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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 1 Timothy 1:17 - 1:17
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Ver. 17. Now, to the King of the ages, the incorruptible, invisible, only God, be honour and glory for ages of ages (or, for ever and ever). Amen. The language in this doxology is somewhat peculiar, and has no exact parallel in New Testament Scripture. In a very few passages is the epithet King applied to God, as in Mat_5:35, “the great King;” 1Ti_6:15, “King of kings;” Rev_15:3, “King of nations” (according to the correct reading), but here only King of the ages. Our translators have softened and generalized the expression, by rendering “the King eternal.” It is better, however, to adhere to the proper import of the word. Áé ̓ ù ́ í , from á ̓ é ́ ù , á ̓́ çìé , to breathe (Hom. Il. xv. 252), means (1) lifetime, life; (2) long period of time, perpetuity=Lat. oevum; and in this latter sense various shades of meaning quite naturally arise according to the connection: in particular, (a) past time, from of old, or since time began (Luk_1:70; Act_3:21; Col_1:26); (b) the present epoch of passing time, the age in which one lives, or the existing world (Mat_13:22; Luk_16:8; Rom_12:2, etc.); (c) the successive stages or epochs of the world’s history, dispensational time (Mat_24:3; Heb_9:26; 1Co_10:11),—the termination of the aeons or ages being in this case coincident with the end of the world. But as the indefinite extension of such successive periods may readily enter into our conceptions of the future as well as of the past, so there naturally came, (d) by a reduplication of the word, the idea of eternity—ages of ages, dispensational epochs of indefinite number=eternity. So here, for example, at the close of the doxology, åἰò ôïὺò áἰῶíáò ôῶí áἰþíùí , for ever and ever; and in other passages, the word, sometimes in the singular, sometimes in the plural, stands simply for eternity, whether as before or as after the periods we designate by the general name of time, as in Eph_3:11, Eph_3:21; 1Pe_1:25; 2Pe_3:18; Mar_3:29, Mar_11:14, etc. There is no difficulty in understanding the import of the expression as connected with God; and it is best, as we have said, to retain it in its simplicity. When He is spoken of as King of the ages. He is presented to our view as supreme Lord and Director of the successive cycles or stages of development through which this world, or creation at large, was destined to pass—the Sovereign Epoch-maker, who arranges everything pertaining to them beforehand, according to the counsel of His own will, and controls whatever takes place, so as to subordinate it to His design. The idea is presented in many other parts of Scripture, in the Old Testament as well as in the New; and in Psa_145:13, the kingdom of God is in the Septuagint described as âáóéëåé ́ á ðá ́ íôùí ôù ͂ í áé ̓ ùíùí , a kingdom of all the ages. In the apocryphal books the expression King of ages is distinctly applied to God (Sir_36:17 (22); Tob_13:6).—The epithets which follow, ἀöèÜñôῳ ἀïñÜôῳ ìüíῳ (the received text has also óïöù ͂ͅ ), but against the best authorities), are to be coupled with the èåῷ which follows,—the whole specifying and characterizing the Being designated as King of the ages; He is the incorruptible, invisible, sole God. To Him alone belong honour and glory, and to Him they belong to all eternity. The same expressions are together applied to God in Rev_4:9, Rev_4:11, and to the glorified Christ in Heb_2:9, Rev_5:13.
As to the reason for introducing here such an ascription of praise to God, no other can be assigned than the devout and grateful emotions of the apostle’s heart; nor is any other needed. The train of reflection into which he had been led, naturally brought the thought of God very prominently before him; of God as the free and sovereign dispenser of the grace which he had received, and which had changed the whole state of his condition and prospects. And penetrated with a sense of the infinite greatness and overruling wisdom, power, and goodness of God as manifested in his own singular history, he rises from the particular to the general, and winds up this touching and personal interlude in his discourse by a devout acknowledgment of God as the Lord of the universe,—of all its ages, and the issues therewith connected,—and glorifying Him as such.