Ezekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 1 Timothy 1:13 - 1:13

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Ezekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 1 Timothy 1:13 - 1:13


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Ver. 13. Then comes the contrast between the present and the past, enhancing in the apostle’s esteem the mercy and loving-kindness he had experienced: though I formerly was ( ôὸ ðñüôåñïí ὄíôá , the participle of concession, or limitation, Jelf, § 697, c) a blasphemer—one, that is to say, who was wont to speak evil of the name of Jesus, and compel others to do the same (Act_26:11)—a persecutor, and outrageous. Our English version is here too weak, translating ὑâñéóôÞí by “injurious;” for the word signifies a doer of violence and outrage. “The ὑâñéóôÞò is contumelious; his insolence and contempt of others break forth in acts of wantonness and outrage” (Trench, Syn.). Such, certainly, was Paul’s behaviour toward the Christian party before his conversion, and such also too commonly was the behaviour of his countrymen towards him after it (1Th_2:2, where the verb ὑâñéóèåé ́ ò is used with reference to his treatment at Philippi). But I obtained mercy, the apostle continues: great as his wickedness and guilt were, he yet became a subject of divine compassion; because (he adds) I did it ignorantly in unbelief: not meaning thereby to lessen the enormity of his guilt; for his very ignorance was culpable, having within his reach the means of correcting it, if he had been seriously minded to arrive at the truth. What he intends by the statement is, that his outrageous and violent procedure, however inexcusable in itself, was still not of such a kind as placed him beyond the pale of mercy; since he had not, like the worse part of the blaspheming and persecuting Pharisees, sinned against his better convictions (Mar_3:28-30); he had not deliberately set at nought the counsel of God, and defied Heaven to its face. He stood, therefore, substantially on a footing with the Jerusalem sinners who, on and after the day of Pentecost, were charged by St. Peter with the awful crime of having crucified the Lord of glory, yet with the qualifying circumstance of having done it in ignorance (Act_3:17). In both cases alike the sin was of the deepest dye, only not unpardonable; it still lay within the sphere of redeeming grace—but of grace in its more rare, one might even say, its exceptional exercise. This the apostle virtually admits in the words that follow.