1 Timothy 4.3-Paul Describes The Content Of The Demonic Teaching Of The Judaizers And Refutes It
Wenstrom Bible Ministries
Pastor-Teacher Bill Wenstrom
Thursday June 2, 2011
1 Timothy: 1 Timothy 4:3-Paul Describes The Content Of The Demonic Teaching Of The Judaizers And Refutes It
Lesson # 76
Please turn in your Bibles to 1 Timothy 4:1.
The apostle Paul in 1 Timothy 4:3 describes the content of the demonic teaching of the Judaizers and refutes it.
His first description is that they prohibit marriage.
The second is that they abstain from eating certain foods because they adhere to the dietary restrictions in the Mosaic Law.
1 Timothy 4:1 But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 by means of the hypocrisy of liars seared in their own conscience as with a branding iron, 3 men who forbid marriage and advocate abstaining from foods which God has created to be gratefully shared in by those who believe and know the truth. (NASU)
“Men who forbid marriage” is composed of the genitive masculine plural present active participle form of the verb koluo (κωλύω) (koe-lee-owe), “who forbid” and the present active infinitive form of the verb gameo (γαμέω) (ha-meh-owe), “marriage.”
The verb koluo means “to forbid” and is used with respect to the teaching of the Judaizers “forbidding” people to marry.
This teaching originated with the Essenes who lived on the shores of the Dead Sea and were very well-known in the first century for their ascetic practices, one of which was abstaining from marriage.
Some expositors argue that this ascetic practice of forbidding marriage that is mentioned by Paul in 1 Timothy 4:3 is not a reference to the teaching of the Essenes but rather the Gnostics.
However, though it is true that there was a branch of Gnosticism that practiced celibacy, this system would not have been known or fully developed in the middle of the first century when Paul wrote 1 Timothy (A.D. 63).
In fact, it was not a major factor in the Roman Empire until the mid to late part of the second century.
The overwhelming evidence in 1 Timothy is that the nature of the heresy was Jewish and should be attributed to the Judaizers.
As we noted in 1 Timothy 1:3-4, Paul identifies certain pastors in Ephesus as being occupied with Jewish myths that are based upon an incorrect interpretation of the genealogies of the Genesis account and describes them in 1 Timothy 1:7 as wanting to be teachers of the Law.
Then, here in chapter four on the heels of mentioning the teaching of forbidding marriage, Paul refers to the practice of many Jewish unbelievers and believers in adhering to the dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Law.
The divine institution of marriage was established for the entire human race, both believers and unbelievers and is to be honored (Genesis 2:18-25; Hebrews 13:5).
“And advocate abstaining from foods” is composed of the present middle infinitive form of the verb apecho (ἀπέχω) (ah-peh-hoe), “abstaining from” and the genitive neuter plural form of the noun broma (βρῶμα) (lah-roe-mah), “foods.”
The verb apecho means “to abstain” and is used of the Judaizers’ practice of abstaining from certain foods prohibited in the Mosaic Law, which were called “unclean” (Leviticus 11; 20:15; Deuteronomy 14:3-21; cf. Leviticus 17:10-16; 19:26; Deuteronomy 12:15-25).
They avoided meat if they could not be sure that the meat had been prepared in a “kosher” manner, which refers to that which is right, or fit, or proper, or acceptable according to a Jew.
The term “unclean” is a technical term to describe those foods, which were commonly consumed by Gentile peoples but the Israelites were forbidden by God under the Mosaic Law to partake.
These dietary regulations, like circumcision, were given by God to Israel to distinguish her from the Gentile nations, which she was to dispossess in Canaan.
The ceremonial aspect of the Law contained the list of those land animals, birds, insects and marine life that were designated by God as unclean or unfit for consumption for the Israelites and those which would be clean or fit for consumption.
Christ fulfilled the ceremonial ordinances, the shadows and types of His person and work, by dying on the cross for us and in our place.
Therefore, these dietary regulations in the Mosaic Law do not apply since Christ fulfilled perfectly the Mosaic Law and is Himself the substance of the ritual aspect of the Law (Colossians 2:16-23).
The Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles whose teaching is in the New Testament make clear that the dietary laws of the Mosaic law did not apply to the church (Matthew 15:10-20; Mark 7:14-19; Acts 10:1-15).
Paul taught the churches throughout the Roman empire that all foods were fit for consumption (Romans 14; 1 Corinthians 10:25-26; Titus 1:15).
“Which God has created to be gratefully shared in” is composed of the accusative neuter plural form of the relative pronoun hos (ὅς) (oce), “which” and the articular nominative masculine singular form of the noun theos (θεός) (thay-oce), “God” and the third person singular aorist active indicative form of the verb ktizo (κτίζω) (keh-tee-zoe), “has created” and the preposition eis (εἰς) (eece), “to be” and the accusative feminine singular form of the noun metalempsis (μετάλημψις) (meh-tah-leem-ceese), “shared in” and the preposition meta (μετά) (meh-tah), which is followed by the genitive feminine singular form of the noun eucharistia (εὐχαριστία) (ef-ha-dee-stee-ah), “gratefully.”
The noun theos refers to the Lord Jesus Christ since the Scriptures present Him as the Creator (John 1:3, 10; Col. 1:16-17; Heb. 1:3, 10).
The verb ktizo means “to create” in the sense of bringing into existence animals for food, which did not exist before the act.
The preposition eis is a marker of purpose answering the question as to “why’ God the Son created the animal kingdom for food for the human race.
The noun metalempsis means “partaking” in the sense of having one’s portion of food or in other words, it refers to eating these animals for food.
The word is the object of the preposition eis and together they express the fact that God the Son created animals for the purpose that they would be eaten as food.
The noun eucharistia means “thanksgiving,” which is to be offered up by the believer in prayer before, during and after partaking of the food that the Creator provided with animals.
“By those who believe and know the truth” is composed of the articular dative masculine plural form of the adjective pistos (πιστός) (pee-stoce), “faithful” and the conjunction kai (καί) (keh), “and” which is followed by the dative masculine plural perfect active participle form of the verb epiginosko (ἐπιγινώσκω) (ehpee-yee-noe-skoe), “know” and the articular accusative feminine singular form of the noun aletheia (ἀλήθεια) (ahlee-theeah), “the truth.”
The adjective pistos is used as a substantive as indicated by its articular construction and means “believers” referring to those who have been converted to Christianity by exercising faith in Jesus Christ as their Savior.
The conjunction kai is epexegetical meaning that it is introducing an expression that “explains” or “specifies in detail” what group of Christians in Ephesus who are to partake of all types of food with thanksgiving.
The verb epiginosko means that these Christians “possess an experiential knowledge” of the Word of Truth, which is the mind of Christ in the sense of personally encountering through the process of fellowship the teaching of the Lord Jesus Christ regarding foods as it is revealed by the Holy Spirit in the pages of Scripture and prayer.
It also means that these Christians were affected by this encounter with this teaching of our Lord.
This encounter results in the gaining of practical spiritual wisdom and more of the character of Christ.
This verb refers to the Christian being fully convinced by the Spirit’s teaching in the Word of God that the dietary restrictions and the observance of certain days such as the Sabbath do not apply to them since Christ is the substance of these things.
The noun aletheia means “truth” and refers specifically to the Lord Jesus Christ’s teaching that a Christian can eat both clean and unclean animals.
This is indicated by the context since Paul is refuting the Judaizers’ teaching which prohibited Christians from eating unclean animals.
Thus aletheia refers to the fact that the dietary restrictions of the Mosaic Law do not apply to Christians.