§ 19 The Final Charge ( 1 Tim. 6:20–21 )
§19 The Final Charge (1 Tim. 6:20–21)
That the preceding paragraph was an afterthought to verses 6–10 is now made clear as Paul brings the letter to its conclusion. The letter could well have ended with a final greeting after the solemn charge and doxology of verses 13–16 (see Phil. 4:20–23 and 2 Tim. 4:18–22, where the final greetings immediately follow a doxology). But the need to reassure the already rich prevented that, so now he repeats the charge to Timothy and does so, as always, vis-à-vis the false teachers. Thus the two great urgencies of the letter, and especially from 6:2b and on, are expressed one final time.
What is most remarkable about this conclusion is the lack of any final greetings. All the Pauline letters, including this one, sign off with a final grace, or benediction. But only 1 Timothy and Galatians have no greetings from Paul and friends to the recipient and friends (cf. 2 Tim. 4:19–21; Titus 3:15). To the very end this letter is characteristically “all business,” and except for some new language, this final charge merely summarizes that business.
6:20 / With a final vocative, O Timothy (the emotional interjection “O,” untranslated in the NIV, occurs often in Paul [6:11; Rom. 2:1, 3; 9:20; Gal. 3:1]), Paul appeals to his younger colleague: Guard what has been entrusted to your care. This is the third such charge in the letter (cf. 1:18–19; 6:13–16; the fourth if one sees 4:6–10 as a charge). The imperative (lit., “keep the deposit”) is a metaphor, drawn from common life, reflecting the highest kind of sacred obligation in ancient society, namely, being entrusted with some treasured possession for safe-keeping while another is away. A person so entrusted was under the most binding sacred duty to keep “the deposit” safe (see, e.g., Lev. 6:2, 4, where this word, parathēkē, is used in the LXX; cf. Tob. 10:13; and esp. 2 Macc. 3:15). So Paul concludes the letter by placing Timothy under such a trust (cf. 1:18; 2 Tim. 1:14).
But what is the “deposit” that has been entrusted to Timothy’s care? Many think the “sound teaching” of the gospel, which he then is to entrust to others (2 Tim. 2:2). But that is probably to read too much back into 1 Timothy from the considerably altered circumstances of 2 Timothy. The best answer is to be found in the context of the entire letter: Timothy has been entrusted with the task of resisting the false teachers, which in this letter includes keeping his own life pure (4:11–13; 5:22–23; 6:11–12), and of faithful proclamation and teaching of the truth (4:12–14; 6:2b; etc.).
Such an interpretation is supported by the rest of verses 20–21. One final time Paul charges Timothy to resist the teachings of the wayward elders: Turn away from godless chatter (cf. 4:7) and the opposing ideas (cf. 1:6; and esp. 2 Tim. 2:22, where this imperative is repeated nearly verbatim) of what is falsely called knowledge.
Many are ready to see these last words as the giveaway that the author is really battling some form of Gnosticism (from the Gk. word gnōsis, “knowledge”) and are thus ready to date the letter much later than Paul’s time (see also disc. on 1:4). But that is to make far too much of this language. The essential matters for a Gnostic heresy (speculations about spiritual hierarchies and the soul finding its salvation by “knowledge” of its escape from the world of matter) are simply not found in 1 Timothy. Paul has previously had trouble with those who opposed his gospel in the name of wisdom and gnōsis (1 Cor. 1:10–4:21; 8:1–13), which had become a semitechnical term for philosophy. Furthermore, deviations from the gospel in the name of philosophy had already plagued the churches in this area just a few years earlier (see esp. Col. 2:1–10). This relationship to Colossians more than adequately explains this use of words.
6:21 / For Paul, even though such false teaching must be resisted, there is always a tragic element to what has happened in Ephesus: Some (the false teachers and their followers?) have professed it, and in so doing have wandered from the faith. It is this wandering from the faith (“miss the mark with regard to the faith,” BAGD; cf. 1:6) by some within the church that has exercised Paul throughout and is ultimately the reason for the letter (see 1:3–7, 19–20; 4:1–2; 5:15, 20; 6:10; cf. 2:14; 3:6–7; 5:5–6, 24–25).
Finally, with an abruptness that has within it its own pathos, Paul signs off with his typical benediction: Grace be with you. This final plural you is certain evidence that Paul intended the letter to be read aloud in the church(es). Some see the lack of greetings as evidence against Pauline authorship but then must argue that the author outdid himself in imitating Paul in 2 Timothy and Titus. One can only guess at the reasons for this lack. A similar thing happens in Galatians, where in the “signature” (6:11–18) he takes one last swipe at the opponents (vv. 11–15), but prays for peace on those who follow the gospel (v. 16), before the final grace. It is perhaps worthy of note that these two letters lack the opening thanksgiving as well (see disc. 1:3). Apparently, the distress of the situation in both these churches makes the letters to them all business.
The grace itself is a typically Pauline feature. The standard “good-bye” in ancient letters was errōsthe (lit., “be strong”), found in the letter of James (Acts 15:29) and the letters of Ignatius (cf. 2 Macc. 11:21, 33; Jos., Life 227, 365). But as with the salutation (see disc. on 1:1–2), Paul “Christianizes” all the formal elements of the ancient letter. Thus he prays for grace to be with them. Only here and in Colossians is it so terse. Since the source of grace is not in the text, and in the other letters it is the “grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,” that is probably his intent here as well.
The final “amen” in the KJV is not in the earlier manuscripts; it was added at a later time when the letter was regularly read in church as a part of Scripture.
Thus 1 Timothy comes to a conclusion. Paul is away and hopes to return (1:3; 3:14–15; 4:13); meanwhile the situation in Ephesus is so desperate that he had to leave (or send) his younger colleague to “straighten out the mess.” Above all else, Timothy himself is to guard this trust, by not being attracted to so-called knowledge and by doing his best to stop its pervasive influence in the church. As we have seen throughout, everything in the letter in some way touches this concern.
Because of the words antitheseis (opposing ideas) and gnōsis (knowledge), it was argued in an earlier time (Baur, Harnack) that this final charge was an anti-Marcionite interpolation (since Marcion [ca. 150] was called a Gnostic and his work was entitled Antitheseis). But no one currently subscribes to such a view.
6:20 / For a helpful discussion of parathēkē in 1 and 2 Timothy, see esp. W. Barclay, “Paul’s Certainties, VII. Our Security in God—2 Timothy i. 12.” For a powerful illustration of the meaning of the term, see the story of the Apostle John and the young man he entrusted to a bishop’s care as a parathēkē as told by Clement of Alexandria, The Rich Man’s Salvation 42 (Loeb, pp. 357–65).