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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Timothy 3:13 - 3:13
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Purchase (περιποιοῦνται)
Only here, Luk 17:33, and Act 20:28 on which see note. Purchase is unfortunate from the point of modern usage; but it is employed in its original sense of to win, acquire, without any idea of a bargain. So Bacon, Ess. iv. 14: “There is no man doth a wrong for the wrong's sake; but thereby to purchase himself profit, or pleasure, or honor, or the like.” And Shakespeare:
“Then, as my gift and thine own acquisition
Worthily purchased, take my daughter.”
Temp iv. 1, 14
Rend. acquire or obtain for themselves.
A good degree (βαθμὸν καλὸν)
Βαθμός, N.T.o. Primarily, a step. In lxx, 1Sa 5:5; Sir. 6:36, a threshold: 2Ki 20:9, a degree on the dial. In ecclesiastical writers, order, grade, rank: see, for instance, Eusebius, H. E. vii. 15. Also degree of relationship or affinity. Here the word apparently means a position of trust and influence in the church; possibly a promotion from the diaconate to the episcopate. Others (as De Wette, Ellicott, Pfleiderer) refer it to a high grade in the future life, which Holtzmann sarcastically describes as a ladder-round in heaven (eine Staffel im Himmel). John the Scholar, known as Climacus, a monk of the latter half of the sixth century, and Abbot of the Sinai Convent, wrote a mystical work entitled Κλίμαξ τοῦ Παραδείσου the Ladder of Paradise. The ladder, according to him, had thirty rounds.
Boldness (παρρησίαν)
Primarily, free and bold speaking; speaking out every word (πᾶν, ῥῆμα). Its dominant idea is boldness, confidence, as opposed to fear, ambiguity, or reserve. The idea of publicity is sometimes attached to it, but as secondary. Only here in the Pastorals: several times in Paul, as 2Co 3:12; 2Co 7:4; Phi 1:20. The phrase πολλή παρρησία much boldness is also Pauline. An assured position and blameless reputation in the church, with a pure conscience, would assure boldness of speech and of attitude in the Christian community and elsewhere.
In faith
Connect with boldness only. It designates the boldness as distinctively Christian, founded on faith in Christ