° ἀποστήσονταί τινες τῆς πίστεως,
καὶ διδασκαλίαις δαιμονίων 2. ἐν * ὑποκρίσει * ψευδολόγων,
IV. τ. Τὸ δὲ Πνεῦμα " ῥητῶς λέγει ὅτι ἐν " ὑστέροις καιροῖς
ὁ πλάνοις |
ἐ κεκαυ-
“ προσέχοντες πνεύμασι
e Here only as adj., cf. 2 John 7, Eph. iv. 14
{ο Macc. vi. 25, Gal. ii. 13, Matt. xxiii. 28, Mark xii. 15, Luke xii. 1, 1 Pet. ii. 1 h Here only, not LXX.
1 πλάνης P, 31, 37, twenty-four others, vg. (erroris), go., arm.
Winer-Moulton notes (Grammar, p. 326) that ἐπιστεύθη cannot be referred to πιστεύειν X@ but presupposes the phrase πιστ. Xov. Cf. 2 Thess. i. το.
ἀνελήμφθη ἐν δόξῃ: This is the verb used of the Ascension. See reff. Cf. ἀνάλημψις Luke ix. 51.
ἐν δόξῃ: ἐν has, in this case, a preg- nant sense, eis δόξαν καὶ ἐστὶν ἐν δόξῃ (Ε11.). See also reff., in which ἐν δόξῃ is a personal attribute of the glory that surrounds and transfigures a glorified spiritual person; but in this place δόξα means the place or state of glory; cf. Luke xxiv. 26, ἔδει .. . τὸν Χριστόν «ον εἰσελθεῖν εἰς τὴν δόξαν αὐτοῦ.
CHAPTER IV.—Vv. 1-5. Over against the future triumph of the truth, assured to us by the finished work of Christ, we must set the opposition, grievous at pre- sent, of the Spirit of error. His attacks have been foreseen by the Spirit of holi- ness. They are just now expressed in a false spirituality which condemns God’s good creatures of marriage and food.
Ver. I. τὸ δὲ πνεῦμα: The Apostle here passes to another theme, the mani- festation of religion in daily life. The connexion between this section and the last is as indicated above. There is a slightly adversative force in the connect- ing δέ.
The Spirit is the Holy Spirit Who speaks through the prophets of the New Dispensation, of whom St. Paul was one. Here, if the following prophetical utterance be his own, he speaks as if Paul under the prophetic influence had an activity independent of Paul the apostle.
ἐν ὑστέροις καιροῖς : The latter times, . of course, may be said to come before the last days, ἔσχαται ἡμέραι (Isa. ii. 2, eActs ii. 17, Jas. v. 3) 2 Pet. iii. 3; καιρὸς ἔσχατος, I Pet.i.5; ἔσχ- χρόνος, Jude 18).
But a comparison with 2 Tim. iil. 1, a passage very similar in tone to this, favours the opinion that the terms were not so distinguished by the writers of the N.T. In this sort of prophetical warning or denunciation, we are not in-
tended to take the future tense too strictly. Although the prophet intends to utter a warning concerning the future, yet we know that what he declares will be hereafter he believes to be already in active operation. It is a convention of prophetical utterance to denounce sins and sinners of one’s own time (τινες) under the form of a predictive warning. Cf. 2 Tim. iv. 3, ἔσται γὰρ καιρὸς, κ.τ.λ. It gives an additional impressiveness to the arraignment, to state that the guilty persons are partners in the great apos-
tacy, the culmination of the world’s revolt from God. τινες is intentionally vague. See note
on τ Dim. 4. 3. It is\ not used), asain Rom. iii. 3, of an indefinite number. πνεύμασι πλάνοις: As the Church is
guided aright by the Spirit of truth, He
is opposed in His beneficent ministra- tions by the Spirit of error, τὸ πνεῦμα τῆς πλάνης (τ John iv. 6), who is τὸ πνεῦμα τοῦ κόσμου, Whose agents work through individuals, the ‘‘many false prophets who have gone out into the world” (τ John iv. τ).
διδασκαλίαις δαιμονίων must be, in this context, doctrines taught by de- mons, a σοφία δαιμονιώδης (Jas. iii. 15). See Tert. de Praescr. Haeret. 7. The phrase does not here mean doc- trines about demons, demonology. Still less are heresiarchs here called demons. This is the only occurrence of δαιμόνιον in the Pastorals. In Acts xvii. 18 the word has its neutral classical meaning, ‘‘q divine being,” see also ver. 22; but elsewhere in the N.T. it has the LXX reference to evil spirits. For διδασκ. see note on chap. i. Io.