2 Timothy 4:1 - Exposition

In the sight of God, and of Christ Jesus for therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, A.V. and T.R.; and by for at, A.V. and T.R. I charge thee ( διαμαρτύρομαι ); as 2 Timothy 2:14 and 1 Timothy 5:21 (where see note). The words οὖν ἐγώ , wanting in some of the best manuscripts, are "rejected by Griesbach, Tischendorf, Lachmann," and by Huther, Alford, Ellicott, and others. The chapter opens rather abruptly without the connecting "therefore." And by his appearing and his kingdom. The reading of the T.R., κατὰ τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν κ . τ . λ .., "at his appearing and kingdom," makes such excellent sense, and is in such perfect accordance with the usual grammar, and with the usual connection of events, that it is difficult not to believe that it is the right reading (see Matthew 27:15 , κατὰ ἑορτήν , "at the feast;" κατὰ πᾶν σάββατον , "on every sabbath;" Acts 13:27 , κατὰ τὴν ἡμέραν , "in the day;" Hebrews 3:8 for the grammar; and the universal language of Scripture and the Creeds connecting the judgment with the Lord's appearing and kingdom). On the other hand, the reading καὶ is almost impossible to construe. No two commentators scarcely are agreed how to do so. Some take τὴν ἐπιφανείαν καὶ τὴν βασιλείαν as the object governed by διαμαρτύρομαι as in the LXX . of Deuteronomy 4:26 , "I call to witness… Christ's epiphany and kingdom," taking διαμαρτύρομαι in two senses or two constructions. Others take them as the accusatives of the things sworn by, "I charge thee before God and Jesus Christ, and by his epiphany and kingdom," as Mark 5:7 , τὸν θεόν , "by God;" Acts 19:13 , τὸν ̓ιησοῦν , "by Jesus;" 1 Thessalonians 5:27 , τὸν κύριον , "by the Lord." But how awkward such a separation of the thing sworn by from the verb is, and how unnatural it is to couple with καὶ the two ideas, "before God" and "by Christ's epiphany," and how absolutely without example such a swearing by Christ's epiphany and kingdom is, nobody needs to be told. Others, as Huther, try to get over part at least of this awkwardness by taking the two και 's as "both:" "by both his epiphany and his kingdom." Ellicott explains it by saying that as you could not put "the epiphany and the kingdom" in dependence upon ἐνώπιον (as if they were persons like God and Christ ) , they "naturally pass into the accusative." But surely this is all thoroughly unsatisfactory. The T.R. is perfectly easy and simple. Appear ing ( ἐπιφανεία ); 1 Thessalonians 5:8 ; 2 Timothy 1:10 ; 2 Thessalonians 2:8 ; 1 Timothy 6:14 ; Titus 2:13 . His kingdom. So in the Nicene Creed: "He shall come again with glory to judge both the quick and the dead: whose kingdom shall have no end" (comp. Matthew 25:31 , followed by the judgment).