1 Timothy 3

Chap. III. Ver. 1—16. How bishops, deacons, and their Some, however, supply the word, first, from the preceding verse—Act not (first) ecckved;” but we doubt the propriety of this supplement. matot mepcads upon the Christian character and conduct of his wife. In the close of this chapter, we are introduced to the temple of truth, which is the Christian church, in which the apostles and evangelists, (of which last Timothy was one,) are to be considered as pillars, and Christ as the foundation. So Dr. Lightfoot tells us, that the members of the great Sanhedrim were called pillars of the truth; and St. Paul himself applies the term pillars to James, Cephas, and John, as pillars of the Christian church, ((Galatians 2:9):) but in (Revelation 2:12), every Christian conqueror is promised to be made a pillar in the temple above. The apostle’s design may then be, to admonish Timothy of the importance of his being steadfast in the doctrines and duties of Christianity, since he was himself to be a pillar in the church of God, which church itself was to be the great support of truth, since without a visible church, it could not be maintained on earth. The concluding verse gives an abstract of the principal points which compose the great mystery of Christianity, so called in opposition to, and in distinction from, the mysteries of Paganism, which were neither sublime in themselves, nor pious in their practical tendency and effect.

This mystery comprehends, 1. The incarnation of Christ—God manifested in the flesh.—2. The resurrection of Christ, which we consider to be the import of the expression, justified in the Spirit; for he was “declared to be the Son of God with power, according to the Spirit of Holiness, (or Holy Spirit,) by his resurrection from the dead.” ((Romans 1:4).) This was a complete justification of his character and pretensions, as the Son of God; and, at the same time, as his resurrection implies his previous death, it includes the doctrine of his atonement.—3. He was seen of angels—seems to refer to his intercourse with spirits, both evil and good; with the former of whom he had mysterious conflicts, in the various scenes of his temptation, passion, and resurrection; and by the latter of whom he was assisted and consoled.—4. Preached unto the Gentiles—the mystery which St. Paul speaks of as “hidden in God from the beginning of the world.” ((Ephesians 3:9).) 5. Believed on in the world—yea, in almost all parts of the then known world. ((Romans 10:18).) 6th and lastly, Received up into glory, and exalted to the right hand of God, ((Acts 1:24, 30, 33).) These events compose a great part (though not the whole) of the mysteries of Christianity. That they are not regularly arranged, is not to be wondered at in St. Paul, whose rapid pen records events, not always according to the order of their occurrence, but in the order in which they presented themselves to his vivid ima-

Notes on the verses

Ver. 7. I speak the truth.—See (Romans 9:1), and note.; Ver. 9 In modest apparel, &c.—Doddridge, “In decent apparel, with modesty and sobriety.” ——Array.—Doddridge, “garments.” Ver. 13. Adam was first formed.—See (1 Corinthians 9:9), and note. Ver. 14. Adam was not deceived.—Namely, by the serpent, with whom he appears to have held no converse; but probably partook of the forbidden fruit to gratify his wife, and to share her fate. See Parad. Lost, bk. ix. 952, &c.— Ver. 15. She shall be saved.—Macknight refers this to the woman in the preceding Verse viz. be big herself saved through the promised seed, which eventually sprang from her. 3. W Chap. III. Ver. 2. The ege of one eae e. of one only; no polygamist.—Apt—Doddridge, “fiv’—to teach..

Ver. 3. Not greedy of filthy lucre—Or sordid gain.—Not a brawler—i. e. not co 1907 Ver. 6. Not a novice.—Macknight, “Not a new convert.”——The condemnation of the devil—That is, pride, Ver. 8. Not double tongued—What is, says D. Turner, “not deceitful, saying and unsaying.” Ver. 10. Then let them use, &c.—Doddridge, “If they be found blameless, let them use the office of a deacon.” Ver. 11. Even so must their wives be grave.—So the passage is generally understood; Macknight, however, renders it after the Vulgate—“The woMEN in like manner must be grave”—referring it to the deaconesses, or female presbyters, who were employed in visiting and instructing their own sex: and so he tells us it was understood by Chrysostom and other Greek, as well as Latin fathers; and it is certain the same Greek word is used indifferently for both “wives” and “women.” Ver. 15, 16. Pillar and ground—Margin, “stay”—of the truth.—The passage is difficult, and has been variously rendered. We shall give two or three, which appear to us the most probable, interpretations. 1. As by our translators, and many others. 2. Henderson would render the passage—“The pillar and establishment of the truth, and incontrovertibly great is the mystery of godliness: God manifested himself in the flesh,” &c.; and this, he says, has the sanction of the principal dignitaries of the Greek church in Russia. (Travels in Russia, p. 123.) 3. A third interpretation is that of Pye Smith, (pay borrowed from Dr. Cramer, of Kiel,) “‘These precepts I write unto thee, hoping to come to thee very soon, but if I should be longer than I expect, that thou mayest know how thou oughtest to conduct thyself in the house of God, which is the church of the living God (—the pillar and foundation of the truth, and confessedly great is this mystery of religion!—) who was manifested in human nature, &c.

(See Smith’s answer to Taylor’s Maximes p. rs an er. 16, And without controversy…. God was manifest (or manifested) in the flesh, &c.—Where is confessedly a doubt as i tho. oragta ere ing, whether it should be, “God was manifested in the flesh?” or, “WHO (or which) was manifested;” the difference being small in the original and unimportant, since the title God (or Theos) (though in this text omitted by Griesbach,) is in other passages applied to Christ, as (John 1:1), &c. The Unitarian version reads, “HE who was manifested in the flesh;” and without a masculine pronoun it seems difficult to make any sense of the passage; a mystery might be “manifested,” but the term would by no means answer to the other particulars—it could not be “received up into glory.”