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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Timothy 1:19 - 1:19
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
19. ἔχων πίστιν καὶ ἀγαθὴν συνείδησιν. Cp. 1Ti 1:5, where faith and a ‘good conscience’ are named as sources of that love which is the τέλος τῆς παραγγελίας.
ἤν τινες ἀπωσάμενοι. Which [sc. the good conscience] some having thrust from them. The verb is expressive of a wilful and violent act. For τινες see on 1Ti 1:3 above.
περὶ τὴν πίστιν ἐναυάγησαν. Have made shipwreck in the matter of the faith. ναυαγεῖν only occurs in the N.T. here and in 2Co 11:25; and so far may be called a ‘Pauline’ word, but it is not uncommon in late Greek.
ἡ πίστις here (though the presence of the article would not by itself determine this) is to be taken objectively, as equivalent to ‘the Christian faith,’ not subjectively, of the faith of individuals. The words πιστός, πίστις have an interesting history, which cannot be here discussed at length[518]; but a few references must be given. πίστις, which in Philo is used quite vaguely of belief and trust in God, became to the early Christians gradually equivalent to faith in Christ as the supreme revelation of God. This faith grew by degrees in clearness and distinctness, until it embraced the Incarnation, the Atonement, and all the great dogmas of the Gospel; from this the transition was easy to the word being used objectively to signify the content, as it were, of a Christian’s belief, to signify, in short, the Christian Creed, the Gospel. Among the more conspicuous instances of this use of the word in the N.T. outside the Pastorals may be noted Act 6:7; Act 13:8; Act 16:5; Gal 1:23; Gal 3:23; Php 1:27. In the Pastorals, which give us a more developed form of Christianity, we find as is natural a proportionately larger number of examples of this usage; and out of 33 occurrences of πίστις in these Epistles the objective sense seems to be required in 1Ti 1:19; 1Ti 4:1; 1Ti 4:6; 1Ti 5:8; 1Ti 6:10; 1Ti 6:21; 2Ti 3:8; 2Ti 4:7; Tit 1:13. See notes in loc. in each case.
[518] See Lightfoot, Galatians, p. 154 ff, and Hort, 1 Peter, p. 81 ff.