1 Timothy 3

1 Timothy 3 is the third chapter of the First Epistle to Timothy in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The author was traditionally identified as Paul the Apostle since as early as AD 180,[1][2] although most modern scholars consider the letter pseudepigraphical,[3] perhaps written as late as the first half of the second century AD.[4]

1 Timothy 3
Fragments showing First Epistle to Timothy 3:15–16 on Codex Ephraemi Rescriptus (Scrivener Facsimile), from ca. AD 450.
BookFirst Epistle to Timothy
CategoryPauline epistles
Christian Bible partNew Testament
Order in the Christian part15

This chapter refers to the offices of bishop (or overseer) and deacon, a note about Paul's travel plans, and a formulaic presentation of "the mystery of our religion".[5]

Text
Fragments 7Q4, 7Q5 and 7Q8 among the Dead Sea Scrolls. It has been alleged that 7Q4 may contain some lettering of 1 Timothy 3:16–4:3

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter has been divided into 16 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:

There has been some claims that the Dead Sea Scrolls contain fragments of Timothy (such as: 7Q4 contains verse 3:16) and other Christian Greek scriptures, but this is rejected by the majority of scholars.[8][9][10][11]

The office of bishop (3:1–7)

This section indicates that at this time the Christian church already 'reached a settled situation, where it needs capable and dignified men to run it' in the position of "overseer" or "bishop".[12]

Verse 1
This is a faithful saying: If a man desires the position of a bishop, he desires a good work.[13]
  • "This is a faithful saying" (Ancient Greek: Πιστὸς ὁ λόγος, pistos ho logos): is a formula assuming 'general acceptance' and is stated 5 times in the Pastoral Epistles (1 Timothy 1:15; 3:1; 4:9; 2 Timothy 2:11; Titus 3:8). Some authorities relate these words to the latter part of chapter 2, and Clare Drury observes that "it is not quite clear" whether they should be linked back to the previous material and to the material which follows.[14]
  • "Bishop" (Greek: episkopos): literally "overseer".[15] Protestant theologian Heinrich Meyer avoids reading "desire" (Greek: ὀρέγεται, oregetai) as "ambitious striving", noting that the sense "may indeed be ambition, but it may also be the zeal of faith and love".[16]

The Church's Great Confession (3:14–16)

Verse 15
if I am delayed, you may know how one ought to behave in the household of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth.[17]

In his Commentary on John, while talking about the cleansing of the Temple, Origen mentions the Temple as "the house of the living God, the pillar and bulwark of the truth", referring to the Church which provides firmness.[18] Clark H. Pinnock uses this verse to say that the view that God raising up Church leaders to protect and interpret the Bible is "good and scriptural". He argues that in the Apostolic Age itself there were heretics misinterpreting the truth, and the Church as "the pillar and bulwark of the truth" had to take action against them.[19]

Citing Lesslie Newbigin, who says that the Church confessing the mystery of the faith is "the pillar and bulwark of the truth", Brian Stanley says, "The church herself, as the body of Christ, ... is the only missiologically effective 'hermeneutic of the gospel', bearing witness with 'proper confidence' (a favourite phrase of Newbigin's) to the revelation she has received."[20]

Linking with ecclesial authority, the Eastern Orthodox Church uses this verse to state that the Church (Ekklēsia) proclaims and protects divine truths, both written (Scripture) and unwritten (Tradition), "which coexist in complete harmony with each other".[21] Peter Kreeft gives his summary: "The Bible appeals to the authority of Tradition and Tradition appeals to the authority of the Bible. The Bible calls the Church "the pillar and bulwark of the truth" (1 Timothy 3:15), and the Church calls the Bible infallible divine revelation."[22]

Though there are disagreements on the exercise of teaching authority, the Evangelicals and Catholics Together (ECT) participants cites this verse and share their agreement in Your Word Is Truth:

Because Christ's church is the pillar and bulwark of truth, in disputes over conflicting interpretations of the Word of God the church must be capable of discerning true teaching and setting it forth with clarity. This is necessary both in order to identify and reject heretical deviations from the truth of the gospel and also to provide sound instruction for passing on the faith intact to the rising generation.[23]

Verse 16
1 Timothy 3:16 in Codex Sinaiticus (א) from 330-360 AD.

The New King James Version of verse 16 reads:

And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness:
God was manifested in the flesh,
Justified in the Spirit,
Seen by angels,
Preached among the Gentiles,
Believed on in the world,
Received up in glory.[24]
  • "Mystery of godliness": which is the incarnation of Jesus Christ, involving his birth of a virgin, the union of the two natures, divine and human, in his person.[25]
  • "God was manifest in the flesh": that is the second Person, the Word, or Son of God (cf. 1 John 3:8) who existed as a divine Person, and as a distinct one from the Father and Spirit.[25] This clause is a very apt and full interpretation of the word "Moriah", the name of the mount in which Jehovah would manifest himself, and be seen (Genesis 22:2; Genesis 22:14).[25]
  • "Received up into glory": Jesus was raised from the dead, had a glory on his risen body and ascended in a glorious manner to heaven, is set down at his right hand, and crowned with glory and honor, that he had with him before the world was.[25]

