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1Ti_6:20-21. Final exhortation and benediction to Timothy. The apostle begins fervently and impressively with: ὦ Τιμόθεε (Matthies).
τὴν παραθήκην φύλαξον ] comp. 2Ti_1:12; 2Ti_1:14; παραθήκη is a “possession entrusted;” Paul does not say what kind of possession. Even in these parallel passages a more precise definition is not given, except that at 1Ti_6:12 he denotes by μου that it is entrusted to him, and in 1Ti_6:14 adds the adjective καλήν . In any case there is meant by it here a gift entrusted to Timothy by God, which gift he is to preserve ( φύλαξον ) from every hurt. As the apostle puts its preservation ( φυλάσσειν ) in close connection with the ἐκτρέπεσθαι of the heretics, we may understand by it either Timothy’s διακονία (de Wette, Otto), or the gospel, “sound doctrine” (Wiesinger, van Oosterzee, Hofmann).
As the chief purpose of the epistle is to instruct Timothy regarding his conduct in the ministry committed to him, it seems right to understand by παραθήκη a possession entrusted, not to all Christians, but to Timothy in particular. Thus—in spite of the absence of σου —the first view deserves the preference, all the more that in the other passages quoted this meaning of the word is the most suitable. The next word, ἐκτρεπόμενος , shows that Timothy would injure his office by entering upon the βέβηλοι κενοφωνίαι . Plitt arbitrarily takes παραθήκη as equivalent to “eternal life.”
ἐκτρεπόμενος τὰς βεβήλους κενοφωνίας ] ἐκτρέπεσθαι , properly: “turn away from anything;” then with the accusative (as in 2Ti_3:5 : ἀποτρέπεσθαι ): “avoid,” synonymous with παραιτεῖσθαι .
κενοφωνία ] synonymous with ματαιολογία , 1Ti_1:6; comp. 2Ti_2:16 : “empty talk without anything in it.”
This talk is still more precisely defined by the next words: καὶ ἀντιθέσεις τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως ] It is to be observed that ἀντιθέσεις is closely connected with the previous κενοφωνίας , the article τάς belonging to both words and the genitive τῆς ψευδ . γνώσεως referring to both alike. Hence ἀντιθέσεις must here express some thought corresponding with κενοφωνίας . It is not therefore advisable to understand by it in general terms “the statutes of the heretics against the gospel” (Matthies, Wiesinger), or “the controversial theses of the heretics directed against the gospel” (so before in this commentary[210]); it is much more correct to understand it of the theses which the heretics sought to maintain against one another (Hofmann). Thus understood, the word corresponds to λογομαχίαι in 1Ti_6:4. It is possible that these had the character of dialectic proofs (Conybeare and Howson, quoted in van Oosterzee), but the word itself does not show this. Baur’s assertion is purely arbitrary, that the contrariae oppositiones are here meant which Marcion exerted himself to establish between the law and the gospel.
τῆς ψευδωνύμου γνώσεως ] The expression is easily explained by the fact that the heretics boasted of possessing a knowledge, a φιλοσοφία (Col_2:8), in which there was a more perfect science of divine things than that presented by the gospel.
Paul was also acquainted with a γνῶσις , which, however, was rooted in faith, and was effected by the πνεῦμα Χριστοῦ . But the γνῶσις of the heretics did not deserve this name, and hence Paul called it ψευδώνυμος (occurring only here in the N. T.); on which Chrysostom aptly remarks: ὅταν γὰρ πίστις μὴ εἶ , γνῶσις οὐκ ἔστιν . Baur, without just ground, seeks to draw from the use of this word a proof for his hypothesis that the epistle was composed at the date of the heresy of Marcion.—1Ti_6:21. ἥν τινες ἐπαγγελλόμενοι ] ἐπαγγέλλεσθαι stands here in the same sense as in 1Ti_2:10; Luther inexactly: “which some allege.”
τερὶ τὴν πίστιν ἠστόχησαν ] The same construction in 2Ti_2:18; with the genitive, 1Ti_1:6. The ἐπαγγέλλεσθαι τὴν ψευδ . γν . includes (comp. 1Ti_1:6) the ἀστοχεῖν περὶ τ . πίστιν , “erring in regard to the faith.” This Wiesinger wrongly denies, with the remark that “the apostle did not consider the mere occupation with such things to be apostasy, but only a possible occasion for apostasy.[211] Ἐπαγγ . manifestly denotes more than merely being occupied with a thing. By τινες here, as in 1Ti_1:3; 1Ti_1:6 (1Ti_6:3), we must understand the heretics.
[210] Against these explanations there is also the relative clause ἣν κ . τ . λ . attached to γνώσεως , since, of course, the followers of a γνῶσις containing anti-evangelic doctrines had departed from the faith.
[211] Hofmann, coinciding with Wiesinger’s view, says: “The occupation with that which claimed, but did not deserve, the name of science, brought them unawares on the wrong track;” but the “unawares” is purely imported into the verse.