vilification (especially against God) · noun — nominative plural feminine
evil
πονηραί,ponērai
G4190
hurtful · adjective — nominative plural feminine
surmisings
ὑπόνοιαιhuponoiai
G5283
suspicion · noun — nominative plural feminine
Strong's Exhaustive Concordance (James Strong, 1890/1894), public domain; digitized by Open Scriptures (CC BY-SA). KJV word tagging: eBible.org (public domain). Original-language text, parsing and brief lexicon: STEPBible.org data from Tyndale House, Cambridge (CC BY 4.0).
Cross-references
2 Timothy 2:23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid, knowing that they do gender strifes.
2 Timothy 3:4 Traitors, heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
1 Timothy 3:6 Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride he fall into the condemnation of the devil.
2 Timothy 2:14 Of these things put them in remembrance, charging them before the Lord that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subverting…
2 Peter 2:12 But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly per…
Jude 1:10 But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themse…
1 Timothy 1:4 Neither give heed to fables and endless genealogies, which minister questions, rather than godly edifying which is in faith: so do.
1 Timothy 1:7 Desiring to be teachers of the law; understanding neither what they say, nor whereof they affirm.
Cross-references from OpenBible.info (CC BY), in the lineage of the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge (public domain).
Commentary
Matthew Henry on 1 Timothy 6:1-5
I. Here is the duty of servants. The apostle had spoken before of church-relations, here of our family-relations. Servants are here said to be under the yoke, which denotes both subjection and labour; they are yoked to work, not to be idle. If Christianity finds servants under the yoke, it continues them under it; for the gospel does not cancel the obligations any lie under either by the law of nature or by mutual consent. They must respect their masters, count them worthy of all honour (because they are their masters), of all the respect, observance, compliance, and obedience, that are justly expected from servants to their masters. Not that they were to think that of them which they were n…
He is proud--literally, "wrapt in smoke"; filled with the fumes of self-conceit (Ti1 3:6) while "knowing nothing," namely, of the doctrine which is according to godliness (Ti1 6:3), though arrogating pre-eminent knowledge (Ti1 1:7).
doting about--literally, "sick about"; the opposite of "wholesome" (Ti1 6:3). Truth is not the center about which his investigations move, but mere word-strifes.
questions--of controversy.
strifes of words--rather than about realities (Ti2 2:14). These stand with them instead of "godliness" and "wholesome words" (Ti1 6:3; Ti1 1:4; Tit 3:9).
evil surmisings--as to those who are of a different party from themselves.
Adam Clarke on 1 Timothy 6:4
He is proud - Τετυφωται· He is blown up, or inflated with a vain opinion of his own knowledge; whereas his knowledge is foolishness, for he knows nothing.
Doting about questions - He is sick, distempered, about these questions relative to the Mosaic law and the traditions of the elders; for it is most evident that the apostle has the Judaizing teachers in view, who were ever, in questions of theology, straining out a gnat, and swallowing a camel.
Strifes of words - Λογομαχιας· Logomachies; verbal contentions; splitting hairs; producing Hillel against Shammai, and Shammai against Hillel, relative to the particular mode in which the punctilios of some rites should be performed. In this sort of…
he is inflated with conceit and understands nothing. For he who does not know what he ought to know, knows nothing. But he who does not know the sound things, obviously knows the demonic things. Moreover, arrogance is a matter welcoming and proper to demons. an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels. For if you do not believe, but craving for controversy, there must be debate and conflicts of reasoning. Since Christianity promises future things, and these cannot be shown to the eyes, faith is necessary. But see that to crave controversy is to be ill. blasphemies. For it is necessary that human reasoning permit what pertains to God, and that blasphemy arises from questioning. evil suspicions. These are opinions and contaminated doctrines.
The apostle forbids us to enter into hypothetical questions, or to lend our ears to newfangled statements or to consort with a heretic "after the first and second admonitions." We do not enter into these discussions. Discussion has been inhibited in this way by designating admonition as the purpose of dealing with a heretic. The first reason, too, is because he is not a Christian. The instruction is given in order that he might not, after the manner of a Christian, seem to require correction again and again and "before two or three witnesses." The impression could be created that he ought to be corrected, for the very reason that he is not to be disputed with. The second reason is that a controversy over the Scriptures can, clearly, produce no other effect than to upset either the stomach or the brain.
"Doting about questions." To question then is to dote. "And strifes of words"; this is justly said. For when the soul is fevered with reasonings, and stormy, then it questions, but when it is in a sound state, it does not question, but receives the faith. But from questionings and strifes of words nothing can be discovered. For when the things which faith only promises are received by an inquisitive spirit, it neither demonstrates them, nor suffers us to understand them. If one should close his eyes, he would not be able to find anything he sought: or if, again with his eyes open, he should bury himself, and exclude the sun, he would be unable to find anything, thus seeking. So without faith nothing can be discerned, but contentions must needs arise. "Whereof come railings, evil surmisings"; that is, erroneous opinions and doctrines arising from questionings. For when we begin to question, then we surmise concerning God things that we ought not.
Dictionary and topics
Doctrines · FALSE — FALSE
Doctrines Of The Gospel, The · Those who oppose are: Proud — Those who oppose are: Proud
Doctrines, False · Teachers of, are described as: Proud and ignorant — Teachers of, are described as: Proud and ignorant
Envy · Produced by foolish disputation — Produced by foolish disputation
Pride · 4:1; — 4:1;
Railing · Forbid — Forbid
Riches · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Strife · General scriptures concerning — General scriptures concerning
Dictionary: Easton's (1897) and Smith's (1863), public domain. Topics: Nave's Topical Bible (1896) and Torrey's Topical Textbook (1897), public domain. Both as parsed by NEUU (CC BY 4.0).
John Gill on 1 Timothy 6:4
He is proud,.... Or swelled and puffed up with a vain conceit of himself and his own notions, and treats with an haughty air the faithful ministers of the word. The doctrines of grace are of an humbling nature, especially when they are spiritually and experimentally understood and received; but notional knowledge, knowledge of natural things, and the doctrines of men, such as are of their own invention, fill the mind with pride and vanity:
knowing nothing; as he ought to know; not anything that is solid and substantial; nothing of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: he may have knowledge of natural and civil things, but not of spiritual ones; he may have collected a medley of knowledge together, bu…
3. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to wholesome words, even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ, and to the doctrine which is according to godliness;
3. Si quis aliter (vel, alia) docet, nec acquiescit sanis sermonibus Domini nostri Iesu Christi, et ei quae secundum pietatem est doctrinae,
4. He is proud, knowing nothing, but doting about questions and strifes of words, whereof cometh envy, strife, railings, evil surmisings,
4. Inflatus est, nihil sciens, sed languens circa quaestiones et pugnas verborum, ex quibus oritur invidia, contentio, maledicentiae, suspiciones malae,
5. Perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds, and destitute of the truth, supposing that gain is godl…