Biblion Bible Commentary
Read the introduction to 1 Timothy · About this commentary
One God, One Mediator
1 Timothy 2:5-7
5 For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, · WEB
The word one falls twice, and the noun chosen for Christ in the same sentence is the one that makes the mediation work.
The sentence is compressed to the point of being a formula, and it answers a congregation being offered additional intermediaries and additional knowledge 1 Timothy 6:20.
One God is the confession of Israel, and it needs no defense here. One mediator is the claim under pressure. A mediator stands between two parties, and the number is exclusive: not a first among several, not the chief of a series.
The description that follows is the sentence's most deliberate word. The mediator is the man Christ Jesus. In a letter that will call him the one revealed in flesh 1 Timothy 3:16 and God our Savior 1 Timothy 1:1, the term selected at the point of mediation is the human one, because mediation requires standing on both sides of the gap.
Verse 6 supplies what he did: gave himself a ransom for all. The word is a compound meaning a price paid in exchange, and the scope repeats the previous paragraph's claim about God's desire 1 Timothy 2:4 without narrowing it.
The last clause of verse 6 is difficult in every version — a testimony borne at the proper time — and its function is clear even where its grammar is not: the ransom was given, and its announcement has its own appointed moment.
Verse 7 makes that announcement Paul's own commission, with an oath attached, and the audience named is the gentiles.
settled What this mark means