Tool Beta
The Ancient World Behind the Text
Pick a passage anywhere in the New Testament. See the customs and ideas a first reader knew without being told.
1 Timothy 6:11-21, Fight the good fight, the King of kings, the rich, and the deposit
Timothy, as a man of God, is to flee greed and fight the good fight of the faith, keeping his charge until the appearing of the Lord, the King of kings; the rich are to be generous, and Timothy is to guard what has been entrusted to him.
1 Timothy 6:11-21, in every translation this tool compares.
Paul tells Timothy, as a man of God, to run from greed and chase after a godly life, fighting hard for the faith and holding on to eternal life. He charges him before God and Christ, who made his confession before Pilate, to keep his task faithfully until Christ appears, and he praises God as the only ruler and King over all kings. The wealthy are to trust God rather than riches and be generous, and Timothy is to protect what was put in his care and avoid false claims to knowledge.
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/athletes-and-games\/","n":"The games and the victor's wreath","s":"Greek cities held great athletic festivals, and Corinth hosted the Isthmian Games every two years, second only to the Olympics. Athletes trained for months under oath for a wreath of leaves that soon withered.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/oaths-and-vows\/","n":"Oaths and vows","s":"Calling God, or something holy, to witness that you speak the truth or will keep your word. People swore by lesser things to keep God's name safe if they broke it.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/imperial-cult\/","n":"Caesar worshiped as savior and lord","s":"Augustus and the emperors after him were hailed as savior, lord and son of a god, and in the eastern provinces they were worshiped. The titles the Gospels give Jesus were already being used for Caesar.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/estates-and-laborers\/","n":"Estates, tenants and day laborers","s":"Wealthy owners, often living in town, let their land to tenant farmers for a share of the crop or hired day laborers in the marketplace and paid them a denarius at sundown.","r":""}
- {"u":"https:\/\/jayms.com\/bible-study-tools-2\/ancient-world-ideas\/seals-and-deposits\/","n":"Seals, down payments and deposits","s":"A seal pressed into wax showed who owned or witnessed a document or a jar of goods and proved that no one had opened it. A down payment was the first part of the price, paid as a pledge that the rest would follow. A deposit left in someone's keeping had to be guarded and returned.","r":""}
The good fight is a wrestling match or athletic contest for Keener and his notes, while Wright hears a soldier's enlistment, made with a public oath of allegiance to the emperor. A charge with gods as witnesses was as binding as an oath (Keener and his notes). Greeks spoke of a god's appearing (Keener and his notes), and Wright adds that the word named an emperor's staged visit, "a major spectacular state visit, and a moment of divine revelation". Greek-speaking Jews called God the Immortal (Keener and his notes); Wright reads only God has immortality against the belief that every soul is immortal. The very rich lived off rented land, and merchants grew rich in harbor cities like Ephesus (Keener and his notes), where the Artemis cult was the region's main savings and loan institution (Arnold). Entrusted is deposit language (Keener). False knowledge need not be Gnosticism (Keener; the ESV Study Bible; Carson, Moo and Morris), though Wright sees its small beginnings; some hear Marcion's Antitheses in 6:20, which the dictionary calls a verbal coincidence, and Wright and Bird judge the letters unlikely to answer him.
- Craig S. Keener, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: New Testament, introductions to 1 Timothy 6:17-19 and 6:20-21, and on 1 Timothy 6:12, 6:13, 6:14, 6:16 and 6:17-18
- NIV Cultural Backgrounds Study Bible, notes on 1 Timothy 6:12, 6:13, 6:14, 6:16, 6:17 and 6:20
- ESV Study Bible, study note on 1 Timothy 6:20
- N. T. Wright and Michael F. Bird, The New Testament in Its World, ch. 23, The Pastoral Epistles, Authorship and Date
- N. T. Wright, Paul for Everyone: The Pastoral Letters, comments on 1 Timothy 6:11-16 and 6:17-21
- Clinton E. Arnold, Powers of Darkness, ch. 15, The Powers and Society, Structural Evil: One First-Century Case Example
- D. A. Carson, Douglas J. Moo and Leon Morris, An Introduction to the New Testament, ch. 15, The Pastoral Epistles: The False Teachers
- J. D. Douglas and Merrill C. Tenney, Zondervan Illustrated Bible Dictionary, entry Pastoral Letters
