Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadHeinrich Meyer Commentary - 1 Timothy 5:8 - 5:8
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
1Ti_5:8. Εἰ δέ τις τῶν ἰδίων καὶ μάλιστα [ τῶν ] οἰκείων οὐ προνοεῖ ] “But if any one does not take care for his relatives, and especially for those of his household;” τις is here quite general in meaning, and this generality must in the first place be maintained.
τῶν ἰδίων and [ τῶν ] οἰκείων are not neuters, but masculines. In the N. T., as a rule, οἱ ἴδιοι are those in close fellowship and community with another. For instance, in Joh_13:1 the relation of Christ to His disciples is thus named. Οἱ ἴδιοι is here wider in meaning than οἱ οἰκεῖοι , which is “those properly of the household.” Hofmann thinks that, if the reading without the article be adopted, μάλιστα does not belong to the verb, but to οἰκείων = οἰκειοτάτων . It is well known that in classic Greek the superlative is sometimes expressed by μάλιστα before the positive. But this usage is never found in the N. T.; and besides, here, where οἰκεῖος refers to τὸν ἴδιον οἶκον (1Ti_5:4), and is therefore equivalent to “member of the household or family,” the superlative οἰκείοτατος is meaningless. To paraphrase it into “nearest kinsman of all” is purely arbitrary. At any rate, the article is by no means necessary before οἰκείων , since the ἴδιοι and the οἰκεῖοι belong to one class; the intervening μάλιστα makes no difference, although it lays special emphasis on the latter.
τὴν πίστιν ἤρνηται ] inasmuch as he does not do that to which faith, if it be a living faith, incites him; fides enim non tollit officia naturalia, sed perficit et firmat, Bengel.
καὶ ἔστιν ἀπίστου χείρων ] Ἄπιστος here is not (as at 2Co_4:4; Tit_1:15) “an enemy of Christ,” but “one who is not a Christian,” one who as such is incited by natural law to love his own children (comp. Mat_5:46-47).
Calvin says on this: quod duabus de causis verum est, nam quo plus quisque in cognitione Dei profecit, eo minus habet excusationis; … deinde hoc genus officii est, quod natura ipsa dictat, sunt enim στοργαὶ φυσικαί .
The reference of this general thought varies according to the various interpretations of 1Ti_5:4. If τέκνα καὶ ἔκγονα be taken there as the subject of μανθανέτωσαν , then it refers to the relation of these to the widowed mother or grandmother; if the proper subject be αἱ χῆραι , it refers naturally to the conduct of the widows. There is nothing to show that the apostle here was thinking of the mutual relation between the widows and their dependants (Matthies). Still less correct is it, with Hofmann, to wrench 1Ti_5:8 away from 1Ti_5:4, and to understand by τις “the father of a family,” “who at his death leaves wife and child unprovided for, when he might well have provided for them.” Such a sudden transition from what hitherto has been the subject of discussion would be exceedingly strange; nor is there any hint of it given by the verb προνοεῖν , which denotes care in general terms, not “care for those left behind at death.” Paul has hitherto been speaking of the conduct of widows, and only to that same subject can this verse be referred.