1 Timothy 1


1 Timothy 1 is the first chapter of the First Epistle to Timothy in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. The author has been traditionally identified as Paul the Apostle since as early as AD 180, although most modern scholars consider the letter pseudepigraphical, perhaps written as late as the first half of the second century AD. This chapter contains the personal greeting, the exposition about the gospel and its counterfeit, Paul's personal experience of Christ and a charge as well as a warning to Timothy related to his call to the ministry.

Text

The original text was written in Koine Greek. This chapter is divided into 20 verses.

Textual witnesses

Some early manuscripts containing the text of this chapter are:
The letter starts with a 'traditional Hellenistic salutation', using an "X to Y" pattern, so the reader would immediately see the identity of the sender as well as of the recipient once the scroll is unrolled. The Pauline epistles generally use the typical elements: the designation of the sender and of the recipient, followed by a greeting.

Verse 1

Paul once left Timothy at Ephesus with a particular task, to command others not to teach false doctrines, which already circulates in quite early stage of the church's life; 'a reminder that in every age truth is challenged by counterfeits'.

Verses 3–4

Paul left Timothy behind in Ephesus, as he himself traveled into Macedonia, to instruct people not to follow false teaching, which characteristic is the devotion to 'myths and endless genealogies which promotes speculations', pointing to a sort of 'Gnostic group' in the community which perverts the faith by mythological speculations about creation and salvation. The opponents are not specifically identified, but the focus is more to combat it with a view of Christian virtues such as love out of a pure heart, and a good conscience against 'the vices of speculative theory and vain discussion'.
The nature of Timothy's task is to produce love and the nourishing of it through purity, a good conscience and faith.

Verses 6–7

Paul draws attention to those who promotes the false teaching leading to unproductiveness — they are unsuitable to be teachers in their lack of meaning.

Verse 8

The word anomois is generally translated into English as "lawless", although NIV renders it "lawbreakers", while Douay-Rheims uses "unjust". Vincent defines it as "recognizing no law" rather than "not having a law".
This verse establishes that "the law has been made" not for the righteous but for "lawless/lawbreakers" and "disobedient/rebels"; the law is not applicable to the righteous as some heretics try to force it into "a doctrinal or ethical role it was not intended to have". The law functions as a kind of "vice list" to "point out sin in whatever form it may take in a given culture", exposing the false teachers who are misusing it. The "vice list" not only recalls the lists found in ancient moralistic writings, but follows the topics in the "Ten Commandments", as in the following table:
1 Timothy 1:9–10 10 Commandments
lawbreakers and rebels,
the ungodly and sinful,
the unholy and irreligious		You shall have no other gods before me
those who kill their fathers or mothersHonor your father and your mother
for murderersYou shall not murder
for adulterers and pervertsYou shall not commit adultery
for slave tradersYou shall not steal
and liars and perjurersYou shall not give false testimony against your neighbor

Verse 10

Also translated in various bible versions as "fornicators". "adulterers" or "sexually immoral people", was understood as applying to various acts of sexual immorality. Nevertheless, the Hebrew na׳ap in specifically meant "adultery", and at the time of the New Testament is rendered as the Greek word porneia, which was broadly used for sexual immorality.
The Greek word arsenokoitais has been translated into English in different ways, among others, "abusers of themselves with men", "them that defile themselves with mankind,", "sodomites", and "perverts". The word occurs only two times in the New Testament: and 1 Timothy 1:10.
This word is a medical term, related to "hygiene". Paul uses here as a "metaphor that contrasts healthy doctrine with the sickly, unhealthy teaching of the heretics."

The Thanksgiving (1:12–17)

Verse 15

Verse 20