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1Ti_2:5. Εἷς γὰρ Θεός ] The particle γάρ connects this verse with the thought immediately preceding (Wiesinger), and not, as Leo and Mack think, with the exhortation to pray for all.[89] The apostle wishes by it to confirm the idea of the universality of the divine purpose of salvation as true and necessary: he does this first by pointing to the unity of God. There is a quite similar connection of ideas in Rom_3:30 (emphasis is laid on God’s unity in another connection in 1Co_8:6, and, in a third connection, in Eph_4:6). From the unity of God, it necessarily follows that there is only one purpose regarding all; for if there were various purposes for various individuals, the Godhead would be divided in its nature. As there is one God, however, so also there is one Mediator.
εἷς καὶ μεσίτης Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων ] The word ΜΕΣΊΤΗς [90] occurs elsewhere in the Pauline Epistles only in Gal_3:19-20, where the name is given to Moses, because through him God revealed the law to the people. Elsewhere in the N. T. the word is found only in Heb_8:6; Heb_9:15; Heb_12:24, and in connection with διαθήκης , from which, however, it cannot (with Schleiermacher and de Wette) be concluded that the idea mediator refers necessarily to the corresponding idea covenant. Christ is here named the μεσίτης Θεοῦ καὶ ἀνθρώπων , because He is inter Deum et homines constitutus (Tertullian). He is the Mediator for both, in so far as only through Him does God accomplish His purpose of salvation (His θέλειν ) regarding men, and in so far as only through Him can men reach the goal appointed them by God ( σωθῆναι καὶ εἰς ἐπίγν . ἀλ . ἐλθεῖν ). Hofmann says: “He is the means of bringing about the relation in which God wishes to stand towards men, and in which men ought to stand towards God.” As with the unity of God, so also is the unity of the Mediator a surety for the truth of the thought expressed in 1Ti_2:4, that God’s θέλειν refers to all men.
To define it more precisely, Paul adds: ἄνθρωπος Χριστὸς Ἰησοῦς . This addition may not, as Otto and others assume, have been occasioned by opposition to the docetism of the heretics. In other epistles of the N. T. special emphasis is laid on Christ’s humanity, with no such opposition to suggest it; thus Rom_5:15; 1Co_15:21; Php_2:7; Heb_2:16-17. In this passage the reason for it is contained first in the designation of Christ as the μεσίτης (Theodoret: ἄνθρωπον δὲ τὸν Χριστὸν ὠνόμασεν , ἐπειδὴ μεσίτην ἐκάλεσεν · ἐνανθρωπήσας γὰρ ἐμεσίτευσεν ); and further, in the manner in which Christ carried out His work of mediation, i.e., as the next verse informs us, by giving Himself up to death.[91]
[89] Van Oosterzee confuses the two references: “God’s universal purpose of salvation is here established in such a way that at the same time there is to a certain extent (!) an indication of a third motive for performing Christian intercessions.”
[90] Regarding the use of the word in classical Greek, comp. Cremer, s.v.—There is no necessity for Cremer’s opinion, that μεσίτης in the passages of Hebrews does not so much mean “mediator” as “surety.”
[91] The ἀνθρώπων suggested the ἄνθρωπος all the more naturally, that in the apostle’s consciousness the σωτηρία of men could be wrought only by a man. Only a man could reconcile men with God; only, indeed, the man of whom it was said ὃς ἐφανερώθη ἐν σαρκί (chap. 1Ti_3:16). Hofmann supposes that Christ Jesus is here called ἄνθρωπος , “in order to say that, as He became man to be mediator, He is therefore the mediator and saviour not of this or of that man, but of all men without distinction.” This thought, however, is more the ground of the εἷς , for even the mediator “of this or that man” might also be a man.