ἆ3---χς,
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Πειλάτου τὴν καλὴν "ὁμολογίαν, 14. ἱτηρῆσαί σε τὴν ἐντολὴν h See ver. 12 " ἄσπιλον 1 ἀνεπίλημπτον μέχρι τῆς " ἐπιφανείας τοῦ Κυρίου ἡμῶν i2 Tim. iv.
Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ: 15. ἣν " καιροῖς "ἰδίοις δείξει ὁ
19, 2 Pet. iii. 14, not LXX. ii. 13. n Seer Tim. ii. 6.
poraries were acquainted with the general account of the trial of Jesus as therein described.
Ver. 14. τηρῆσαι κ.τ.λ.: The phrase τηρεῖν THY ἐντολήν, τὰς ἐντολάς οἵ τὸν λόγον, τοὺς λόγους is a common one; found in Matt. xix. 17, and especially in the Johannine writings; but wherever it occurs it means {ο obey or observe a command or a saying; whereas here it means fo preserve intact. Perhaps the two meanings were present to the apostle’s mind; and no doubt in actual experience they merge one into the other ; for a tradition is only preserved by obedi- ence to the demand which it makes for observance. This use of the verb and the similar τὴν πίστιν τετήρηκα, 2 Tim. iv. 7, mutually illustrate each other. τὴν ἐντολὴν τηρεῖν is probably equivalent to THY παραθήκην φυλάσσειν, understand- ing the tradition or deposit in the most comprehensive moral and spiritual sense, in which it is nothing else than “the law of the Gospel (cf. ἡ παραγγελία, i. 5), the Gospel viewed as a rule of life” (so Ell. and Alf.). St. Paul would not have distinguished this from the charge given to Timothy at his baptism. Cyril Jer. (Cat. v. 13), in quoting this passage, sub- Stitutes ταύτην τὴν παραδεδομένην πίστιν for ἐντολήν. This interpretation is per- missible so long as we do not divorce creed from character.
ἄσπιλον ἀνεπίλημπτον: These epithets present a difficulty somewhat similar to that presented by τηρῆσαι. ἄσπιλος is a personal epithet (though applied to οὐρανός, Job. xv. 15, Symm.); and so is ἀνεπίλημπτος. See reff. on both. Al- ford shows, after De Wette, by examples from Philo and Plato, that ἀνεπίλ. may be applied to impersonal objects, such as τέχνη; TO λεγόμενον. Nevertheless al- though it would be intolerably awkward to refer the adjectives to se—the ordinary construction with τηρεῖν being that the qualifying adj. should belong to its ob- ject, ¢.g., Tim. v. 22; Jas. i. 27; 2 Cor. xi. 9 (Alf.)—yet St. Paul had the personal reference to Timothy chiefly in his mind when he chose these words as qualifying ἐντολήν; and the R.V., which places a comma after commandment, possibly is
1 Seer Tim. iii. 2. ΟΣ Tim. i. 11.
ὃ . 7 see μακάριος καὶ note. k Jas. i. 27, 1 Pet. i. πι 2 Thess. ii. 8, 2 Tim. i. το, iv. 1, 8, Tit,
intended to suggest a similar view. The man and the word are similarly identified in the parable of the Sower (Matt. xiii. 19, etc.). If Timothy “keeps himself un- spotted”’ (Jas. i. 27) and “without re- proach,” the ἐντολή, so far as he is concerned, will be maintained flawless.
The Ancient Homily which used to be attributed to Clem. Rom. contains a sen- tence written in a similar tone (§8), τηρήσατε THY σάρκα ἁγνὴν Kal τὴν σφραγῖδα ἄσπιλον, ἵνα τὴν ζωὴν ἀπολά- βωμεν.
μέχρι τῆς ἐπιφανείας, κ.τ.λ.: Death may mark the close of our probation state; but we shall not render the ac- count of our stewardship until the ἐπιφάνεια. When the Pastorals were written the ἐπιφάνεια had in men’s thoughts of it receded beyond each man’s death. At an earlier period Christians set it before them as men now set death. In 2 Thess. ii. 8 the compound phrase occurs ἐπιφάν. τῆς παρουσίας αὐτοῦ. ἐπιφάνεια is the term used in the Pas- toral Epistles (see reff.); but the Second Coming of Christ is called παρουσία in 1 Cor. xv. 23; 1 Thess. ii. 19, iii. 13, iv. ES σαι ΣΤ ΠΟΒΗ πι τ Ἴπιο im ie 1g, ἐπιφάνεια includes the first manifesta- tion of Christ in the flesh; and this ap- plication of the term is in exact correspondence with its use in heathen sacred associations, where it denoted “ἃ conspicuous appearance or intervention of the higher powers on behalf of their worshippers’. The title ἐπιφανής, as- sumed by the Seleucid, meant a claim to be worshipped as an incarnation of Zeus or Apollo, as the case might be (see Moulton and Milligan, Expositor, vii., Vii. 380).