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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 1 Timothy 4:13 - 4:13
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Ver. 13. Till I come (the present, ἔñ÷ïìáé , probably to express the purpose of an early return to Ephesus), give attention to the reading, the exhortation, the teaching. The definiteness indicated respecting these things by the use of the article, seems to point to them as well known: stated employments connected with ministerial agency. The reading, therefore, will most naturally be taken for that kind of reading which formed part of the public service of the church,—namely, the reading of Scripture, chiefly as yet, if not entirely, Old Testament Scripture. Chrysostom appears to have thought of Scripture, and nothing else, as indicated by the expression ( ðñüóå÷å ôῇ ἀíáãíþóåé , ôῇ ôù ͂ í èåé ́ ùí ãñáöù ͂ í ); and so, undoubtedly, the expression is used at Act_13:15, also 2Co_3:14, with reference to the regular reading of the Old Testament Scriptures in the Jewish synagogues. The exhortation and the teaching are understood by Chrysostom, the former of social or mutual interchange of sentiments with a view to edification, the other of public discourse. We should rather, perhaps, suppose the apostle to be referring throughout to the service of the sanctuary; so that he shall here be advising Timothy in regard to the things which belonged to his ministrations in public, as he had previously counselled him regarding his more strictly personal character and deportment. But to try to distinguish exactly between the exhortation and the teaching is superfluous, except that, from the import of the terms, the one may be supposed to have had respect more especially to practice, and the other to instruction.