Macedonia, to remain, etc. There is no
other way but to apply the word to the apostle. The journey, therefore,
mentioned in Acts xx. 1, on the occasion of which Timothy
did not remain in Ephesus, but rather went before the apostle to
Macedonia, Acts xix. 22, cannot be here referred to, as might be
shewn by many other reasons ; comp. the Introd. The words following
state the object for which the apostle left Timothy behind
when he himself went to Macedonia that thou mightest forbid, etc.
IlapayyeAAgtv, as here also 1 Cor. vii. 10, xi. 17 ;
1 Thess. iv. 11