7. "τὸν " καλὸν ” ἀγῶνα
1 ας ἠγώνισμαι, τὸν *” δρόμον
Β , vi.12 and?° retéMexa, τὴν πίστιν Ἱτετήρηκα: 8. “λοιπὸν *dqdKertat μοι 6
1 Tim. iv. 1Ο. a Acts xili. ,
τῆς δικαιοσύνης "στέφανος, ὃν ἀποδώσει por ὁ Κύριος ἐν
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~ he < igs i Ln > , at Re BY ‘ ο μον ΕΠ ἡμέρᾳ, ὁ ᾿ δίκαιος ᾿ κριτής" οὐ µόνον δὲ ἐμοὶ ἀλλὰ καὶ πᾶσιν 24. τοῖς ἠγαπηκόσι τὴν * ἐπιφάνειαν αὐτοῦ. ς Matt. x. 23, Luke
Xil. 50, xviii. 41, xxii. 37, John xix. 28, 30, Acts xiii. 29, 2 Cor. xii. 9, etc.
e 2 Cor. xili. rr, 1 Thess. iv. 1.
and vi. 14. h See 2 Tim. i. 12.
ν. 4, Rev. ii. 10.
i Ps. vii. 11, 2 Macc. xii. 6, 41.
d See x Tim. v. 22 61 Cor. ix. 25, Jas. i. 12, 1 Pet. k See 1 Tim. vi. 14.
Col. i. 5, etc.
1 ἀγῶνα τὸν καλὸν DELP.
gens proximos servorum, addita voce, libare se liquoremillum Fovt Ltberatort” (Tac. Ann. xv. 64), and from Ignatius, “ Grant me nothing more than that I be poured out a libation (σπονδισθῆναι) to God, while there is yet an altar ready” (Rom. 2).
τῆς ἀναλύσεως: There is no figure of speech, such as that of striking a tent or unmooring a ship, suggested by ἀνά- λυσις. It was as common a euphemism for death as is our word departure. See the verb in Phil. i. 23, and, besides the usual references given by the commenta- tors, see examples supplied by Moulton and Milligan, Expositor, vii., v. 266. The Vulg. resolutionis is wrong. Dean Bernard calls attention to the ‘ verbal similarities of expression”’ between this letter to Timothy and Philippians, writ- ten when Timothy was with St. Paul, viz., σπένδομαι, ἀνάλυσις here and ἀναλῦσαι, Phil. i. 23, and the image of the race; there (Phil. iii. 13, 14) not completed, here finished, v. 7.
ἐφέστηκεν : ἱπείαέ (Vulg.), ts come (R.V.), ts already present, rather than ts at hand (A.V.), which implies a post- ponement. For similar prescience of approaching death compare 2 Pet. i. 14.
Ver..7. τὸν καλὸν ἀγῶνα ἠγώνισμαι: See note oni Tim. vi. 12. The follow- ing τὸν δρόμον, κ.τ.λ., makes this refer- ence to the games hardly doubtful.
τὸν δρόμον τετέλεκα : cursum consum- mavt (Vulg.). What had been a purpose (Acts xx. 24) was now a retrospect. To say ‘‘ My race is run,’’ is not to boast, but merely to state a fact. The figure is also found in x Cor. ix. 24, Phil. iii. 12. The course is the race of life; we must not narrow it, as Chrys. does, to St. Paul’s missionary travels.
τὴν πίστιν τετήρηκα: As in ii. 21, St. Paul passes from the metaphor to the reality. For the force of τηρέω here, see note on i Tim. vi. 14; and cf. Rev.
xiv. 12, οἱ τηροῦντες Tas ἐντολὰς τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὴν πίστιν ᾿Ιησοῦ. The faith is a deposit, παραθήκη, a trust which the Apostle is now ready to render up to Him who entrusted it to him. There is no real inconsistency between the tone of this passage and that of some in earlier epistles, e.g., Phil. iii. 12, 544. St. Paul is merely stating what the grace of God had done for him. A man does well to be distrustful as regards his use of the years of life that may remain to him; but when the life that he has lived has been admittedly lived ‘in the faith which is in the Son of God” (Gal. ii. 20), mock modesty becomes mischievous
‘ingratitude.
Ψετ. δ. λοιπόν: For what remains. The ΚΕΝ. renders it besides in τ Cor. i. 16, moreover in 1 Cor. iv. 2. The notion of duration of future time is not in the word any more than in the French du reste. St. Paul means here “I have- nothing more to do than to receive the crown’’. λοιπόν has the sense of in conclusion in 2 Cor. xiii. 11, 1 Thess. iv. 1, and does not differ from τὸ λοιπὸν as used in Phil. ii. 1, iv. 8, 2 Thess. ili. 1; or τοῦ λοιποῦ as used in Gal. vi. 17, Eph. vi. το. The meaning of τὸ λοιπόν in 1 Cor. vii. 29, Heb. x. 13 is henceforth.