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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 1 Timothy 3:1 - 3:1
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1Ti_3:1. After speaking of the behaviour of men and women in the church-assemblies, Paul goes on to give instructions regarding the proper qualifications of office-bearers in the church. He begins emphatically with the introductory words: πιστὸς ὁ λόγος , which here, as in 1Ti_1:15, do not refer to what precedes (Chrysostom, Erasmus, and others), but to what follows.
εἴ τις ἐπισκοπῆς ὀρέγεται ] Since ἐπισκοπή corresponds with ἐπίσκοπος in 1Ti_3:2, the word does not denote here generally “the office of one who is set over others” (Hofmann), but specially “the office of a bishop;” for only in this way can the inferences in 1Ti_3:2 f. be drawn from what is said here. Why the previous words πιστὸς ὁ λόγος should not be in agreement with this, we cannot understand.
Ἐπισκοπή has a similar meaning in Act_1:20, where it denotes the office of apostle; comp. Meyer on the passage. In the N. T. the word usually means “the visitation.”
ὀρέγεται does not necessarily imply here, as de Wette thinks, the notion of ambitious striving; comp. Heb_11:16.
The ground of the ὀρέγεσθαι may indeed be ambition, but it may also be the zeal of faith and love. The apostle does not blame the ὀρέγεσθαι in itself; he merely asks us to consider that the ἐπισκοπή is a καλὸν ἔργον , and that not every one therefore may assume it.
καλοῦ ἔρου ἐπιθυμεῖ ] Leo and others take ἔργον here in the sense of τί ; but it seems more correct to hold by the meaning: “work, business” (Luther, Matthies, de Wette, Wiesinger, Hofmann, and others); comp. 2Ti_4:5 : ἔργον ποίησον εὐαγγελιστοῦ ; 1Th_5:13, where the church is exhorted διὰ τὸ ἔργον αὐτῶν to the love of the προϊστάμενοι . It is, however, very doubtful, to say the least, that the word is chosen to lay stress on the thought that the ἐπισκοπή is an office of work and not of enjoyment (Jerome: “opus, non dignitatem, non delicias;” Bengel: “negotium, non otium”).
καλοῦ , see 1Ti_1:18; 2Ti_4:7.