True Instruction on False Teachers
An Exegetical Paper on 1 Timothy 1:3-7
I. Introduction Lights, camera, action. These words no longer exclusively associate with TV or movie personnel. They are friendly to many modern-day false preachers. It is not to solely criticize the incorporation of technological fancies but is to confront their teachings, which has nothing to do with the gospel of Jesus Christ. These damaging false teachers lead many deceived congregation away from sound doctrine by distorting the word of God blatantly showing off their bold ignorance to feed their wicked selfish agenda. Such false teachers have been in existence for a long time- even in the days of Paul. Somewhere in the mid-60s, Paul writes a letter to Timothy, who is his young coworker, to instruct how to deal with certain issues that were emerging in Ephesian churches. One of the prevalent issues and the primary subject with which Paul dealt on the letter was concerning false teachers. Consequently, the thesis of this paper is in 1 Tim. 1:3-7, Paul outlines how to recognize false teachers and instructs Timothy is to warn them not to involve themselves in the spread of false belief ad practice.
II. Pericope In verse 3, Paul uses Greek verb παρακαλέω to tell Timothy to stay in Ephesus. παρακαλέω means to urge strongly, encourage, or exhort (BDAG). This choice of a verb conveys very firm yet affable connotation. It is a credible claim since παρακαλέω can be found in three more places in 1 Timothy (2:1, 5:1, 6:2) and they all agree in usage in meanings. This is packed with lots of force and strength; it is not a mere suggestion or a feeble attempt. The same verb was used in Matthew 10:15 and Mark 6:8 when Jesus exercised his authority over disciples to tell them that something must be done (BADG). When Sanhedrin prohibited to teach in the name of Jesus Christ in Acts 4:18, the same verb is seen. The historical aorist παρεκάλεσά was nothing special in this case, which is used most frequently to view the past event in its entirety.1 One expects complimentary infinitive of προσμένω following παρεκάλεσά to be aorist because of its telic nature. We find aorist subjunctive παραγγείλῃς to agree with preceding παρεκάλεσά for ἵνα clause is used to show purpose. Also aorist subjective παραγγείλῃς after ἵνα has no significance in its usage because aorist subjective is default when seen with μὴ for emphatic negation for telic verbs.2
The reason Paul wants Timothy to remain in Ephesus is to command certain men not to teach different doctrine as ἵνα clause suggests. Such forceful choice of a verb παρακαλέω attest how serious Paul was to rid false teachers out of churches in Ephesus. He employs his apostolic position to make sure that Timothy understands how passionate he is about delegating Timothy to deal with this issue at hand. This controversy over false doctrine particularly seems very urgent and troublesome because Paul incorporates ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν whose parsing is present active infinitive of ἑτεροδιδασκαλέω governed by παραγγείλῃς. As infinitives can function as indicatives, ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν shows that the different doctrine is being taught, and has been taught, at the very moment he is writing this letter to Timothy. In verse 4, προσέχω takes present active infinitive form προσέχειν because it is controlled by παραγγείλῃς just like ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖν and conveys the same idea of present indicative that represents the progressive present.3 That these certain men is continuing in teaching different doctrine and devoting themselves to myths and endless genealogies. (ESV)
It is interesting that Paul writes ἑτεροδιδασκαλεῖνas one word instead of two separate words as he did in verse 10. ἑτεροδιδασκαλέω is composed with two distinct words: ἑτερος and διδασκαλία. As one word, this verb means to teach contrary to standard instruction (BDAG). In verse 10, We see that Paul used ὑγιαινούσῃ διδασκαλίᾳ to communicate teaching/doctrine that is healthy and
