Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
First, Paul admonishes Timothy to rebuke those bringing in new doctrines, genealogies, and fables, since they generate quarrels rather than edification in faith and charity, which is the end of the law.
Second, in verse 8, he teaches that the law of Moses is good, but was given to the unjust, not to the just — namely to the Jews, not to Christians.
Third, in verse 12, he gives thanks not to the law but to God, that through Christ — who came to save sinners (of whom, he says, I am the first) — he was made from a persecutor into a Christian and an Apostle.
Fourth, in verse 18, he commends to Timothy warfare in faith and a good conscience. For he asserts that a bad conscience is the cause of shipwreck in faith and of heresy.
Vulgate Text: 1 Timothy 1:1-20
1. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the commandment of God our Saviour, and of Christ Jesus our hope, 2. To Timothy, beloved son in the faith. Grace, mercy, and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3. As I besought you to remain at Ephesus when I went into Macedonia, that you might charge some not to teach otherwise, 4. nor to give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which furnish questions rather than the edification of God, which is in faith. 5. Now the end of the commandment is charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and an unfeigned faith. 6. From which some, going astray, have turned aside to vain babbling, 7. wishing to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor of what they affirm. 8. But we know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully: 9. knowing this, that the law is not made for the just, but for the unjust and the disobedient, for the impious and sinners, for the wicked and the defiled, for parricides and matricides, for murderers, 10. for fornicators, for those who lie with males, for kidnappers, for liars and perjurers, and whatever else is contrary to sound doctrine, 11. which is according to the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which has been entrusted to me. 12. I thank Him who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord, who has counted me faithful, putting me in the ministry: 13. who before was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and contumelious: but I obtained mercy from God, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. 14. Now the grace of our Lord has abounded exceedingly with the faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. 15. A faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. 16. But for this cause have I obtained mercy, that in me first Christ Jesus might show forth all patience, for the information of those who shall believe in Him unto life everlasting. 17. Now to the King of ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory forever and ever. Amen. 18. This commandment I commend to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies going before on you, that you war a good warfare in them, 19. having faith and a good conscience, which some rejecting have made shipwreck concerning the faith: 20. of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered up to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.
Verse 1: Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, According to the Commandment of God
1. Paul, an Apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the commandment of God our Saviour, and of Christ Jesus our hope. — Note: For "according to the commandment," the Greek is κατ' ἐπιταγήν, that is, as Vatablus and Erasmus render it, according to delegation, injunction, commission (it alludes to the Hebrew מלאכות malachuth, concerning which see Haggai I, 13); for ἐπιτάσσειν means to enjoin and to commit something to one, as if to say: I did not arrogate the Apostolate to myself, nor seize it, but Christ committed it to me; by God's mandate I received the Apostolate. It is more, says Chrysostom, to be an Apostle by delegation and by mandate, than by vocation — just as elsewhere, in Romans and other places, he calls himself an Apostle by calling: as it is more to be a Legate a latere than a Nuncio of the Pontiff.
You will ask: Where did God the Father commit the apostolate to Paul? Theophylact answers that since the works of the Holy Trinity are undivided, what the Son or the Holy Spirit commanded, the Father also commanded. Now the Holy Spirit in Acts XIII, 2 says: "Set apart for Me Saul and Barnabas for the work (of the apostolate among the Gentiles) to which I have called them." Again Christ to Paul in Acts XXII says thus: "I will send you far away unto the Gentiles;" and in Acts XXIII: "You must also bear witness at Rome." Therefore there God the Father, together with the Son and the Holy Spirit, committed the apostolate to Paul.
Second, God the Father is here called "Saviour," because through Christ He calls us to salvation, and procures and promotes it.
Third, Christ is called "our hope," that is, the cause of our hope; both objective and material: for we hope to be made blessed by the vision and enjoyment of Christ; and effective and meritorious: for we hope not through Moses and the ceremonies of the law, but through Christ and His grace, for victory over temptations, for the toleration or liberation from dangers and all evils, and finally for eternal salvation and beatitude; and this is properly what the Apostle here intends: thus Chrysostom, Theophylact, Anselm; and final, because the end of our hope and patience and every virtue is Christ.
Note: Christ is per se and immediately our hope, because from Him we hope for the goods just mentioned; the Saints, however, and the Blessed Virgin are called our hope mediately, namely through Christ: because we hope through their prayers to obtain from Christ the goods we ask for; for if the Apostle in I Thessalonians II, 19 — without injury to Christ, as I said there — calls them not only his hope but also his crown of glory, why may we not so call the Saints and the Mother of God?
Verse 2: To Timothy, Beloved Son in the Faith
2. To Timothy, beloved son in the faith. — For "beloved," the Greek is γνησίῳ, that is, true-born (germano), as Ambrose and the Greeks render it, or as the Syriac has it, ingenuous, true, not spurious, not degenerate, who in faith and morals reflects through all things his spiritual father, namely Paul: which is the mark of true sons. Our [Latin Vulgate] translator, however, understands "beloved" from "true-born" by metalepsis; for true-born and ingenuous sons are loved above all others: thus in Titus I, 4, where the Apostle calls Titus a beloved son, Chrysostom interprets it as true-born son.
Note secondly: The phrase "in faith" can be referred either to γνησίῳ (true-born) — with Œcumenius — or to "son" — with Ambrose and Chrysostom, as if to say: Timothy is to me a son whom I converted through my preaching, and whom I begot according to the faith, in which faith he is a sincere, true, and true-born son to me, and an emulator of his father's doctrine and virtue.
"Nowhere," says Theophylact following Chrysostom, "has the Apostle placed (in his salutation) mercy in his other epistles (but only peace and grace) except in this one; and he does so out of his great paternal affection, wishing greater things for his son, as though fearing for him and trembling on his behalf — not from a stomach-related reason, as he likewise enjoined — and at the same time because teachers stand in need of greater mercy."
Rupert in Apocalypse I adds a second reason, namely that Paul wished mercy for Timothy because in rebuking and chastising crimes he was more severe than equity required: for young, inexperienced Prelates, sharp by their natural fervor, are wont to be carried away so that they wish in a moment to reform everything severely and recall it to rigid discipline; and by this they offend many, especially their elders, who do not bear so rigid and severe an authority in their juniors. "Because," says Rupert in I Apocalypse, "Paul in Timothy was forming all Bishops, whose office's highest and necessary glory is mercy; and he (Timothy), as is reported, was of a more fervent zeal — therefore rightly and opportunely Paul wishes for him bowels of mercy, that he may have them. Hence too he adds: Rebuke not an elder, but entreat him as a father. Hence again he commends to him the works of mercy and hospitality, which it is most necessary for Bishops, who are appointed presidents of souls, to observe — much more so for them than for their subjects."
And they hold that this is the venial fault of the angel of Ephesus — that is, of Timothy — which Christ chides in Apocalypse II, namely that he had abandoned his first fervor of charity: for, as Hugh Cardinal notes, since he was sharper, and saw that, owing to the corrupt morals of the wicked, he was profiting little by preaching, and that the Judaizers strongly opposed him, he resolved to cease preaching (which is preeminently the office of a Bishop); thus the youthful sharpness and fervor blunted passes into tepidity; and Paul foreseeing this exhorts him here, saying: "Preach the word, be instant in season, out of season," etc. "For just as," says Chrysostom in his homily On Lazarus and the Rich Man, "the veins of waters flow even though no one comes to draw water; and fountains, even though no one draws from them, still send forth their streams: so a Bishop and preacher ought to preach the word of God, even though few hear it and are converted." Thus Jeremiah, when he wished to cease preaching because of the Jews who clamored against him, was commanded by God to continue.
Verse 3: That They Teach No Other Doctrine
3. That they teach no other doctrine. — In Greek, μὴ ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν, which means both "to teach otherwise," as our [Vulgate] and the Syriac render it, and "to use other teachers" (for from ἕτερος, that is another, and διδάσκαλος, that is master, teacher, is composed ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν, as if to say: to use another teacher); and consequently it pertains both to teachers and to disciples, namely that others should not approach nor hear new teachers teaching things other than the handed-down and received faith. Hence Vatablus rendered both senses together, lest they follow a different doctrine; yet it seems that the Apostle was looking rather to teachers: for he is attacking heretics and innovators, as is plain from what follows, and he commands that those bringing in new questions and curious, fabulous doctrines be gravely repressed and beaten back by Bishop Timothy. And so Paul explains himself in chapter VI, 3, when he says: "If anyone teaches otherwise (Greek εἴ τις ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖ) and does not acquiesce in sound words," etc. It seems therefore that the Apostle here formed from διδάσκαλος the verb διδασκαλεῖν, that is, from the noun "teacher" he formed the verb "to teach." See Chapter 39. And this is what he said in other words in Galatians I, 8: "If anyone preach to you a Gospel beyond what we have preached to you, let him be anathema."
Verse 4: Nor Give Heed to Fables and Endless Genealogies
4. Nor give heed to fables and endless genealogies (Greek ἀπεράντοις, those that have no end): which furnish questions rather than the edification of God, which is in faith. — It is asked here: what fables and genealogies, and of whom — those of the Jews or of the Gentiles — does the Apostle here strike at? Chrysostom, Theophylact, and Œcumenius refer this to the fables and theogonies of Hesiod and the Gentiles, of which Tiberius Caesar was a student, concerning whom Suetonius in chapter VII of his Life: "Above all," he says, "he gave attention to the knowledge of fabulous history, even to inanities and derision: for he used to test the grammarians with such questions: Who was the mother of Hecuba? What was Achilles' name among the maidens? What were the Sirens accustomed to sing?" etc. Hear also Seneca on these matters, epistle 89: "Didymus the Grammarian wrote four thousand books; he would be miserable if he had read so many superfluous things. In these books it is asked about Homer's homeland; in these about Aeneas's true mother; in these whether Anacreon lived more lustfully or more drunkenly; in these whether Sappho was a prostitute; and other things which should be unlearned, if you knew them. Measure your lifespan: it does not contain so many things."
