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1Ti_6:7 begins the confirmation of the principle that godliness with contentment is a great πορισμός . The apostle here places two clauses together, each of which contains a well-known and undoubted truth: “We brought nothing into the world,” and “We can take nothing out of it.” (The same two thoughts are found elsewhere in collocation; so Job_1:21; Ecc_5:14; also in the profane writers, e.g. Seneca, Ep. 102: non licet plus efferre, quam intuleris. For the second thought, comp. Job_27:19; Psa_49:12.) The question is only, in what relation do they stand to one another? According to the common view, the first thought serves to confirm the second: “As we brought nothing in, it is manifest that we will take nothing out.” Against this, Hofmann maintains that the second thought is in no way a consequence of the first. He therefore takes δῆλον ὅτι as an adverbial: “clearly,” standing at the end of the sentence, but belonging to both clauses; and he explains: “Clearly we have brought nothing in, and can also take nothing out.” He is certainly right that the first does not strictly prove the second; but then the apostle did not intend that it should; he simply placed the two sentences together, the second corresponding to the first in such a way as to be confirmed by it in popular opinion. Hence it is not right to connect—contrary to the order of the words
δῆλον ὅτι with the first sentence. As to the lack of δῆλον before ὅτι (see the critical remarks), de Wette observes: “that in popular logic the consequence is often quoted with ὅτι as the reason, e.g. Homer, Il. xvi. 35, Od. xxii. 36.” This, however, is not to the point here; in the two passages quoted, ὅτι , simply denotes the logical ground of knowledge.