* The reading rdxuov or raxetov more quickly, is preferred by Tischendort and Weiss. The comparative would signify sooner than these instructions presuppose.
{ Holtzmann makes an ingenious plea for apposition with deo God, though he does not decisively adopt it. Others explain as beginning the following clause, thus: ‘' A pillar and stay of the truth, and confessedly great, is the mystery of godliness.’? This is quite inadmissible, as is the reference of the words to Timothy.
Cu. III] THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 239
is quite beside the mark to press the architectural metaphor into detail. By giving to édpaéwua the sense of stay or prop, the use of the two words for the same general idea is readily explained. The church is the pillar of the truth, and the function of the pillar is to support.*
16. Without controversy (ouoroyoupdvas). Lit. confess- edly AN. T.°.
The mystery of godliness (76 tijs evoeBeias pvotnptov). (a) The connection of thought is with the truth (ver. 15), and the words mystery of godliness are a paraphrase of that word. The church is the pillar and stay of the truth, and the truth constitutes the mystery of godliness. (6) The contents of this truth or mystery is Christ, revealed in the gospel as the Saviour from ungodliness, the norm and inspir- ation of godliness, the divine life in man, causing him to live unto God as Christ did and does (Rom. vi. 10). See ch. i. 15; ii. 5; Col. i. 26, 27. According to the Fourth Gospel, Christ is himself the truth (J. xiv. 6). The mystery of godliness is the substance of piety = mystery of the faith (ver. 9). (¢) The truth is called a mystery because it was, historically, hidden, until revealed in the person and work of Christ ; also because it is concealed from human wisdom, and apprehended only by faith in the revelation of God through Christ. (d) The genitive, of godliness, is possess- ive. The mystery of godliness is the truth which pertains or belongs to godliness. It is not the property of worldly wisdom. (Great (wéya) means important, weighty, as Eph. v. 82.
God (es). But the correct reading is és who.t The
* Dr, Briggs, Messiah of the Apostles, p. 229, thinks that the whole church is conceived as a pillar uplifting a platform or basis (é6patwua) on which the truth rests. Besides being contrary to the true sense of édpalwyua, this explan- ation compels a very awkward metaphor.
+ Those who are interested in the details of the controversy over this read- ing, may consult S. P. Tregelles, An Account of the Printed Text of the Greek New Testament, p. 165; and F. H. A. Scrivener, Introduction to the Criticism of the New Testament, 4th ed. Vol. IL. 390-895.
240 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. (Ca. IIL
antecedent of this relative is not mystery, as if Christ were styled “the mystery,” but the relative refers to Christ as an antecedent ; and the abruptness of its introduction may be explained by the fact that it and the words which follow were probably taken from an ancient credal hymn. In the earlier Christian ages it was not unusual to employ verse or rhythm for theological teaching or statement. The heretics propounded their peculiar doctrines in psalms. Clement of Alexandria wrote a hymn in honour of Christ for the use of catechumens, and Arius embodied his heresy in his Thalia, which was sung in the streets and taverns of Alexandria. The Muratorian Canon was probably composed in verse. In the last quarter of the fourth century, there are two metrical lists of Scripture by Amphilochius and Gregory Nazianzen.*
Was manifest (éfavepon). More correctly, was mant- fested. The verb is used J.i.2; Heb. ix. 26; 1 Pet. i. 20; 1 J. iii. 5, 8, of the historical manifestation of Christ; and of the future coming of Christ in Col. iii. 4; 1 Pet. v. 4; NM We teig