1 Timothy 6:4 - Exposition

Puffed up for proud , A.V.; questionings for questions , A.V.; disputes for strifes , A.V. He is puffed up ( τετύφωται ); see 1 Timothy 3:6 , note. Doting ( νοσῶν ); here only in the New Testament, but found occasionally in the LXX . Applied in classical Greek to the mind and body, "to be in an unsound state." Here it means "having a morbid love of" or "going mad about." In this morbid love of questionings and disputes of words, they lose sight of all wholesome words and all godly doctrine. Questionings ( ζητήσεις ); see 1 Timothy 1:6 , note. It corresponds nearly to our word "controversies." Disputes of words ( λογομαχίας ); found only here. The verb λογομαχέω is used in 2 Timothy 2:14 . Would that the Church had always remembered St. Paul's pithy condemnation of unfruitful controversies about words! Surmisings ( ὑπόνοιαι ); only here in the -New Testament. In classical Greek it means "suspicion," or any under-thought. The verb ὑπονοέω occurs three times in the Acts—"to deem, think, or suppose." Here the "surmisings" are those uncharitable insinuations in which angry controversialists indulge towards one another.