1 Timothy 1:9 - Exposition

As knowing for knowing , A.V.; Law for the Law , A.V.; unruly for disobedient , A.V.; and sinners for and for sinners , A.V.; the unholy for unholy , A.V. Law is not made for a righteous man. It is much better to render νόμος , with the A.V., "the Law," as e . g . Romans 2:12-14 . The whole proposition relates to the Law of Moses, which these teachers perverted and tried to force upon Christians, being ignorant that the Law was made, not for the righteous, but for sinners. For is not made , we might render does not apply to or is not in force against . κεῖται with the dative following (as 2 Macc. 4:11) suggests some such meaning, somewhat different from the simple νόμος κεῖται . This freedom of the righteous from the Law is what St. Paul everywhere asserts ( Romans 6:14 ; Romans 8:2 ; Galatians 2:19 ; Galatians 3:25 ; Galatians 5:18 , etc.), the Law being viewed, not as a holy rule of life, but as a system of penalties—"a Law of sin and death." That νόμος here means the Law of Moses is further evident from this, that in the following list the apostle clearly follows the general order of the Decalogue, taking first the offences against the first table, and then sins against the fifth, sixth, seventh, and ninth commandments (compare, too, Romans 2:11 with Romans 2:16 ). Lawless ( ἀνόμοις ); with no special reference to its etymology, but meaning simply "transgressors," "wicked," as Luke 22:37 ; Acts 2:23 ; 2 Thessalonians 2:8 (A.V.), and very frequently in the LXX . Unruly ( ἀνυποτάκτοις ); insubordinate, resisting lawful authority. In the LXX . for the Hebrew לעִיַלִבְ ( 1 Samuel 2:12 , Symmachus),and perhaps Proverbs 16:27 . In the New Testament it is peculiar in this sense to the pastoral Epistles, being only found here and in Titus 1:6 , Titus 1:10 In Hebrews 2:10 it has the classical sense of "unsubdued." The express application of the word in Titus 1:10 , to the "unruly talkers of the circumcision," shows that St. Paul has them in view here also. Ungodly and sinners, for the unholy and profane. All terms implying offences against the first table. ἀσεβέσι , (with the kindred ἀσεβεία and ἀσεβέω ) is always rendered "ungodly," "ungodliness," "to act ungodly;" ἁμαρτωλοῖς , sinners, viz. against God; ἀνοσίοις , unholy (found only here and at 2 Timothy 3:2 in the New Testament, but frequent in the LXX .) is the contrary to ὅσιος , holy, saintly; βεβήλοις (whence βεβηλόω , to profane, Mtt 12:5; Acts 24:6 ), profane, of persons and things not consecrated to God—peculiar in the New Testament to the pastoral Epistles ( 1 Timothy 4:7 ; 1 Timothy 6:20 ; 2 Timothy 2:16 ;) and Hebrews 12:16 , but found commonly in the LXX . and in classical Greek. πατραλῶαις and μητραλῴαις , not murderers , but, as in the margin, " smiters , ill-users of father and mother." Both words are only found here in the New Testament, but found in Demosthenes, Aristophanes, etc. The allusion here is to Exodus 21:15 , where the Hebrew word for "smiteth" is 1Ti , which does not necessarily mean "to smite to death" any more than ἀλοάω does. ἀνδροφόνοις , man-slayers; found only here in the New Testament, but used in 2 Mace. 9:28 and in classical writers. The reference is to Exodus 21:12 .