PUBLIC-DOMAIN CHRISTIAN BOOK
The Expositor's Bible: The Pastoral Epistles
Plummer, Alfred · 126,196 words · 173 reading sections
Chapter Iii.
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257 wordsSECTION 2Chapter Xxvi.
THE LORD'S COMPASSION IN ENABLING A BLASPHEMER AND A PERSECUTOR TO BECOME A SERVANT OF CHRIST JESUS AND A PREACHER OF THE GOSPEL 52 THE PROPHECIES ON TIMOTHY.--THE PROPHETS OF THE NEW TESTAMENT AN EXCEPTIONAL INSTRUMENT OF EDIFICATION 62 THE PUNISHMENT OF HYMENAEUS AND ALEXANDER.--DELIVERING TO SATAN AN EXCEPTIONAL I…
254 wordsSECTION 3_The Character And The Genuineness Of The Pastoral Epistles._
THE CHARACTER AND CONTENTS OF THE LAST EPISTLE OF S. PAUL.--THE NEMESIS OF NEGLECTED GIFTS 309 THE HEARTLESSNESS OF PHYGELUS AND HERMOGENES.--THE DEVOTION OF ONESIPHORUS.--PRAYERS FOR THE DEAD 319 THE NEED OF MACHINERY FOR THE PRESERVATION AND TRANSMISSION OF THE FAITH.--THE MACHINERY OF THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH 331 THE…
852 wordsSECTION 4_The Character And The Genuineness Of The Pastoral Epistles._
This large fact is greatly emphasized by two considerations. (1) The repudiation of them by Marcion and others directed attention to them. They were evidently not accepted by an oversight, because no one thought anything about them. (2) The evidence respecting the general acceptance of them as St. Paul's is full and po…
703 wordsSECTION 5_The Character And The Genuineness Of The Pastoral Epistles._
Although the controversy is by no means over, two results of it are very generally accepted as practically certain. (1) The three Epistles must stand or fall together. It is impossible to accept two, or one, or any portion of one of them, and reject the rest. (2) They stand or fall with the hypothesis of St. Paul's sec…
954 wordsSECTION 6_The Character And The Genuineness Of The Pastoral Epistles._
It will be observed that the external evidence is large in amount and overwhelmingly in favour of the Apostolic authorship. The objections are based on internal evidence. But some of the leading opponents admit that even the internal evidence is in favour of certain portions of the Epistles. Let us, then, with Renan, P…
1,147 wordsSECTION 7_The Character And The Genuineness Of The Pastoral Epistles._
The result of this preliminary discussion seems to show that the objections which have been urged against these Epistles are not such as to compel us to doubt that in studying them we are studying the last writings of the Apostle of the Gentiles. If any doubts still survive, a closer examination of the details will, it…
312 wordsSECTION 8Footnotes:
[1] _Adv. Marc._, V. xxi. [2] _Clem. Rom._ I. ii., xxix., lxi.; Ign. _Magn._ viii., _Pol. passim_; Polycarp, iv; Theoph. _Autol._, III., xiv,; Iren., _Haer._, III. iii. 3, 4; Euseb. _H. E._, III. xxv., 2., xxvi. 4., xxxii. 8. [3] "The wealth and mobility of the Pauline intellect ... must not be fettered in mode of te…
257 wordsSECTION 9_Timothy The Beloved Disciple Of St. Paul. His Life And Character._
"Timothy, my true child in faith."--1 TIM. i. 2. "Timothy, my beloved child."--2 TIM. i. 2. In the relation of St. Paul to Timothy we have one of those beautiful friendships between an older and a younger man which are commonly so helpful to both. It is in such cases, rather than where the friends are equals in age, …
745 wordsSECTION 10_Timothy The Beloved Disciple Of St. Paul. His Life And Character._
Once more, the notices of Timothy which have come down to us, like those which we have respecting the beloved disciple, are very fragmentary; but they form a beautiful and consistent sketch of one whose full portrait we long to possess. Timothy was a native, possibly of Derbe, but more probably of the neighbouring tow…
1,040 wordsSECTION 11_Timothy The Beloved Disciple Of St. Paul. His Life And Character._
The few additional facts respecting Timothy are given us in the two letters to him. Some time after St. Paul's release the two were together in Ephesus; and when the Apostle went on into Macedonia he left his companion behind him to warn and exhort certain holders of erroneous doctrine to desist from teaching it. There…
817 wordsSECTION 12_Timothy The Beloved Disciple Of St. Paul. His Life And Character._
The friendship between these two men of different gifts and very different ages is full of interest. It is difficult to estimate which of the two friends gained most from the affection and devotion of the other. No doubt Timothy's debt to St. Paul was immense: and which of us would not think himself amply paid for any …
834 wordsSECTION 13_Timothy The Beloved Disciple Of St. Paul. His Life And Character._
The dangers from which St. Paul thus generously endeavoured to shield Timothy, are those which beset many an ardent spirit, especially in England at the present day. Everywhere there is a cynical disbelief in human nature and a cold contempt for all noble impulses, which throw a damp and chilling atmosphere over societ…
460 wordsSECTION 14Chapter Iii.