But the same Chrysostom, Theophylact, Œcumenius, Theodoret, Ambrose, and others rather think that Paul is speaking of Jewish fables and genealogies, such as now exist in the Talmud and among the Cabalists: indeed the Rabbis of the Jews after Christ contaminated the whole sacred Scripture with fables of their own invention, which they themselves call δευτερώσεις, that is, traditions of the fathers; for that the discussion is about the Jews is plain from verse 7, where he calls them "teachers of the law," and verse 8, where he opposes the law (namely of Moses) to these fables. Hence St. Ignatius in his epistle to the Magnesians: "Give no heed," he says, "to fables or endless genealogies, and Jewish puffings:" namely because in these the Jews are puffed up and grow proud. Such a fable, says Bede here following St. Augustine, is what they teach — that God created two wives for Adam, from whom they weave endless genealogies. Such is what they fable about an ox and a sea-monster created at the beginning of the world, who are nourished for the Jews until the time of the Messiah, that they may feast with him; and that this ox is so great that it daily pastures upon a thousand mountains. That at the time of the Messiah Judaea will offer the Jews baked bread, and silken garments fitted to each Jew. That God daily sheds a tear, because He has permitted His people, namely the Jews, to be devastated and cut off; and infinite such things — partly old wives' tales, partly blasphemous — some of which Sixtus of Siena has collected.
In like manner he calls "endless genealogies" the very long and quasi-infinite series of generations, of grandfathers and great-grandfathers, which the Jews are wont to weave together — indeed to trace back contentiously even to Abraham — in order to display their lineage and nobility.
Note that before Christ, the genealogies of the Jews were carefully woven together in Genesis, in the books of Paralipomenon, Esdras, Joshua, and others; and this usefully, namely that each one might know his own tribe, and the portion of land assigned to his tribe, and that it might be established who were of the tribe of Levi and consequently the future Levites and priests, those who would minister to God. Thirdly and chiefly, that it might be established that Christ the Messiah was born from the tribe of Judah, according to Jacob's prophecy in Genesis XLIX, 10, as is plain from Matthew I and Luke III. For these reasons such great care for genealogies obtained among the Jews that Josephus in Book I Against Apion testifies that their priests wove their genealogies through two thousand years. And Eusebius in Book I of his History, XVII, teaches that Herod burned the books of Jewish genealogies, but they were studiously restored by many. After Christ, however, the Jews and Judaism being overthrown, this scrutiny and knowledge of genealogies is useless and futile; hence the Apostle here strikes at it.
Secondly, this passage can equally be applied to the fables of Simon and the Simonians, and to the genealogies of Valentinus, concerning which Tertullian explains this passage of Paul, in his book Against the Valentinians, chapter III: "If anyone," he says, "come from another consciousness of the faith, if he immediately find so many names, so many marriages, so many offspring, so many positions, so many events, so many felicities and infelicities of a scattered and chopped-up divinity, will he doubt that these are the fables and genealogies which Paul the Apostle anticipated condemning?"
The same author, in his book On Prescriptions, chapter XXXIII, says thus: "But also when he (Paul) names endless genealogies, Valentinus is recognized, with whom that aeon — I know not what new aeon, and not of a single name — begets out of its charity Sense and Truth, and these likewise procreate two, Word and Life: thence these in turn generate Man and Church, from which first ogdoad of aeons, then ten others, from which the remaining twelve aeons with marvelous names arise — into the mere fable of thirty aeons."
Hence thirdly, with Vatablus and others, by παραγγελίαν the Apostle understands the Evangelical law, and its proclamation and preaching: for this is what παραγγελία means; he understands the same in verse 3, when he says: "That you might charge," Greek ἵνα παραγγείλῃς, "certain ones, that they teach no otherwise." For under this he understands by contrast that he himself, and all other teachers, should proclaim and preach the same things with him — that is, the things which Paul himself had taught; for this is the chief office of a Bishop, namely to preach the Gospel, as the Council of Trent teaches in session V, chapter II — as if to say: The end of the Gospel and of the Evangelical law, and consequently the end of the preaching of the Gospel, and even the end of the law of Moses (for this is ordained and directs men to the law and Gospel of Christ), is to lead men to charity, namely that by exercising and practicing the Evangelical law we may acquire, or, if it has been acquired, increase in ourselves a sincere charity, which flows from a pure heart (the Syriac: "sincere"), and a good conscience, and unfeigned faith, in Greek ἀνυποκρίτου, that is unfeigned, or that which is without hypocrisy, as if to say: The end of the law is faith and a good conscience (or hope, which a good conscience begets), and charity, but not fables and endless genealogies, which beget not faith and charity but quarrels and brawls.
Verse 5: Now the End of the Commandment Is Charity from a Pure Heart
5. Now the end of the commandment is charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned. — The Apostle proves that ἑτεροδιδασκαλία — that is, the other doctrines of the Innovators, fables, and genealogies — is not in accord with the law and the Gospel. He proves it thus: The end of the law is to bring forth and nourish faith, hope, and charity; but these fables do not bring forth edification in faith, and consequently neither charity, but questions and quarrels: therefore these fables are not according to the law and the Gospel.
Many, with Ambrose, understand by "commandment" the law of Moses, as if to say: "The end," that is the perfection and consummation of all the precepts which the law of Moses contains, is charity. Or, as St. Augustine in his Enchiridion (penultimate chapter): "the end," that is the goal of the precepts of Moses, is to lead men to charity: just as the end of medicine is to heal man.
Secondly, Chrysostom and Theophylact understand the commandment of Paul given here to Timothy in verse 5, namely that he charge certain ones not to teach otherwise than Paul had taught: for the Greek for "commandment" is παραγγελία, the same word he used in verse 3 when he said: "That you might charge," Greek ἵνα παραγγείλῃς, as Theophylact explains: "If you charge and command them not to teach otherwise, by this charge and commandment of yours you will accomplish charity; for if you insert charity, the whole perverse dogma will depart; for before, when there was no love, there was envy: from this followed the lust of dominion, from this in turn was born the ambition of teaching, and thence heresies arose; but now it is not so." But these writers narrow and restrict the general word "commandment" too much to this one precept of Paul.
Which furnish questions rather than the edification of God, which is in faith. — That is, namely that these fables and genealogies beget altercations and brawls rather than progress in the knowledge and worship of God, which consists in faith and piety.
Note: For "edification," in the Greek our [Vulgate], the Syriac, Vatablus, and others read οἰκοδομίαν; Chrysostom, however, Theophylact, and others read οἰκονομίαν, that is the dispensation and ordination of God, which concerns faith, namely that through faith in Christ all are instructed unto grace, piety, and salvation. But the former reading is plainer and more ancient, and therefore truer.
Such fables are those which some have invented concerning the deeds and lives of the Saints, such as the book On the Infancy of the Saviour contains. To invent these is great rashness and a crime; because, as Tertullian says toward the end of the Apologeticus, "It comes about by the devil's envy that fables are mingled with salutary doctrine, so that the truth and religion of the faith may be obscured and enervated." But such fables are not the subtle questions which the Scholastics raise, for they are not fables but illustrate and confirm faith and truth; yet let some take care not to multiply these questions too much, and not to invent, raise, and treat many new ones, too subtle and curious and of little use; for one ought to be wise unto sobriety and unto edification.
Note here first, the three epithets and three causes of the three Theological virtues: for charity is said to flow "from a pure heart," that is to be pure, and conversely purity begets charity; hope ought to be well aware of itself, and conversely a good conscience begets hope; faith ought to be sincere, and conversely a sincere love of truth begets faith. Again from all these arises charity, as the end of the Evangelical law, the summit and apex of perfection: for sincere faith begets a good conscience and hope, these beget a pure heart, and all these together finally beget charity. Hence here are three circumstances and conditions, and as it were the roots, of charity: first, that it be from "a pure heart;" second, that it be "from a good conscience;" third, that it be "from unfeigned faith," but sincere.
Note secondly: Charity is here opposed to worldly and carnal love; by which even one robber loves his fellow robber, says Theophylact, but not from a pure heart: for he loves him only with this end, that he may help him in plundering; but charity is from a pure heart. "A pure heart," says St. Augustine in Book I On Christian Doctrine, chapters V and following, "is empty of cupidity and self-love, and nothing else loves, save what ought to be loved," namely God in Himself, and the neighbor and all other things for God's sake.
Note thirdly: "Good conscience" is the same as a pure heart. Hence St. Ambrose interprets "good conscience" as a good life: for this is materially a good conscience; or, if we wish to speak altogether precisely and formally, a good conscience results from a pure heart; for just as knowledge arises from the thing known as from its object, so a good conscience arises from a pure heart as from its object; for conscience is nothing else than the soul's knowledge and testimony, by which the soul is well aware of itself, and bears witness to itself that it lives purely and holily according to God's law.
St. Augustine, however, on Psalm XXXI, by "good conscience" understands the hope which a good conscience produces, just as a bad conscience generates despair. Hence St. Hilarion, as St. Jerome reports: "When about to die he said to himself: Go forth, my soul, why do you fear? For nearly seventy years you have served Christ, and do you fear to die?" So too Paul in II Timothy IV, 7 says: "I have fought the good fight, etc., for the rest there is laid up for me a crown of justice," etc., as if Paul were saying here: The end of the Gospel is faith, hope, charity, or charity which arises from faith and hope. "A man," says St. Augustine in Book I On Christian Doctrine, chapter XXXIX, "supported by faith, hope, and charity, and holding them unshakeably, does not need the Scriptures except for instructing others; and many through these three live even in solitude without books." The same in his sermon On the Praises of Charity: "He holds both what lies hidden and what is open in the divine discourses, who holds charity in his conduct."
Note fourthly: The strength of charity arises from a good conscience: for this fears nothing; through this the Martyrs freely professed their faith before tyrants and bore every kind of torture bravely. Bias, being asked what in life is free from fear, answered: A good conscience. Tiburtius to the tyrant: "Every punishment," he said, "is cheap to us, when conscience is a secure companion." Tertullian in his book To Scapula, the Governor of Carthage who was raging against Christians, chapter I: "We contend with all your savagery," he says, "even rushing forth voluntarily, and we rejoice more in being condemned than in being absolved." The same, Apologeticus chapter L: "You may now," he says, "call us faggot-wood men and half-axle men, because we are bound to a stake of half an axle and burned with a girdle of brushwood; this is the dress of our victory, this our palm-embroidered robe, in such a chariot we triumph." And Justin, Apology I: "The more we are raged against, the more profess piety — just as if one should provoke a vine to fruitfulness by pruning."
