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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Timothy 3:6 - 3:6
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6. μὴ νεόφυτον. Not a recent convert. The word (in the N.T. only found here) is used in the LXX. of newly planted trees (Psa 144:12), and thus is used by St Paul (cp. 1Co 3:6) of one who has been recently baptized. Christianity was long enough established at Ephesus to make such a rule practicable; and, in itself, it is highly reasonable. In Tit 1:6 this condition is omitted; it might have been inconvenient, as the Church there was of recent foundation. The ordination of recent converts from heathenism is forbidden in Can. Apost. 80.
τυφωθείς. Beclouded, sc. with pride at his elevation. τῦφος is smoke or steam, and the underlying idea is the bewildering and confusing effect of self-conceit. τυφοῦσθαι only occurs in the Greek Bible here, 1Ti 4:4 and 2Ti 3:4; but it is common in Greek literature.
εἰς κρίμα κ.τ.λ. The difficulty in this clause is resident in the words τοῦ διαβόλου. We observe, first, that the general structure of the sentence is parallel to the final clause of 1Ti 3:7; and hence that τοῦ διαβόλου should be taken similarly in both cases. It must, therefore, in 1Ti 3:6, as in 1Ti 3:7, be a gen. subjecti, not a gen. objecti; it is the κρίμα passed by the διάβολος, not the κρίμα pronounced on him (as in 1Ti 3:7 the παγίς is laid by him and not for him), that is here in question. Who then is ὁ διάβολος? It means the devil in 2Ti 2:26, as in Eph 4:27; Eph 6:11, these being the only places where the word is found in St Paul’s writings with the definite article prefixed. But διάβολος, without the article, occurs three times in the Pastoral Epistles (ch. 1Ti 3:11; 2Ti 3:3 and Tit 2:3) in the sense of slanderer or accuser; and we have Ἁμὰν ὁ διάβολος in Est 8:1 (cp. Est 7:4). It seems therefore, despite the general usage of the N.T. according to which ὁ διάβολος = the devil, legitimate to take it here as equivalent to the accuser. This rendering alone preserves the parallelism of clauses in 1Ti 3:6-7, and alone gives sequence to the thought of the writer. The accuser or slanderer is one of those people, to be found in every community, whose delight is to find fault with the demeanour and conduct of anyone professing a strict rule of life; that such opponents were known in the Apostolic Churches, the language of the Epistles repeatedly indicates. If the words be thus taken, there is no allusion to the fall of the devil through pride, or to the judgement passed on him (Jud 1:6); and we translate: no novice, lest being puffed up he fall into the judgement passed by the slanderer. The phrase ἑμπίπτειν εἰς occurs again ch. 1Ti 6:9.