1 Timothy 1.7-Certain Pastors In Ephesus Want To Be Teachers Of The Law But Don't Understand What They Are Saying Or Things They Confidently Affirm
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday January 27, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 1:7-Certain Pastors In Ephesus Want To Be Teachers Of The Law But Don’t Understand What They Are Saying Or Things They Confidently Affirm
Lesson # 15
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 1:1.
This evening, we will study 1 Timothy 1:7.
1 Timothy 1:1, Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus according to the commandment of God our Savior, and of Christ Jesus, who is our hope, 2 to Timothy, my true child in the faith: Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord. 3 As I urged you upon my departure for Macedonia, remain on at Ephesus so that you may instruct certain men not to teach strange doctrines 4 nor to pay attention to myths and endless genealogies, which give rise to mere speculation rather than furthering the administration of God which is by faith. 5 But the goal of our instruction is love from a pure heart and a good conscience and a sincere faith. 6 For some men, straying from these things, have turned aside to fruitless discussion, 7 wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. (NASU)
“Wanting to be teachers of the Law” is composed of the nominative masculine plural present active participle form of the verb thelo (θέλω) (theh-low), “wanting” and the present active infinitive form of the verb eimi (εἰμί) (ee-mee), “to be” and the nominative masculine plural form of the noun nomodidaskalos (νομοδιδάσκαλος) (no-mo-thee-thah-ska-loce), “teachers of the Law.”
The verb thelo means “to desire” and its subject are these unidentified pastors in Ephesus who were teaching false doctrine as a result of being occupied with Jewish myths and useless genealogies.
The object of their desire here is that of being teachers of the Mosaic Law as indicated by the expression to follow εἶναι νομοδιδάσκαλοι, “to be teachers of the Law.”
It implies that these pastors wanted to be something that they were not.
Paul explains that the reason is that “they do not understand what they are saying or the things they insist on so confidently.” (NET).
Thus, they were deceiving themselves since they were ignorant about the Law, namely its various purposes, one of which Paul presents in verses 8-10.
The verb thelo functions as a participle of means indicating the means by which the action of the finite verb ektrepo, “have turned aside” in verse 6 is accomplished.
It answers the question as to how these unidentified pastors in Ephesus have turned aside to pointless talk, which describes them as doing in verse 6.
This word is thus connected to Paul’s thought in verse 6 since it describes how these pastors in Ephesus turned aside to pointless talk.
The present tense of the verb thelo is a customary present used to signal an ongoing mental attitude state.
The verb eimi means “to be” indicating that these unidentified pastors in Ephesus who were teaching false doctrine were unsuccessfully attempting to “possess the characteristic of being” a teacher of the Mosaic Law.
The present tense of this verb indicates that these unidentified pastors in Ephesus who were teaching false doctrine because they were occupied with Jewish myths and genealogies were unsuccessfully attempting to be teachers of the Mosaic Law, even though they did not understand the purpose of the Law.
The noun nomodidaskalos is a compound word that is composed of the noun nomos, “law” and the noun didaskalos, “teacher,” thus the word literally means “teacher of the law.”
There are several contextual reasons why this word in 1 Timothy 1:7 does in fact refer to those who teach the Mosaic Law since Paul uses the term nomos, “law” in verse 8.
That nomos in verse 8 refers to the Mosaic Law is indicated by the fact that Paul usually has the Mosaic Law in mind or the Old Testament as a whole when he uses this term.
Secondly, when Paul speaks of the law in verses 8-10, it has the same ethical concerns as those of the Mosaic Law.
Thirdly, in verses 4, Paul has already mentioned that these pastors in Ephesus were occupied with myths and useless genealogies, which we noted were Jewish in nature.
Therefore, the noun nomodidaskalos indicates that these pastors in Ephesus were influenced by the Judaizers who promoted the Law.