Morally, S. Bernard aptly accommodates these three epithets of charity to three sides [of a triangle], in his sermon On the Three Orders of the Church, to the Fathers in Chapter: "It is necessary," he says, "and altogether necessary this pyramid, compacted of three sides, that there be charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and unfeigned faith. Let the Prelate have purity of heart in this, that he desire to do good rather than to preside, that he seek not his own advantage, nor worldly honor, nor anything of his own in his prelacy, beyond only the good pleasure of God and the salvation of souls. But along with pure intention, an irreproachable manner of life is also necessary, that having been made a pattern of the flock he may begin to do and to teach, lest the teacher hear from his brother: Physician, heal thyself. For such an occasion is the great damnation of the Prelate and the great perdition of his subjects: for he who presides ought to be irreproachable, since what he reproves in his disciples the master must above all things avoid himself. And unfeigned faith: because as one is in conversation, so must he also be in hidden thought, lest he appear humble outwardly and inwardly be puffed up." Where S. Bernard interprets "good conscience" as an irreproachable manner of life: for this flows from that, and is necessarily joined to it, as I have said.
Verse 6: From Which Some, Going Astray, Are Turned to Vain Babbling
6. From which some, having gone astray, are turned to vain babbling. — For "going astray," the Greek is ἀστοχήσαντες, which word is taken from javelin-throwers, and is said of those who, lacking the art of casting and aiming at the mark, miss it and hurl their darts into the air or elsewhere. So here the mark of the Evangelical law and truth is the sincere faith, hope, and charity already mentioned: from which the teachers who have gone astray have wandered from the mark and turned to vain babbling (Greek ἐξετράπησαν, that is, turned themselves and slid away of their own accord), and instead of the true theology of Christ have followed and brought in ματαιολογία (vain-talk). Thus Chrysostom, Theophylact, Œcumenius.
Beautifully Aristotle, in Ethics II chapter VI, teaches that virtue (and consequently truth) consists in the mean, and is as it were the center in a circle. Hence "to sin," he says, "happens in many ways, but to act rightly only in one." And in chapter IX: "It is difficult," he says, "in each thing to grasp the mean, just as it is difficult in a circle to find the middle, or the center;" so it is difficult for one acting to attain the mean, in which virtue consists, and not to fall away from it or deflect into extremes; just as it is difficult for an archer to fix his arrow on the mark, since he can swerve from it in many ways, but touch it only in one.
Verse 7: Wishing to Be Teachers of the Law
7. Wishing to be teachers of the law, understanding neither what they say, nor of what they affirm. — Hence it is plain of whom the Apostle is speaking, and what was the cause of their error: namely that he is speaking of Jews converted to Christ, who were ambitious and wanted to be considered experts and teachers of the law of Moses: hence they asserted their own δευτερώσεις (traditions) and fables and false doctrines, and especially this — that the law of Moses must be kept along with the Gospel, and that we are justified by the works of the law. Hence he adds: "Not understanding either what they say or of what they affirm," as if to say: They understand neither the principles nor the conclusions of their own doctrine; they grasp neither the law and Scripture of Moses, nor its explanation; because they do not understand that the end and goal of the law is Christ and His faith, hope, and charity.
Hence truly St. Augustine in Book VIII On Genesis according to the Letter, chapter XXV: "The mother," he says, "of all heretics is pride and the desire of glory and the pursuit of knowledge. Hence of the Scribes and Pharisees, in Matthew XXIII, it was said by Christ the Lord: They make broad their phylacteries and enlarge their fringes."
Verse 8: We Know That the Law Is Good, If a Man Use It Lawfully
8. We know that the law is good, if a man use it lawfully. — This is an "occupatio" (anticipated objection), for since in the preceding verse he chided the vain teachers of the law, it might have seemed to the Jews that he had chided the law itself: for the Jews everywhere objected to Paul that he was the enemy and demolisher of the law of Moses. The Apostle here removes this odious calumny from himself, as if to say: While I chided the teachers of the law — but the vain ones — I do not chide the law: for I know and profess that the law is good; provided you use the law "lawfully," ἐάν τις νομίμως, that is if you use the law according to the law itself and the mind of the law: now the mind and end of the law is to lead men to Christ. He therefore who uses the law lawfully, that is, in the manner the law itself commands, prefers Christ to the law, says Chrysostom and Theophylact, and expects justice not from the law but from Christ: indeed, as follows, he knows that the law was not made for Christians who are just and holy, but for the unjust and the wicked.
Secondly, he who teaches and at the same time does the things which the law commands uses the law lawfully; but he who teaches and does not do uses the law unlawfully, says Theophylact. But he especially uses the law lawfully who so studies the law, and so does and fulfils it, that he always has the end of the law before his eyes — namely, that through the law he may inflame in himself and in others charity from a pure heart, as I said in verse 5.
Verse 9: The Law Is Not Made for the Just, but for the Unjust
9. Knowing this, that the law is not made for the just. — This is one thing which the Apostle, among other things, requires for one to use the law lawfully — namely that he know that it was not laid down for the just but for the unjust, and that those abuse the law who through it terrify the just and wish the law's threats and severity to apply to the just. By this sentence the Apostle turns the objection of the Jews back upon the Jews themselves: You, he says, object to me that I abolish and chide the law; I deny this, but I say that the law is good, provided one uses it well: for which, among other things, it is required to know that the law was not laid down for the just, but for the unjust. But you, O Jews, wish the law of Moses to have been laid down for the just — namely for faithful Christians sanctified and justified through Christ in baptism — and you frighten them with the threats of the law, alleging that text of Deuteronomy XXVII, 26: "Cursed is he who does not abide in the words of this law, nor fulfil them in deed:" therefore you, O Jews, do not use the law lawfully; nor is the law good for you, because on account of it you make yourselves outlaws of Christ and of righteousness. Hence so often the Apostle in the Epistle to the Romans and to the Galatians says that he and Christians are released from the law, and that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, and that if we are led by the Spirit we are not under the law. For the Jews preached nothing but the law, and through the law they excluded the Gospel. To these the Apostle rightly opposes himself, saying that the law was not laid down for the just but for the unjust, as if to say: The law is not laid down for Christians, the just and holy; but for the Jews, who, as it were hard and rebellious slaves, had to be compelled to keep the law by fear of the law's penalties: but to Christians, in place of the law has been given the Gospel and the Spirit of grace and love, so that of their own accord they may do what God's law commands.
Note first: The Apostle is speaking especially of the Decalogue of the law; for this is laid down for murderers, fornicators, perjurers, of whom there follows mention.
Note secondly: "The law is not laid down for the just," that is, it has not been enacted to coerce the just; for the just of their own accord conform themselves to the law, by the love of justice and obedience, not by the fear of the penalty which the law threatens against transgressors; but it has been enacted that by its threats and punishments it may coerce the impious. This sense is plain from what follows, as if to say: As a tutor is not needed by a youth already sufficiently instructed, nor are threats and lashes needed by a slave who of his own accord does what is commanded: so a law that threatens and intends penalties is not needed by the just man, who of his own accord does the good and honorable which the law commands.
Hence thirdly, the Libertines wrongly infer that the just are not bound even by the law of the Decalogue: for in the law there are three things — to oblige, to direct, and to coerce, or to punish. The two former the law exercises upon all, even the just; the third only upon the unjust.
Hence S. Chrysostom beautifully and morally: "The just," he says, "is not under the law, but above the law." And Augustine on Psalm I: "The just," he says, "is not under the law, because in the law of the Lord is his will; for he who is in the law acts according to the law; he who is under the law is acted upon according to the law: the former therefore is free, the latter is a servant." See the same author On the Spirit and the Letter, chapter X.
The law is not made for the just, but for the unjust and the disobedient, for the ungodly and sinners, for the wicked and the defiled, for parricides and matricides, for murderers, 10. for fornicators, for those who lie with males, for kidnappers, for liars and perjurers, and if there be anything else that is contrary to sound doctrine. — Note first: For "unjust," the Greek is ἀνόμοις, that is, lawless. For "disobedient," the Greek is ἀνυποτάκτοις, that is, unsubmissive, as S. Ambrose translates — those who refuse to be subjected and to obey, but are disobedient, refractory, and rebellious, as the Syriac translates, of whom it is said in Jeremiah II, 20: "From of old you have broken my yoke, you have burst my bonds (the precepts by which I bound you to me by my law), and you said: I will not serve."
Note secondly: For "wicked," the Greek is ἀνοσίοις, which Vatablus and Erasmus render as "irreverent," namely those who reverence neither God nor men.
Again, in place of "contaminated," the Greek has βεβήλοις, that is, profane and to be kept away from sacred things. Now those are to be kept away who have been contaminated by some sin, especially such as that by which they have violated and profaned sacred things. Thus Esau, in Hebrews XII, 16, is called profane, because he sold his birthright for food; for the right of primogeniture, on account of the priestly dignity then attached to it, was sacred.
Note thirdly: "man-stealers" (plagiarii) are here so called, not, as Lyranus and Hugo think, those who inflict blows and beatings on others; but those who seize others' slaves and claim them for themselves, or who carry off free men into slavery, and sell or buy them as slaves; for this is what the Greek ἀνδραποδισταῖς means; for ἀνδράποδον is a slave, whence ἀνδραποδιστής is so called, that is, a plagiarist (man-stealer); for, as Erasmus says, just as those who steal sacred things are called sacrilegious; those who steal from the public treasury or the prince's treasury, peculators; and those who carry off others' beasts of burden, rustlers (abigei): so those who lead away and steal free men or others' slaves, are called plagiarii by the Jurisconsults; and the theft itself is called plagium, which the Lord commands to be punished by death, Deuteronomy XXIV, 7.
Note fourthly: The Apostle says "sound doctrine" is that which is according to the Gospel, because indeed the Gospel is nothing other than the standard of sound doctrine; and so the Gospel doctrine is itself sound doctrine, so that whatever is contrary or conformable to sound doctrine is contrary or conformable to the Gospel; and every sin that opposes sound doctrine likewise opposes the Gospel. Again by these words, says Theodoret, the Apostle shows that those things which are necessary to be observed from the law of Moses agree with the Gospel and are prescribed by it, as are the precepts of the Decalogue: but the rest of the ceremonial and judicial precepts of the Mosaic law are now superfluous. And by this very fact He tacitly overthrows the dogma of the Judaizers, who wished to mix legal observances with the Gospel. Against these the Apostle here teaches that the Gospel suffices, inasmuch as it contains every sound doctrine concerning faith and morals, and so is itself sound doctrine.
Verse 11: According to the Gospel of the Glory of the Blessed God
11. Which is according to the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God, which has been entrusted to me. — Note fifthly: He calls it "the Gospel of glory," that is, glorious. For so in II Corinthians III He opposes the Gospel to the Mosaic law, because the former was glorious in comparison with the latter, since the law was as it were a shadow, while the Gospel is as it were light, splendor and brightness. Secondly, "Gospel of glory," that is, by which God, blessed and beatifier, is glorified, says Vatablus; thus in II Corinthians IV, 4, he calls it "the Gospel of the glory of Christ," because in the Gospel Christ is glorified, along with Christ's redemption, grace, resurrection and divinity. Thirdly, he calls it "Gospel of glory," because it promises and leads us to eternal glory. So Chrysostom and Theophylact. Fourthly, he calls it "Gospel of glory," because to suffer for Christ on account of the Gospel is not disgraceful or foolish, but glorious. And therefore he adds μακάριον (blessed), because in these evils there is true blessedness. So Chrysostom and Theophylact.
