John Bengel Commentary - 1 Timothy 1:12 - 1:12

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John Bengel Commentary - 1 Timothy 1:12 - 1:12


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1Ti 1:12. Χάριν ἔχω, I thank) A modal expression. [See Append. on Sermo Modalis.] These are correlatives: Christ entrusted Paul with the Gospel: Paul, being “accounted faithful,” ‘thanks’ Christ. He thanks Him at 1Ti 1:17; and in all his epistles and in their introductions.-ἐνδυναμώσαντι, who hath endued me with power) True conversion and calling confer power, Rom 5:6.-πιστόν με ἡγήσατο, counted me faithful) A Metonymy of the antecedent for the consequent; i.e. He hath entrusted to me the office of the Gospel ministry: θέμενος, while he put (in that He put me), denotes the very act. The fact that He entrusted the ministry to me, is the moral aspect: the fact that He put me into it, is as it were the physical aspect of His act. In the phrase, He counted me faithful, we have an example of ἀνθρωποπάθεια (the actions of men attributed to God). For if I count any one faithful, and trust him, this is a kind of thing opposite of actual knowledge.[10] But the Divine judgment concerning Paul, that he would he faithful, is infallible. God sees and knows all things. Therefore, in the active sense, ΠΊΣΤΙς does not properly apply to Him. Faith and vision are things antithetic. I wished to convey all this idea by the expression Metonymy, which I used above.

[10] That is to say, Trust in the faithfulness of a man can only strictly exist on the part of man. God knows all that is in man, and what he is about to do. Therefore trust in a man’s faithfulness only applies to God by ἀνθοωποπάθεια.-ED.