[11] "Paul an ambassador, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ" is probably right in Philemon; but even there "Paul the aged" would be true. _THE DOCTRINE CONDEMNED IN THE PASTORAL EPISTLES A JEWISH FORM OF GNOSTICISM.--THE GNOSTIC'S PROBLEM._ "As I exhorted thee to tarry at Ephesus, when I was going into Macedon…
668 wordsSECTION 15Chapter Iii.
It is quite possible that the "fables," or "myths," and "genealogies" ought to be transferred from the Gnostic to the Jewish side of the account. And thus Chrysostom interprets the passage. "By fables he does not mean the Law; far from it; but inventions and forgeries, and counterfeit doctrines. For, it seems, the Jews…
800 wordsSECTION 16Chapter Iii.
The history of the next hundred and fifty years amply justifies the anxiety and severity of St. Paul. The germs of Gnostic error, which were in the air when Christianity was first preached, fructified with amazing rapidity. It would be hard to find a parallel in the history of philosophy to the speed with which Gnostic…
1,114 wordsSECTION 17Chapter Iii.
But this only carries us a short way towards a solution. Why did God allow the "aboriginal calamity" of sin to be possible? This was the Gnostic's difficulty, and it is our difficulty still. Can we say more than this by way of an answer? God willed that angels and men should honour Him with a voluntary and not a mechan…
374 wordsSECTION 18_The Moral Teaching Of The Gnostics.--Its Modern Counterpart._
[12] F. C. Baur himself contends that the false teachers here condemned are "Judaizing Gnostics, who put forth their figurative interpretation of the Law as true knowledge of the Law. Such were the earlier Gnostics, such as the Ophites and Saturninus" (_Protestant Commentary_, note on 1 Tim. i. 7). [13] _Expositor_, J…
709 wordsSECTION 19_The Moral Teaching Of The Gnostics.--Its Modern Counterpart._
On the ethical side the tenet that the human body is utterly evil produced two opposite errors,--asceticism and antinomian sensuality. And both of these are aimed at in these Epistles. If the enlightenment of the soul is everything, and the body is utterly worthless, then this vile clog to the movement of the soul must…
707 wordsSECTION 20_The Moral Teaching Of The Gnostics.--Its Modern Counterpart._
This word "sound" or "healthy" (=hygiainôn, hygiês=), as applied to doctrine,[17] is one of a group of expressions which are peculiar to the Pastoral Epistles, and which have been condemned as not belonging to St. Paul's style of language. He never uses "healthy" in his other Epistles; therefore these three Epistles, i…
828 wordsSECTION 21_The Moral Teaching Of The Gnostics.--Its Modern Counterpart._
It should be observed that here again everything falls into its proper place if we assume that the Pastoral Epistles were written some years later than the Epistle to the Colossians and some years earlier than those of St. Jude and St. John. The ascetic tendencies of Gnosticism developed first. And though they still co…
550 wordsSECTION 22Chapter V.
[17] 1 Tim. vi. 3; 2 Tim. i. 13, iv. 3; Tit. i. 9, 13, ii. 1, 2, 8. [18] The Revisers as a rule render =didaskalia= by "doctrine," as here, iv. 6, vi. 1, 3; 2 Tim. iv. 3; Tit. i. 9, ii. 1, 7, 10 (but not in iv. 13, 16, v. 17; 2 Tim. iii. 10, 16), while they render =didachê= by "teaching," as 2 Tim. iv. 2; Tit. i. 9, a…
886 wordsSECTION 23Chapter V.