Fifthly, "Gospel of glory," that is, of grace, as if to say: The Gospel announces and brings us the glorious grace of God. Thus it is said in Romans III, 23: "All have sinned and need the glory of God," that is, the glorious grace of God. By metonymy this sense coheres with the first, and is the simplest and clearest; for it is called "the Gospel of the glory of God," because in it God shows and manifests His glory and magnificence, both in the manifold grace of this life and in heavenly glory in the heavens.
Note sixthly: He fittingly here calls God blessed, to mark the fountain of the glory of the Gospel just spoken of; for from God's immense goodness and happiness it has come about that He has deigned to restore lost man, and through this Gospel of glory to communicate Himself and His glory and beatitude to man. For just as in the poor and envious man, want and misery are the cause of envy, so happiness in the blessed is the cause of mercy; for the good, redounding in itself, pours itself out upon others. For this reason God is called in Hebrew שדי saddai, that is, sufficient, abundant, and a cornucopia of all goods, as I said on Philippians IV, 11.
Verse 12: I Give Thanks to Him Who Has Strengthened Me
12. I give thanks to Him (to God) who has strengthened me, Christ Jesus our Lord. — So the Roman edition, the Greek codices, the Greeks, and the Syriac. Therefore the preposition "in," with which certain ones thus read, "in Christ Jesus," must be deleted. The sense is: I give thanks to my God, who strengthens me unto Christ's glory, who indeed supplies me with strength and courage to announce Christ powerfully and intrepidly. The Apostle had said in v. 11 that the Gospel had been entrusted to him by God, and hence he now gives thanks to God.
It can secondly be expounded as: "to Christo," through Christ, and through the grace of Christ God strengthens me. "For," says Theophylact, "he had said: That which has been entrusted to me, lest he should seem on that account to glory, he refers it to God: To Him, he says, thanks are due, who gave me strength, that I might be able to take up such a burden; for to stand against daily deaths was not within human power. This is truly humility and a mind not at all breathing lofty things, or growing proud. But our humility is not ταπεινοφροσύνη, that is, an affection for humble things, but is ταπεινορρημοσύνη, that is, humility consisting only in words, and humility of the tongue."
Because He has counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry — of the apostolate and preaching of the Gospel. Refer these words to "I give thanks," as if to say: I give thanks to God for this reason, that He counted me faithful, that is, in counting me faithful He entrusted the Gospel to me, as I said in the preceding verse, and placed me in His ministry; therefore there is such a metalepsis as we commonly say: My Lord has counted and judged me faithful, or sufficient, for the stewardship of His house, that is, He has entrusted to me the stewardship of His house.
From this it is clear that "faithful" here does not signify believing, or Christian, as Ambrose and others would have it, but one who is trustworthy and who in good faith administers the affairs entrusted to him.
Secondly, Hesselius and others expound: "He counted me faithful," that is, He made [me faithful]. Thus in Philippians II it is said that Christ thought it not robbery, that is, did not commit robbery, according to some; for the Hebrews' words for mental acts are sometimes taken for real ones, and conversely, as I said in Canon 36. But this sense seems harder and beside the Apostle's mind: granted, on the side of the matter itself, that it is true God first made Paul faithful before counting him faithful. But the Apostle does not intend this here, for he only gives thanks to God for the apostolate and the Gospel entrusted to him.
Thirdly, Theophylact, taking the word "counted" properly, thus explains it, saying that Paul was elected to the apostolate and to the preaching of the Gospel in preference to Judas the rejected one, because it came about that God had foreseen and foreknown the better and more faithful disposition of Paul, and had judged that he would be such; and that Paul gives thanks to God for this judgment of God, just as stewards give thanks to their masters when they judge them faithful and industrious, and fit for the stewardship by the very fact of entrusting and committing it to them. After this foresight, judgment, and election of God, says Theophylact, God added strength to Paul, that he might faithfully fulfill and complete the work entrusted to him, namely, that he might evangelize intrepidly and effectively. But this sense smacks somewhat of Pelagianism; for, as Augustine teaches in De Praedest. Sanct., II, III, XX, God did not choose Paul or anyone else unto grace, and consequently not unto the apostolate (for it seems God, when He called Paul to faith and grace, by that very fact destined him and called him to the apostolate, as is gathered from Acts IX, 15), because he was worthy and faithful; but rather by calling and choosing him He made him worthy and faithful. I confess, however, that God could secondarily have looked to Paul's natural endowments, and on their account rather have chosen him than others lacking them for the apostolate, e.g. because Paul was skilled in the law, was of sharp intellect, of fervent nature, of a generous disposition: for Augustine seems to indicate this in book XXII Contra Faust., LXX. That Christ looked to similar gifts of acting and ruling in St. Peter when He set him over the whole Church, St. Thomas teaches, II II, Quaest. CLXXXV, art. 3, ad 1; and in the body asserts that one must look to such things in choosing any Bishop. He has similar things in Quaest. LXIII, art. 1 and 2, where he also assigns the cause. But the first and chief cause why He chose Paul above others, not only to grace, but also to the apostolate, was God's liberal will and special mercy toward Paul, not toward others. Whence Paul refers his apostolate to Him as a gift received, and here gives thanks.
Verse 13: Who Before Was a Blasphemer, and a Persecutor, and Contumelious
13. Who before was a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and contumelious. — In place of "contumelious" the Greek has ὑβριστής, which, as Vatablus translates, means "violent," one who offers violence and oppresses another; St. Augustine, hom. 25 among the 50, translates it "injurious"; namely this is what Luke says in Acts ch. IX: "Saul still breathing threats and slaughter." For Paul here magnifies his sin by gradation. The first degree is that he blasphemed Christ and cursed Him with words. The second, that he persecuted Him in deed and in fact. The third, that he used violence and struck Christ's faithful, and tried to abolish the Christian name.
But I obtained mercy of God, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. — In Greek ἀλλὰ καί, that is, "but also" mercy, etc., as if to say: Not only did I obtain pardon, but also mercy, that I might become an Apostle, because I sinned through ignorance arising from unbelief: for I did not know that I was persecuting the Messiah; I was driven by zeal for the law, and was fighting on behalf of the law of Moses as if on behalf of God's law.
You will say: The Apostle says he obtained mercy because he sinned out of ignorance; therefore the very fact that he sinned out of ignorance was the cause (for this is what the causal conjunction "because" signifies) why God had mercy on Paul and called him to faith and grace: therefore on the part of man some beginning, indeed even a cause, can be given for the first calling and first grace, and consequently for predestination itself: which however the Council of Orange condemns, Canons 5, 6 and 7.
By way of response, note with Ludovico Molina, part 1, Quaestion XXIII, art. 4, disp. 1, member 12, that although for predestination, and consequently for the first calling and grace, no reason, disposition, or merit can be given on the part of man, since this comes to man from the mere will and mercy of God; nevertheless God does not therefore fail in His eternal predestination to attend to the circumstances and to the foreseen use of free will; for example, here in Paul, He looked to the quality of ignorance, which excused the bad use of free will, as a condition — not as a congruent cause for which He might predestine Paul, or call and exalt him so magnificently and to such great things (for in that case the beginning of grace and salvation would be from the good use of free will, which the Council of Orange and the Church condemn); but God attended and looked to this ignorance of Paul as to a condition without which He would not have decided to predestine him so and to call him so magnificently, suppose if Paul had sinned out of obstinate malice. To the argument therefore I respond by denying the first consequence, and consequently the others which are deduced from it. To the proof of the consequence I respond that the conjunction "because" signifies a cause not direct and proper, but indirect, and only one removing impediments: ignorance, namely, purged and removed a certain and determined malice, which is an impediment to the divine vocation and grace: for Paul, sinning out of ignorance, was not indeed more worthy, but yet less unworthy of pardon, and impeded God's calling less, than if he had sinned out of malice, as the Scribes and other Jews did, says Theophylact.
Some add, with Gabriel Vasquez, that this removal of the impediment proceeds from the grace of Christ, or that the grace of Christ preserved Paul from sinning out of malice, and so from impeding God's calling: for they think that every beginning of a vocation of whatever kind, even if only negative, flows from the grace of Christ; but there is nothing that compels us to extend the grace of Christ so far; for the Councils and Fathers, when they deny that the beginning of faith and salvation is from ourselves, speak of the beginning properly so called, which positively and properly initiates and commences the way to justice and salvation, and disposes and leads man to it; otherwise we shall be compelled in equal manner to confess that all morally good works which infidels do before they receive the faith of Christ are from the grace of Christ, and consequently are works of grace, not of nature; whereas the Apostle in Rom. II, and from him all the Doctors, teach that the Gentiles naturally, that is by the powers of nature alone, do many good things which the law prescribes, such as to honor parents, to cultivate justice, to avoid murder, theft, etc.
Morally hence you may deduce that sound counsel must be given to even obstinate sinners, namely, that if they will not avoid sins altogether, or can do so only with difficulty, they should at least avoid the greater ones and sin less: for they will be more often and more easily enlightened by God, the less obstacle they place. This is easy to confirm by many examples drawn from the Lives of the Fathers.
Verse 14: The Grace of Our Lord Has Superabounded, with Faith and Love
14. The grace of our Lord has superabounded, with faith and love, which is in Christ Jesus. — In place of "superabounded," the Greek has ὑπερεπλεόνασε, that is, was supermultiplied, increased exceedingly, exuberated, superabounded. Note here first that the ὑπέρ, that is "super," signifies the comparison and pre-eminence of grace over the unbelief, blasphemies, and persecutions of Paul, as if to say: I was a great persecutor and enemy of Christ and of the Church, a great sinner and blasphemer; but far greater was the grace of God, which made me from a wolf a sheep, from Saul Paul, from a persecutor a preacher, from a blasphemer an Apostle.
Others add: "superabounded," that is, the Lord has pursued me with many other benefits after the Gospel was committed to me, namely when He gave me the gift of tongues, of prophecy, of healings, and other graces. But that Paul here had in view not so much these graces as the grace of justification and reconciliation with God, is clear from the following and preceding verse. For he is wholly carried away with God's clemency, by which He received so great a sinner as himself into grace. Therefore the former sense is the genuine one.
