Cu. VI.) THE FIRST EPISTLE TO TIMOTHY. 279
13. Quickeneth ({woyovotvros). OP. Rend. who pre- serveth alive. Quickeneth is according to the reading fw- orrotovvtos maketh alive. Comp. LXX, Ex. i. 17; Judg. vill. 19. This association of God as the preserver with confession is noteworthy in Matt. x. 28-338.
Witnessed a good confession (uaptupycavtos tHv Kadjv ouoroylav). Better, the or his good confession. The phrase is unique. The good confession is the historical confession of Jesus before Pilate, which is the warrant for the truthful- ness of Timothy’s confession. Christ is called “the faithful and true witness” (waptus), Apoc. i. 5; iii. 14. It is true that wdptus was used very early of those who laid down their lives for the truth (see Acts xxii. 20; Apoc. ii. 13), and Polycarp speaks of 76 waptipiov Tod otaupod the witness of the eross (Philip. vii.); but this did not become general until after the end of the second century.*
Before Pontius Pilate. The mention of Pontius Pilate in connection with the crucifixion is of constant occurrence in early Christian writings. See Ignatius, Magn. xi; Tral. ix; Smyrn.i. It has been supposed that these words were taken from a liturgical confession in which the Christian faith was professed.
14. Commandment (évToA7v). Usually of a single com- mandment or injunction, but sometimes for the whole body of the moral precepts of Christianity, as 2 Pet. ii. 21; ili. 2. The reference may be explained by 4 apayyedta the com-
-mandment, ch. i. 5, meaning the gospel as the divine standard of conduct and faith. Comp. 2 Tim. i. 14. The phrase Tnpeiv THY éevtorAny to keep the commandment is Johannine. See J cya lpecls xvid; 1. J, icd, 4391.22, 24 :v9.
Without spot (domiAov). Unsullied. Comp. Jas. i. 27; MPetsi 019-02 Pet. in. 14.
* See Hegesippus in Eusebius, H. Z. iii. 20, 32, and the Epistle of the churches of Vienne and Lyons to the churches of Asia and Phrygia, Eusebius, HOE. Ves 1.
980 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. VI.
Appearing (émipavefas). See on 2 Th. ii. 8. Inthe Books of Maccabees it is used to describe appearances and inter- ventions of God for the aid of his people. See 2 Mace. ii. 91; iii. 24; xiv. 15; xv. 27; 3 Mace. v.86, 51: In 2 Tim. iv. 18, and Tit. ii. 18, it denotes, as here, the second coming of Christ. In 2 Tim. i. 10, his historical manifestation, for which also the verb éwifaivew is used, Tit. ii. 11; iii. 4. For the Lord’s second advent Paul commonly uses rrapovcia presence ; once the verb davepodv to make manifest (Col. iii. 4), and once aoxddvys revelation (2 Th. i. 7). It is quite possible that the word émipdvea, so characteristic of these Epistles, grew out of the Gnostic vocabulary, in which it was used of the sudden appearing of the hitherto concealed heavenly aeon, Christ. This they compared to a sudden light from heaven; and Christ, who thus appeared, though only docetically, without an actual fleshly body, was styled coTnp saviour, although his oneness with the God of creation was denied. The Creator and the Redeemer were not the same, but were rather opposed. Christ was only a factor of a great cosmological process of development. As Neander observes: “The distinctive aim of the Gnostics was to appre- hend the appearance of Christ and the new creation proceeding from nim in their connection with the evolution of the whole universe.”
15. In his times (xacpois idtos). Better, his own seasons, or its own seasons. Ljither the seasons proper to the appear- ing, or the seasons which God shall see fit to select. See on chilis,
Potentate (dvvdorns). Only here of God. Very often in LXX. See Sir. xlvi. 5; 2 Macc. xii. 15, etc. In Class. applied to Zeus (Soph. Antig. 608). In Aesch. Agam. 6, the stars are called Aapmrpol duvdora: bright rulers, as the regulators of the seasons.