salem, he proposed to collect what assistance he could for the poor Christians there, from their more opulent Gentile brethren; and in the second year after his writing this epistle, he did return to Jerusalem with that collection.

2. It appears from this passage, as well as from other circumstances, that in the time of the apostles it was the custom of Christians to hold their public assemblies on the first day of the week, which very soon got the appellation of the Lord's day, from Christ's having risen from the dead on that day. It was likewise the custom in all the early times, to make a collection of money every time that they met for public worship. A part of this common fund, or stock, was employed in maintaining their ministers; and another, and this a very considerable part, was appropriated to the poor. The expression, lay by him, here evidently means, not what some have supposed, a setting a part, at home, what each person intended to give, but bringing it to the common stock otherwise the collection would still have been to make after the apostle's arrival.*

4. If it be worthy of my going also, intimating, that if the collection was considerable, he would take it to Jerusalem himself.†

5. It appears that the apostle visited Macedonia before he went to Corinth, and it was from Macedonia that he wrote his second epistle to the Corinthians, before he arrived there himself.

7. That is, he would not call at Corinth on his way to some other place, but he would make his visit to them a principal object.

9. Some think that there is an allusion to the custom of the chariot races in the Roman circus. Whatever the allusion be, the meaning is, that the apostle had a great prospect of preaching the gospel with success at Ephesus, where he then was, notwithstanding there were many to oppose him, as we find by the great tumult at that place about this time, of which we have an account in the book of Acts, [xix. 23-35, and which is supposed to have hastened his departure from that city.

10, 11. Timothy appears to have been a young man, and to stand in need of encouragement. He was a native of Lystra, and had accompanied Paul from the first of his

See Locke; Wotton, I. pp. 296, 297; Doddridge; Pearce in Note (C).

+ Wakefield. (P.) "A delicate exhortation to their generosity was lost in our translation." Ibid.

"To the gates of the Circus Maximus, which were opened before the chariot races began." Pearce. See Doddridge.

preaching the gospel in that place. His residence was chiefly at Ephesus, and there he was when the apostle wrote to him from Macedonia, soon after his leaving that place; and this will be the next epistle of Paul of which I shall give an account.

12. Apollos was a Jew of Alexandria, who, on his coming to Ephesus, was instructed in the gospel by Aquila and Priscilla, who were Jews that had been driven from Rome by the emperor Claudius. He was an eloquent man, and appears to have been so popular at Corinth, that some persons called themselves his disciples, as Paul says, some are of Apollos. It is possible that on this account Paul might decline going thither at this time.

13, 14.* The apostle now proceeds to close his epistle with sending salutations to and from particular persons; but before he enters upon them, he gives the Corinthians some general exhortations to a vigilance and constancy, in a few animating words.

19. Probably they had a large family of Christian members, so as to be called a church, by itself.†

21.‡ This and the remaining verses were written by Paul himself, the former part being written by an amanuensis. In his 2 Thessalonians [iii. 17], he had observed that he should sign all his epistles with his own hand, in order, as it should seem, to prevent any person counterfeiting letters from him.

22. Anathema is a solemn curse among the Jews, and maran-atha signifies, in the Syriac language, the Lord comes. The apostle's pronouncing this anathema seems to be an allusion to the custom of the Jews, who, when they could not execute the sentence of their law, nevertheless pronounced it with a reference to the judgment of God. So Paul intimates by this, that if the new teachers at Corinth, who perverted the gospel, and undermined his authority, were only pretended Christians, they would receive their proper punishment when Christ should come at the last day. §

23. That is, all the blessings of the gospel.

"His main design being to put an end to the faction and divisions which the false apostle had made amongst them, 'tis no wonder that we find unity and charity so much, and so often, pressed in this and the second epistle." Locke.

+ Perhaps the congregation of the saints, there wont to assemble for the performance of divine duties." See Mede, p. 324.

"The salutation is written with the hand of me Paul." Pearce.

See Locke; Le Cene, p. 457; Doddridge; Belsham's Calm Inquiry, pp. 354, 355.

122

I. TIMOTHY.

Ir appeared from the first Epistle to the Corinthians, that when Paul wrote it he was at Ephesus, where he said a great and effectual door was opened unto him, though he had many adversaries. At this time he had spent more than two years in that city, and Timothy, who was of Lystra, and who had attended Paul in his first progress to preach the gospel in Greece, had been with him there, but had been sent by him into Macedonia along with Erastus, as we read, Acts xix. 22. It appears also from 1 Cor. xvi. 10, that he was to proceed to Corinth, and it is probable that he had returned to Ephesus before Paul left that place, which was A. D. 56.†

Not long after this, Paul left Ephesus, which the tumult excited by the silversmiths and Demetrius [Acts xix. 24] had probably hastened, and either from Macedonia, Troas, or some other stage, in his way thither, he wrote this epistle to Timothy. From his writing so soon after leaving that place, and also from the tenor of the epistle itself, it is evident that he had much anxiety about the state of the church at Ephesus, on account of the opposition which he had met with there: and it appears to have been of the same nature with that which he had experienced at Corinth, viz. from persons pretending to learning and philosophy, who adulterated the gospel with a mixture of opinions which they had held before, despised the plain preaching of the apostle, and undervalued his authority. It will be seen, that there must have been persons who held the opinions which constituted the system of Gnosticism, the fundamental articles of which I have already explained, and shall have occasion to do it farther in my account of this epistle to Timothy.

1. Paul having enemies at Ephesus as well as at Corinth, thought proper to begin his epistle to Timothy, which was, in effect, an epistle to the Christians at that place, with asserting apostolical authority, as derived immediately from Christ himself.