1 Timothy 1:7 wanting to be teachers of the Law, even though they do not understand either what they are saying or the matters about which they make confident assertions. (NASU)
“Even though they do not understand what they are saying” is composed of the negative particle me (μή) (me), “not” and the nominative masculine plural present active participle form of the verb noeo (νοέω) (no-eh-owe), “even though they do understand” and the logical correlative conjunction mete (μήτε) (me-teh), “either” and the accusative neuter plural form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) (oce), “what” and the third person plural present active indicative form of the verb lego (λέγω) (leh-go), “they are saying.”
The verb noeo means “to understand, comprehend on the basis of careful thought and consideration” (Louw and Nida, 32.2) and is used with respect to a particular group of pastors in Ephesus who Paul does not identify for the reader but does describe.
The word’s meaning is used with the negative particle me, which negates the idea or thought of these pastors comprehending or understanding what they are saying about the Mosaic Law when they attempt to teach it to their congregations.
In particular, it speaks of their ignorance of the true purpose of the Mosaic Law, which is indicated by Paul’s statement in verse 8-10, which addresses one of the purposes of the Law.
The verb noeo is a concessive participle implying that these unidentified pastors in Ephesus lacked understanding of the true purpose of the Mosaic Law even though they desired to be teachers of it.
Mete is a correlative conjunction and is used twice in this verse to express the relationship between these unidentified pastors in Ephesus not understanding what they are saying about the Mosaic Law and what they confidently affirm about it.
The doubling of this word emphasizes the totality of this group of pastors ignorance with regards to the Mosaic Law.
The relative pronoun hos is the plural form and means “the things which” and does not have an explicit antecedent however the previous context indicates that it refers to the content of what these unidentified pastors in Ephesus taught their congregations about the Mosaic Law.
The verb lego means “to communicate, say” and refers to the act of this particular unidentified group of pastors in Ephesus communicating or speaking to their congregations with regards to the Mosaic Law.
The present tense is a customary or habitual present describing these pastors as “making it a habit of” not understanding what they are communicating to their congregations about the Mosaic Law.
“Or the matters about which they make confident assertions” is composed of the logical correlative conjunction mete (μήτε) (me-teh), “or” and the preposition peri (περί) (pe-ree), “about” and the genitive neuter plural form of the interrogative pronoun tis (τις) (teece), “the matters…which” and the third person plural present middle indicative form of the verb diabebaioomai (διαβεβαιόομαι) (the-eh-veh-vay-owe-eh-ma), “they make confident assertions.”
The interrogative pronoun tis means “the things…which” and refers to the content of what this particular group of unidentified pastors in Ephesus were teaching their congregations.
The verb diabebaioomai means “to dogmatically assert” something about the Mosaic Law indicating that this particular group of pastors in Ephesus were making “dogmatic assertions” about the Law, which they were ignorant of since Paul goes in verses 8-10 to describe one of the usages of the Law.
The present tense of the verb is customary or habitual present describing these pastors as “making it a habit of” making dogmatic assertions to their congregations with regards to the Mosaic Law.
The middle voice is an indirect middle indicating that this particular group of pastors in Ephesus were acting in their own interests by making dogmatic assertions with regards to the Law.
It implies that they that were promoting themselves and were not working for the interests of their congregations.
So as Mounce correctly observes “verses 3-7 set the historical state for the epistle.” (Page 28)
Certain pastors in Ephesus were not faithful in fulfilling their responsibilities to administrate the household of God (verse 4) by teaching false doctrine (verse 3) by being occupied with myths and useless genealogies (verse 4) that were Jewish in nature as implied by their desire to become teachers of the Mosaic Law (verse 7).
Paul’s purpose for urgently requesting that Timothy prohibit these pastors from doing these things was love.
If they obeyed this prohibition and again fulfilled their responsibilities to administrate the household of God, they would communicate Paul’s gospel and teach the command to love one another.
So by attempting to be teachers of the Mosaic Law and not communicators of the gospel and sound doctrine, there were disputes and arguments taking place among believers whereas if they had remained faithful, no such thing would have occurred unless their audiences rejected the apostolic teaching.
These individuals were not faithful because of a spiritual problem that they had, namely they were out of fellowship with God and had rejected Paul’s apostolic teaching themselves.