With the A.V. and the R.V. as our guide we should have no hesitation in saying that

the church was the pillar and ground of truth. It is not within the limits of The Berean

Expositor to turn aside to note how, from the great apostate church to the most scriptural

of assemblies, this conception has exercised a great influence over the conduct and

attitude of thousands of believers. The church in I Tim. 3: 15 is not looked upon under

its title, "the church which is His body", but as "the house of God". As a "house of God"

it needed servants, and the chapter has been dealing with bishops and deacons. The

bishop must rule his own "house" well, otherwise he will not be able to take care of the

"church of God" (verses 4, 5); the deacons also were to rule their own houses well. It is

evident that the church in I Tim. 3: is a church in its corporate capacity.

Now it requires no long argument to prove that if the church is the pillar and ground of

truth, the fall and failure of the church must also mean the fall and failure of the stay and

support of truth also. It is sadly true that both the corporate church, and the truth itself

have suffered at the hands of friend and foe alike, but we raise the question in this short

paper regarding the accuracy of the translation of the passage which teaches that the

church is the pillar and ground of truth.  We set before the reader the following

translation as giving the true meaning of the passage.

Here the apostle reaches the conclusion of the subject commenced in the first verse of

chapter 3: He now turns from the question of right behaviour in the church, to the deep

subject of "mystery of godliness". This subject opens with verse 16 in the following

This rendering makes the mystery of godliness, and not the church corporate, the pillar

and ground of the truth.

We commend this rendering to the prayerful consideration of all our readers.