A | 1, 2.

a |

1. Paul an apostle.

b

| 1. Will of God. Promise of life.

a |

2. Timothy. Beloved son.

| 2. Grace, mercy and peace.

A | 3-7.

c | 3. My forefathers.

d | 3. Pure conscience.

e | 3. Remembrance.

4. Remembrance.

5. Remembrance.

d | 5. Unfeigned faith.

c | 5. Thy grandmother and mother.

e | 6. 7. Remembrance.

It will be observed that Paul places his reference to his "forefathers" in

correspondence with that to Timothy's "grandmother and mother", and his own "pure

conscience" with the "unfeigned faith that was in Timothy, Lois and Eunice". What is

the significance of this? Is it conformity or contrast? We learn that Timothy's mother

and grandmother were Christians, for the same faith that dwelt in Timothy at the time of

Paul's writing to him had dwelt also in his mother and his grandmother. Could Paul say

the same of his progenitors? He could not. Were they not Israelites, Hebrews, Pharisees?

Did not Paul's parents send him to the school of Gamaliel? Was he not trained after the

"straitest sect" of his religion? What therefore does Paul intend by this reference to his

forefathers and to Timothy's parents? Among other things in this hour of their trial he

would remind Timothy of any and every advantage and encouragement that would stand

him in good stead; of the careful training in the Scriptures he had received from infancy

(II Tim. 3: 15); of the example that had been before him all the intervening years since

he first received the call to follow the Apostle (Acts 16:; II Tim. 3: 10, 11); and of the

gift that was in him (II Tim. 1: 6); even as he had reminded him of the prophecies that

went before the bestowal of that gift (I Tim. 4: 14).

But he would not only remind Timothy of all these things, he would also help him if

possible by contrast. The word which the A.V. translated "forefathers" is progonoi and is

used but once only in the N.T., namely in I Tim. 5: 4. To the intelligent and submissive

student this fact is enough to settle the Apostle's meaning in the second passage.

Timothy could have no idea that Paul spoke of "ancestors" where he exhorts: "Let them

learn first to show piety at home and to requite their parents" (I Tim. 5: 4), and there is no

necessity to depart from the same meaning in II Tim. 1: 3. How could Paul say that he

served God from his parents, or even from his forefathers, with a pure conscience? On

the contrary, his conversion made the most severe and decisive rupture with his

upbringing and former manner of life. In I Tim. 1: 13 he recounts that he had been a

blasphemer, a persecutor and injurious, acting in ignorance and unbelief. In Gal. 1: 13,

14, he says: