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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadEzekiel, Jonah, and Pastoral Epistles by Patrick Fairbairn - 2 Timothy 4:14 - 4:14
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Ver. 14. Alexander the coppersmith (or, simply smith; for latterly ÷áëêåὺò came to signify a worker in metals of any sort, and particularly in iron, as being the most frequently used) did me much evil— ἐíåäåßîáôï , exhibited it, but which is all one with doing it. Where he did it, however, is not said; nor how, though the language seems to betoken outward, active malignity. He may have been the same Alexander who is mentioned along with Hymenaeus in 1Ti_1:20; but it is just as probable that he was not; and possibly the more precise designation here of the person by his trade may have been meant to distinguish him from the other. The Lord will requite him according to his works— ἀðïäþóåé seems clearly the correct reading (being that of à , A, C, D, F, also the Vulg., Cop., Syriac versions, Chrysostom, Theodoret; while the á ̓ ðïäù ́ͅ ç of the received text has the support only of K, L, at first hand, and of many cursives). The future, as compared with the optative, may be called popularly the milder sense; and Theodoret seems to lay some stress on so explaining: “It is a prediction, not an imprecation; and it was given forth for the purpose of consoling the blessed Timothy, and teaching him not to be disconcerted by the assaults of the adversaries.” In a theological respect, however, there is no material difference; and if the optative were the correct reading, no one need stumble at it. For, surely, what it is perceived God is going to do, a believer, an apostle, nay, even the purest of angelic natures, may fitly desire to see accomplished. “Thy will be done” is the prayer of all saints, alike in heaven and on earth; only, when the thing to be done is the execution of deserved judgment upon the wicked, the difficulty is to breathe the prayer without any intermixture of wrathful feeling—with nothing but a pure and simple regard to the glory of God and the interests of righteousness. This may, however, be done even on earth by the ripened Christian, such as the apostle, who might now be said almost to stand midway between earth and heaven. From what he had seen in the behaviour and suffered at the hands of Alexander, he had come to understand that it was meet this man should, in some marked way, receive the due recompense of his misdeeds: the cause of the gospel required it—why should not God do it, and righteous men desire it to be done? It might be the best thing even for the man himself—possibly the one chance for him of being brought to a better mind; as many adversaries and persecutors of the truth have been led to see, only when humbled to the dust by chastisement and rebuke, how vain it is to contend with the Almighty.