[Which is our hope.] That is, whose doctrine is the foundation of our hope.

Chap. xvi. 9, supra, p. 120.

† See Michaelis's Introd. Lect. (Sect. cxxi.) pp. 265-267; Lardner, VI. pp. 315-320; Doddridge's Introd. V. pp. 438–445.

2. Timothy had probably been converted to Christianity by Paul himself, and on this account he might call him his own son.

4. It is evident that most of the opposers of Paul, both in Galatia, Corinth, and Ephesus, were Jews, who boasted of the law. But they seem withal to have been persons who had adopted the principles of the oriental philosophy, holding matter and the body in great contempt, and explaining away the doctrine of the resurrection. After the age of the apostles, there arose a sect of philosophizing Christians, who despised the law of Moses, and thought that the author of it was not that God who is the Father of Jesus Christ, but some inferior and malevolent being.

What the genealogies here mentioned were, is not easy to say. If they were mere Jews who boasted of them, they were probably those by which they proved their descent from Abraham and the heads of their respective tribes; but such genealogies as these could hardly be interesting to any besides themselves. The Gnostics of that age had genealogies of a very different nature, relating to the various orders of beings supposed to be derived from the Supreme, commonly called Eons, or angelic spirits, one of which they made Christ to be. These genealogies were sufficiently intricate, so that there was room for much learning and subtlety in the adjustment of them. I therefore think that the foundation of this system was laid in the time of the apostles, and that these were the genealogies to which Paul here alludes.

5. [The end of the commandment.] Mr. Wakefield renders, the purpose of thy charge, viz. that mentioned before, [ver. 3,] as given by Timothy.

7. These philosophizing Christians, proud of their knowledge, laid more stress upon it than upon the purity of heart and life, which is the end of both the law and the gospel.

8. Lest it should be imagined Paul meant to undervalue the law, he expressly declares that that was not his intention,

* "Not certain from the history. Compare Acts xvi. 1, 2." Doddridge. ↑ "Les Platoniciens et les Juifs avoient accoûtumé de disposer, en forme de généalogie, des noms d'idées abstraites, entre lesquelles ils croyoient qu'il y eût du rapport, et feignoient des mariages entre elles, d'où ils en faisoient naître d'autres." Le Clerc. "The Platonists and cabbalistical Jews amused themselves in combining a great number of abstract ideas, and formed them into a genealogical table, which a wild imagination might lengthen out to infinity." N. T. 1729, II. p. 772. See Doddridge; Impr. Vers.

"Ni ce qu'ils disent par conjecture et comme en doutant, ni ce qu'ils assurent comme certain." Le Clerc.

and shews what was the proper end of the law with respect to the moral, which was the most important use of it, namely, to be a restraint upon vice and wickedness, several kinds of which he here enumerates.*

15. Paul having represented himself as a great sinner, though he had acted in one sense conscientiously in what he had done, but without having taken proper pains to inform his judgment, which is the natural guide of conscience,† takes the opportunity of asserting in general, that the design of the gospel which he had embraced was to save sinners, or to reform the world, and this makes it so great a blessing to the world, which stood in great need of reformation.

17. We see that Paul referred all the blessings of the gospel to God, the author of all good, whose servant only, and messenger, Christ was.§

18. [This charge.] That is, the preaching of the gospel. [The prophecies.] This must refer to some particular prophecy, pointing out Timothy in particular as a proper

Among the rest, he censures (ver. 10) men-stealers, or enslavers of mankind, according to Wakefield, who adds, "whence appears the gross error of Archdeacon Paley, who asserts in his Philosophy, upon the subject of slavery, that no passage is to be found in the Christian Scriptures, by which it is condemned, or prohibited.'"

+ See Hallett, (on Paul the Persecutor,) II. pp. 130–142.

"Regi sæculorum immortali." Vulg. See Le Clerc.

In connexion with this "remarkably fine passage," (vers. 12—17,) Wakefield thus describes the writer of this epistle:

"In whatever light we view the character of this astonishing convert, this incomparable man; whether we contemplate the great endowments of his understanding, or the nobler qualifications of his mind, we may congratulate ourselves, as Christians, upon an ornament to our religion, and as men, upon an honour to human nature. His penetration, his sensibility, his eloquence, his independent dignity of spirit, his unexceptionable integrity; a fortitude, unshaken by the most complicated distresses, and a course of malicious and unrelenting persecution from his own nation; a zeal for the truth and liberty of the gospel, proportionate to the dignity of these objects, the warmth of his own temper, and his generous feelings for the welfare of mankind; his sympathy, his anguish, at the approaching calamities of his obdurate countrymen, and his tender concern for the spiritual interests of all his converts; his indefatigable assiduity in the propagation of the gospel, exemplified in the numerous churches raised by his hand, which in part still survive, like the marble-ruins of the desart, solitary pensive witnesses of their former glory, amidst the ravages of ignorance and corruption, to these later ages; the manly spirit, the conscious intrepidity, with which he vindicates his character; his lively gratitude, his profound humiliation, to the supreme Being; his magnanimous contempt of life in the service of his Master; his benevolent accommodation of himself to the weak consciences and even to the prejudices of his brethren; his unexampled compassion for the children of affliction, labouring with his own hands, that he might administer to their necessities and alleviate their distress: these are the assemblage of rare endowments, which ennobled our apostle; this is the constellation of virtues, which shone through his whole conduct with increasing lustre, and blazed forth with the highest splendour, when his martyrdom was at hand." Enquiry, pp. 159–162.