It is worth pointing out that in this third charge against himself, as well as in the first, St. Paul goes beyond what he states in the similar passages in the Epistles to the Corinthians, Philippians, and Galatians. There he simply draws attention to the fact that he had been a persecutor who had made havoc of the Chu…
695 wordsSECTION 24Chapter V.
These concluding words are an important qualification. The Apostle constantly insists on his conversion as the result of a special revelation of Jesus Christ to himself, in other words a miracle: he nowhere hints that his conversion in itself was miraculous. No psychological miracle was wrought, forcing him to accept C…
677 wordsSECTION 25Chapter V.
Two of the changes made by the Revisers in this passage seem to call for notice: they both occur in the same phrase and have a similar tendency. Instead of "_putting_ me into the _ministry_" the R.V. gives us "_appointing_ me to His _service_." A similar change has been made in _v._ 7 of the next chapter, where "I was …
701 wordsSECTION 26Chapter Vi.
[23] It is worth while pointing out that the peculiar construction =ho episteuthên egô= occurs in the New Testament, only in the Pastoral Epistles and in other Pauline Epistles, the genuineness of which is now scarcely disputed--1 Thess. ii. 4; 1 Cor. ix. 17; Rom. iii. 2; Gal. ii. 7. [24] 1 Cor. xv. 8, 10; Gal. i. 13,…
921 wordsSECTION 27Chapter Vi.
The voice of prophecy, therefore, either pointed out Timothy as a chosen vessel for the ministry, or publicly ratified the choice which had already been made by St. Paul and others. But by whom was this voice of prophecy uttered? By a special order of prophets? Or by St. Paul and the presbyters specially inspired to ac…
693 wordsSECTION 28Chapter Vi.
So long as we bear these characteristics in mind, it matters little how we answer the question as to who it was that uttered the prophecies over Timothy at the time of his ordination. It may have been St. Paul and the presbyters who laid their hands upon him, and who on this occasion at any rate were endowed with the s…
977 wordsSECTION 29Chapter Vi.
The gradual cessation or discredit of the function of the Christian prophet is thoroughly intelligible. Possibly the spiritual gift which rendered it possible was withdrawn from the Church. In any case the extravagances of enthusiasts who deluded themselves into the belief that they possessed the gift, or of impostors …
360 wordsSECTION 30Chapter Vii.
[28] Chrysostom _in loco. Hom._ v. _sub init._ [29] Acts xvi. 6, 7, xxvii. 24; comp. xviii. 9, xx. 23, xxi. 4, 11, xxii. 17-21. _THE PUNISHMENT OF HYMENAEUS AND ALEXANDER.--DELIVERING TO SATAN AN EXCEPTIONAL INSTRUMENT OF PURIFICATION.--THE PERSONALITY OF SATAN._ "Holding faith and a good conscience; which some havi…
706 wordsSECTION 31Chapter Vii.
2. But the strength of language needs no apology, if the "delivering unto Satan" means something extraordinary, over and above excommunication. This, therefore, is an advantage which the second mode of interpreting the expression has at the outset. Excommunication was a punishment which the congregation itself could in…
757 wordsSECTION 32Chapter Vii.
These two passages,--the one before us, and the one respecting the case of incest at Corinth,--are conclusive as to St. Paul's teaching respecting the existence and personality of the devil. They are supported and illustrated by a number of other passages in his writings; as when he tells the Thessalonians that "Satan …
653 wordsSECTION 33Chapter Vii.
Those who, like Strauss and Renan, believe Jesus of Nazareth to have been a mere man, would naturally adopt the third view. In believing in the personality of Satan Jesus merely shared the superstitions of His age. To all those who wish to discuss with him whether we are still Christians, Strauss declares that "the bel…
630 wordsSECTION 34Chapter Viii.
[30] Dr. David Brown in Schaff's _Popular Commentary_, iii., p. 180. [31] Heb. xii. 5, 11; comp. 1 Cor. xi. 32; 2 Cor. vi. 9; 2 Tim. ii. 25; Luke xxiii. 16, 22: Soph., _Ajax_ 595; Xen., _Mem._ I. iii. 5. [32] 1 Thess. ii. 18; 2 Cor. xi. 14, xii. 7; 1 Pet. v. 8; 1 John iii. 8; John viii. 44. [33] Strauss, _Der alte u…
1,085 wordsSECTION 35Chapter Viii.
