Commentaries:
Adam Clarke
And that they may recover themselves - The construction of this verse is extremely difficult, though the sense given by our translation is plain enough. I shall set down the original, and the principal English translations: -
\ri720 , ̔ ' .
And thei rise agein fro snaaris of the debyl, of whome thei ben holde captyffis at his wille. - Wiclif. First translation into English, 1378.
And to turne agayne from the snare of devell, which are holden in prison of him at his will. - Coverdale. First printed English Bible, 1535.
That they may come to themselves agayne out of the snare of the devyll, which are now taken of him at hys will. - Edward VIth' s Bible, by Becke, 1549.
And they may recover their senses to perform his will, after being rescued alive by the servant of the Lord out of the snare of the devil. - Wakefield; who refers , him, to the servant of the Lord, II Timothy 2:24.
And being caught alive by him out of the snare of the devil, they may awake to do his will. - Macknight; who remarks that , the relative, means the servant of the Lord; and , the demonstrative, refers to God, mentioned II Timothy 2:15.
I leave these different translations with the reader.
I Have referred, in the preceding notes, to inscriptions which appear on the buildings and coins of the Asiatics; such inscriptions are, in general, very curious, and carry with them a considerable show of piety to God, in the acknowledgment of his providence and mercy. I shall quote one merely as a curiosity, without supposing it to be immediately applicable to the illustration of the text.
There is extant a gold circular coin of the Great Mogul Shah Jehan, struck at Delhi, A. H. 1062, a.d. 1651, five inches and a half in diameter; on each side of this coin is a square, the angles of which touch the periphery; within this square, and in the segments, there are the following inscriptions: -
1.Within the square, on one side,
\ri720 \cf1 The bright star of religion, Mohammed (a second Sahib Kiran) Shah Jehan, the victorious emperor.
2.In the segment on the upper side of the square,
\ri720 \cf1 The impression upon this coin of 200 mohurs, was struck through the favor of God.
3.On the lateral segment to the left,
\ri720 \cf1 By the second Sahib Kiran, Shah Jehan, the defender of the faith.
4.On the bottom segment,
\ri720 \cf1 May the golden countenance from the sculpture of this coin enlighten the world.
5.On the lateral segment to the right,
\ri720 \cf1 As long as the splendid face of the moon is illuminated by the rays of the sun!
1.On the reverse, within the square,
\ri720 \cf1 There is no god but God; and Mohammed is the prophet of God. Struck in the capital of Shah Jehanabad, A. H. 1062.
2.On the top of the square,
\ri720 \cf1 Religion was illuminated by the truth of Abu Beker.
3.On the left hand compartment,
\ri720 \cf1 The faith was strengthened by the justice of Omar.
4.On the bottom compartment,
\ri720 \cf1 Piety was refreshed by the modesty and mildness of Othman.
5.On the right hand compartment,
\ri720 \cf1 The world was enlightened by the learning of Aly.
On these inscriptions it may be just necessary to observe that Abu Beker, Omar, Othman, and Aly, were the four khalifs who succeeded Mohammed. Abu Beker was the father of Ayesha, one of Mohammed' s wives. Othman was son-in-law of Mohammed, having married his two daughters, Rakiah, and Omal-Calthoom. And Aly, son of Abi Taleb, Mohammed' s uncle, was also one of the sons-in-law of Mohammed, having married Fatima, the daughter of his favourite wife, Ayesha. The Ottoman empire was not so called from Othman, the third khalif, but from Ottoman, the successful chief, who conquered a small part of the Grecian empire in Asia, and thus laid the foundation for the Turkish.
Grotius and others have supposed that the apostle alludes to the custom of putting an inscription on the foundation stone of a city or other building, giving an account of the time in which it was founded, built, etc. Sometimes engraved stones were placed over the principal gates of cities and fortresses, particularly in the east, specifying the date of erection, repairs, etc., and containing some religious sentiment or verse from the Koran. But I do not think it likely that the apostle refers to any thing of this kind. There appears to be an allusion here to the rebellion of Korah and his company against the authority of Moses, Numbers 16:5, where, it is said: The Lord will show who are his: here the words of the Septuagint are nearly the same that the apostle uses in this verse, ̔ ̔· God knoweth or approveth of them that are his. And the words in Numbers 16:26, Depart from the tents of these wicked men, are similar to those of the apostle, Let every one that nameth the name of the Lord depart from iniquity. We may therefore take it for granted that those false teachers, the chief of whom were Hymeneus and Philetus, had risen up against the authority of St. Paul; and he, in effect, informs Timothy here that God will deal with them as he did with Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, and their company. And as the true Israelites were to separate themselves from the tents of those wicked men, so he and the believers at Ephesus were to hold no sort of communion with those workers of iniquity. This subject he farther illustrates by a contract between two parties, each of which sets his seal to the instrument, the seal bearing the motto peculiar to the party. This I conceive to be the meaning; but the common mode of interpretation will, it is probable, be most commonly followed.
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