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Tit_1:3. Ἐφανέρωσε δὲ καιροῖς ἰδίοις τὸν λόγον αὑτοῦ ] ἐφανέρωσε forms an antithesis to ἐπηγγείλατο . True, the promise is a revelation, but only a revelation in which the point under consideration still remains hidden. The object of ἐφανέρωσε is not the same as that to which ἐπηγγ . relates, viz. ἥν , i.e. τὴν ζωὴν αἰώνιον ; Beza: quam promiserat Deus … manifestam autem fecit … The object is τὸν λόγον αὑτοῦ , which is not to be taken as in apposition to ἥν (or as Heinrichs even thinks, to ἐλπίδα ζωῆς ), though it is strange that ἐφαν . should begin a new sentence. This is one of the cases where—as Buttmann, p. 328, remarks—a relative sentence passes almost imperceptibly into a principal sentence, without such continuation changing the actual principal sentence into one subordinate.
τὸν λόγον αὑτοῦ ] is, of course, not a name for Christ (scholiasts in Matthaei), but the gospel, which contains the ἀποκάλυψις μυστηρίου , Rom_16:26, or, as is said here, τῆς ζωῆς αἰωνίου .
καιροῖς ἰδίοις ] comp. 1Ti_2:6. How this φανέρωσις of the divine word took place, is told in the next words: ἐν κηρύγματι ὃ ἐπιστεύθην ἐγώ ] κήρυγμα (see 2Ti_4:17) is not quite “the general preaching of the gospel by the apostles” (Matthies, Wiesinger), the thought being limited by the words following; κήρυγμα is to be taken as forming one thought with what follows: “the preaching entrusted to me.” Paul had some reason for describing his preaching as the means by which this revelation was made, since he recognised the depth of the divine decree as no other apostle had recognised it, and by him it was proclaimed “to all peoples” (see 2Ti_4:17).
ὃ ἐπιστεύθην ἐγώ ] see 1Co_9:17; Gal_2:7; 1Th_2:4; 1Ti_1:11.
To define and emphasize the thought that the κήρυγμα was not according to his own pleasure, Paul adds: κατʼ ἐπιταγὴν τοῦ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Θεοῦ ] comp. 1Ti_1:1. Hofmann construes differently, connecting together κατὰ πίστιν and ἐπʼ ἐλπίδι as well as ἐν κηρύγματι , and then joining κατʼ ἐπιταγήν immediately with ἀπόστολος . But this construction not only makes τὸν λόγον αὑτοῦ (which, according to Hofmann, is in apposition to ἥν ) quite superfluous, but separates ideas closely attached to each other, κήρυγμα and λόγος , ἐπιστεύθην and κατʼ ἐπιταγήν .