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1Ti 6:20. Ὦ Τιμόθεε, O Timothy) He calls him familiarly his son, ch. 1Ti 1:18, with gravity and affection. What comes last in 1Ti 6:20-21, corresponds to the beginning of the epistle, and is to be explained from it.-τὴν παραθήκην, what is committed) 1Ti 1:18. So the commandment, 1Ti 6:14; 2Ti 1:14, note. The opposite in this passage is vain babblings, emptiness of words.-τὰς βεβήλους κενοφωνίας, profane and vain babblings) LXX., τοὺς κενολογιῦντας for המצפצפים, Isa 8:19. Barbarous words were formerly used by the Magi, which are said to have a secret power, though they have in reality none, and are altogether vain. Paul seems to have had respect to this circumstance, as he has substituted the more significant term; for φωνὴ, a voice, an utterance, expresses vehemence; comp. 2Ti 2:15-16, note, [where τὸν λόγον τῆς ἀληθείας is opposed to κενοφωνίας; the φωνὴ, implying vehemence of voice, being opposed to temperate speech or word, λόγος]. Moreover, the word γνῶσις agrees with the Hebrew ידעוני, a wizard, in the passage quoted above, which the Greeks, in the books of Samuel and Kings at least, have interpreted γνώστην [as we use the term, “a wise man,” of a dealer in magic, a wizard]. And in this way, Paul calls the false teachers by the terms signifying magi and magic, to show how much he held them in abomination: comp. γόητες, 2Ti 3:13. Clemens Al., l. 2, Strom. f. 280, puts under these words of Paul the following: ὑπὸ ταύτης ἐλεγχόμενοι τῆς φωνῆς οἱ ἀπὸ τῶν αἱρέσεων, τὰς πρὸς Τιμόθεον ἀθετοῦσιν ἐπιστολάς, “the heretics being reproved by this word (voice), reject the Epistles to Timothy.”-καὶ ἀντιθέσεις, and oppositions) A false γνῶσις, knowledge, curiously set forth (puffed off) various oppositions taken from philosophy, pretending that there are two Gods opposed to each other as rivals (ἀντιτέχνους), the one good and the other bad; and in both, that there are wonderful ἀντιστοιχίας, corresponding oppositions. Paul notices these oppositions, and at the same time severely ridicules them by a play on the words; because their teachers oppose themselves to the truth, and their θέσεις, positions [taken out of ἀντιθέσεις, oppositions], are contrary to the ‘foundation’ already laid. See the conjugates, ἀντιδιατιθεμένους and θεμέλιος, 2Ti 2:25; 2Ti 2:19. On the other hand, Paul himself, in his epistles, especially to Timothy, handles most wise oppositions or ἀντιθέσεις: for example, 1Ti 1:7-8; 1Ti 3:16; 1Ti 4:1; 1Ti 4:6-7; 1Ti 6:2-3; 1Ti 6:5-6; 1Ti 6:10-11, where we have expressly, But thou [marking an antithesis]. Moreo1Tim 1 Timothy 6 :2Ti 2:15-23, in which again the phrase, But thou, is frequent; ch. 1Ti 3:10; 1Ti 3:14, 1Ti 4:5.-ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως, of science falsely so called) which in 1Ti 6:21 is to be referred to science, by separating it from its epithet. The Gnostics, who are here denoted by a Metonymy of the abstract for the concrete, boasted of and applied the name science to their teaching; but Paul says that it was so named falsely; they are without understanding, ch. 1Ti 1:7.