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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comRobertson Word Pictures - 1 Timothy 1:15 - 1:15
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Faithful is the saying (pistos ho logos). Five times in the Pastorals (1Ti 1:15; 1Ti 3:1; 1Ti 4:9; Tit 3:8; 2Ti 2:11). It will pay to note carefully pistis, pisteuō, pistos. Same use of pistos (trustworthy) applied to logos in Tit 1:9; Rev 21:5; Rev 22:6. Here and probably in 2Ti 2:11 a definite saying seems to be referred to, possibly a quotation (hoti) of a current saying quite like the Johannine type of teaching. This very phrase (Christ coming into the world) occurs in Joh 9:37; Joh 11:27; Joh 16:28; Joh 18:37. Paul, of course, had no access to the Johannine writings, but such “sayings” were current among the disciples. There is no formal quotation, but “the whole phrase implies a knowledge of Synoptic and Johannine language” (Lock) as in Luk 5:32; Joh 12:47.
Acceptation (apodochēs). Genitive case with axios (worthy of). Late word (Polybius, Diod., Jos.) in N.T. only here and 1Ti 4:9.
Chief (prōtos). Not ēn (I was), but eimi (I am). “It is not easy to think of any one but St. Paul as penning these words” (White). In 1Co 15:9 he had called himself “the least of the apostles” (elachistos tōn apostolōn). In Eph 3:8 he refers to himself as “the less than the least of all saints” (tōi elachistoterōi pantōn hagiōn). On occasion Paul would defend himself as on a par with the twelve apostles (Gal 2:6-10) and superior to the Judaizers (2Co 11:5.; 2Co 12:11). It is not mock humility here, but sincere appreciation of the sins of his life (cf. Rom 7:24) as a persecutor of the church of God (Gal 1:13), of men and even women (Act 22:4.; Act 26:11). He had sad memories of those days.