1 Timothy 1:18 - Exposition

My child for son , A.V.; by them thou mayest for thou by them mightest , A.V. ; the good for a good , A.V. This charge. The apostle now picks up the thread which he had dropped at 1 Timothy 1:4 , and solemnly commits to Timothy the episcopal care of the Ephesian Church, for which he had bid him stop at Ephesus. Omitting the long digression in 1 Timothy 1:5-17 , the sense runs clearly thus: "As I besought thee to tarry at Ephesus in order that thou mightest charge some not to teach a different doctrine, so now do I place this charge in thy hands, according to the prophecies which pointed to thee, that thou mayest war the good warfare according to the tenor of them." He thus adds that he entrusted this charge to Timothy, not mero motu , but according to direct indications of the Holy Ghost, through the prophets of the Church, which pointed out Timothy as the person who was to war that good warfare. The words, ἵνα στρατεύῃ ἐν αὐταῖς τὴν καλὴν στρατείαν , might possibly depend upon τὰς προαγούσας ἐπί σε , meaning that those prophecies had this end in pointing to Timothy, viz. that he might war the good warfare, that he might be placed in the difficult post of στρατηγός , and the ἐν αὐταῖς follows rather more naturally in this case. But it is, perhaps, better to take them as dependent upon παρατίθεμαι . By them ( ἐν αὐταῖς ). Here ἐν may be either the causae efficiens , indicating that by the influence of these prophecies Timothy would war the good warfare, or be equivalent to κατὰ , "according to" (see Schleusner's 'Lexicon').