But there is no need to assume that Timothy, and those committed to his care, had been specially neglectful of this duty. To keep clearly in view our responsibilities towards the whole human race, or even towards the whole Church, is so difficult a thing for all of us, that the prominent place which St. Paul gives to t…
695 wordsSECTION 36Chapter Viii.
What shall we say, then, about the difficulty of realizing the solidarity of the whole human race? For they also are God's offspring, and as such are of one family with ourselves. If it is hard to remember that the welfare of the humblest member of a remote and obscure community in Christendom intimately concerns ourse…
1,034 wordsSECTION 37Chapter Viii.
When this most pressing obligation is duly discharged, then, and only then, can we hope with tranquil consciences to be able to live Christian lives in retirement from the rivalries and jealousies and squabbles of the world. Only in the attitude of mind which makes us pray and give thanks for our fellow-men is the tran…
651 wordsSECTION 38Chapter Ix.
This is the cause of so much of our failure in prayer. We do not couple our prayers with thanksgiving; or at any rate our thanksgivings are far less hearty than our prayers. We give thanks for benefits received by ourselves: we forget to give thanks "for all men." Above all, we forget that the truest gratitude is shown…
790 wordsSECTION 39Chapter Ix.
It is evident from this passage, as from 1 Cor. xiv., that in this primitive Christian worship great freedom was allowed. There is no Bishop, President, or Elder, to whom the right of leading the service or uttering the prayers and thanksgivings is reserved. This duty and privilege is shared by all the males alike. In …
861 wordsSECTION 40Chapter Ix.
"Without wrath and disputing:" that is, in the spirit of Christian peace and trust. Ill-will and misgiving respecting one another are incompatible with united prayer to our common Father. The atmosphere of controversy is not congenial to devotion. Christ Himself has told us to be reconciled to our brother before presum…
927 wordsSECTION 41Chapter Ix.
But there is no need to go to Corinth in the first century, or Alexandria and Carthage in the second and third, or Antioch in the fourth, in order to show that the Apostle was giving no unnecessary warning in admonishing Timothy respecting the dress and behaviour of Christian women, especially in the public services of…
350 wordsSECTION 42Chapter X.
[37] So Chrysostom _in loco_: but this is an exaggeration respecting Jewish limitations. [38] See Clement of Rome, _Cor._ xli. [39] _Didache_, x. 7; Just. Mart., _Apol._, 1. lxvii. Justin probably uses the term "president" =ho proestôs= in order to be intelligible to heathen readers. [40] _Strom._, VII. vii. [41] _…
693 wordsSECTION 43Chapter X.
At the outset it is necessary to place a word of caution as to what is meant, in a question of this kind, by _certainty_. There are no limits to scepticism, as the history of speculative philosophy has abundantly shown. It is possible to question one's own existence, and still more possible to question the irresistible…
901 wordsSECTION 44Chapter X.
This feature of the problem is sometimes represented by the useful metaphor that the history of the Church just at this period "passes through a tunnel" or "runs underground." We are in the light of day during most of the time covered by the New Testament; and we are again in the light of day directly we reach the time…
761 wordsSECTION 45Chapter X.
Three things come out very clearly from this passage, confirming what has been found in the New Testament. (1) There is a clear distinction made between clergy and laity. (2) This distinction is not a temporary arrangement, but is the basis of a permanent organization. (3) A person who has been duly promoted to the ran…
708 wordsSECTION 46Chapter X.
5. If we narrow our field and look, not at the whole Church, but at the Churches of Asia Minor and Syria, we may obtain yet another certainty from the obscure period which lies between the age of the Apostles and that of Dionysius and Irenaeus. The investigations of Lightfoot, Zahn, and Harnack have placed the genuinen…
720 wordsSECTION 47Chapter X.
3. The clergy were not elected by the congregation as its delegates or representatives, deputed to perform functions which originally could be discharged by any Christian. They were appointed by the Apostles and their successors or substitutes. Where the congregation selected or recommended candidates, as in the case o…
556 wordsSECTION 48Chapter Xi.
[47] See an admirable article on the Christian ministry by Dr. Salmon in the _Expositor_ for July, 1887; also the present writer's _Church of the Early Fathers_, pp. 58 ff.; 92 ff.; 2nd ed. Longmans, 1887. [48] Professor W. Milligan, D.D., on "The Idea of the Priesthood," in the _Expositor_ for July, 1888, p. 7. _THE…
708 wordsSECTION 49Chapter Xi.
