Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Timothy 4:14 - 4:14
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
14. μὴ ἀμέλει τοῦ ἐν σοὶ χαρίσματος, neglect not the gift that is in thee. ἀμελεῖν is not found elsewhere in St Paul, but it is a LXX. word (cp. Heb 2:3); χάρισμα, on the other hand, is characteristically Pauline, occurring 16 times in his Epistles and only once elsewhere in N.T. (1Pe 4:10). This gift is not a charm which is supposed to act of itself, without the cooperation of its possessor; it may be neglected and needs to be kindled into a flame (see 2Ti 1:6). To neglect God’s gifts, whether of nature or of grace, is a sin.
ὃ ἐδόθη σοι, i.e. by God; cp. 1Co 12:4 for such spiritual gifts.
διὰ προφητείας. πρ. is here without doubt the gen. sing., although some have taken it as acc. pl.; διά expresses the medium or vehicle through which the gift came, as μετά in the next clause marks the attestation of its bestowal.
The whole passage must be taken in close connexion with 1Ti 1:18 κατὰ τὰς προαγούσας ἐπὶ σὲ προφητείας (see the note thereon), and with 2Ti 1:6 διʼ ἣν αἰτίαν ἀναμιμνήσκω σε ἀναζωπυρεῖν τὸ χάρισμα τοῦ θεοῦ, ὅ ἐστιν ἐν σοὶ διὰ τῆς ἐπιθέσεως τῶν χειρῶν μου. The allusion of all three passages seems to be to the same event. Hort argues (Christian Ecclesia, p. 184 ff.) that this was the ‘laying of hands’ on Timothy by the presbyters (see Act 14:23) at Lystra during the early days of his discipleship. But more probably the event in question was the ordination or ‘consecration’ of Timothy by St Paul, in the presence and with the ratification of the Ephesian College of presbyters. For this office Timothy had been marked out by the προφῆται whose utterances would be regarded as giving the Divine sanction (1Ti 1:18); the spiritual χάρισμα for his new spiritual work was bestowed on him (a) διὰ προφητείας, which has reference either to the προφητείαι of 1Ti 1:18 or to the words of prayer used by a προφήτης on this solemn occasion, and (b) διὰ τῆς ἐπιθέσεως τῶν χειρῶν μου, by the imposition of St Paul’s hands (2Ti 1:6). This act was accompanied (μετά) by the imposition of the hands of the presbyters who were present; but the difference of preposition indicates clearly that their action had a different significance from that of the Apostle. The custom of our own ordinal that ‘the Bishop with the priests present’ shall lay their hands upon the ordinands is derived from this passage. Prayer and imposition of hands as the instruments of ordination have been already mentioned in the Acts, in Act 6:6 of the Appointment of the Seven, and in Act 13:1-3 of the ordination of Barnabas and Saul. The custom of χειροθεσία, as the outward sign of the transmission of a spiritual grace, was taken over from Judaism: it is said e.g. of Joshua (Deu 34:9) ἐνεπλήσθη πνεύματος συνέσεως, ἐπέθηκεν γὰρ Μωυσῆς τὰς χεῖρας αὐτοῦ ἐπ ̓ αὐτόν. Liddon points out in his note on this verse that when in Num 8:10 the Israelites are said to have ‘laid their hands’ on the Levites, the χειροθεσία merely signified their recognition of the separateness of the Levites, just as in the passage before us the χειροθεσία of the College of presbyters did no more than attest the authoritative χειροθεσία of the Apostle.
τοῦ πρεσβυτερίου. The word is used in Luk 22:66, Act 22:5 of the Sanhedrin; it is here used for the first time of the confraternity of presbyters, a sense in which it frequently appears in Ignatius.