1st Timothy Chapter 4 verse 13 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 13. - Heed for attendance, A.V.; teaching for doctrine, A.V. Till I come (1 Timothy 3:14; 1 Timothy 1:3). Reading (τῇ ἀναγνώσει). The public reading of the Scriptures (the Lessons, as we should say). This we know was the practice in the synagogue (Luke 4:16, etc.; Acts 13:27; Acts 15:21; 2 Corinthians 3:15). We see the beginning of reading the New Testament in the Christian assemblies in Ephesians 3:4; and Colossians 4:16; and generally in the fact of Epistles being addressed by the apostles to Churches. The ἀναγνώστης, the reader, lector, was a regular order in the third and fourth centuries (Bingham, vol. 1. p. 288). The Grace is being revived in our day. Exhortation (τῇ παρακλήσει); see Acts 4:36, where Barnabas's name is interpreted as meaning "Son of exhortation" (R.V.), and Acts 13:15; comp. Romans 12:7 (where, as here, παράκλησις and διδασκαλία are coupled together); 1 Thessalonians 2:3, etc. Teaching (διδασκαλία); almost always rendered "doctrine" in the A.V. But here, where the act of teaching (like the act of reading, the act of exhorting, in the two preceding clauses) is intended, "teaching" is perhaps the best word according to our modern usage. As regards the difference between διδασκαλία and παράκλησις, the former would express "doctrinal teaching," whether of dogma or of precept, the latter entreaties to believe the one and practice the other (see Acts 11:23 and Acts 14:22 for good examples of πράκλησις).

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(13) Till I come, give attendance to reading.--The words evidently imply a hope, perhaps even an expectation, on the part of St. Paul, that he would one day be enabled once more to visit the Church of Ephesus; but so long as that absence lasted, Timothy was to attend carefully to three special points in the public ministry in which he was, in the Apostle's absence, the chief officer.The "reading" was that public reading of Scripture in the congregation--a practice borrowed from the synagogue service, when publicly the Law and the Prophets were read to the people assembled. (See Luke 4:16; Acts 13:15.) In these early Christian assemblies, about the year 66-67, the question arises, Were any Scriptures read in public besides the books of the Old Testament? No certain reply can be given: it is, however, probable, even at this very early date, that one at least of the older Gospels (probably St. Mark) was already known and used in the Christian churches, and read along with the Scriptures of the old covenant. That the reading of the "Gospels" very soon became a part of the regular service in the congregations of Christians is evident from the words of Justin Martyr, Apologia, i. 67, written in the first half of the first century.To exhortation, to doctrine.--These both most probably refer to the public ministry in the congregation. The first, "exhortation," particularly applies to the feelings. The reading of the Scriptures must be followed by an earnest practical application of their teaching to the affairs of that life in the midst of which the Christian listener was living. The word "doctrine" suggests a public teaching directed rather to the understanding of the hearers. The idea of exposition, or even of dogmatic teaching, seems here included.