Online Resource Library
Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadCambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges - 1 Timothy 6:16 - 6:16
(Show All Books | Show All Chapters)
This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
16. ὁ μόνος ἔχων ἀθανασίαν, a fuller statement than the ἀφθάρτῳ of 1Ti 1:17, inasmuch as ἀθανασία (seemingly not distinguished from ἀφθαρσία in St Paul’s phraseology; see 1Co 15:53-54) is here declared to be the essential property of God alone. Cp. Wis 15:3, εἰδέναι σου τὸ κράτος ῥίζα ἀθανασίας.
φῶς οἰκῶν, dwelling in light. God’s dwelling is light (cp. Psa 104:2 ἀναβαλλόμενος φῶς ὡς ἰμάτιον) even as He Himself is Light (1Jn 1:5), and His messengers are ‘angels of light’ (2Co 11:14).
ἀπρόσιτον. This light is unapproachable. The word ἀπρόσιτος does not occur elsewhere in the Greek Bible, but it is found in Philo (de vita Mosis iii. 2) who uses it of the Mount to which Moses could not approach for the glory of Jehovah (Exo 33:17-23). It is this latter passage from Exodus which is behind St Paul’s language here, esp.: οὐ γὰρ μὴ ἴδη ἄνθρωπος τὸ πρόσωπόν μου καὶ ζήσεται (Exo 33:20). Josephus also (Ant. III. 5. 1) applies ἀπρόσιτος to God.
ὃν εἶδεν οὐδεὶς ἀνθρώπων οὐδὲ ἰδεῖν δύναται, an expansion of the epithet ἀόρατος in 1Ti 1:17; cp. Deu 4:12; Joh 1:18; 1Jn 4:12. We walk by faith not by sight (2Co 5:7), though the Vision of God is promised to the pure in heart (Mat 5:6; cp. Heb 12:14).
ᾦ τιμὴ καὶ κράτος αἰώνιον. Cp. 1Pe 4:11; 1Pe 5:11; it is just possible that κράτος has been here suggested by the epithet δυνάστης in the preceding verse. But it is, in any case, common in ascriptions.
The interjection, as it were, of a doxology in the middle of an argument or discussion is quite in St Paul’s manner; see e.g. Rom 1:25; Rom 11:36; Rom 1:17 above.