In An Historical Account of Two Notable Corruptions of Scripture, published posthumously in 1754, Isaac Newton argues that a small change to early Greek versions of this verse effectively changed "which" (referring to godliness) to "God". This change increases textual support for trinitarianism, a doctrine to which Newton did not subscribe. There is evidence that the original Greek read 'ος' but was modified by the addition of a strikethrough to become 'θς' (see the excerpt from the Codex Sinaiticus, above). 'θς' was then assumed to be a contraction of 'θεος'. Biblical scholar Bruce Metzger notes that "no uncial (in the first hand) earlier than the eighth or ninth century (Ψ) supports θεος; all ancient versions presuppose ὃς or ὃ; and no patristic writer prior to the last third of the fourth century testifies to the reading of θεος."[26] The New American Bible Revised Edition, which reads the wording as a reference to Christ, notes that

Some predominantly Western manuscripts read 'which', harmonizing the gender of the pronoun with that of the Greek word for mystery; many later (eighth/ninth century on), predominantly Byzantine manuscripts read 'God', possibly for theological reasons.[27]

See also

References
  1. See the arguments on composition of the epistle.
  2. Holman Illustrated Bible Handbook. Holman Bible Publishers, Nashville, Tennessee. 2012.
  3. David E. Aune, ed., The Blackwell Companion to The New Testament (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2010), 9: "While seven of the letters attributed to Paul are almost universally accepted as authentic (Romans, 1 and 2 Corinthians, Galatians, Philippians, 1 Thessalonians, Philemon), four are just as widely judged to be pseudepigraphical, i.e. written by unknown authors under Paul's name: Ephesians and the Pastorals (1 and 2 Timothy and Titus)."
  4. Stephen L. Harris, The New Testament: A Student's Introduction, 4th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2001), 366.
  5. Drury 2007, p. 1225.
  6. Shao, Jessica. P.Oxy. 81.5259: 1 Timothy 3:13–4:8 / GA P133 in G. Smith P.Oxy. 5258. Ephesians 3:21-4:2, 14-16 (P 132)
  7. Jones, Brice. Two New Greek New Testament Papyri from Oxyrhynchus Archived 2017-06-28 at the Wayback Machine, 21 April 2017 (Accessed 11 July 2017).
  8. Millard, A. R. (2000). Reading and Writing in the Time of Jesus. NYU Press. p. 56. ISBN 0-8147-5637-9. C.P. Thiede drew on papyrology, statistics and forensic microscopy to try to prove O'Callaghan's case, yet without convincing the majority of other leading specialists.
  9. McCready, Wayne O. (1997). "The Historical Jesus and the Dead Sea Scrolls". In Arnal, William E.; Desjardins, Michael. Whose Historical Jesus?. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid Laurier University Press. p. 193. ISBN 0-88920-295-8.. "On the whole, O'Callaghan's thesis has met with scholarly skepticism since the fragments are extremely small, almost illegible, and his strongest case does not agree with known versions of Mark."
  10. "... Qumran ms. 7Q5 ... is captioned as if it contains a fragment of Mark: it was of course O'Callaghan who made that controversial — and now virtually universally rejected — identification of this Dead Sea text as a piece of the New Testament ..." Elliot (2004), JK, Book Notes, Novum Testamentum, Volume 45, Number 2, 2003, pp. 203.
  11. Gundry 1999, p. 698. So acclaimed a text critic as the late Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini, S.J., Archbishop of Milan and part of the five member team which edited the definitive modern edition of the Greek New Testament for the United Bible Societies agreed with O'Callaghan's identification and assertions.
  12. Drury 2007, p. 1224.
  13. 1 Timothy 3:1 NKJV
  14. Drury 2007, p. 1222.
  15. Note [a] on 1 Timothy 3:1 in NKJV
  16. Meyer, H. A. W. (1880), Meyer's NT Commentary on 1 Timothy 3, translated from the German sixth edition, accessed 22 January 2023
  17. 1 Timothy 3:15 NRSV
  18. Ledegang, F. (2001). Mysterium Ecclesiae: Images of the Church and Its Members in Origen. Leuven University Press. p. 324. ISBN 90-429-0945-5.
  19. Pinnock, Clark H. (2002). The Scripture Principle. Regent College Publishing. p. 80. ISBN 1-57383-000-3.
  20. Stanley, Brian (2013). The Global Diffusion of Evangelicalism: The Age of Billy Graham and John Stott. InterVarsity Press. p. 144. ISBN 978-0-8308-2585-1.
  21. Metzger, Bruce M.; Coogan, Michael David, eds. (1993). The Oxford Companion to the Bible. Oxford University Press. p. 175. ISBN 978-0-19-974391-9.
  22. Kreeft, Peter (2017). Catholics and Protestants: What Can We Learn from Each Other?. Ignatius Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-1-68149-745-7.
  23. George, Timothy; Guarino, Thomas G., eds. (2015). Evangelicals and Catholics Together at Twenty: Vital Statements on Contested Topics. Brazos Press. pp. 48–49. ISBN 978-1-4934-0237-3.
  24. 1 Timothy 3:16 NKJV
  25. John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible, on 1 Timothy 3:16
  26. Bruce Metzger, A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 2nd Ed., (New York, NY: American Bible Society, 1975), 641.
  27. Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Footnote g at 1 Timothy 3:16 in the New American Bible Revised Edition, accessed 23 January 2023

Sources
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