Note secondly: Paul signifies the effects of grace when he adds, "with faith and love," where he opposes faith to his former unbelief, and love to his persecution and cruelty. Whence Vatablus translates: God bestowed upon me His grace abundantly, and faith in Christ, and love toward the saints, namely the Christians, whom before I pursued and persecuted with stubborn and deadly hatred. Hence the Syriac too translates: the grace of our Lord has been multiplied in me, and faith, and love, which is Jeschua Meschicho.
Otherwise the μετά, that is, "with faith and love," Chrysostom expounds, as if the little word "with" signifies the relation of the means or instrument, so that the sense is: I have obtained this grace and these gifts through faith and love. The former sense is plainer and simpler.
Note thirdly: The word "superabounded" must be referred not only to grace, but also to faith and love, as if to say: When grace was abundantly poured out upon me, the effects of grace likewise superabounded in me, namely faith and love: for upon Paul there was breathed a most robust faith and most ardent love, by which, as it were a fire roaming through the whole world, he set them all aflame and enkindled them.
Note fourthly: He calls it "faith and love which is in Christ," as if to say: Which I have through Christ's grace and merits. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Œcumenius, Primasius. Secondly, Vatablus: "in Christ," that is, toward Christ and Christians. Thirdly, and more genuinely according to the mind and phrasing of the Apostle: faith and love in Christ is Christian faith and love, that is, the faith and love proper to Christians, the sons of Christ, which is a divine, supernatural, heavenly and spiritual love: for he opposes this to the natural love of infidels, which is begotten and produced either by nature, or blood, or benefits, or by community of pursuits and duties.
Verse 15: Faithful Is the Saying, That Christ Jesus Came to Save Sinners
15. Faithful is the saying, and worthy of all acceptance: that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners, of whom I am the first. — The Apostle had said that the grace of God superabounded in him; he now in fitting order subjoins that the same grace lies open and is prepared for all sinners, so that he may thus console the faithful to whom similar grace has fallen, and stir up the unbelievers to lay hold of the same grace. Whence he sets forth a general sentence, as it were an axiom and the foundation of his preaching and of the Gospel, which he opposes to Jewish fables about justice to be acquired by the works of the law, saying: "Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into this world to save sinners," as if to say: Christ alone is the justifier and savior, not Moses, not the law, not the works of the law or of nature; as if to say: The Jews boast their ἀποδοχή, that is, their tradition and Kabbalah, but a trifling and fabulous one: I deliver to you the true and certain ἀποδοχή, that is, the tradition and Kabbalah received from Christ Himself, namely that Christ alone is He who both expiates and saves sinners. If anyone therefore desires a Kabbalah, let him accept this as undoubted. For the ancient Kabbalah was the tradition of the fathers, by which of old the sacred mysteries — especially those concerning the Kingdom of Christ — were handed down by the fathers from mouth to mouth by succession; which one received from another. Whence Kabbalah in Hebrew is the same as "acceptance," that is, accepted doctrine and tradition, from the root קבל kibbel, that is, "he received." Therefore the ancient Kabbalah was certain and undoubted, which Ezra returning from Babylon and the other fathers handed down; but the Kabbalah of the more recent Jews is a fiction and Pharisaical.
Note first: In place of "faithful" the Greek has πιστός. Some, according to Jerome to Marcella, read χρηστός, that is, humane (kindly). Thus Ambrose reads it and interprets thus: "humanus," that is, delightful, pleasing; and this agrees with what follows, "and worthy of all acceptance." St. Augustine also reads "humanus," but explains it differently: for he says this saying is humane and divine in the same way as Christ is God and man; but the Apostle preferred to call it humane rather than divine, because he was treating of Christ's coming in the flesh. "If," he says, "that man is called humane who receives a man into his house, how humane is God, who receives man in Himself?" Augustine followed the meaning of the Latin word humanus: for the Greek χρηστός signifies nothing of the sort. But commonly the Syriac, the Greek codices, the Latin and Greek Fathers read πιστός, that is faithful, that is, trustworthy, certain, undoubted, truthful, worthy of belief, not fabulous, not a vain talker, like that of the Jews in vv. 4 and 7. So in Apocalypse XXI, 5, St. John says: "And He who was seated on the throne said, etc. These words are most faithful," that is, most certain and most true. On the contrary in Jeremiah XV, 18, "unfaithful waters" are spoken of, that is, unstable and deceitful, which seem about to flow perennially from their source, and yet fail in summer when men most need them. So in Acts XIII, 34, it says: "I will give you the holy things of David" (that is, the holy and munificent promises of God made to David: whence our Interpreter renders Isaiah LV, 3 as "the mercies of David," that is, those promised to David) "faithful," that is firm and stable; for it corresponds to the Hebrew אמן neeman, or rather נאם neum. For thus the Prophets, when they bring forth a certain oracle, in order to win belief and attention for what they are about to say, are wont to prefix or subjoin: Neum Adonai, that is, "the Lord says," or rather, "the saying of the Lord." For neum is not a past tense verb: for so one would have to say naam; but it is a participle, or rather a noun.
Again, neum does not signify a simple or any kind of saying, but a certain and indubitable one, to be believed with certain faith, so that it is the same as oracle. Hence the Apostle aptly translates the Hebrew neum as πιστός ὁ λόγος, that is, a trusty and certain saying. Whence as the Prophets do, so also Paul, when he is about to say a certain and indubitable thing, is accustomed to prefix or subjoin these words, as in Titus III, 7 and 8, confirming as it were by asseveration what he has said or is about to say. Hence Forerius and others aptly translate that passage of Isaiah I, 24, "Therefore says the Lord God of hosts" (where for "says," the Hebrew has neum), as: therefore a faithful saying of Jehovah Sabaoth.
Note secondly: "Worthy of all acceptance," that is, to be accepted with all zeal and thanksgiving; worthy that we accept and embrace it in every way. For the Greek ἀποδοχή signifies not only acceptance or accepting, but also approbation. Whence it can here be translated, "faithful is the saying, and worthy of all approbation." Note here that this epithet aptly corresponds to the former; for from the fact that the saying is certain, true, and indeed an oracle, it follows that it is to be accepted and embraced in every way. The Apostle alludes to the Hebrew words נאם neum and אמון heemin, which as they have the same letters but transposed (for from naam comes aman if you transpose the letter n: heemin, and aman is the root of the verb heemin), so they correspond to one another in meaning: for as the word neum signifies to speak with certainty and indubitably, to say truth itself certainly and infallibly — which belongs to God alone speaking, likewise to the Prophets and Apostles certainly proclaiming the word of God, who, immediately called by God, have the testimony that they cannot err; and so as neum properly signifies the very word of God and the oracle of the first truth, so again the word heemin signifies to apply faith with certainty to that word of God as to an oracle, and to believe and acquiesce in it with a certain firmness and certitude divine and supernatural, which far surpasses all certitude of opinion, science, authority, and human sensation. These two Hebrew words neum and heemin therefore are correlative and mutually correspond; and as neum is the truth of one speaking certainly and infallibly, so heemin is the act of one believing certainly and apprehending and embracing with undoubted faith (which thence is called emuna) the force of the neum, that is, the oracle. In the same way these two correspond mutually here: "Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptance," as if to say: It is a neum, to which one must heemin, that is, believe; or it is a neum, worthy of emuna, that is, a trustworthy oracle, worthy of all faith and the embrace of faith. For from the fact that the saying is trustworthy and infallible, it follows that it is to be embraced with all acceptance, both with the arms of faith, and consequently with the arms of hope, invocation, love, and thanksgiving, namely that we may become partakers of it, and having become partakers, render to God such thanks for so great a gift as is fitting.
Note thirdly: "Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptance," is that which follows, namely: "that Jesus Christ came into this world to save sinners." Where first, against the Jews, it signifies that the law and the ceremonies of the law are ineffectual unto salvation; for Christ brought salvation: nay, it was on account of bringing it that He descended to us from heaven. Secondly, it signifies that the end of the incarnation and of the whole economy of Christ in the flesh was to abolish sin and to save sinners. "I have not come," He says in Matthew IX, "to call the just, but sinners to repentance; and they that are well need not a physician, but they that are sick." Take away diseases, take away wounds, and there will be no need of a physician: likewise take away sins, and there will be no need of Christ. Hence thirdly we learn the enormity of sin ("a great Physician," says Augustine, sermon 9 On the Words of the Apostle, "came from heaven, because a great patient lay sick throughout the whole world"); and consequently that we must strive with all our might to emerge from sin, which is so great an evil, lest Christ seem to have come to us in vain. "When you hear," says Augustine above, "that Christ came into this world to save sinners, do not sleep on the sweet bed of sin, but hear Paul saying: Rise, you who sleep, and Christ shall enlighten you."
Fourthly, we learn the immense clemency and charity of Christ, with which He pursues, converts and saves sinners — even those persecuting Him (such as Paul was). Hear St. Augustine in the place cited: "Men were desperately sick, and by the very sickness with which they had lost their minds, they were even striking the Physician, indeed killing Him. But He, even when He was being killed, was a Physician; He was being beaten and was healing; He bore with the frenzied man, and did not desert the sick; He was held, bound, struck, mocked, suspended, and was a Physician. You recognize the frenzied; recognize also the Physician: Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do. They with maddened minds raged, and by raging shed the Physician's blood; but He from that very blood of His made medicines for the sick."
Of whom I am the first. — Some heretics, as St. Thomas here testifies, have invented the fable that the soul of Adam, the first man and sinner, was transfused into Paul, and that for that reason Paul said he was the first of sinners: but this is a Pythagorean raving. He therefore calls himself first, not in time, but in the magnitude of his offenses, because he had been chief of the persecutors of Christ, says Anselm; therefore "first," that is, greatest and worst. Thus Augustine, sermon 9 On the Words of the Apostle: "For no one," he says, "was fiercer than Paul among the persecutors, therefore none was first among sinners." The same on Psalm LXX: "What therefore is 'first'? Surpassing all not in time, but in magnitude." See how Paul humbles himself. I am, he says, the first, that is, as Theophylact and Œcumenius explain, I have sinned beyond measure and have come to every kind of malice, hence I needed all the mercy of God and the whole of His clemency, not some part, as those do who have sinned only in part. "This humility," says Ambrose, "does not contribute to his diminishment, but to his glory; and this is his accusation, but the praise of the Savior."
