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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 1 Timothy 4:2 - 4:2
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Ver. 2. Å ̓ í ὑðïêñßóåé øåõäïëüãùí —not, as in the Authorized Version, “speaking lies in hypocrisy,” which would take øåõäïëüãùí as in apposition with the äáéìïíßùí of the preceding clause, and so would identify die demons with the instrumental agents—but in hypocrisy of speakers of lies: a prepositional clause, defining the manner in which the giving heed to seducing spirits and teachings of demons was to make way, consequently describing the spirit and character of the human agents. The false teaching in question being, as to its origin, from the father of lies, the parties who were to be chiefly instrumental in insinuating its poison into the church were to be the fit representatives and agents of such a cause; not sincere, straightforward, truth-loving men, but persons living in hypocrisy as their natural element, speaking lies as their proper vocation,—men, in short, of subtle and sophistical minds, who had no relish for the pure gospel, and assumed the profession of a regard to it only that they might the more advantageously propagate their transcendental views and practices. Such appears to be the natural import and bearing of the clause; it brings prominently out that dangerous characteristic in the immediate instruments of the false teaching referred to, by means of which the spirit of evil that wrought in them was to acquire ascendency in the church.
The moral condition of these corrupt teachers is further described as that of persons who have had their conscience scarred ( êåêáõóôçñéáóìÝíùí , (This is the form of the word given in à , A, C, and being the rarer form, is preferred by Tisch.; the greater number of Mss. and the received text have êåêáõóôçñéáóìÝíùí .) cauterized), that is, branded as with a êáõôç ́ ñ , a marking instrument of hot iron. The application of such an instrument to any part of the human body certainly has a hardening effect—renders the part so branded comparatively insensible to the touch. And this is the figurative meaning not unfrequently attached to the expression here; as in our common version, “seared as with a hot iron;” so, too, Theodoret, who founds his explanation on the physical fact, that “the part cauterized is deadened, and deprived of its former sensibility.” But this is probably laying too much stress on an incidental effect of the action, while the action itself affords both a more direct and a quite appropriate sense. Understanding it so, the persons in the eye of the apostle are represented as corrupt at the core; their conscience so far from bearing the impress of moral purity—blurred and spotted, as it were, with the foul prints of former iniquities, and consequently incapable of relishing, or responding aright to, the holy doctrines of the gospel. There is a point, as well as severe emphasis, in the language: their own conscience ( ôὴí ἰäßáí óõíåßäçóéí óõíåßäçóéí ) is affirmed to be in this corrupt state; and if themselves such in their inner being, how unfit to assume the part of teachers to others! how utterly incapable of leading them on to the heights of real purity and bliss! They professed to be guides of this description, to go even beyond the requirements of the gospel in their zeal for a self-denying and mortified life. But their zeal in this direction could not possibly spring from an unfeigned love of the pure and good; carnal self was really the mainspring of their aspirations, though clothing itself in the appearance of an angel of light.