Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

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First Timothy I. 16. 39
love manifested itself in him. Thus from his own experience he
can testify what he here says :
assuredly true and worthy of all acceptance
is the assertion, that Christ Jesus came into the world to
save sinners, of whom, he adds, I am chief. IlLorog 6 Aoyof, comp.
on Tit. iii. 8. ^Anodox^, as also dTvodeKrog, (the former occurring
again at iv. 9, the latter ii. 3, v. 4), only in this epistle. On the
other hand, the apostle uses elsewhere SeKTog and evirpoodenTog, Phil.
iv. 18 ; 2 Cor. vi, 2 ;
Eom. xv. 31, etc. ; comp., besides. Acts ii. 41,
they that gladly received the ivord (aTrode^dnevoi rbv Xoyov). On the
classical use of the word, see Leo on the passage. On rrdoa dnoSoxTJ,
like TTdaa x"'P'^, full joy, Winer's Gr., § 18, 4, p. 101. On Christ
Jesus as the subject of what follows, comp. Phil, ii, 5, seq. "Epxeo-
Oai elg Koofiov, with definite allusion to the pre-existence of Christ.
It is the substance of what is contained in the gospel committed to
his trust, which the apostle here compresses into these words as the
experience of his own life ; comp. Matth. xviii. 11 ; Luke, xix. 10,
" Of whom I am the. chief." Some have thought this expression too
strong, and endeavoured to
soften it by pointing to the omission of
the article (against which De Wette justly refers to Matth, x. 2,
xxii. 38), or to the present tense, eliil, according to which it applies
only to the saved sinner. But oov refers not to saved sinners, but to
sinners in general. All these limitations come into collision with
ver. 16, the entire signification of which rests on this npdJTog in its
full sense. The apostle also speaks elsewhere of his former life
in the same manner ; comp. Eph. iii, 8 ; 1 Cor. xv. 8, 9, where
he states as the reason of his humiliation : because I persecuted
the church of God. So here where the apostle calls himself
TTpdJToVj we are to associate this with what he says in ver, 13, nor
are we to be hindered from this by the words, I obtained pardon
because I did it ignorantly, etc, comp. above. Only to this
reference of the npioTog to ver. 13—the outward act—corresponds
also what he says of himself, ver. 16. It is the conduct of the
apostle in itself, viewed by him apart from its mitigatmg circumstances,
which constrains him to make use of this expression regarding
himself.
Ver. 16,
Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, as above at
ver. 14, antithetical with the apostle's judgment concerning himself.
Although the chief of sinners, I yet obtained pardon for this cause
— pointing forward emphatically to the Iva—that in me the chief
(for Tipwrof is not to be taken differently here from before), Christ
Jesus might show his entire forbearance, for a pattern to those who
should hereafter repose their believing trust in him to life everlasting.
The whole passage indicates how entirely in earnest the apostle
was in the npcorog tyio. Only thus can he see in his having obtained
mercy, the entire riches of the divine forbearance, and hold it up as