You will ask: How could the Apostle truly feel and say that he was the first of sinners, that is, the greatest, when he knew that Judas, Caiaphas, Herod and many others had sinned far more grievously?
St. Thomas answers, and Ambrose hints, that the Apostle does not mean to say he is absolutely the first of all sinners; but only with respect to those Jews who demanded of Pilate that Christ be crucified, and afterward, converted by Peter and the Apostles and repenting, obtained grace and salvation. But these restrict the Apostle's words too much, since the Apostle does not restrict them, but speaks generally of all sinners whom, as he premised, Christ came to save; but Christ came to save not only those Jews, but absolutely all men and sinners: therefore the Apostle says he is the first of absolutely all sinners.
I therefore reply that the Apostle, well illumined by the Holy Spirit, recognized the gravity of his sins, and from true humility intent all the eyes of his mind upon it; but did not so consider and inspect others' sins, but presumed better of each, or that they had more causes excusing them and lessening the gravity of the sin: as one who is suffering from a severe pain of teeth, head, or eyes says no pain is greater than this, but his is the greatest of all, because indeed he feels his own through experience, but considers others' pains only through speculation, and so his own pain seems to him, and really in his own perception is, the greatest: so Paul's sin in his own perception seemed to him the greatest.
Likewise St. Francis used to say he was the greatest of sinners; and being asked how he could truly say it, he answered: If God had bestowed upon the greatest robber that grace which He bestowed upon me, he would have used it much better, and would have turned out holier than I; as if to say: If, setting aside grace, I consider myself, I see in me such great infirmity and proclivity to evil as I see in no other, and therefore I think I would have been and would still be the greatest sinner, had not God strengthened my infirmity by His grace, and were He not daily strengthening it.
You will say: Ignorance excused Paul.
I reply: It did not excuse, but only lessened the sin; for it was vincible, and consequently culpable: for the Apostle could and ought from the Scriptures (in which he was skilled), from Christ's many miracles, from the great and holy life and doctrine of so many Christians and priests believing in Christ, to have recognized Christ as the Messiah, the redeemer of the world. Now Paul's sin was in itself the greatest, namely to persecute Christ, God and man; therefore Paul considered his own obstinacy, by which, fighting on behalf of Judaism, he had attacked Christ, God and man, and His Church, so stubbornly that, had he been able, he would have wished to overthrow and destroy it utterly, and had presented himself as a leader to others in this matter; and this sin of his seemed to him so grave that the sins of others, into which he attended only lightly and in general, seemed to him to be lighter. For he considered his sin in itself, but did not consider his ignorance and other circumstances which lessened the sin. See what is said on Philippians II, 3. Thus Solomon, Proverbs XXX, 2: "I am the most foolish of men," he says, that is, I seem so to myself: while indeed I look upon myself and what I have of myself, setting aside God's illumination, while I intimately weigh and penetrate the smallness of my wisdom, and compare it both with my own ignorance and with the divine wisdom; I seem to myself to be most ignorant, and indeed an abyss of ignorance and folly, and that the others, whose ignorance is not so clearly seen by me, are far wiser than I, especially in practical wisdom, and in the knowledge of self and of God. Whence the Hebrews think that Solomon, conscious of his idolatry and sins and repenting, said these things; though Lyranus refutes them, who together with Abulensis thinks that Solomon remained impenitent and was damned; of which elsewhere. In sum, by these words Solomon means to teach us that true wisdom consists chiefly in the knowledge of oneself and of one's misery and folly, and in a humble feeling and estimation of oneself. Thus Socrates being asked what he knew, replied: "This one thing I know, that I know nothing." Indeed another, asked the same, gave the same answer, and added that he did not even know this (namely, that he knew nothing).
You will ask secondly, how does Paul say: "Of whom I am the first;" for he knew that this sin had already been forgiven him.
I reply, "I am," that is, "I was." Secondly and more simply, Paul here considers himself as if constituted in pure naturals, setting aside grace: for thus he was a sinner, and would have remained in sin, and would in no way have been changed, indeed would have sinned far more grievously still; for it is humble to consider and despise oneself for what one has of oneself: for what one has from God is not one's own, but God's, and the praise and glory of it is owed to God. Thus St. Augustine, book II Conf. VII: "Lord," he says, "I attribute to Your grace whatever evils I have not done." And below: "I confess that all things have been forgiven me, both the evils I have done of my own accord and those I have not done with You as my guide." And eloquently in the prologue On the Christian Life: "That I, the first and last of sinners, more foolish than the rest and more unskilled than all, may dare to admonish you by frequent letters that you may proceed on the way of holiness and justice, not from confidence in my own justice, not from the skill of wisdom, not from the glory of knowledge, but only what I have conceived in soul and mind according to God, the cause of Your charity compels me." Thus Socrates, when noted by a certain Physiognomist for being from his natural complexion incontinent and a thief, when the bystanders, who knew Socrates' probity, laughed at the Physiognomist's judgment, Socrates replied: He has not lied; for I am by nature such, but I restrain myself.
Morally, let each one consider himself and his own sins, not those of others, and say: I am the first of sinners; let him recognize and proclaim God's clemency in himself; let him humble himself, yet so that he does not anxiously torment himself. Whence St. Bernard, sermon 3 on the feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul: "In Paul, saying, 'Faithful is the saying and worthy of all acceptance, that the Lord Jesus came to save sinners, of whom I am the first,' receive this, brethren, of consolation and confidence, that those already converted to the Lord may not be too much tortured by the consciousness of past sins, but only humbled, as he himself was. 'I am,' he says, 'the least of the Apostles, who am not worthy to be called an Apostle, because I persecuted the Church of God.' Mercy also obtained Peter, who sinned not in ignorance, but having his eyes open." And below: "For what? Have you sinned in the world? Surely not more than Paul? But if in Religion itself, surely not more than Peter? Yet they, doing penance with their whole heart, obtained not only salvation, but also sanctity. And you therefore do likewise, since on your account Scripture calls them men of mercy, namely on account of the great mercy which they merited to obtain."
Verse 16: That in Me First Christ Jesus Might Show Forth All Patience
16. That in me first Christ Jesus might show forth all patience, for the instruction of those who shall believe in Him unto life everlasting. — Note: the "first" is a noun, not an adverb; for in Greek it is πρώτῳ, that is, in the first and chief, namely sinner. Beautifully Theodoret: "Just as," he says, "a physician, when many in one house are sick at once and all despair of health, if he receives one in the worst condition and by giving him medicines brings him to perfect health, causes all the others to be of good cheer and to conceive confidence: so the Lord Christ, the Physician of souls, when He had become man for the salvation of sinners, freed me, who was most wicked and most criminal of all, not only from former stains, but even loaded me with the greatest gifts, showing through me to all men His patience and clemency, that none of those who have committed the greatest crimes, looking on me, may despair of salvation."
Note secondly: For "all patience," the Greek is πᾶσαν μακροθυμίαν, that is, all longanimity; "all," that is, the whole and perfect: for a universal collective noun is put for the whole quantity; for perfect and illustrious was the long-suffering of God, by which He so long bore with Paul raging against Him, whom He could have destroyed with a single glance of the eye and consumed with a thunderbolt. Ambrose for this one word put two, "magnanimity and patience." For it is the part of the magnanimous to be long-suffering, patient and gentle: as on the contrary it is the part of the small-minded to be moved by injuries, to be disturbed, and to wish to take vengeance.
Hence beautifully St. Gregory, in book XXXI of the Morals, chapter I, explaining those words of Job: "Will the rhinoceros be willing to serve you?" and applying them mystically to St. Paul: "The rhinoceros," he says, "which is also called the unicorn, is of such strength and ferocity that it cannot be captured by any art of hunters. But, as natural philosophers (among whom is Isidore, in Etymologies book XII, chapter 11, and Pierius in the hieroglyph of the Rhinoceros, who calls it Halicorn) assert, a virgin maiden is set before it, who opens her bosom to it as it approaches, in which it, having laid aside all ferocity, lays down its head, and thus lulled to sleep as if defenseless, is captured. For in like manner, that virginal flesh of Christ was able to tame, to placate, to capture, and to bind wholly to Himself Paul who breathed threats and slaughter, when He spread out before him the whole bosom of His mercy."
Note thirdly: For "as a pattern," Ambrose reads, "as an example"; for in Greek it is ὑποτύπωσις, which signifies a living exemplar and image, by which a thing fully expressed is set before the eyes — as if to say: God had mercy on me, that in me, as in the first and greatest sinner, He might give a living exemplar and hypotyposis of His divine clemency and longsuffering; so that in me men might most clearly perceive that God wills all sinners to be saved, and calls them to Himself, and almost compels them, and most easily forgives their offenses, however grave. Therefore by my example He instructed and excited all who in future ages will believe in Christ, to obtain eternal life; that through penitence each of them may dare to hope for pardon from Christ, and as a suppliant flee to Him for it. For the examples of the Saints wonderfully stir men. "You had pierced," says Augustine, in Confessions book IX, chapter 2, "my heart, O Lord, with Your charity, and I bore Your words transfixed in my inmost being, and the examples of Your servants, whom from being black You had made bright, and from being dead You had made alive, gathered in the bosom of our thoughts, burned and consumed our lukewarmness."
Morally, Chrysostom, in homily 2 on Psalm 5: "If you are impious," he says, "think of the publican; if you are unclean, consider the harlot; if you are a murderer, look at the thief; if you are wicked, think of the blasphemer; consider Paul, first a persecutor, afterward a herald. Do not say to me: I am a blasphemer. Do not say: I am a persecutor, I am unclean. You have demonstrations of all kinds; flee into whichever harbor you wish: do you want the New? do you want the Old? In the Old, David; in the New, Paul." And below: "What is sin compared to the Lord's mercy? A spider's web, which when the wind blows nowhere appears."
And from St. Augustine, sermon 9 On the Words of the Apostle, Anselm here: "If Saul was healed, why do I despair? If by so great a Physician so desperate a sick man was healed, shall I not fit my wounds to those hands? shall I not hasten to those hands? That men might say this, therefore Saul was made an Apostle from a persecutor: for when a physician comes wishing to gain fame for himself, he seeks out some desperate sick man, and heals him; and if he finds one most poor, he does not there seek a fee, but commends his art: so also Christ showed the power of His special spiritual medicine in Saul, that all thereafter might know He can heal all the infirmities of all who flee to Him."
