διὰ τὸ στόμαχον: Wetstein’s happy quotation from Libanius, Epist. 1578 must not be omitted: πέπτωκε καὶ ἡμῖν ὃ στόμαχος ταῖς συνεχέσιν ὑδροποσίαις.
Ver. 24. The connexion of this general statement is especially with ver. 22. The solemn warning against the awful conse- quences of an ill-considered moral judg- ment on those condemned was calculated to overwhelm a weak man with anxiety. Here the apostle assures Timothy that in actual practical experience the moral diag- nosis of men’s characters is not so per- plexing as might be supposed anteced- ently. The exegesis of προάγουσαι and ἐπακολουθοῦσιν depends on the view we take of κρίσις ; viz., whether it refers to a judgment passed by man in this world, or to the final doom pronounced by God in the next. κρίσις is used of such a judgment as man may pass, in John viii. 16, 2 Peter ii. 11, Jude 9; though the-
ὥ
τισὶν δὲ καὶ " ἐπακολουθοῦσιν: 25. ᾿ ὡσαύτως καὶ τὰ «έργα τὰ ε Mark xvi.
® καλὰ 2 “ πρόδηλα, καὶ τὰ ἢ ἄλλως ἔχοντα κρυβῆναι οὐ δύνανται.
I. Ὅσοι εἰσὶν
20, 1 Pet. li, 21. ο]. ver. 1Ο,
4
ὑπὸ "ζυγὸν δοῦλοι τοὺς ἰδίους " δεσπότας f Seer Tim
ii. 9.
πάσης τιμῆς ἀξίους " ἡγείσθωσαν, “iva μὴ τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ ε 3εε: Τίπι.
Ν.Τ. 24 (Isa. 111. 5).
11ῃ5. δὲ AFG, f, g, go.
a Ecclus. li. 26, Zech. iii. 9, Jer. xxxiv. (xxvii.) 8, rz. 2,3 Lim: 1]. 21, Lit. 11.19, 1 Pet. 11: 18;2 Pet. ti. 1.
iii. 1. h Hereonly, Ὁ Luke ii. 29, τ Tim. vi. 1,
c See 1 Tim. i. 12. d Tit. ii. 5, Kom. ii.
3 τὰ καλὰ ἔργα KL.
3 Add ἐστι KL; add εἰσὶ DFGP, 17, 67”, five others. 4So ADP, 17, 47, 67, more than thirty-five others; δύναται NFGKL.
word is more frequently used of the Great final Judgment. If, asis generally allowed, these verses, 24 and 25, are resumptive of νετ. 22, the κρίσις here indicated is that of the Church tuler, Timothy in this case, deciding for or against the admission of men to com- munion (or to ordination). It is evident that the final Judgment of God, which ΠΟ one can certainly forecast, cannot help or hinder a decision made in this life by one man about another. The meaning, then, of the clause is as fol- lows: In the case of some men, you have no hesitation as to your verdict; their sins are notorious and force you to an adverse judgment. With regard to others, your suspicions, your instinctive feeling of moral disapproval, comes to be confirmed and justified by subsequent revelation of sins that had been con- cealed. This is, in the main, the expla- nation adopted by Alford.
πρόδηλοι: Not open beforehand (A.V.), but evident (R.V.), manifesta sunt (Vulg.). as in Heb. vii. 14 (neut.). The προ is not indicative of antecedence in time, but of publicity, as in προεγράφη, Gal. iii. τ.
προάγουσαι: It is best to take this in a transitive sense, as in Acts xii. 1, xvii. 5, xxv. 26, of bringing a prisoner forth to trial. Here the object of the verb is understood out of τινῶν ἀνθρώπων. The men are in the custody of their sins, which also testify against them. In the other case, the witnesses—the sins—do not appear until the persons on trial have had sentence pronounced on them. We supply els κρίσιν after ἐπακολου- θοῦσιν.
Ver. 25. ὡσαύτως here, as in chap. ii. 9, naturally introduces an antithesis to what has gone before; and this deter- mines the meaning of τὰ ἄλλως ἔχοντα ; not as ἔργα which are not καλά, but as ἔργα καλά which are not πρόδηλα; and justifies the R.V. rendering, There are
good works that are evident. The next clause is parallel to the corresponding part of ver. 24: Sins and good works alike cannot be successfully and indefi- nitely concealed; they follow—are dis- closed some time or other in justification of—the κρίσις of men. The literal ren- dering in R.V. m., The works that are good are evident, could only be de- fended by laying emphasis on καλά, ‘“good in appearance as well as in reality’’; but καλὰ ἔργα is of frequent occurrence in these epistles without any such special signification; see on iii. 1; and this rendering deprives ὡσαύτως of any force. Von Soden thinks that we have here a reference to the sayings in Matt. v. 14-16.