dvri\a/j,(3av6/j,syoi, [Eng. Vers. partakers of the benefit, but Bengel] subserving the [divine] beneficence) Beneficence is the beneficence of God, as the word, the name, the Spirit* the wrath, stand for the word of God, the name of God, etc. Believing masters, as being benefactors [ivspy&rai, taken out of guspygcv'ag], subserve this bene ficence. Believers experience the heavenly beneficence towards men, and subserve it ; for example, masters towards their house hold, and through their household towards others. This by implication teaches also believing masters their duty : ver. 17 also teaches it.
3. ' Erspodioa,<f>ta\e?j teach otherwise) The antithesis is, teach, in ver. 2. The conclusion thus corresponding to the beginning of the discussion, ch. i. 3. — pr\ -TrpoGsp^srai, accede [consent] not) Seneca has, " accedere opinioni," to accede or consent to an opinion : and so others, as we find in Pricseus.
4. TsT-jpcijTai, /Aqdsv sviffTu/Asvoi;) Harpocration : rsru^w/a-a/, avrl roD sfAJSefSpovrTifAaiy l^w ruv ppsvuv ysyova, x.r.X. reTvtpuf&ai for s/jt,(3s(3p6i/rr)/j,ai, I am gone out of my senses. Compare Raphelius ad Polyb. — f^dsv zward'Asvog, knowing nothing) although he claims knoivledge to himself: comp. ch. i. 7. — votuv Kepi, sick ['doting'], or morbid, about) The antithesis is ivholesome, ver. 3. Plut. : voffsTv vspi do^av, Ktpi (uppuyidia «roXurgXSj, to be sick for glory, for expensive seals (signets). — Xo/o/^a^/ac, strifes of words) 2 Tim. ii. 14, note.1 — Jg uv y'mrai, from which cometh) Ib. ver. 23. — 6pi(9 contention) Tit. iii. 9. — vvowiai Kovrtpai, evil surmisings) by which those who do not at once agree to all things, are regarded as enemies (objects of odium).
5. AiawaparpifBot,}) 5/arp//3^, a scholastic disputation or treatise. The insertion of ca/?d renders it significant of something per verse, as xara,70fj,q for vepiro/Ariy Phil. iii. 2. It is opposed to accede (consent), ver. 3. — dia<7raparpi(3ai die<p0ctpft'evuv avdpunuv) per verse disputings, which only become men of corrupt minds, 2 Tim. iii. 8 : men corrupted in mind. — wpifyvruvj thinking) i.e. inasmuch as they think, for there is no and put before it ; comp. Rom. ii. 18, 20 ; 2 Tim. ii. 21 ; Heb. vi. 6, where the use of the participles is the same. — vopie^v) a gain2 (means of
1 Not as Engl. Vers. of 2 Tim. ii. 14, " Strifes about words," but « strifes in (i.e. by means of) words about" most momentous subjects.— ED.
3 The article before sites Ssixv, and not before Trooiapov, show the construe-