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1Ti_6:15-16. The apostle concludes with a doxology, which is attached to the previous words by means of the relative clause ἣν … δείξει κ . τ . λ .
ἣν καιροῖς ἰδίοις δείξει ] On καιροῖς ἰδ ., comp. 1Ti_2:6; Tit_1:3; also Gal_6:9.
δείξει ] Bengel: ostendi dicitur, quod jam ante erat, Act_3:20. The verb does not mean “effect;” nor is it, with Heydenreich, to be translated: “which He will show in its majesty, will cause to follow and present in visible glory,” but simply: “which He will make visible, cause to appear.” The expression is used by the apostle in reference to Christ’s present hiddenness. The hope of the near return of Christ did not lead the apostle to fix arbitrarily the hour when that would take place.
Instead of the simple Θεός , there follows, as subject to δείξει , a series of designations for God, by which Paul represents God as the blessed, the only potentate, the immortal, the invisible—in one word, the absolute (comp. with this 1Ti_1:17). This he does not simply for the purpose “of giving to his words a more solemn conclusion” (de Wette), but to satisfy the inward impulse of naming the chief features of the idea of God as rooted in the Christian consciousness—specially in opposition to the fictions of the heretics (according to Wiesinger, “in antithetic reference to the striving after earthly riches, rebuked in the preceding verses”).
ὁ μακάριος ] comp. 1Ti_1:11; μακάριος is to be taken as an adjective, as is clear from the omission of the article before μόνος .
Καὶ μόνος δυνάσγης ] To God alone as the Almighty is the predicate δυνάστης due in the absolute sense; hence the addition of μόνος . The supreme power contained in δυνάστης (comp. 2Ma_12:15; 3Ma_5:51) is made still more prominent by the next words: ὁ βασιλεὺς τῶν βασιλευόντων κ . τ . λ .; comp. 1Ti_1:17; Rev_17:14; Deu_10:17; Psa_136:3.—1Ti_6:16. ὁ μόνος ἔχων ἀθανασίαν ] comp. 1Ti_1:17. Ἀθανασία is synonymous with ἀφθαρσία , 1Co_15:53; Justin Martyr (Quaest. et Respons. ad Orthod. 61): μόνος ἔχων τὴν ἀθανασίαν λέγεται ὁ Θεός , ὅτι οὐκ ἐκ θελήματος ἄλλου ταύτην ἔχει , καθάπερ οἱ λοιποὶ πάντες ἀθάνατοι , ἀλλʼ ἐκ τῆς οἰκείας οὐσίας .
φῶς οἰκῶν ἀπρόσιτον ] This idea that God, who is Himself called light (1Jn_1:5), dwells in light, is found nowhere else in the N. T.; but we may compare with it Psa_104:2; Eze_1:26 ff. Chrysostom remarks on this: οὐκοῦν καὶ τόπῳ ἐμπεριείληπται ; ἄπαγε · οὐχ ἵνα τοῦτο νοήσωμεν , ἀλλʼ ἵνα τὸ ἀκατάληπτον τῆς θείας φύσεως παραστήση , φῶς αὐτὸν οἰκεῖν εἶπεν ἀπρόσιτον , οὕτω θεολογήσας , ὡς ἦν αὐτῷ δυνατόν .
The verb οἰκεῖν is found only here in the N. T. with an accusative; the construction is often found in the classics, also 2Ma_5:17; 2Ma_6:2.
ἀπρόσιτος is ἅπ . λεγ . in Holy Scripture. This participial clause does not serve as a reason for the one previous (Hofmann: “by dwelling in light unapproachable”), but adds to it a new definition of the divine nature.
To the idea that God is surrounded by an unapproachable majesty of light, there is attached the corresponding thought: ὃν εἶδεν οὐδεὶς ἀνθρώπων , οὐδὲ ἰδεῖν δύναται ; on which comp. Joh_1:18; 1Jn_4:12; Mat_11:27. The following two sentences may serve as explanation: Theophilus (ad Autol. p. 71): τὸ εἶδος τοῦ Θεοῦ … μὴ δυνάμενον ὀφθαλμοῖς σαρκίνοις ὁραθῆναι ; and Dionysius Areop. (De Divin. Nom. ch. i. p. 376, I. ed. Corder): πάσαις διανοίαις ἀδιανόητόν ἐστι τὸ ὑπὲρ διάνοιαν ἕν .[208]
ᾧ τιμὴ καὶ κράτος αἰώνιον ] comp. 1Ti_1:17.
[208] There is no good ground for deriving, with Hofmann, all these names for God from His relations “to other potentates who meet with trouble, whom death does not permit to abide, who are not unapproachable and invisible.” And there is as little ground for saying that this doxology was added, because the apostle intended to describe “God who will grant to see the appearance of Jesus as judge with reward or punishment, to describe Him as a potentate who is infinitely more and higher than all earthly kings and lords,” and did so because Timothy “was in danger of injuring his position as a Christian, and his calling as a teacher for the sake of gain” (!).