Verse 17: To the King of Ages, Immortal, Invisible, the Only God
17. To the King of Ages, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory unto the ages of ages. Amen. — The Apostle here, after his manner, having commemorated the benefit of the remission of sins and the redemption of Christ, rises from Christ as man and bursts into praise and doxology of God the Father, as Ambrose holds; or rather, as Theodoret and Anselm hold, of the whole Most Holy Trinity, which through Christ has bestowed this gift of remission upon men, and bestows and will bestow it for all ages.
Note: "King of Ages" is a proper attribute of God, signifying that God is the first and eternal Being, and consequently the King, Author, Orderer, Distributor, Moderator and Lord of all ages — that is, both of His own eternity and of the aevum, that is, the everlasting life of angels and of our times: for all these flow from God's eternity. Whence beautifully and divinely St. Dionysius, On the Divine Names, chapters 5, 7, and 10, expounding this passage, says: "From the fact that He is (the eternal God, King of Ages), the age is, essence is, being is, and time, and generation, and that which is generated, and whatever in any way subsists." For every temporal being flows from the eternal and perpetual being, which is in God the King of Ages. "And therefore," says Dionysius, "God is called King of Ages, inasmuch as in Him and around Him the whole of being and existence and subsistence revolves." Hence for "of ages," the Greek is aionon: now aion signifies first, the eternity of God; second, the aevum of the angels; third, the duration of men. For eternity, which is duration having neither end nor beginning, belongs to God alone: but aeviternity, which has a beginning, and so far agrees with our time, but lacks an end, and so far participates in something of divine eternity, is attributed to angels and the rational soul. Hence, as Aristotle says, On the Heavens book I, chapter 9, aion is so called ἀπὸ τοῦ ἀεὶ εἶναι, that is, from the fact that it always is. Perhaps the Apostle wished to strike at the fictitious aeons of Valentinus, and to oppose to them God the true Lord of all aeons.
Note secondly: For "immortal," the Greek is ἀφθάρτῳ, that is, "incorruptible," as the Syriac has it, and Augustine, in Acts with Felix the Manichaean book II, chapter 7. Furthermore "immortal" or "incorruptible" is the same as "immutable" — as if to say: into God falls no corruption, no death, no destruction, and consequently no change at all: for every change, says Anselm, is a kind of death of the thing which is changed and ceases to be what it was. But rather God is immortal, incorruptible, immutable, and consequently eternal: for incorruption and immortality is the ground, and as it were the cause, of eternity.
Note thirdly: He adds "invisible," because naturally God cannot be seen by the eyes of the body, nor of the mind, nor by any powers of nature: but in order that anyone may see God, he needs the supernatural light of glory, as is plain in the Blessed.
Note fourthly: He says "to the only God," that is, who alone is God: for God is one, and consequently here He alone is God. St. Ambrose, who refers this to the Father, teaches that the Father is called the only God, not because the Son and the Holy Spirit are not God, but because the Father is the fountain and principle of deity — namely, of the Son and the Holy Spirit. Add, as St. Thomas and the theologians teach, that exclusive words added to the essential names of God and of His attributes, when they are attributed to one Person, do not exclude the other divine Persons, but only other things, which do not have the divine essence, but another diverse and created one. But, as I said, with Theodoret it is better that you ascribe these things not to the Father alone, but to the whole Most Holy Trinity. The Greek adds μόνῳ σοφῷ Θεῷ, that is, "to the only wise God": and so read Chrysostom, Theophylact, Œcumenius, and the other Greeks except Theodoret. God is called the only wise One through Himself and through His essence, since He, as a fountain, pours forth His wisdom upon all both angels and men; for all their wisdom men and angels do not have from themselves, but from God. So God alone is called good, supply: by essence, Luke XVIII, 19.
Note fifthly: "To the only God be honor and glory," namely the divine honor and that of latria, which is owed to the true God — as if to say: not to angels, not to idols, not to the gods of the nations, but to the only true God let the honor and glory of divinity be ascribed; so that all angels and men, and especially I, Paul, on account of so great a clemency of God toward sinners, and toward me the first and greatest sinner, by which He caused me to be born in this age of Christ and grace, drew me as a rebel to Himself, and almost compelled me, forgave my sins, justified me, nay made me an Apostle — may always celebrate Him, adore Him, glorify Him both with mind and voice, and also with holy conversation and life. On which matter see here Chrysostom in his moral homily 4.
Piously St. Bernard, sermon 83 on the Canticle, teaches that this honor of God ought to be seasoned with the honey of love, and to spring from it so as to be most pleasing to God. "God demands," he says, "to be feared as Lord, to be honored as Father, to be loved as Spouse. What in these excels, what stands out? love, surely. Without this even fear has punishment, and honor has no grace. For fear is servile so long as it is not freed by love. And honor that does not come from love is not honor but flattery. And indeed to God alone be honor and glory. But God will accept neither of these unless they be seasoned with the honey of love. Love suffices of itself, pleases of itself, and is for its own sake. It is itself its own merit, itself its own reward; love seeks no cause, no fruit, beyond itself. Its fruit is its use. I love because I love, I love that I may love. A great thing is love, if only it returns to its own beginning, if rendered to its origin, if poured back into its own fountain it always draws from there ceaselessly whence it flows. Love alone of all the motions, senses, and effects of the soul is that in which the creature can, though not on equal terms, respond to the Author, or render back a like exchange."
Verse 18: This Precept I Commend to You, Son Timothy
18. This precept I commend to you, son Timothy, according to the prophecies that have gone before concerning you, that you may war in them a good warfare. — Chrysostom, Ambrose, Theophylact refer "this precept" to what follows, as if to say: I command you, O Timothy, namely that according to the prophecies that have gone before concerning you, you may war a good warfare. But for "that," the Greek is not ὅπως but ἵνα, which signifies the final cause more than the object; although the Apostle often confounds these and similar particles and uses them for the same.
Secondly, others refer it to what immediately precedes, as if to say: I command you to preach that Christ came to save sinners.
Thirdly, others refer it to all that precedes, as if to say: "This precept," that is, this doctrine which from the beginning of the chapter up to this point I have delivered to you, I commend to you.
Fourthly and best, Theodoret judges that the Apostle, after the digression in which he gave thanks for his calling and the grace of God, returns to those things which at the beginning of the chapter he commended to Timothy — namely, that he should charge certain men not to teach otherwise. Hence for "that you might charge," the Greek has the same verb παραγγέλλειν, from which in this passage he calls the precept παραγγελίαν. For this is the first office of a Bishop, namely to resist false apostles and to defend and preach the sound faith. Hence these words are nearly the same as those which at the beginning of the chapter, after the said charge, he adds; for there he says: "But the end of the precept is charity from a pure heart, and a good conscience, and faith unfeigned." In place of which here in nearly the same words he says: "I commend to you the precept, that you may war the good warfare, having faith and a good conscience."
According to the prophecies that have gone before concerning you (that is, as the Syriac has, "upon you, about you": for in Greek it is ἐπί σε, which corresponds to the Hebrew עליך alecha). — Vatablus by "prophecies" understands the doctrine, or the office of teaching entrusted to Timothy, as if to say: See, O Timothy, that in this office which you have received from God, you bear yourself bravely and strenuously after the manner of a soldier.
Secondly, others by "prophecies" understand the various charisms of the Holy Spirit which were in Timothy, among which was also prophecy properly so called — as if Paul were saying: I command you so to wage warfare as the gifts of the Holy Spirit granted to you require.
Thirdly and better, Chrysostom, Theophylact, Theodoret, Œcumenius and others properly by "prophecies" understand revelations, as if to say: This precept, now expounded to you, O Timothy, I commend to you, that, just as warned by God's revelation and the spirit of prophecy I ordained you Bishop of Ephesus, so now according to the same prophecy you may wage warfare, and answer it, and show that the prophecy concerning you was true.
Whence Chrysostom and Theophylact note that in the primitive Church Bishops and Apostles were accustomed to be chosen and ordained through prophecy, revelation, and designation of God. Thus Acts XIII, 2, the Holy Spirit said: "Set apart for Me Saul and Barnabas." Thus Eusebius, in History book VI, chapter 25, relates that at the election of Fabian as Pontiff a dove descended from heaven upon him. Thus St. Gregory was discovered and designated Pontiff by the sign of a fiery column resting upon him. Thus that great Athanasius was divinely declared to Blessed Alexander, the dying Bishop of Alexandria, as the one who would succeed him in the episcopate. Hence when Athanasius, fearing and fleeing the episcopate, had withdrawn from Alexandria, Alexander, repeatedly calling out for Athanasius in his death, finally burst out in these words: "Athanasius," he said, "you think you can escape, yet you will not escape." Apollinaris is witness, in Sozomen, book II, chapter 16. Thus St. Nicholas, Ambrose, Alexander the Charcoal-burner were called and ordained Bishops by divine indication. Paul here asserts the same of Timothy.
He adds fourthly: Magallianus thinks that by "prophecies" can be understood the predictions, conjectures, and good omens by which all Christians foretold the best things concerning Timothy when he was being ordained Bishop, from the holiness of his prior life, predicting, that they did not doubt that he would faithfully, constantly, and excellently fulfill the episcopal office. Thus St. Ambrose, acclaimed Bishop by the voice of a child, then of the whole people, was made Bishop by prophecy; for the voice of the people is the voice of God.
That you may war in them a good warfare. — "In them," that is, through those prophecies, that is, through the Spirit who is the giver of prophecy. Secondly and better, Œcumenius and others: "in them," that is, according to them, namely that you may answer to those prophecies made concerning you.
Note, the Christian is a soldier of Christ as his leader and captain, because his whole life under the standard of the cross he must fight with vices and lusts and demons; Romans VII, 23; Galatians V, 17; Job VII, 1; and Christ, Matthew XI, 12: "The kingdom of heaven," He says, "suffers violence, and the violent take it by force."
Beautifully St. Augustine describes this war, City of God book XXII, chapter 23. The arms and panoply of this warfare the Apostle describes, Ephesians VI, 13, and its wages are eternal life, Romans VI, 23.
Seneca, in epistle 37 to Lucilius, exhorts him to virtue, with words drawn from military matters: "You have promised," he says, "to be a good man (ἀνδράγαθον, that is a brave and warlike man); you are bound by an oath." For this soldiers used to promise to their leader when they were sworn in. But if forgetful of their pledge they bore themselves cowardly, they were not called men but women by way of reproach, just as Bunduica, queen of the Britons, in Dio book LXII, calls the effeminate Nero "Neronis." Let the Christian say the same to himself: in baptism you were sworn in as a soldier of Christ, you pledged that you would be a man, therefore show yourself a man, as a soldier fighting manfully against the flesh and the world.
