Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Timothy 1:1 - 1:1
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
According to the commandment (kat' epitagēn). A late Koiné[28928]š word (Polybius, Diodorus), but a Pauline word also in N.T. This very idiom (“by way of command”) in 1Co 7:6; 2Co 8:8; Rom 16:26; 1Ti 1:1; Tit 1:3. Paul means to say that he is an apostle under orders.
Of God our Saviour (theou sōtēros hēmōn). Genitive case with epitagēn. In the lxx sōtēr (old word from sōzō for agent in saving, applied to deities, princes, kings, etc.) occurs 20 times, all but two to God. The Romans called the emperor “Saviour God.” In the N.T. the designation of God as Saviour is peculiar to Luk 1:47; Jud 1:25; 1Ti 1:3; 1Ti 2:3; 1Ti 4:10; Tit 1:3; Tit 2:10; Tit 3:4. In the other Epistles Paul uses it of Christ (Phi 3:20; Eph 5:23) as in 2Ti 1:10. In 2Pe 1:1 we have “our God and Saviour Jesus Christ” as in Tit 2:13.
Our hope (tēs elpidos hēmōn). Like Col 1:27. More than the author and object of hope, “its very substance and foundation” (Ellicott).