Timothy to Hebrews - The Preterist Archive

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5
First Timothy III. 1. 65
find only such qualifications as any one might have suggested, with
the exception of two, those, namely, in ver. 2 and ver. 6 ; comp. De
Wette, p. 61. He has not mentioned here what other qualifications
he would have expected, as he has done in the Epistle to Titus.
Instructions and counsels " for the management of the church" we
have no right to expect, for the words of iii. 1, if any one desire the
office of a MsJiop, intimate that it is ordination and the qualifications
for it that are spoken of. The only fault then that can be
found is, that other qualifications have not been mentioned. But
was it necessary for the apostle at this stage to tell Timothy, as De
Wette thinks he should have told Titus, to look out for enthusiastic
adherents of the gospel, who were warm and zealous in the faith ?
I apprehend that this must have been self-evident to Timothy if
anything was. Or are we to maintain, that the apostle ought .to
have taken more into consideration the measure of Christian knowledge,
gifts of teaching, etc. ? But we have no right all at once to
suppose, that the presbyter of the first Christian church was necessarily
a teacher, although it may have become him to be ajji to
teach, iii. 2 ; v. 17. It appears to me that great wisdom lies beneath
the moderate character of the qualifications here specified.
What safer criterion could be applied to the candidate for the presbyter's
office than the nature of his previous life, and the Christian
influence which he exercises in the circle of his family ? And what
can be of greater moment in him who is to preside over others and
to enlighten them, than the opinion which they entertain of him
and his moral integrity, especially in those things in regard to which
the state of the church will devolve upon him the duty of making a
vigorous opposition to them ? In the present state of the church,
if the ordination of presbyters were treated of, it would be necessary
first of all to require that he who is to preside over a Christian congregation
should profess the faith of the church to which this congregation
belongs ; but, apart from this, what other qualifications
could be more suitable than those here enumerated, in so far as these
require, that he who is to rule others must first have proved that
he knows how to rule himself and those immediately belonging to
him.?* Moreover, the criticism to which we are opposed itself admits
that in vers. 2 and 6 (and why not also ver. 7 ?) qualifications
are named which every one could not suggest. With regard to
particulars, see the interpretation and the remarks at the conclusion,
ver. 7.
Ver. 1. It is a faithful saying, as at i. 15, comp. on Tit. iii. 8,
does not belong to what precedes, because, as Mack observes, when
this formula refers to what goes before, it never stands separated in
this way from what it belongs to. Besides, what immediately precedes
has not enough of the character of a universal proposition to
Vol. VI—