But these grounds do not stand alone. There is the convincing evidence of the converse phrase, "wife of one husband." If men with more than one wife were very rare in the Roman Empire, what are we to think of women with more than one husband? Even among the barbarians outside the Empire, such a thing as a plurality of …
742 wordsSECTION 50Chapter Xi.
(_a_) The belief that St. Paul was opposed to the ordination of persons who had contracted a second marriage is reasonable in itself. A second marriage, although perfectly lawful and in some cases advisable, was so far a sign of weakness; and a double family would in many cases be a serious hindrance to work. The Churc…
700 wordsSECTION 51Chapter Xi.
Hermas, Clement of Alexandria, of course Tertullian, and among later Fathers, Chrysostom, Epiphanius, and Cyril, all write in disparagement of second marriages, not as sin, but as weakness. To marry again is to fall short of the high perfection set before us in the Gospel constitution. Athenagoras goes so far as to cal…
651 wordsSECTION 52Chapter Xi.
But there are Churches, and among them the Church of England, which disregard the Apostle's directions, in admitting those who have been more than once married to the diaconate, and even to the episcopate. What defence is to be made of an apparent laxity, which seems to amount to lawlessness? The answer is that there i…
583 wordsSECTION 53_The Relation Of Human Conduct To The Mystery Of Godliness._
[49] As the _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_ (vol. i. p. 324) has given its sanction to the view that "St. Paul _required_ the presbyter-bishop to have had the experience of marriage and with at least a preference for those who had brought up children (1 Tim. iii. 2, 4), and extended the requirement even to the de…
687 wordsSECTION 54_The Relation Of Human Conduct To The Mystery Of Godliness._
Why does St. Paul speak of the Truth as "the mystery of godliness"? In order to express both the Divine and the human aspects of the Christian faith. On the Divine side the Gospel is a mystery, a disclosed secret. It is a body of truth originally hidden from man's knowledge, to which man by his own unaided reason and a…
695 wordsSECTION 55_The Relation Of Human Conduct To The Mystery Of Godliness._
But here we come upon a highly interesting consideration. The words that follow look like a quotation from some primitive Christian hymn or confession. The rhythmical movement and the parallelism of the six balanced clauses, of which each triplet forms a climax, points to some such fact as this. It is possible that we …
908 wordsSECTION 56_The Relation Of Human Conduct To The Mystery Of Godliness._
"Seen of angels." It is impossible to determine the precise occasion to which this refers. Ever since the Incarnation Christ has been visible to the angels; but something more special than the fact of the Incarnation seems to be alluded to here. The wording in the Greek is exactly the same as in "_He appeared to_ Cepha…
784 wordsSECTION 57_The Comparative Value Of Bodily Exercise And Of Godliness._
[52] To take the "pillar and ground of the truth" as meaning Timothy makes sense, but not nearly such good sense: moreover, it is almost certain that if St. Paul had meant this, he would have expressed himself differently. There is no intolerable mixture of metaphors in speaking of Christians first as a house and then …
750 wordsSECTION 58_The Comparative Value Of Bodily Exercise And Of Godliness._
This then is one possible meaning of the Apostle's words in the passage before us. Discipline of the body by means of a severe rule of life is profitable for something: but it is not everything. It is not even the chief thing, or anything approaching to the chief thing. The chief thing is godliness. To the value of bod…
813 wordsSECTION 59_The Comparative Value Of Bodily Exercise And Of Godliness._
But there are no such drawbacks to the exercise of godliness. "Godliness is profitable for _all_ things, having promise" not only "of the life which now is, but of that which is to come." Its value is not confined to the things of this world, although it enriches and glorifies them all. And, unlike bodily exercise, its…
1,405 wordsSECTION 60_The Comparative Value Of Bodily Exercise And Of Godliness._
A practical appeal of this kind is found to be in the long run far more telling than exposition and argument. It may be impossible to get men to listen to, or take interest in, statements as to the principles and requirements of the Christian religion. You may fail to convince them that its precepts and demands are nei…
286 wordsSource & rights
Public domain in the USA; original historical text digitized by Project Gutenberg.
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Historical Christian writing; not Scripture.