But Bishops, Pastors and Doctors, as the Apostle here teaches, are particularly and called soldiers of Christ. On which note: "warfare" by catachresis among the Hebrews signifies every kind of service. Hence angels, the heavens, the stars, and all creatures are called soldiers of God, and from this God is called Sabaoth, that is, of hosts; and Sabaoth is one of the ten names of God, as Jerome attests in his letter to Marcella. More properly however the Levites and priests were called soldiers of God. Whence Numbers IV, 30, the Levites are said to go out into the warfare of the tabernacle, because in the tabernacle just as soldiers in camps they kept watch in their order and stations, and served God as their leader. Hence women dwelling in the tabernacle and devoted to its ministry are called soldiers of the temple, Exodus XXXVIII, 8, where it is said: "He made also the bronze laver with its base from the mirrors of the women who kept watch at the door of the tabernacle:" where for "kept watch," in Hebrew it is צבאות אשר צבאו tsobeot ascer tsabeu, that is "of women warring," who warred at the door of the tabernacle. They are called the same way in I Samuel II, 22. To these Levites and priests of the temple as soldiers, then, Paul alludes when he calls Timothy and other Bishops and Pastors soldiers of the Church: for they not only, like the ancient Levites, keep watch in the temple and serve God, but also, like leaders going forth to war against heretics, vices, and demons, incite, lead, and defend the other faithful, and therefore sustain the greatest assault of the enemies. And in the primitive Church this was most true and clear, when Jews, Gentiles, Emperors, and heretics rose up against the Church with all their strength and arms, that they might overthrow her; in defense of which the Apostles and other heralds contended against them even unto death and martyrdom. Thus afterward the immortal Athanasius, almost alone against nearly the whole Arian world, fought heroically and triumphed for 46 years.
Whence morally Chrysostom: "War," he says, "the good warfare; for there is also an evil warfare, of which in another place he says: As you yielded your members as weapons to sin. They serve under a tyrant, we serve under the eternal King. But why does he call this matter 'warfare'? Surely he indicates that the war stirred up is vehement and atrocious, both with respect to others, and especially to him who fulfills the office of teacher. In which we have need of strong arms, namely sobriety, temperance, prayer and perpetual vigils, that warring in them you may have faith and a good conscience: for it behooves a master first to teach himself; for just as a leader, unless he has first been a most excellent soldier, can never be a leader, so also a teacher."
Excellently indeed St. Basil, in his preface to the Ascetics, instructing the spiritual soldier of Christ, thus speaks: "Where is then Christ the King? in heaven. Thither, O soldier of Christ, you must direct your course. Forget whatever is here on earth. A soldier does not build houses, does not buy fields, does not strive after merchandise and gain. The soldier has his food from the king, in the streets he sets up his tent for himself. Necessity alone measures his food, his drink is water, his sleep as much as nature requires, his journeys frequent, his vigils likewise, his patience sharp in enduring cold and heat, his frequent undertaking of dangerous combats with adversaries, and in these often death, but glorious and one to be honored with royal honors and rewards." Applying all of which to the soldier of Christ, he thus concludes: "Come then, soldier of Christ, let the thought of everlasting goods come into your mind. Let the kind of life you have proposed for yourself be to lack home, city, and possession of all things. Be loosed and free from all the cares of this life. Let no desire of a wife bind you, no anxiety for children: imitate the heavenly Bridegroom; put to flight the invisible enemies that often rise up against you, and first expel them from your mind, nor let them have any place at all with you, blot out counsels devising defection from the faith of Christ," etc.
Verse 19: Having Faith and a Good Conscience
19. Having faith and a good conscience. — These are the arms of the Christian warfare, indeed of the Church, as if to say: You will war, O Timothy, the good warfare, if you follow and preserve right faith concerning true and orthodox dogmas, and a good conscience, that is, a holy life and morals, that you may be able to teach right faith to others and shine before your subjects with the example of a good life; for these two are the chief duties of a Bishop and Pastor. For it is not for one wavering in faith to confirm others, nor for one ignorant to teach, nor for one disordered to compose, nor for one disorderly to set in order.
Which (good conscience) some rejecting (Greek ἀπωσάμενοι, that is, after they had thrust away: whence Vatablus translates, "which being thrust away") made shipwreck concerning the faith, — that is, made shipwreck and loss of the faith, and became apostates, schismatics, heretics.
Note from Chrysostom: By a beautiful metaphor he compares faith to a ship, in which the anchor, which strengthens this ship that it may persevere in tribulation, is a good conscience and the hope of eternal life flowing from it: for just as a ship in a stormy sea offers men the hope of harbor, and leads to the harbor, so faith leads to eternal life; and as a man outside the ship in the sea is without hope of safety, so also is a man without faith: but as long as he remains in the ship, that is, in faith, although he sins, he can be restored, he has hope of salvation. Hence the Church, which is the mistress of the faith and the congregation of the faithful, is compared to the ark of Noah, outside of which no one was safe from the deluge; and to the Evangelical little ships, in which Christ preached the kingdom of God, calmed storms, and caused fish to be caught.
Verse 20: Of Whom Is Hymenaeus and Alexander, Whom I Have Delivered to Satan
20. Of whom (of whose number) is Hymenaeus and Alexander. — This is that man of whom II Timothy IV, 14: "Alexander the coppersmith has shown me many evils; the Lord will reward him according to his works: whom you also avoid: for he greatly resisted our words." Baronius and others suspect that this is the same Alexander who at first being a believer pleaded the cause for Paul, but falling away became an apostate and enemy of Paul and of all Christians.
Whom I have delivered to Satan. — That is, whom I have excommunicated. So Chrysostom, Theophylact, Œcumenius. And from this seems to have flowed that phrase by which the excommunicated are said to be possessed by the devil, as is found in the chapter Audi and the chapter Omnis, Quaest. III, 11. Again, "I have delivered to Satan" means that they were handed over to Satan as to an executioner to be tormented. So teach Chrysostom, Œcumenius, and others, and especially Theodoret: "But he hands them over," he says, "to the devil, not as a master of good things, but as to a slave-executioner; and therefore he did not say, that he might teach them, but, that they may be taught not to blaspheme. For separated from the ecclesiastical body, stripped of divine grace, they were cruelly scourged by the adversary, falling into illnesses and difficult afflictions and other calamities: for these the devil is accustomed to inflict on men, since he is both an enemy and an avenger, as the Prophet says in Psalm VIII. But it was fitting that they, being chastised, should change their mind," etc. And Chrysostom, speaking of the excommunicated: "He was cast down," he says, "from the common assembly of the faithful, he was cut off from the flock, he became naked, and thus destitute he lay open and was exposed to the encounters of the wolves: for as long ago the cloud covered the camp of the Hebrews, so also the grace of the Holy Spirit covered the Church."
That they may learn not to blaspheme. — Ambrose: "that they may be corrected and come to their senses from their blasphemy and heresy": for excommunication ought to be inflicted not for the perdition but for the correction of the sinner, as Chrysostom notes — namely, sufferings are lessons, and vexation gives understanding. Hence it is plain that every heresy is blasphemy against God, who is the first truth, for every heresy and heretic, in order to establish his dogmas contrary to the faith, says and teaches that the true faith — and consequently God the author of the true faith — is false and lying. Of what kind the blasphemy and heresy of these men was, Paul does not explain.
Morally here note, the fountain of heresy is a bad conscience and life. For heresy is never the first sin, but arises either from ambition, or from avarice, or from lust; and consequently, as wise men have judged, against heretics one must act not so much by arguments as by purity of life: so that, of course, they may be drawn to purity of life, honesty of morals, chastity, humility, and contempt of riches. For when the root of heresy is taken away, the heresy itself will also be taken away. Again from this it follows that an evil life tends to and ends in heresy. Therefore the morals of a corrupt life are the rocks against which faith, as a ship, is frequently dashed and broken. The reason for this is, first, the natural antipathy and contrariety which exists between faith and an evil life: for faith always reproves and refutes the latter. Secondly, the natural fall and ruin. For he who falls from one vice into another and another, at last most deeply falls and slips into heresy. For these pits of vices are subordinate to one another, so that gradually from one into another and another, and finally into the abyss, that is, into heresy, you descend and fall headlong. Thirdly, it is a divine punishment: for God chastises a depraved life by the withdrawal of His light, of truth and of faith, and hands over depraved men to a reprobate mind, as the Apostle teaches in Romans I, 21 and 24. Fourthly, because, as Chrysostom (about to be cited) teaches, these corrupted men, that they may freely indulge their vices and pleasures, deny future goods and evils, and other dogmas of the faith, which could inject into them fear of God and horror of sin.
And first, that ambition and pride are the fountain of heresy is plain from this, that heretics wish to measure and conclude all things by human reasonings, that is, they wish to see the matter, not to believe. Thus ambition made the first heresiarch Simon Magus a heretic; for he wished to buy the Holy Spirit with money, that he might bestow Him on whomever he willed, and so be venerated as the giver of the Holy Spirit.
What made Tertullian a Montanist, if not — as Baronius, Pamelius and others note — that, on the death of Bishop Agrippinus, while seeking the bishopric of Carthage, he was passed over for it?
Thus Aerius, says Augustine in the book On Heresies, because he had been frustrated of the bishopric, began to assert that priests were equal to Bishops.
Thus in this age Luther, Ochinus, Dudecius and others, while seeking the first chairs, or the purple, or the pallium, and having suffered rebuff, apostatized, and among the Innovators sought the primacy.
Secondly, that lust and the vice of the flesh is a fountain of heresy, Chrysostom here teaches: "Those who live evilly," he says, "that they may not be tortured by the fear and expectation of future things, take care with every effort to persuade themselves that all things are false which our religion contains — namely, concerning sins, the resurrection, the future judgment, and the like."
Thus Nicolaus the Deacon, when after the example of the Apostles he had abstained from his own wife, afterward fallen from his purpose, and fearing reproof, denied that anyone could be saved unless he practiced sexual intercourse every day.
Marcion, when he was sharply rebuked for having corrupted a virgin, devised three baptisms for the remission of sins.
Of what sort of life Montanus was with his prophetesses, and Novatus, may be seen in Eusebius, book V, chapter 18, and book VI, chapter 33. But why do we repeat ancient histories, when today, for example, heretics teach that vows are impious, lest they be compelled to blush at their lust? For what are Luther, Calvin, Menno, Beza, Bucer, Martyr, but apostates and vow-breaking monks or priests, who in the Catholic Church vowed continence to God, and afterward violated it? Daily experience clearly shows that among them heresy grows strong where zeal for a good life is neglected.