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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comVincent Word Studies - 1 Timothy 5:12 - 5:12
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
Having damnation (ἔχουσαι κρίμα)
The phrase only here. See on 1Ti 3:6. Damnation is an unfortunate rendering in the light of the present common understanding of the word, as it is also in 1Co 11:29. Better, judgment or condemnation, as Rom 3:8; Rom 13:2. The meaning is that they carry about with them in their new, married life a condemnation, a continuous reproach. Comp. 1Ti 4:2; Gal 5:10. It should be said for the translators of 1611 that they used damnation in this sense of, judgment or condemnation, as is shown by the present participle having. In its earlier usage the word implied no allusion to a future punishment. Thus Chaucer
“For wel thou woost (knowest) thyselven verraily
That thou and I be dampned to prisoun.”
Knight's T. 1175.
Wiclif: “Nethir thou dredist God, that thou art in the same dampnacioun?” Luk 23:40. Laud.: “Pope Alexander III. condemned Peter Lombard of heresy, and he lay under that damnation for thirty and six years.” “A legacy by damnation” was one in which the testator imposed on his heir an obligation to give the legatee the thing bequeathed, and which afforded the legatee a personal claim against the heir.
They have cast off their first faith (τὴν πρώτην πίστιν ἠθέτησαν)
Ἁθετεῖν is to set aside, do away with, reject or slight. See Mar 6:26; Luk 10:16; Heb 10:28. Often in lxx. Πίστιν is pledge: so frequently in Class. with give and receive. See, for instance, Plato, Phaedr. 256 D. In lxx, 3 Macc. 3:10. The phrase πίστιν ἀθετεῖν N.T.o. olxx. There are, however, a number of expressions closely akin to it, as Gal 3:15, διαθήκην ἀθετεῖν to render a covenant void. In lxx with oath, 2Ch 36:13. Psalm 14:4: “He that sweareth to his neighbor καὶ οὐκ ἀθετῶν.” Psalm 88:34; 131:11; 1 Macc. 6:62. The meaning here is, having broken their first pledge; and this may refer to a pledge to devote themselves, after they became widows, to the service of Christ and the church. The whole matter is obscure.