Ι.15--ἰῦ
οἱ ΤΊπ. ἱ. 45 μύθοις καὶ ἐντολαῖς ἀνθρώπων " ἀποστρεφομένων τὴν ἀλήθειαν.
p See2 Tim: i. 15.
q Luke xi. 41, Rom, Xiv. 20. 3 }
τ John xviii.) συνείδησις. 28, Heb. xii. 15,
ude 8. ci μα ἀγαθὸν "Σ ἀδόκιμοι. vi. 12.
t Seer Tim.
v. 8.
ili.3. w See 2 Tim. ii. 21 and 1 Tim. ii. το.
u Prov. xvii. 15, Ecclus. xli. 5, 2 Macc. i. 27 unly.
15. πάντα] “καθαρὰ τοῖς καθαροῖς - τοῖς δε ” μεμιαμμένοις καὶ ἀπίστοις οὐδὲν καθαρόν, ἀλλὰ " μεμίανται αὐτῶν καὶ ὃ νοῦς καὶ 16. Θεὸν “ὁμολογοῦσιν εἰδέναι, τοῖς δὲ ἔργοιϑ * ἀρνοῦνται, "βδελυκτοὶ ὄντες καὶ ᾿ ἀπειθεῖς καὶ πρὸς “ πᾶν 3 ἔργο"
v Luke i. 17, 2 Tim. iii. 2, Tit. x See 2 Tim. iii. 8.
liIns. μὲν NcDcKL, syrhcl; ins. yap boh, syrpesh,
nature of the μῦθοι referred to in these epistles. See on τ Tim. i. 4.
ἐντολαῖς ἀνθρώπων ἀποστρεφομένων : We are naturally reminded of Mark vii. 7, 8, with its antithesis between the ἐντάλματα ἀνθρώπων and ἐντολὴν τοῦ θεοῦ, and Col. ii. 22, where the same passage of Isaiah (xxix. 13) 1s echoed. But here the antithesis is not so strongly marked. The commandments are de- preciated, not because their authors are men, but because they are men who turn away from the truth, impure men (In x Tim. iv. 3 ‘they that believe and know the truth” are men whose thoughts are pure). The truth here, as elsewhere in the Pastorals, is almost a Christian technical term. It can hardly be doubted that the ἐντολαί referred to were of the same nature as those noted in Col. ii. 22, arbitrary ascetic prohibitions.
Ver. 15. πάντα καθαρὰ κ.τ.λ.: This is best understood as a maxim of the Judaic Gnostics, based on a perversion of the Saying πάντα καθαρὰ ὑμῖν ἐστιν (Luke xi. 41. Cf. Rom. xiv. 20; Mark vii. τὸ). St. Paul accepts it as a truth, but not in the intention of the speaker ; and answers, τοῖς δὲ μεμιαμμένοις κ.τ.λ. The passage 15 thus, as regards its form, parallel to x Cor. vi. 12 sqqg., where St. Paul cites, and shows the irrelevancy of, two pleas for licence: ‘‘ All things are lawful for me,’ and ‘ Meats for the belly, and the belly for meats ’”’. _ τοῖς καθαροῖς is of course the dat. commodi, for the use of the pure, in theiy case, as in the parallels, Luke xi. 41, I Tim. iv. 3; not in the judgment of the pure, as in Rom. xiv. 14.
τοῖς δὲ μεμιαμμένοις, κ.τ.λ.: The order of the words is to be noted: their moral obliquity is more characteristic of them than their intellectual perversion. The satisfaction of natural bodily desires (for it is these that are in question) is, when lawful, a pure thing, not merely innocent,
‘Cant.
in the case of the pure; it is an impure thing, even when lawful, in the case of “them that are defiled’’. And for this reason: their intellectual apprehension (vous) of these things is perverted by defiling associations ; ‘ the light that is in them is darkness ;’’ and their conscience has, from a similar cause, lost its sense of discrimination between what is inno- cent and criminal. That any action with which they themselves are familiar could be pure is inconceivable to them. ‘‘ When the soul is unclean, it thinks all things unclean’’ (Chrys.). The statement that the conscience can be defiled is signifi- While conscientious scruples are to be respected, yet, if the conscience be defiled, its dictates and instincts are un- reliable, false as are the song-efforts of one who has no ear for music.
Ver. 16. θεὸν ὁμολογοῦσιν εἰδέναι : “We know God’’; that was their pro- fession of faith. They “ gloriedin God,” Rom. ii. 17. Thisis an allusion to the Jewish pride of religious privilege. Weiss points out that this phrase alone is sufficient to prove that the heretics in question are not the Gnostics of the second century (Hort, ¥udaistic Chris- tianity, p. 133). See the use of the phrase in Gal. iv. 8, 1 Thess. iv. 5. Compare 2 Tim. iii. 5, “ Holding a form of godli- ness, but having denied the power there- of’’; also x John ii. 4. There is here the constant antithesis between words and deeds.